Burmese Bronze Black Coloured Buddha Statue

The earliest surviving phase of Buddhist art was generally aniconic, with the Buddha being represented as symbols. Although he is described in the 32 signs of a great man in the Pali Canon as having skin like gold, delicate and smooth. There is no concrete historical evidence describing the Buddha with having dark or light skin. A number of early discourses describing the appearance of the Buddha has served as a model for the first artistic representation of the Buddha between the second and third centuries CE in the Gandharan and Gupta representations of the Buddha.