This exhibition explores Buddhism and Buddhist art around the globe, with a visit to the religion’s origins in India. It then travels through mainland and island Southeast Asia, including the Theravada countries of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, to the Mahayana world of the Himalayas, including Kashmir, Tibet, and Nepal. Through the lens of these countries, Buddhist thought and practice are seen in ritual objects, thangkas, and sculptures.
The show focuses on art associated with the important developments in Buddhism such as Theravada (early monastic Buddhism), Mahayana (the Great Vehicle), Vajrayana (the Diamond Vehicle – tantric or esoteric Buddhism), and Chan (Zen). Drawn from LACMA’s collections, with several significant loans from private collections, the exhibition starts with the life of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama, the Shakyamuni Buddha), the role of the bodhisattva, Buddhist cosmology, and key concepts such as dharma, karma, and nirvana. It also pays attention to the meaning of mudra – symbolic hand gestures or poses found in artworks associated with Buddhism.
Presented in two sections, the first section studies the life of the historical Buddha and work’s associated with this period of the Buddha’s life in the Indian subcontinent. The second section follows the journey of Buddhism across Asia to such countries as Sri Lanka and Indonesia in the south, the Himalayas to the north, and China, Korea, and Japan to the East.
Stephen Little, co-curator of the exhibition, writes in the catalogue essay ‘Introduction to Buddhism and Buddhist Art’, ‘Both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism were practised in Southeast Asia in the early Common Era. Early evidence for the presence of Buddhism in Southeast Asia comes from dedicatory stele inscriptions in Pali and Sanskrit. Although Hinduism was probably the first Indic religion to reach the region. Buddhism soon followed. The early political states of Southeast Asia were closely connected via sea trade with India, Sri Lanka, and China. The vast extent of contemporaneous maritime commerce, and the surprising and relative ease with which people, goods, and ideas travelled, is suggested by the discoveries of Roman glass beads at the ancient seaport of Oc Eo on the southwestern coast of Vietnam and a coin of the Gallic emperor Victorinus, minted in Cologne between 269 and 271, at U Thong in Thailand’.
Both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism forms spread throughout Southeast Asia, however, in modern times Theravada Buddhism prevails and influences religious practice in continental Southeast Asia in countries such as Thailand, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. Buddhism and Hinduism also flourished in the early Khmer empire (present-day Cambodia) and in the Cham kingdom (present-day Vietnam). Buddhism became more popular in the Khmer empire with its adoption as a state religion in the late 12th century by King Jayavarman VII (1122-1218), when the Khmer empire encompassed Cambodia, much of Vietnam, and parts of Thailand. This influential monarch promoted Vajrayana Buddhism, building great temples such as those found at the complex at Angkor, the capital of the Khmer empire.
In the catalogue, Stephen Little again writes, ‘Part of Buddhism’s appeal was its fundamental compassionate teaching that enlightenment was open to all sentient beings (of all classes and castes). Buddhism in India developed slowly in the first several centuries after the Buddha’s death but achieved great prominence during the reign of the Mauryan king Asoka (304-232 BC), who propagated the new faith throughout his vast kingdom in northern and central India. Among the symbols appropriated by Asoka, and visible at the top of several of the commemorative stone columns he erected throughout his kingdom, were the lion representing the Shakya clan, into which the Buddha was born and the Wheel of the Dharma or Dharmachakra’.
The first section is dedicated to works of the historical Buddha, dating from the late 6th century. A physical representation of the Buddha is absent from the historical sites in India predating the first century. Representation is made by the symbol of an umbrella (chatra), fly whisk (chamara), or footprints (buddhapada). The first image of the Buddha in human form appears at Mathura and develops further in the Buddhist art of Gandhara from the first to the fifth centuries. A highlight of the exhibition is a standing figure of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, from Uttar Pradesh, late 6th century; with its serene countenance, the work embodies the style of the late Gupta dynasty (320-600), a balance of elegant form and inner spirituality.
Although the Gupta rulers were Hindu, they actively patronised Buddhism. This Buddha embodies two ideals basic to Buddhism, the perfect yogi and the universal ruler. He possesses the yogi’s supple body and contemplative gaze, and the ruler’s strong shoulders, firm body, and webbed hands and feet. Time-honoured traditions of portrayal connect the Buddha’s human form with nature; his long eyes are shaped like fish, his curls like snail shells, and the profile of his left shoulder and arm like the trunk of an elephant. Following the invasion of northern India by Islamic rulers from Afghanistan in the 12th century, this sculpture was preserved in a Tibetan monastery.
Another form of the Buddha, the Maitreya Buddha, is primarily linked to Mahayana Buddhism, which seems to have started to appear around the 6th century. This later school of Buddhism believes that there are a multitude of enlightened Buddhas. These fully enlightened beings were prophesied to become the Buddha of the next cosmic eon, or kalpa, after the end of the current universe. Until that time it is thought that Maitreya exists as a bodhisattva but will eventually descend to earth from the heaven where he currently resides, undergo his final rebirth, and become a Buddha. An example of this form in the exhibition is the 11th-century Bodhisattva Maitreya from Bihar, northern India. The figure can be identified as the Maitreya by the presence of a miniature stupa (a deposit for reliquaries) in his headdress. Maitreya’s name means ‘The Benevolent One’.
Later in the show is a rare 17th-century painting of the Cosmic Buddha from China. Here, the Buddha is seen as a prominent figure within Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism and is often considered the ‘primordial’ Buddha. The Vairochana Buddha is a central figure of the Five Cosmic Buddhas of the Mahayana and Vajrayana pantheons. The veneration of Vairochana first flourished in China during the Tang dynasty (618-906), and worship of this Cosmic Buddha soon spread to Korea and Japan. The historical Buddha Shakyamuni was believed to be a manifestation of Vairochana, who exists beyond time and space. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this work – in addition to its remarkable state of preservation – is the large numbers of smaller Buddhist and Daoist figures, among which are the guardians of the four cardinal directions and dizang (Kshitigarbha or Earth Matrix), the bodhisattva of the underworld.
From the Mahayana tradition of the Himalayas comes a thangka that depicts the two Buddhist deities Chakrasamvara and Vajravarahi, shown in an embrace that symbolises the two essential elements of Buddhist belief and practice: compassion (male) and wisdom (female). Chakrasamvara is the central deity of the Chakrasamvara Tantra, a text composed in the late 8th or early 9th century in India, the main purpose of which is to provide a path to spiritual awakening and enlightenment through the meditation on the deity Heruka Chakrasamvara in union with Vajravarahi. The tantra outlines rituals, philosophies, and practices designed to cultivate enlightened states of mind by uniting the principles of bliss (right method) and emptiness (wisdom).
The exhibition also explores the role and meaning of mudras in Buddhist works of art. These highly stylised hand gestures indicate to the faithful, in a simple way, the meaning, nature, and function of the deities represented. They also give significance to the figure. While there are many esoteric mudras, over time, Buddhist art has retained five common and basic gestures in relation to figures of the Buddha, although other gestures can sometimes be found. The dharmachakra mudra (Wheel of Dharma), which represents the occasion when the Buddha preached his first sermon after his enlightenment in the Deer Park at Sarnath, North India, setting into motion the wheel of the teaching of Dharma. The bhumisparsha mudra (touching the earth) is also called ‘holding the earth to account or as witness’. The gesture is formed with all five fingers of the right hand extended to touch the ground, symbolising the Buddha’s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. The varada mudra represents charity, compassion, and boon-granting, often used in conjunction with the abhaya mudra. The abhaya mudra symbolises protection, peace, and the dispelling of fear. In Thailand and Laos, this mudra is associated with the movement of the walking Buddha. The dhyana mudra, associated with meditation and contemplation relating to the path of spiritual perfection, is made with one or both hands, with ritual objects often placed in the palm of the left hand. It is associated with the time when the Buddha meditated under a pipal tree before his enlightenment. When made with both hands, the hands are generally held at stomach height, or rest on the thighs. For some Buddhists, this triangle is said to represent the Three Jewels of Buddhism: the Buddha himself, the Good Law, and the sangha (community of Buddhist practitioners).
By showing works of art from across the Buddhist world, the show allows visitors to explore key concepts of the art and religion through objects that were created throughout Asia, following the path of Buddhism out of India, across the lands of the Silk Road, and the religion’s current presence in modern-day life.
From 11 May to 12 July, LACMA, Los Angeles, lacma.org. Catalogue available
