A special lecture on the Buddhist art of Gandhara was organised by the Consulate General of India in New York here in collaboration with the prestigious Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) and the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC), in commemoration of India's 75th year of independence.

Professor of Buddhist Art History, Department of Archaeology and Art History at Seoul National University, Juhyung Rhi delivered the Annual Distinguished Lecture on the Arts of South and Southeast Asia on ‘Buddhist Art of Gandhara and the 'Year 5' Buddha: Exploring its Place in Time, Space, and Practice.'

The Indian Consulate said in a statement that the "Year 5 Buddha" is one of only five dated Gandharan sculptures known to exist.

“It is a masterpiece of singular importance, for both its dated dedicatory inscription and innovative iconographic features,” it said.

The lecture, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last week and attended by scholars, experts and prominent members of the Indian-American community, explored the diverse questions raised by this image within the unfolding setting of Buddhist art in Gandhara in the early centuries of the Common Era.

India's Consul General in New York Randhir Jaiswal said the conversation on Gandhara Art is part of a continuum, “part of the story of India-US cultural and intellectual engagement that travels back in time.”      “Gandhara Art goes back centuries, and so does our effort to build stronger bridges of cultural understanding between the United States and India,” Jaiswal said.

The talk focussed on the sculpture of Buddha “attended by two bodhisattvas, Gandhara," Peshawar region, inscribed and dated ‘Year 5,' “possibly in the reign of Kanishka II, equivalent to 235 CE.”

The lecture was conducted in support of Jeff Soref and Paul Lombardi, Jeff Soref Fund of the Stonewall Community Foundation, it said.