Images

by

Charles Lachman

• LAST REVIEWED: 18 August 2021
• LAST MODIFIED: 31 March 2016
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0216

Introduction

Buddhism appears to have spread slowly at first from its birthplace in northern India after the death of the historical Buddha. With the territorial expansions of King Aśoka—a supporter of Buddhism—in the 3rd century BCE, however, it began to spread more rapidly, first reaching other parts of India, and eventually reaching Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Thailand to the southeast, and Gandhara (in present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan) to the northwest. From there, it gradually traveled through Central Asia to China, Korea, and Japan. The various sutras containing the teachings of the Buddha were certainly a central element of this enterprise, but a wide array of Buddhist images also played a crucial role in this transmission. In China, for example, Buddhism was even dubbed the “teaching of images” (xiangjiao) and although this term was meant as a slur it clearly reflects the prominent place of images in Buddhist practice. This prominence persists today, and rituals of bowing, burning incense, and making offerings to images is a characteristic feature of virtually every branch and school of Buddhism. The formal study of Buddhist images, however, is a relatively recent field that only emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since many early historians of Buddhism tended to dismiss the ritual use of images as popular superstition, focusing instead on texts and doctrine, the first scholars to take an active interest in studying Buddhist image traditions tended to be art historians, whose concerns were mainly iconographic and stylistic. More recently, though, this situation has changed, as many Buddhologists have turned their attention to the critical study of images in creative and fruitful ways, while many art historians have stopped approaching images merely as art objects or as iconographic embodiments of Buddhist doctrine. Thus, the study of Buddhist images today is no longer only, or even mainly, the preserve of art historians, and many of the art historians who do focus on Buddhist images tend to be interested in issues that go far beyond matters of style.

Reference Works

Reference works devoted to Buddhist visual culture fall into several broad categories: encyclopedias and dictionaries of Buddhism that contain entries related to Buddhist images and image makers, encyclopedic volumes of world art that include sections on Asia, and more specialized volumes that focus specifically on aspects of Buddhist iconography.

Image Sources

The sections in this category (Compendia, Electronic Image Archives, and Museum Resources) represent the wide array of resources that are available for locating images of images, whether by medium, iconographic type, or geographical region.

Images in Theory

Much recent scholarship has been devoted to the question of why images play such a prominent role in Buddhism, and the related question of why images were so long ignored by historians of Buddhism. Schopen 1997 suggests that a predilection to equate the ritual use of images with idolatry had a stifling influence on many scholars; Sharf and Sharf 2001 and Rambelli 2007 reverse the “Protestant” privileging of the spiritual over the material (as described in Schopen 1997). Winfield 2013 examines Buddhist visual experience and expression in the writings and teachings of two important Buddhist figures in Japan. Foulk and Sharf 2003 and Horton 2007 both deal with aspects of the notion of “living” icons, while Kinard 1999 associates the importance of imagery with the representation of wisdom. Faure 1998 argues somewhat provocatively that Buddhist images are too important to be left to art historians alone, and the author adduces the influential theories of Walter Benjamin to help theorize the concept of a Buddhist icon.

• Faure, Bernard. “The Buddhist Icon and the Modern Gaze.” Critical Inquiry 24.3 (1998): 768–814.

  DOI: 10.1086/448893Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Faure suggests that the aesthetic value of Buddhist images is often derivative, and that they are perhaps best approached not as “art” but as ritual images or icons.

  Find this resource:

• Foulk, T. Griffith, and Robert H. Sharf. “On the Ritual Use of Ch’an Portraiture in Medieval China.” In Chan Buddhism in Ritual Context. Edited by Bernard Faure, 74–151. New York: Routledge, 2003.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Challenges the (then) common assertion that portraits of masters were used in dharma transmission; instead, argues that portraits of abbots were interchangeable with the person and were treated that way in various ritual contexts.

  Find this resource:

• Horton, Sarah J. Living Buddhist Statues in Early Medieval and Modern Japan. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

  DOI: 10.1057/9780230607149Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Examines the ways that Buddhist worshippers treat statues as living beings with whom they have relationships; provides description of many contemporary ritual performances involving specific Buddhist images. Horton draws on many nonscholarly “popular” sources, and she has been criticized for being insufficiently theoretically grounded.

  Find this resource:

• Kinard, Jacob N. Imaging Wisdom: Seeing and Knowing in the Art of Indian Buddhism. London: Curzon, 1999.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Explores the Buddhist concept of wisdom and how it is represented through images, and connects this to the question of why images in general play such a prominent role in Buddhism. The volume would benefit from more and better images—only sixteen black-and-white illustrations.

  Find this resource:

• Rambelli, Fabio. Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Rambelli explores some of the ways that Buddhist thinkers theorized material objects and attempts to construct a Buddhist philosophy of things. The focus is on Japan, but the author also looks at India and China; chapter 2 (on icons) is particularly useful.

  Find this resource:

• Schopen, Gregory. “Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism.” In Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India. By Gregory Schopen, 1–22. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  An oft-cited and influential article by the preeminent Buddhist scholar of his generation. Schopen argues that the study of Buddhism has tended to emphasize the importance of canonical texts at the expense of archaeological evidence and images, and that this attitude reflects the influence of Reformation theological values adopted by early scholars (even if unconsciously).

  Find this resource:

• Sharf, Robert H., and Elizabeth Horton Sharf, eds. Living Images: Japanese Buddhist Icons in Context. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Four essays that attempt to bridge the earlier gap between “Buddhist studies” (with a focus on texts and doctrine) and “art history” (with a focus on formal aspects of style and iconography).

  Find this resource:

• Winfield, Pamela. Icons and Iconoclasm in Japanese Buddhism: Kūkai and Dōgen and the Art of Enlightenment. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

  DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753581.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Compares the Japanese monks Kūkai and Dõgen in terms of their views about the role of imagery in enlightenment experience.

  Find this resource:

Images in Practice

Much scholarly attention has been devoted to the function (and meaning) of images in Buddhist ritual practice. Goepper 1997 offers a general overview of the topic, while Gombrich 1966 and Swearer 2004 provide rich descriptions of the contemporary rituals by which “images” are transformed into “icons.” McCallum 1994 and Rambelli 2002 both consider ritual practices associated with unseen images, and Bogel 2002, Fowler 2005, and Levine 2005 each focus on the ritual history of a specific temple.

• Bogel, Cynthea J. “Canonizing Kannon: The Ninth-Century Esoteric Buddhist Altar at Kanshinji.” Art Bulletin 84.1 (2002): 30–64.

  DOI: 10.2307/3177252Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  An elegant and convincing argument that the temple’s original main image (honzon) was not the sculpture of Kannon that currently occupies that position.

  Find this resource:

• Fowler, Sherry D. Murōji: Rearranging Art and History at a Japanese Buddhist Temple. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A history of the Heian era Murōji temple, with a concentration on its images and associated rituals. Examines the shifting identities of the five icons of the main altar.

  Find this resource:

• Goepper, Roger. “Icon and Ritual in Japanese Buddhism.” In Enlightenment Embodied: The Art of the Japanese Buddhist Sculptor, 7th–14th Centuries. Edited by Washizuka Hiromitsu and Roger Goespper, 73–77. New York: Japan Society, 1997.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Short but interesting essay on iconicity and rituals; includes a useful discussion of the tradition of creating hollow wooden images in Japan.

  Find this resource:

• Gombrich, Richard Francis. “The Consecration of a Buddhist Image.” Journal of Asian Studies 26.1 (1966): 23–36.

  DOI: 10.2307/2051829Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A classic article that includes a detailed, first-person account of the consecration ritual of a Buddha image witnessed by the author in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1965.

  Find this resource:

• Levine, Gregory P. A. Daitokuji: The Visual Cultures of a Zen Monastery. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Particularly interesting discussion of portraiture and fluid identities; concludes that “expected presence” was often more important than pictorial likeness.

  Find this resource:

• McCallum, Donald F. Zenkoji and Its Icon: A Study in Medieval Japanese Religious Art. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Fascinating study of an Amida triad said to have come to Japan from India (via Korea) in the 6th century. Although many replicas of the triad have been made, the image itself is too sacred to be seen or touched and thus remains enclosed in a shrine. McCallum speculates that this “Living Buddha” may not actually exist.

  Find this resource:

• Rambelli, Fabio. “Secret Buddhas: The Limits of Buddhist Representation.” Monumenta Nipponica 57.3 (2002): 271–307.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Explores the phenomenon of hibutsu (secret or hidden Buddhas), especially prevalent in Japan, and explores the question of how such images convey meaning if they are hidden and thus invisible. Useful discussion of the transformation of icons into art objects in the early 20th century, and the paradox of giving form to the formless.

  Find this resource:

• Swearer, Donald K. Becoming the Buddha: The Ritual of Image Consecration in Thailand. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Describes and analyzes the process by which the Buddha becomes present in “new” images. Chapters devoted to the manufacturing process and the complex ritual ceremonies are augmented by more theoretical discussions of the power of images, of relics, and of the body of the Buddha.

  Find this resource:

Aniconism

The earliest surviving examples of Buddhist art are marked by a somewhat curious feature; namely, the absence of images of the Buddha. Where one might expect to find such representations, other symbols (a wheel, an empty throne) appear instead, a phenomenon referred to by the term aniconism. Two related questions—why the Buddha is not represented in early Buddhist art, and when (and where and why) images of the Buddha finally do appear—have been at the center of much scholarly debate for nearly a century and have still not been fully resolved. Huntington 1992 and Dehejia 1991 have famously argued about the first of these questions, while Foucher 1917 and Coomaraswamy 1927 take opposing views on the second. Seckel 2004, Linrothe 1993, and Karlsson 1999 offer nuanced readings of the meaning of the practice of aniconism. Wenzel 2011 compares image cults in Buddhism and Byzantine Christianity.

• Coomaraswamy, A. K. “The Origin of the Buddha Image.” The Art Bulletin 9 (1927): 287–329.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Reacting largely to the proposal that the emergence of the image of the Buddha was influenced by Greek traditions of representation, Coomaraswamy argues that the image of the Buddha originated indigenously in Mathurā, and that the central iconographic features of Buddhas and bodhisattvas were already present in pre-Buddhist Indian art.

  Find this resource:

• Dehejia, Vidya. “Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems.” Ars Orientalis 21 (1991): 45–66.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Dehejia criticizes the “no aniconic phase” theory for being too narrow and literal. She argues that symbols such as the wheel and the throne convey multiple levels of meaning that refer simultaneously to the Buddha, to a sacred site, and to Buddhist ideals.

  Find this resource:

• Foucher, Alfred. The Beginnings of Buddhist Art. Translated by L. A. Thomas and F. W. Thomas. Paris: P. Guenther, 1917.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Foucher was one of the chief architects of the view that the first anthropomorphic images of the Buddha were created under Greek influence in Gandhara.

  Find this resource:

• Huntington, Susan L. “Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems: Another Look.” Ars Orientalis 22 (1992): 111–156.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Huntington is the primary modern proponent of the view that there was no aniconic phase in Buddhist art; rather, she contends, early relief sculptures depict sites of pilgrimage and public devotion where practitioners made offerings, engaged in circumambulation, etc.

  Find this resource:

• Karlsson, Klemens. Face to Face with the Absent Buddha: The Formation of Buddhist Aniconic Art. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University Library, 1999.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Argues that aniconism was not the result of any image prohibitions; rather it is connected to auspicious imagery.

  Find this resource:

• Linrothe, Rob. “Inquiries into the Origin of the Buddha Image: A Review.” East and West 43.1/4 (1993): 241–256.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Linrothe takes exception to Huntington’s “no-aniconic” thesis and posits aniconism as an artistic rather than theological convention as well as a valid visual metaphor for the transcendence of the Buddha’s enlightenment.

  Find this resource:

• Seckel, Dietrich. Before and beyond the Image: Aniconic Symbolism in Buddhist Art. Edited by John Rosenfield and Helmut Brinker. Zürich: Artibus Asiae, 2004.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Proposes that the phenomenon of aniconism is not limited to an early phase of Buddhist art in India but also persisted alongside later iconic representations.

  Find this resource:

• Wenzel, Claudia. “The Image of the Buddha: Buddha Icons and Aniconic Traditions in India and China.” Transcultural Studies 1 (2011): 263–305.

  DOI: 10.11588/ts.2011.1.1938Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Examines aniconism in India and China in comparison to similar phenomena in Byzantium. Contends that inscriptions of the name of the Buddha in China function as a kind of aniconic representation.

  Find this resource:

Iconoclasm

Historically, the deliberate destruction of images has often been motivated by religious ideologies that equate the worship of images with idolatry. In the case of Buddhism, however, although countless images have been deliberately destroyed over the centuries, these acts were most often carried out by opponents who simply wanted to suppress Buddhism and not because of an aversion to image making itself (though the destruction of the colossal Buddhas of Bamiyan in 2001 stands as a glaring exception). In short, the destruction of Buddhist images has often been a by-product of the persecution of Buddhism. The term has also been employed to refer to the suppression of, or aversion to, images in general, and it is frequently used in that sense to characterize attitudes associated with Chan and Zen.

Miraculous Images

Buddhist literature is full of accounts of miraculous deeds and feats performed by the Buddha, so it is perhaps not surprising that Buddhist images have often had miraculous properties ascribed to them. Campany 2012 translates a compilation that contains many such accounts, and Wu 1996 explores the pictorial representation of one such famous image. Shinohara 1998 shows how tales of miraculous images were sometimes used as evidence in ideological disputes, and Fiordalis 2010 considers the semantic distinctions between magic and miracles.

• Campany, Robert Ford. Signs from the Unseen Realm: Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2012.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A study and translation of a 5th-century Chinese collection of miracle tales, many of which illuustrate the power of votive images. Useful commentary by Campany is also provided for most of the tales.

  Find this resource:

• Fiordalis, David V. “Miracles in Indian Buddhist Narrative and Doctrine.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 33.2 (2010): 381–408.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Explores terminology and classification of unusual phenomena typically characterized as miracles and magic. Argues that in Buddhism, the display of extraordinary powers is not thought to violate natural law the way that miracles do.

  Find this resource:

• Shinohara, Koichi. “Changing Roles for Miraculous Images in Medieval Chinese Buddhism: A Study of the Miracle Image Section in Daoxuan’s ‘Collected Records.’” In Images, Miracles, and Authority in Asian Religious Traditions. Edited by Richard H. Davis, 189–206. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1998.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Examines some of the ways in which stories about miraculous images were often involved in complex temple politics and suggests that the cult of miraculous images had declined by the early Tang period.

  Find this resource:

• Wu, Hung. “Rethinking Liu Sahe: The Creation of a Buddhist Saint and the Invention of a ‘Miraculous Image.’” Orientations 27.10 (1996): 32–43.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  An innovative study of a mural in Cave 72 at Dunhuang that serves as a springboard for a discussion of what Wu characterizes as the system and ontology of a Buddhist holy icon.

  Find this resource:

Relics

Consensus is general among scholars that relics of the Buddha were a focal point of early devotional practices. Relics functioned in at least two important ways: as icons of their own, typically placed within special containers and interred in stūpas, and as “enlivening” agents when inserted into images. The essays in Germano and Trainor 2004 provide a broad perspective, while Rhi 2005, Kieschnick 2003, and Ruppert 2000 focus on specific regions—Gandhara, China, and Japan, respectively. Strong 2004 and Sharf 1999 both theorize the concept of a Buddhist relic, but in very different ways, and Sharf 2011 offers a novel reading of the well-know relic finds from Famen temple. Schopen 1975 is one of several important essays the author has contributed to scholarship on relics

• Germano, David, and Kevin Trainor, eds. Embodying the Dharma: Buddhist Relic Veneration in Asia. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Essays by several prominent scholars (Robert Sharf, Bernard Faure, John Strong, Donald Swearer, and Jacob Kinnard); a useful introduction on relics in comparative perspective.

  Find this resource:

• Kieschnick, John. “Sacred Power.” In The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture. By John Kieschnick, 24–82. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This chapter provides a concise overview of the history of relics and of their uses in China, and the author cautions against seeing all relics as equal.

  Find this resource:

• Rhi, Juhyung. “Images, Relics, and Jewels: The Assimilation of Images in the Buddhist Relic Cult of Gandhāra: Or Vice Versa.” Artibus Asiae 65.2 (2005): 169–211.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Argues persuasively that many of the surviving Buddhas from Gandhara originally contained bone fragment or jewel relics in the cranial protuberance (ushnisha) or elsewhere on the head, and that such relics helped to sanctify early images of the Buddha.

  Find this resource:

• Ruppert, Brian D. Jewel in the Ashes: Buddha Relics and Power in Early Medieval Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Although Ruppert focuses on relics in Japan, he begins with a useful overview of relic traditions in India and China. Discusses the role of women in relic worship as well as the sociopolitical dimension of relics (both of which subjects are often overlooked).

  Find this resource:

• Schopen, Gregory. “The Phrase ‘sa prthivīpradesas caityabhūto bhavet’ in the Vajracchedikā: Notes on the Cult of the Book in Mahāyāna.” Indo-Iranian Journal 17.3–4 (1975): 147–181.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A highly technical study that contends that Buddhist scriptures were essentially regarded as a type of relic, often valued more as a source of power as objects than for their semantic content.

  Find this resource:

• Sharf, Robert H. “On the Allure of Buddhist Relics.” Representations 66 (1999): 75–99.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Probes the “semiotic logic” of images, icons, and relics and takes exception to the view that relic worship reflects some sort of primitive mentality.

  Find this resource:

• Sharf, Robert H. “The Buddha’s Finger Bones at Famensi and the Art of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism.” The Art Bulletin 93.1 (2011): 38–59.

  DOI: 10.1080/00043079.2011.10785995Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Sharf offers a new reading of the nested reliquaries found at Famensi, and he suggests that the finger bone relics themselves might be productively thought of as works of art.

  Find this resource:

• Strong, John S. Relics of the Buddha. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Develops the provocative theory that relics are “expressions and extensions” of the Buddha’s biography. Unfortunately, contains no illustrations.

  Find this resource:

Image and Text

Buddhism is in many respects a religion of the book: the sutras containing the teachings of the Buddha were valued not only from a doctrinal point of view, but also were frequently treated as inherently powerful objects in and of themselves. (See Schopen 1975, cited under Relics.) Kim 2013 and Eubanks 2011 provide detailed evidence of this phenomenon, and Campany 1991 and Copp 2008 both examine the apotropaic aspects of texts. Kinard 2002 focuses more on the role of the book in the context of political legitimation. Wang 2005 and Tanabe 1988 both focus on the Lotus Sutra, the most popular Buddhist text in East Asia. Rong 1999 examines the secret library cave at Dunhuang, where a rich cache of Buddhist manuscripts was accidentally discovered in the early 20th century.

• Campany, Robert F. “Notes on the Devotional Uses and Symbolic Functions of Sūtra Texts as Depicted in Early Chinese Miracle Tales and Hagiographies.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 14.1 (1991): 28–72.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Examines some of the different roles that sutras perform in various literary sources; finds that most of these functions are represented as independent of doctrinal content.

  Find this resource:

• Copp, Paul. “Altar, Amulet, Icon: Transformations in Dhāranī Amulet Culture, 740–980.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 17 (2008): 239–264.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Considers the meaning and evolution of amulet sheets containing written and printed dhāranī incantations.

  Find this resource:

• Eubanks, Charlotte D. Miracles of Book and Body: Buddhist Textual Culture and Medieval Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.

  DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520265615.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Eubanks explores the “text-flesh continuum,” that is, the highly provocative idea that written sutra texts and human bodies are comparable sites.

  Find this resource:

• Kim, Jinah. Receptacle of the Sacred: Illustrated Manuscripts and the Buddhist Book Cult in South Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013.

  DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520273863.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Comprehensive study of illustrated Buddhist manuscripts as sacred objects of worship and veneration. Illustrations in the book itself are all in black and white, but supplementary color images are available at the publisher’s website.

  Find this resource:

• Kinard, Jacob N. “On Buddhist ‘Bibliolaters’: Representing and Worshiping the Book in Medieval India.” The Eastern Buddhist 34.2 (2002): 94–116.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Suggests that the inclusion of the book among textual descriptions of the seven jewels of the king is more about projecting the need for imperial support than about veneration of the book.

  Find this resource:

• Rong, Xinjiang. “The Nature of the Dunhuang Library Cave and the Reason for Its Sealing.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 11.11 (1999): 247–275.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Disputes the famous “waste-repository” theory that has been invoked to account for the presence of this sealed cave; the author suggests, instead, that the cave was a book storehouse.

  Find this resource:

• Tanabe, Willa J. Paintings of the Lotus Sutra. New York: Weatherhill, 1988.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Considers much more than the title might suggest: chapters are included on copying the Lotus, on the tradition of decorative frontispieces, and on the act of copying the Lotus as well as on the sutra as a subject for paintings. Beautifully illustrated with many color plates.

  Find this resource:

• Wang, Eugene Yuejin. Shaping the Lotus Sutra: Buddhist Visual Culture in Medieval China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A comprehensive study of an immense body of images that are traditionally understood as comprising “illustrations” of scenes from the Lotus Sutra.

  Find this resource:

Secular Display

In recent years, and stimulated in part by critical discussions in anthropology and museum studies, many art historians and scholars of Buddhism have addressed a variety of issues raised by displaying sacred objects in secular spaces. Foulk 2001 provides a clear outline of some of the issues at stake. Robson 2010 looks at the situation from the point of view of both the museum and the temple. Tythacott 2011 and Saeji 2014 both look at some of the multifarious ways in which museums make use of Buddhist objects in ways that have little or nothing to do with Buddhism.

• Foulk, T. Griffith. “Religious Functions of Buddhist Art in China.” In Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism. Edited by Marsha Weidner, 13–29. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  An insightful essay on the potentially negative effects of removing Buddhist images from their original contexts and the subsequent difficulty of understanding an image’s meaning once this has happened.

  Find this resource:

• Robson, James. “Faith in Museums: On the Confluence of Museums and Religious Sites in Asia.” PMLA 125.10 (2010): 121–128.

  DOI: 10.1632/pmla.2010.125.1.121Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Provocative rumination about the ways that religion has influenced museum practices, while many religious sites have become more like museums.

  Find this resource:

• Saeji, Cedarbough. “Creating Regimes of Value through Curation at the National Museum of Korea.” Acta Koreana 17.2 (2014): 609–637.

  DOI: 10.18399/acta.2014.17.2.004Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Analyzes curatorial choices and the language of museum label texts in terms of how the National Museum of Korea uses the display of Buddhist art to make claims about national identity.

  Find this resource:

• Tythacott, Louise. The Lives of Chinese Objects: Buddhism, Imperialism, Display. New York: Berghahn, 2011.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Biography of a set of five Buddhist sculptures, from their origins on Putuo Island in the 15th century to their current residency in the Liverpool Museum.

  Find this resource:

Buddhist Images and Modern Art

The intersection of Buddhism with modern and contemporary art can be approached from several different directions. Baas 2005 considers European artists who were influenced by Buddhist ideas, if only in a vague way, while Jacob 2010 looks at artists who very clearly take Buddhist ideas as a starting point for their work. Kim 2009 creates works that explore Buddhist ideas but do not obviously appear Buddhist. Mori 1998 and Poshyananda 2003 are examples of artists using traditional Buddhist imagery in innovative ways, while Zhang Huan and Chen Longbin both deploy traditional Buddhist imagery to interrogate ideas about the commodification of Buddhist icons. Cate 2003 is one of the very few studies to treat contemporary Buddhist ritual art as a worthy subject of its own.

• Baas, Jacquelyn. Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Examines the influence of Buddhism on a number of artists in the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Van Gogh, Monet, Kandinsky, and Duchamp. Draws some interesting conclusions, though in many cases the “Buddhist” influence is quite generalized.

  Find this resource:

• Cate, Sandra. Making Merit, Making Art: A Thai Temple in Wimbledon. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A fascinating study of a vast mural program created by Thai Buddhist artists in England. The images incorporate numerous modern references within traditional iconography. For example, the Mural of the First Sermon includes a sculpture by Henry Moore in the Deer Park as well as an image of David Hockney at work, while George Bush and Margaret Thatcher appear in a jataka tale.

  Find this resource:

• Chen Longbin.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Under “Works,” select “World Buddha” for examples of Chen’s Buddhist heads carved from auction catalogues and similar materials.

  Find this resource:

• Jacob, Mary-Jane. Grain of Emptiness: Buddhism-Inspired Contemporary Art. New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2010.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Catalogue of a provocative exhibition devoted to five artists who self-consciously create artworks that engage Buddhist concepts (such as emptiness) and Buddhist ritual practice.

  Find this resource:

• Kim, Atta. On-Air Eighthours. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Kantz, 2009.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  South Korean photographer who has cited Zen notions of interconnectedness and impermanence as influences on his long-exposure photo projects.

  Find this resource:

• Mori, Mariko. Mariko Mori. Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1998.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Catalogue of an international traveling exhibition that included Mori’s Nirvana installation, where the artist portrays herself as a bodhisattva.

  Find this resource:

• Poshyananda, Apinan. Montien Booma: Temple of the Mind. New York: Asia Society, 2003.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Retrospective exhibition of the Thai artist Montien Booma (b. 1953–d. 2000), whose installations featured various Buddhist shapes and symbols, such as alms bowls, bells, and stupas.

  Find this resource:

• Zhang Huan.

  Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Website of the contemporary Chinese artist, many of whose sculptures utilize Buddhist imagery. Sculptural projects are arranged by year: 2006 and 2010 have images of body parts; 2007 features his Buddha made of ash from incense; 2012 has a stainless steel Buddha of Immeasurable Life.

  Find this resource: