Buddhist Art and Architecture

From its beginnings as a loose-knit group of wandering ascetics in ancient India, Buddhism developed into a monastic religion that diversified and spread across Asia—producing great buildings and monuments of wood and stone and furnishing them with a rich array of paintings and sculptures. This course focuses on the Buddhist art and architecture of South, Central, and East Asia, seeking to understand and interpret it within the specific social, institutional, mythical, and ritual contexts in which it was produced and used. Thus, for example, when examining the ground plans and architectural features of Buddhist monasteries in different parts of Asia, we will also study the internal organization and operation of those institutions—reading the rules of individual and group discipline that regulated them and learning about the various religious practices and ceremonial observances that took place in them. The aim is to explore the complex connections that exist between architectural forms and social and religious functions and meanings. By the same token, when looking at works of Buddhist art, we will not only concern ourselves with matters of iconography, style, provenance, and dating but will also learn about the various iconic and non-iconic functions that Buddhist art has had in a wide range of cultic and social settings and will study the religious doctrines, ideology, mythology, and folklore that has informed its production and use at different times and places.