This man, sculpted in red stone, has ears hanging almost to his shoulders. They've been stretched by wearing heavy gold earrings. This man was Prince Siddhartha Gautama, who was born sometime around 600 BC. He gave up his throne and became a spiritual teacher called the Buddha, or ‘Enlightened One’.

Notice the broken piece of a large round disc behind Buddha's head. Originally, this was a halo. This sculpture was made in North India more than 1000 years after the Buddha lived on earth. Sculptors followed a set of rules for making images of the Buddha. The shapes of his face resembled beautiful forms found in nature. Here, for instance, the Buddhist tapered eyes are shaped like two fish. The pattern of folds on his garment looks like ripples in a pond. What about the curls in his hair? Do they look anything like snails? That's because in an old Buddhist legend, the Buddha once sat so long meditating that snails covered his head to protect him from the sun.