essay on buddhist architecture

View of stone pillar bases of the West Image Hall, Mireuksa temple site. Korea, Japanese Occupation period, 1917. Original image dry plate photograph. National Museum of Korea, pan 23141

Buddhist Architecture in Korea *

Kim Bongryol PhD, Professor of Architecture, Korea National University of Arts

A Buddhist Temple Is a Complex of Buildings

Buddhism was introduced to China from India and Central Asia, and it was already prevalent in China by the fourth century when the religion was first introduced to the Korean peninsula. At that time, the peninsula was divided into three separate kingdoms: Goguryeo 高句麗 (37 BCE–668 CE), Baekje 百濟 (18 BCE–660 CE), and Silla 新羅 (57 BCE–935 CE). Buddhism was welcomed by the royal houses of the Three Kingdoms, which pursued Buddhism competitively. The royal houses took the principal initiative for its spread, and Buddhism flourished in uniquely Korean forms, which came to characterize the architecture of Buddhist temples.

Following the introduction of Buddhism, the royal houses of the Three Kingdoms constructed huge temples in the heart of their capital cities. Goguryeo built Jeongneungsa 定陵寺 in Pyeongyang 平壤 to manage the royal tombs. Baekje constructed Mireuksa 彌勒寺 in Iksan 益山, a new city to which the capital of Baekje later moved. Silla constructed Hwangnyongsa 皇龍寺 in the heart of Gyeongju 慶州. The early seventh-century Mireuksa was built on a huge site on which three temples were placed in juxtaposition according to the Buddhist doctrine stating that Maitreya (Mireuk in Korean), the Future Buddha, would come to the world to save all living beings through three sermons. It is said that Mireuksa covered a land area of 165,000 square meters and was home to as many as three thousand monks. Hwangnyongsa was founded in 570 CE and covered an area of 80,000 square meters. A nine-story wooden pagoda was built at its center. This wooden pagoda rose 80 meters and had stairs inside that led to the top floor. It served as an observatory to view the city. Construction of temples by the royal houses drove the development of technology and improved the quality of Korean architecture overall, not to mention advancing Buddhist architecture.

According to Mahayana Buddhism, which is the mainstream of Korean Buddhism, the whole universe consists of three thousand worlds, which means near infinity, and one Buddha presides over each of these three thousand worlds. Buddhism has expanded from the belief in the one and only Buddha Shakyamuni to the belief in three thousand Buddhas. In particular, Mahayana doctrine emphasizes the “Path of the bodhisattva,” a key teaching of Mahayana ethics, which says “Seek enlightenment above, transform sentient beings below.” Countless bodhisattvas such as Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, and Samantabhadra became popular and were venerated as second only to Buddha Shakyamuni. Also, in Central Asia and China, indigenous deities were added to the Buddhist pantheon, and these native gods became objects of worship in Korea as well. As a result, Central Asian Luminous Kings, the Daoist gods of the Big Dipper’s seven stars, and the Korean Mountain Spirit, not to mention many other Buddhist deities, all became objects of worship in Korea.

Buddhist temples in Korea necessarily included image halls for multiple Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other deities. According to the principle of “One World, One Buddha,” or the existence of one Buddha at a time, a single building should enshrine only one object of worship, requiring that a temple have various buildings for worship. During the Joseon 朝鮮 period (1392–1910), when Confucianism was espoused by the ruling class and the elite literati-bureaucrats severely suppressed Buddhism, the Buddhist community in an effort to ensure its own survival unified all beliefs in different Buddhas and bodhisattvas. The distinctions between Buddhist sects were removed, and buildings for a number of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other deities were built on the premises of one single temple.

Located in the southern part of the Korean peninsula, Tongdosa 通度寺 has sixteen buildings in total for worship: five separate buildings for five Buddhas including Shakyamuni, Amitabha, Bhaishajyaguru, Vairochana, and Maitreya; four buildings for bodhisattvas and arhats including Avalokiteshvara, Kshitigarbha, and the Arhats; and six building for other deities including Chilseong 七星 (the Daoist Gods of the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper), Dokseong 獨聖 (Hermit Sage), Sansin 山神 (Mountain Spirit), the Four Heavenly Kings, and more.

Korean Buddhism prohibited the marriage of monks and established an obligation to live an austere, celibate life. Although a Buddhist sect that permits the marriage of monks came into being in the twentieth century, celibate monks still dominate the Buddhist community in Korea and are considered morally superior among laypeople. Temples, therefore, are monasteries where monks who renounced the world reside, study, and meditate.

The basic rule at a temple is “one room, one monk.” For this reason, a temple needs as many rooms as the number of monks residing there in addition to facilities like a kitchen, dining hall, bathing area, and toilets. A number of buildings for common use are also required, including a lecture hall to study and discuss sutras, a prayer hall for all monks to chant together, and a hall to practice Seon 禪 (Ch. Chan , Jp. Zen ) or meditation. It has been general practice in traditional Korean architecture to assign one function to each building. As the residences for monks, dining hall, lecture hall, prayer hall, and meditation hall were each separately constructed as independent buildings, the area for monks alone could include some ten buildings. Korean Buddhist architecture was bigger and more dignified than secular architecture. In fact, monasteries were in no way inferior to royal palaces in leading contemporaneous architecture. Numerous Buddhist temples were built during the Joseon period even in the face of the heavy political and economic suppression of Buddhism. The tradition of large scale, ornamented buildings, which was established in the early stage when Buddhism was first introduced to Korea, still continues today.

A temple is a unified premises consisting of a prayer section for laypeople and a monastic section for resident monks. According to Mahayana tradition, the prayer section requires a number of buildings for various objects of worship (Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other deities), and under the tradition of ascetic living, the monastic quarters need multiple buildings, some for eating and sleeping and others for practicing the faith. This is the reason Korean Buddhist temples consist of so many independent buildings. Accordingly, although it is important to make each building impressive, the relationship between buildings within a temple complex has even great significance. Architectural concerns such as the integration and separation of the prayer and monastic sections, the hierarchical distinctions between buildings dedicated to Buddhas and those for subordinate deities, and the association between the interior spaces within buildings and outside spaces between buildings are truly complex issues that are governed by the religious and sectarian tradition of each temple.

Buildings and Structural Elements

Contrary to the European tradition in which materials and building techniques clearly differed between religious and secular structures, Korean Buddhist architecture is not significantly different from that of administrative buildings or common residences. Ancient temples in Egypt and medieval churches in Europe are exquisite, imposing stone edifices, which contrast with ordinary residences made of wood. Korean Buddhist structures, on the other hand, were wooden buildings just like ordinary houses. Construction techniques that were developed for Buddhist architecture were also applied to secular buildings and the technological gap between the two remained narrow. Accordingly, in the Korean architectural tradition, the plan and construction of Buddhist architecture represent characteristics of Korean architecture in general.

The main parts of a building are the stone base, the timber column-and-beam skeleton, and the heavy pitched roof with overhanging eaves. Once a site is selected, the ground is rammed hard and the stone foundation is laid. This platform functions as the support for a row of columns and keeps the wooden structure from rotting due to infiltration of ground moisture into the wooden structure. The corners of the foundation are reinforced with stones, bricks, or tiles. Such stone bases with elaborate facings were generally used for Buddhist structures.

The wooden structure of Korean buildings is composed of framing with vertical columns and horizontal beams. The heavy weight of the roof is transmitted to the beams which in turn distribute the load to the columns and the ground. The columns are connected by lintels which together frame the walls. Spaces within the framework are filled with clay or wood to form a wall or are fitted with windows or doors to provide light and access. For windows and doors of Buddhist structures, a wooden frame decorated with carved floral patterns is covered with translucent Korean paper. Such windows and doors function as barriers that allows air to pass while reducing the effects of cold and heat from outside.

Brackets—supporting elements that are both functional and decorative—are placed on top of the column heads below the eaves. On the brackets are small columns that form a frame for the roof. Rafters of about ten centimeters in diameter are densely laid on the roof-frame to make a sloping roof. The roof is finished by laying tiles on its inclined surfaces. The roof tiles are a type of fired earthenware that make the entire building structurally stable by compressing the frame with their heavy weight while also protecting the building from rain and snow. Korean roof tiles come in convex and concave pairs. Concave tiles are shaped like a quarter cylinder and convex tiles are semicircular in profile. Concave tiles are laid first while convex tiles are placed across the joints between the concave tiles, affording perfect waterproofing for the roof. Specially manufactured roof tile ends are used along the edge of the eaves. Concave and convex roof tile ends are all attached with angled sides so that rainwater can be channeled away from the building. The angled sides of the roof tile ends are decorated. On Buddhist structures, decorative designs that symbolize Buddhism, such as the lotus and phoenix, were stamped on the angled sides. On the peak of the roof, large ornamental tiles called chimi 鴟尾 in Korean crowned the ends of the main roof ridge. This special type of roof tile resembles the tail of an imaginary fish or wings of a bird.

Korean wooden structures were extremely vulnerable to fire. Most were destroyed during war or by accidental fires. Although some buildings have been rebuilt, it is difficult to restore them to their original state. Once they catch fire, major structural components such as columns and beams burn quickly and the whole building collapses. Only the foundation and its stone or clay facing remain along with the roof tiles. Much of the original structure of many European buildings ruined in wars or by fire remain standing for extraordinarily long periods of time because they were made of stone, but the remains of ruined Korean structures are flattened, as can be witnessed at many historic sites. Most artifacts excavated from such ruins are roof tiles, which are fire-resistant. Roof tile ends decorated with exquisitely impressed designs have been discovered in large numbers and displayed in museums.

Unlike wooden buildings in Europe, Korean wooden buildings have long extended eaves in delicately curved lines, which are very impressive. These cantilevered eaves project out from the beams that support the rafters. A special system called gongpo 栱包 (wooden bracket system used to support the heavy tiled roofs at the ends of the eaves) was devised to make the eaves extend in a beautifully curved line. Placed between the heads of the columns and the roof frame, the gongpo disperses the weight to the beams and columns by transmitting the vertical load from the rafters. Elaborate multi-cluster wooden brackets on the heads of the columns create a single structure themselves, which is the most characteristic of all exterior components of Korean structures. Gongpo are also important ornamental components often bearing carved lotus and cloud designs.

At the center of the interior space, Buddhist images are enshrined on top of a wooden altar. This altar is also called the sumidan 須彌壇 as it symbolizes Mount Sumeru, which is regarded as the center of the Buddhist universe. On the ceiling directly above the sumidan hangs a separate house-shaped canopy called a datjip 닫집 in Korean, which serves as a roof for the Buddhist statues enshrined on the altar. The interior of the datjip is filled with sculptures in the shape of a dragon, phoenix, and clouds to represent Buddhist heaven. Buddhist architecture does not divide the interior of a building into compartments but treats it as a single space.

The walls and ceiling are adorned with painted images of Buddha, heavenly beings, and various symbolic motifs such as lotuses. This was meant by the Koreans to create a splendid and magnificent Buddhist paradise. The five basic colors used in Korean architecture are red, yellow, blue, black, and white. The coloring technique is systematic and follows a specific set of rules. In addition to serving as interior and exterior decoration, applied paint protects the wooden building against rotting.

Relationship between Image Halls and Pagodas

Cave temples and stupas are archetypes of early Buddhist architecture. Caves were natural places for monks who had entered the Buddhist priesthood to practice austerity, and stupas were places for lay devotees to pray. Originally, the stupa, which means “burial mound for enlightened beings” in Sanskrit, was a mound that enshrined relics of the Buddha Shakyamuni and was worshiped as the symbol of the Buddha. China received the tradition of the stupa in the form of the high-storied building from India through Central Asia. Chinese pagodas were mainly built with bricks, but in Korea stone was the preferred material for constructing pagodas. Although both wooden and brick pagodas were also constructed in Korea, most Korean pagodas were built from stone and represent an architectural type distinguishable from the Chinese brick pagodas and Japanese counterparts made of wood.

Cave temples were developed on the Deccan Plateau in India. The earliest examples were created by cutting into sandstone rock to create spaces for Buddhist monks to stay. As visits to monks by lay devotees increased over time, caves for worship were also created, promoting the development of cave temple complexes. In regions where Buddhism spread, constructing a cave temple was regarded as the greatest way of accumulating merit. It soon created an international boom for hollowing out cave temples. This architectural form developed in Ajanta and Nashik in India, spread through Bamiyan and Kizil in Central Asia, and traveled to China, where the cave temples of Dunhuang 敦煌 and Yungang 雲崗 were built. Korea, too, aspired to construct cave temples after Buddhism was first introduced to the peninsula. However, the major rock type which covers the land surface of Korea is granite, which is too hard to cut into. In India and China, cave temples were comparatively easy to construct because the bedrock was much softer limestone, sandstone, and mudstone. Seokguram Grotto 石窟庵, the representative example of Korean cave temples, constructed in the eighth century, is in fact a stone chamber artificially built with stone and covered with a dome.

Although many cave temples were built, most temples were free-standing complexes with proper monks’ quarters. Also, at the initial stage, worship of Buddhist images was not yet introduced, and the stupa was the sole object of devotion. Around the second century BCE, Buddhist statues in the form of human figures appeared in the Gandhara and Mathura regions of India, and such statues became established as objects of worship. It was only natural that Buddhist statues in realistic human form eventually replaced the abstract symbol of the stupa as the central object of worship. This led to the need for the construction of a new building to enshrine Buddhist statues. Because Buddhist sculptures are covered in very expensive gilding, the image hall came to be called the “golden hall.”

The image hall itself became an object of worship because of the Buddhist statues enshrined within. The pagoda standing outside the image hall continued to be an object for a different, more abstract worship. Accordingly, ancient temples comprised an image hall and pagoda together, and the architectural form of the Buddhist temple complex was determined entirely by the relationship between the image hall and the pagoda.

Each of the ancient kingdoms of Korea had its own architectural layout for temples. For example, the architectural type of Goguryeo was “one pagoda, three image halls,” with one pagoda surrounded by image halls on three sides. Baekje adopted the “one pagoda and one image hall” model in which a pagoda, image hall, and lecture hall were placed along a shared axis. In Silla, the “twin pagodas” type, in which two pagodas were located in front of the image hall, was preferred.

Around the tenth century, the Seon School (Kr. Seonjong 禪宗), or Meditation School, was introduced to the Korean peninsula. It was received with enthusiasm by the Korean Buddhist community and was established as the major sect of Korean Buddhism going forward. The Seon School rejected existing icons and freed itself from the existing architectural patterns. Stupa worship, or the “cult of relics,” began to weaken, and this naturally made the pagoda lose importance. Buddhist pagodas became smaller in size and were pushed to the periphery of temple compounds away from the center. Temples without pagodas that have only an image hall quickly became the mainstream model.

Diversity in Architectural Forms

Religious architecture in Europe focuses upon the building itself. That is, architecture is a shrine or a church. Buddhist architecture in Korea, on the other hand, is a set of buildings, where a building functions like a single room. For example, the Pantheon in Rome is a religious building and also a piece of religious architecture that enshrines gods. A Buddhist temple in Korea has as few as five and as many as sixty buildings and all these together are considered one architectural whole. The relationship between the buildings and their orientation to the natural topography are essential architectural characteristics. In other words, Korean architecture can be defined as a relationship between buildings and topography rather than as a building itself. This relationship can be considered as an architectural layout or plan. It has taken on diverse forms for a number of reasons, such as when the temple was founded, where the temple is situated, and the sect and religious lineage to which the temple belongs.

Temples founded in ancient times followed strict standards because they were built mostly in capital cities with state support. The “one pagoda, three image halls,” “one pagoda and one image hall,” and “twin pagodas” layouts mentioned earlier are representative architectural plans of ancient temples. These three types all share a common feature in that the perimeter was surrounded by long cloisters forming a border with neighboring sites, which was entirely appropriate for an urban setting. Cloisters composed of a line of buildings make sense due to the flat topographical conditions of a city, enabling temples to be built in standard form.

After the medieval period—particularly during the Joseon period when Buddhism was suppressed—Buddhist temples in the cities were demolished by force and disappeared. Only those deep in the mountains survived. Generous contributions from powerful elites were no longer provided and temples faced financial hardship. Accordingly, inefficient structures like long cloisters disappeared and instead freer architectural arrangements better suited to the irregular, mountainous topography developed. Although the buildings of new temples were generally smaller than those of the past, their number increased to accommodate the beliefs of various schools of Buddhism. The architecture of syncretic Buddhism was more suitable for sloping terrain. Breaking away from geometric layouts, a more organic plan came into being and became the established tradition of Buddhist architecture of Korea.

By the early ninth century, five important sects of Buddhism had been established in Korea. Afterward, Seon Buddhism was introduced in the late ninth and tenth centuries and nine core schools of Seon Buddhism emerged. During the Goryeo 高麗 period (918–1392), when Buddhism was the state religion, the religion reached its apex and some twenty sects flourished. In the thirteenth century, Lamaism, a form of Esoteric Buddhism, was introduced to Korea from Yuan 元 (1279–1368) China. Each of these sects had its own scriptures and teachings, its own main Buddha, and its own view of the universe. It was only natural that the architectural models, which symbolize spiritual principles, should differ among the various types of Buddhism.

For example, temples associated with the Pure Land School, which emphasized a belief in a Buddhist paradise (or Buddha land 佛國土), created an architectural form centered on the external space surrounded by buildings. The inner courtyard of the temple itself was regarded as a representation of the Western Paradise. Temples associated with the Dharma-Character School (Kr. Beopsang jong , Ch. Faxiang zong 法相宗), which promoted Buddhist precepts in religious practice, adopted a strict arrangement of gate-pagoda-stone lantern-image hall-Buddhist statues on a shared axis. Seon temples, on the other hand, were free from such specific constraints. Some were of unprecedented architectural layout with two pagodas placed both in front and behind the image hall. Some followed no architectural pattern at all.

Temples of the Doctrinal School (Kr. Gyojong 敎宗) took a different stance. While temples associated with the Doctrinal School regarded image and lecture halls as important locations for worship and for studying sutras, respectively, Seon emphasized mediation rooms and monks’ living quarters as spaces for religious practice and therefore constructed monastery buildings with spaces for such activities. As advocates for the Doctrinal School and Esoteric Buddhism tend to decorate temples magnificently, they emphasized color and decorative designs. Seon Buddhism, in contrast, regarded all decoration as nothing but emptiness, and emphasized extremely minimal ornament.

The Korean peninsula is small in size with a land area of only 220,000 square kilometers. Its topography is folded into many mountains and valleys, both large and small, making communications between regions difficult and thereby allowing folk cultures peculiar to each region to develop. In particular, the traditions of the Three Kingdoms that coexisted in the early centuries of the development of Buddhism persisted as cultural differences in later history. For example, many buildings in the region of the former Baekje kingdom, which has vast plains, sprawl horizontally, while many of those in the mountainous region of the former Silla kingdom are very vertical.

This discussion has shown that the diversity found in Korean Buddhist architecture developed through the ages, influenced by topography, religious schools, and regional traditions. Although relatively few Buddhist temples remain today, each extant example has unique architectural characteristics resulting from this complex matrix of factors.

* This essay is adapted from a text first published in English by Kim Bongryol in the exhibition catalogue The Smile of Buddha: 1600 Years of Buddhist Art in Korea (Brussels: Bozarbooks and Bai, 2008), 89–99. The publication of the current version has been coordinated by Lee Jae-jeong and Yang Sumi at the National Museum of Korea. It was edited by Keith Wilson and Sunwoo Hwang at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art. The copyright belongs to Bozarbooks and Bai, Brussels.

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Buddhism and buddhist art.

Portrait of Shun'oku Myōha

Unidentified artist Japanese

Fasting Buddha Shakyamuni

Reliquary in the Shape of a Stupa

Standing Buddha Offering Protection

Buddha Maitreya (Mile)

Buddha Maitreya (Mile) Altarpiece

Buddha Offering Protection

Head of Buddha

Buddha, probably Amitabha

Pensive bodhisattva

Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion

Buddha Shakyamuni or Akshobhya, the Buddha of the East

Enthroned Buddha Attended by the Bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani

The Bodhisattva Padmapani Lokeshvara

Buddha Vairocana (Dari)

Buddha Amoghasiddhi with Eight Bodhisattvas

Death of the Historical Buddha (Nehan-zu)

Cup Stand with the Eight Buddhist Treasures

Seated Buddha

Vidya Dehejia Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University

February 2007

The fifth and fourth centuries B.C. were a time of worldwide intellectual ferment. It was an age of great thinkers, such as Socrates and Plato, Confucius and Laozi. In India , it was the age of the Buddha, after whose death a religion developed that eventually spread far beyond its homeland.

Siddhartha, the prince who was to become the Buddha, was born into the royal family of Kapilavastu, a small kingdom in the Himalayan foothills. His was a divine conception and miraculous birth, at which sages predicted that he would become a universal conqueror, either of the physical world or of men’s minds. It was the latter conquest that came to pass. Giving up the pleasures of the palace to seek the true purpose of life, Siddhartha first tried the path of severe asceticism, only to abandon it after six years as a futile exercise. He then sat down in yogic meditation beneath a bodhi tree until he achieved enlightenment. He was known henceforth as the Buddha , or “Enlightened One.”

His is the Middle Path, rejecting both luxury and asceticism. Buddhism proposes a life of good thoughts, good intentions, and straight living, all with the ultimate aim of achieving nirvana, release from earthly existence. For most beings, nirvana lies in the distant future, because Buddhism, like other faiths of India, believes in a cycle of rebirth. Humans are born many times on earth, each time with the opportunity to perfect themselves further. And it is their own karma—the sum total of deeds, good and bad—that determines the circumstances of a future birth. The Buddha spent the remaining forty years of his life preaching his faith and making vast numbers of converts. When he died, his body was cremated, as was customary in India.

The cremated relics of the Buddha were divided into several portions and placed in relic caskets that were interred within large hemispherical mounds known as stupas. Such stupas constitute the central monument of Buddhist monastic complexes. They attract pilgrims from far and wide who come to experience the unseen presence of the Buddha. Stupas are enclosed by a railing that provides a path for ritual circumambulation. The sacred area is entered through gateways at the four cardinal points.

In the first century B.C., India’s artists, who had worked in the perishable media of brick, wood, thatch, and bamboo, adopted stone on a very wide scale. Stone railings and gateways, covered with relief sculptures, were added to stupas. Favorite themes were events from the historic life of the Buddha, as well as from his previous lives, which were believed to number 550. The latter tales are called jatakas and often include popular legends adapted to Buddhist teachings.

In the earliest Buddhist art of India, the Buddha was not represented in human form. His presence was indicated instead by a sign, such as a pair of footprints, an empty seat, or an empty space beneath a parasol.

In the first century A.D., the human image of one Buddha came to dominate the artistic scene, and one of the first sites at which this occurred was along India’s northwestern frontier. In the area known as Gandhara , artistic elements from the Hellenistic world combined with the symbolism needed to express Indian Buddhism to create a unique style. Youthful Buddhas with hair arranged in wavy curls resemble Roman statues of Apollo; the monastic robe covering both shoulders and arranged in heavy classical folds is reminiscent of a Roman toga. There are also many representations of Siddhartha as a princely bejeweled figure prior to his renunciation of palace life. Buddhism evolved the concept of a Buddha of the Future, Maitreya, depicted in art both as a Buddha clad in a monastic robe and as a princely bodhisattva before enlightenment. Gandharan artists made use of both stone and stucco to produce such images, which were placed in nichelike shrines around the stupa of a monastery. Contemporaneously, the Kushan-period artists in Mathura, India, produced a different image of the Buddha. His body was expanded by sacred breath ( prana ), and his clinging monastic robe was draped to leave the right shoulder bare.

A third influential Buddha type evolved in Andhra Pradesh, in southern India, where images of substantial proportions, with serious, unsmiling faces, were clad in robes that created a heavy swag at the hem and revealed the left shoulder. These southern sites provided artistic inspiration for the Buddhist land of Sri Lanka, off the southern tip of India, and Sri Lankan monks regularly visited the area. A number of statues in this style have been found as well throughout Southeast Asia.

The succeeding Gupta period, from the fourth to the sixth century A.D., in northern India, sometimes referred to as a Golden Age, witnessed the creation of an “ideal image” of the Buddha. This was achieved by combining selected traits from the Gandharan region with the sensuous form created by Mathura artists. Gupta Buddhas have their hair arranged in tiny individual curls, and the robes have a network of strings to suggest drapery folds (as at Mathura) or are transparent sheaths (as at Sarnath). With their downward glance and spiritual aura, Gupta Buddhas became the model for future generations of artists, whether in post-Gupta and Pala India or in Nepal , Thailand , and Indonesia. Gupta metal images of the Buddha were also taken by pilgrims along the Silk Road to China .

Over the following centuries there emerged a new form of Buddhism that involved an expanding pantheon and more elaborate rituals. This later Buddhism introduced the concept of heavenly bodhisattvas as well as goddesses, of whom the most popular was Tara. In Nepal and Tibet , where exquisite metal images and paintings were produced, new divinities were created and portrayed in both sculpture and painted scrolls. Ferocious deities were introduced in the role of protectors of Buddhism and its believers. Images of a more esoteric nature , depicting god and goddess in embrace, were produced to demonstrate the metaphysical concept that salvation resulted from the union of wisdom (female) and compassion (male). Buddhism had traveled a long way from its simple beginnings.

Dehejia, Vidya. “Buddhism and Buddhist Art.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/budd/hd_budd.htm (February 2007)

Further Reading

Dehejia, Vidya. Indian Art . London: Phaidon, 1997.

Mitter, Partha. Indian Art . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Additional Essays by Vidya Dehejia

• Dehejia, Vidya. “ Hinduism and Hindu Art .” (February 2007)
• Dehejia, Vidya. “ Recognizing the Gods .” (February 2007)
• Dehejia, Vidya. “ South Asian Art and Culture .” (February 2007)

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Buddhist art and architecture.

• Sonya S. Lee Sonya S. Lee University of Southern California
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.398
• Published online: 19 November 2020

The art and architecture of Buddhism has shaped the physical and social landscape of Asia for more than two millennia. Images of the Buddha and other Buddhist deities, alongside the physical structures built to enshrine them, are found in practically all corners of the continent, where the religion has enjoyed widespread dissemination. India boasts some of the earliest extant works dating from the 3rd century bce , whereas new images and monuments continue to be made today in many countries in East and Southeast Asia as well as in North America and Europe. Spanning across diverse cultures, Buddhist material culture encompasses a wide range of object types, materials, and settings. Yet the Buddha represented in anthropomorphic form and the stupa that preserves his presence through either bodily relics or symbolic objects remain the most enduring forms through time and space. Their remarkable longevity underscores the tremendous flexibility inherent in Buddhist teaching and iconography, which allows local communities to adapt and reconstitute them for new meanings. Such processes of localization can be understood through close analysis of changes in style, materials, production techniques, and context.

The ubiquity of Buddhist art and architecture across the globe is made possible chiefly by a fundamental belief in religious merits, a concept that encourages believers to do good in order to accumulate positive karma for spiritual advancement. One of the most common forms of action is to give alms and other material objects to the monastic community as well as make offerings to the Buddha, thereby giving rise to active patronage of image-making and scripture production.

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• World History Encyclopedia - Stupa
• GlobalSecurity.org - Stupa / Dagoba / Chaitya / Chedi
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stupa , Buddhist commemorative monument usually housing sacred relics associated with the Buddha or other saintly persons. The hemispherical form of the stupa appears to have derived from pre-Buddhist burial mounds in India . As most characteristically seen at Sanchi in the Great Stupa (2nd–1st century bc ), the monument consists of a circular base supporting a massive solid dome (the anda , “egg,” or garbha , “womb”) from which projects an umbrella. The whole of the Great Stupa is encircled by a railing and four gateways, which are richly decorated with relief sculpture depicting Jataka tales, events in the life of the Buddha, and popular mythological figures.

The Indian conception of the stupa spread throughout the Buddhist world and evolved into such different-looking monuments as the bell-shaped dagaba (“heart of garbha ”) of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the terraced temple of Borobudur in Java , the variations in Tibet , and the multistoried pagodas of China , Korea, and Japan. The basic symbolism, in which the central relic is identified with the sacred person or concept commemorated and also with the building itself, is retained. Worship of a stupa consists in walking around the monument in the clockwise direction. Even when the stupa is sheltered by a building, it is always a freestanding monument.

Buddhist stupas were originally built to house the earthly remains of the historical Buddha and his associates and are almost invariably found at sites sacred to Buddhism . The concept of a relic was afterward extended to include sacred texts. Miniature stupas and pagodas are also used by Buddhists throughout Asia as votive offerings. Stupas were also built by adherents of Jainism to commemorate their saints.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Buddhist Art and Architecture in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia

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Buddhist Art and Architecture in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia by Pattaratorn Chirapravati , John Listopad LAST REVIEWED: 06 October 2021 LAST MODIFIED: 28 June 2016 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0221

According to the Sinhalese chronicles the Dipavaṃsa (Chronicle of the Island) and Mahāvaṃsa (Great Chronicle), the historical Buddha made a journey to Sri Lanka to subdue the demons and make the country suitable for human settlement. Buddhist art and architecture are recorded as beginning with the arrival during the 3rd century  BCE of the Buddhist monk Mahinda, the son of the Mauryan emperor Asoka. The Mahāvaṃsa also mentioned two Buddhist monks, Sona and Uttara, who are said to have been sent by King Asoka in the 3rd century  BCE to a place called Suvaṇṇabhumī , which translates as “Land of Gold.” Scholars identify Suvaṇṇabhumī either as the southern part of present-day Myanmar, in particular Thaton, or the central part of Thailand. Unfortunately, no archaeological remains have been found in Southeast Asia (SEA) that can be attributed to that date. Buddhism was patronized by kings and leaders of several kingdoms of SEA; namely, Funan (in southern Vietnam), Champa (in Vietnam), Dvaravati (in central Thailand), Sri Ksetra (in Myanmar), Srivijaya (in the Thai Peninsula and Sumatra), and Zhenla (in Cambodia). At least four different branches of Buddhism spread to the region: Sarvāstivāda nikāya (which used the Sanskrit language), Mūlasarvāstivāda nikāya (Sanskrit), Theravada (Pali), and Mahayana Buddhism. The art and architecture of these early kingdoms, depending on their particular Buddhist ideology, share similar iconography, stylistic appearances, and decorative elements. SEA materials can be divided into two regions: mainland SEA (i.e., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam) and insular SEA (i.e., Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore). Thus, books on SEA art and architecture usually cover a country, region, or specific subject (e.g., Buddhist sculpture, Buddhist painting, or votive tablets).

Studies of Sri Lankan and Southeast Asian (SEA) art and architecture were established as early as the 1920s by several Western scholars (e.g., British, Dutch, French, and German) who conducted research on these two regions. Coedès 1968 is a comprehensive book on early SEA history, and Le May 2004 (originally published in 1938) provides comprehensive information on the Buddhist art of SEA. Groslier 1962 and Rawson 1990 (first published in 1967) are two classic works that still offer useful introductions to SEA art. Boisselier 1994 provides excellent examples of texts and images on the topics of the buddha’s life and past lives (large numbers of examples are of SEA art). Between the 10th and the 21st centuries, the countries of mainland SEA continued to share similar religious practices of Theravada Buddhism; thus, Buddhist art and architecture of this region are closely related in terms of iconography and architectural elements. However, Buddhism declined and disappeared from the insular region after the 13th century, and Islam became the most important religion of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.

Boisselier, Jean. The Wisdom of the Buddha . Discoveries. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994.

Provides excellent examples of texts and images on the topics of the buddha’s life and past lives, a large number of which are of SEA art.

Coedès, George. The Making of South East Asia . Translated by H. M. Wright. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966.

Provides excellent descriptions of history, archaeological remains, and epigraphy. An important work; however, some of the theses have been supplanted by more-recent research.

Coedès, George. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia . Edited by Walter F. Vella. Translated by Susan Brown Cowing. Honolulu, HI: East-West Center Press, 1968.

An English translation of Les états hindouisés d’Indochine et d’Indonésie (Paris: De Boccard, 1964), it provides comprehensive studies of the development of the early kingdoms of SEA from 1st to the 15th centuries. An important early work; however, some of the theses have been supplanted by more-recent research.

Girard-Geslan, Maud, ed. Art of Southeast Asia . Translated by J. A. Underwood. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998.

Perhaps the best overview of the art and architecture of SEA. Each country is covered in an essay written by an area specialist: Marijke J. Klokke, Albert Le Bonheur, Donald M. Stadtner, Valerie Zaleski, and Thierry Zephir. The chapter on Thailand is outdated.

Groslier, Bernard Philippe. The Art of Indochina: Including Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia . Translated by George Lawrence. Art of the World. New York: Crown, 1962.

A groundbreaking book on mainland SEA art, with firsthand archaeological fieldwork. It was first published in French ( Indochine: Carrefour des arts ) in 1961 (Paris: A. Michel). It provides significant information about Buddhist and Hindu temples and is still useful.

Le May, Reginald. Buddhist Art in South-East Asia: The Indian Influence on the Art of Thailand . New Delhi: Aryan Books International, 2004.

First published in 1938 as A Concise History of Buddhist Art in Siam (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press), this is an important pioneering work in SEA studies. It is still useful for its illustrations, but Le May’s work has been supplanted by later research.

Rawson, Philip. The Art of Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Burma, Java, Mali . World of Art. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1990.

Provides a good general, but dated, overview of SEA art. Buddhist and Hindu art are covered in most chapters in the book. The portions on Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam are the best; the chapter on Thailand is outdated.

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writing Buddhist histories from Landscape and Architecture

Related Papers

IIAS Newsletter, No. 93 Autumn 2022, pp. 30-31, https://www.iias.asia/sites/iias/files/theNewsletter/2022-10/IIAS_NL93_FULL.pdf.

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