28 Facts About Buddhist art

Buddhist art originated in the north of the Indian subcontinent, in modern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the earliest survivals dating from a few centuries after the historical life of Siddhartha Gautama from the 6th to 5th century BCE.

In India, Buddhist art flourished and co-developed with Hindu and Jain art, with cave temple complexes built together, each likely influencing the other.

Chinese historical sources and mural paintings in the Tarim Basin city of Dunhuang accurately describe the travels of the explorer and ambassador Zhang Qian to Central Asia as far as Bactria around 130 BCE, and the same murals describe the Emperor Han Wudi worshiping Buddhist art statues, explaining them as "golden men brought in 120 BCE by a great Han general in his campaigns against the nomads.

Buddhist art continued to develop in India for a few more centuries.

Northern Buddhist art thus tends to be characterized by a very rich and syncretic Buddhist pantheon, with a multitude of images of the various buddhas, bodhisattvas, and heavenly beings.

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Human figurative art forms being prohibited under Islam, Buddhist art suffered numerous attacks, which culminated with the systematic destructions by the Taliban regime.

Buddhist art confiscated Buddhist possessions, and forced the faith to go underground, therefore affecting the development of the religion and its arts in China.

Buddhist art commissioned a vast number of religious works in the Tibetan style, many of which depicted him in various sacred guises.

Additionally, the Qianlong Emperor initiated a number of large-scale construction projects; in 1744 he rededicated the Yonghe Temple as Beijing's main Tibetan Buddhist art monastery, donating a number of valuable religious paintings, sculptures, textiles and inscriptions to the temple.

Korean Buddhist art generally reflects an interaction between other Buddhist influences and a strongly original Korean culture.

Additionally, the art of the steppes, particularly Siberian and Scythian influences, are evident in early Korean Buddhist art based on the excavation of artifacts and burial goods such as Silla royal crowns, belt buckles, daggers, and comma-shaped gogok.

The Silla Kingdom developed a distinctive Buddhist art tradition epitomized by the Bangasayusang, a half-seated contemplative statue of Maitreya whose Korean-made twin was sent to Japan as a proselytizing gift and now resides in the Koryu-ji Temple in Japan.

Korean Buddhist art was influenced by new Tang Dynasty styles as evidenced by a new popular Buddhist motif with full-faced Buddha sculptures.

State-sponsored Buddhist art flourished during this period, the epitome of which is the Seokguram Grotto.

The Goryeo kings lavishly sponsored Buddhism and Buddhist art flourished, especially Buddhist paintings and illuminated sutras written in gold and silver ink.

The Buddhist art religion was adopted by the state in the following century.

Creation of Japanese Buddhist art was especially rich between the 8th and 13th centuries during the periods of Nara, Heian and Kamakura.

Jocho's successors, sculptors of the Kei school of Buddhist art statues, created realistic and dynamic statues to suit the tastes of samurai, and Japanese Buddhist art sculpture reached its peak.

Zen Buddhist art is mainly characterized by original paintings and poetry (especially haikus), striving to express the true essence of the world through impressionistic and unadorned "non-dualistic" representations.

One of the most characteristic creations of Tibetan Buddhist art are the mandalas, diagrams of a "divine temple" made of a circle enclosing a square, the purpose of which is to help Buddhist devotees focus their attention through meditation and follow the path to the central image of the Buddha.

The Sri Vijaya Empire to the south and the Khmer Empire to the north competed for influence, but both were adherents of Mahayana Buddhism, and their Buddhist art expressed the rich Mahayana pantheon of the Bodhisattvas.

The assimilation and conversion of the various pre-Buddhist art beliefs was a slow process.

Early Buddhist art temples are found, such as Beikthano in central Myanmar, with dates between the 1st and the 5th centuries.

Later, thousands of Buddhist art temples were built at Bagan, the capital, between the 11th and 13th centuries, and around 2, 000 of them are still standing.

The royal patronage for Khmer Buddhist art reached its new height with the patronage of Jayavarman VII, a Buddhist king that built Angkor Thom walled city, adorned with the smiling face of Lokeshvara in Angkor Thom dvaras and prasat towers Bayon.

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Thai Buddhist art encompasses period for more than a millennia, from pre Thai culture of Dvaravati and Srivijaya, to the first Thai capital of Thai 13th century Sukhothai, all the way to succeeding Thai kingdoms of Ayutthaya and Rattanakosin.

Up to the end of that period, Buddhist art is characterized by a clear fluidness in the expression, and the subject matter is characteristic of the Mahayana pantheon with multiple creations of Bodhisattvas.

The most beautiful example of classical Javanese Buddhist art is the serene and delicate statue of Prajnaparamita of Java the goddess of transcendental wisdom from Singhasari kingdom.