Architecture, sculpture, and painting have always played a critical role in Buddhism. As well as serving as teaching aids for the practice and dissemination of Buddhism, they also act as important counterparts to written texts as a record of ever-evolving Buddhist beliefs and practices. In this short look at the history of Buddhist art, we survey five key developments in Buddhist iconography and how they reflect changes in Buddhism as it evolved in different eras and cultures.
THE STUPA: WHERE BUDDHIST ART STARTS
Surprisingly, there is little visual evidence for Buddhism in South Asia until the second to first centuries BCE., more than two hundred years after the death of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. Among the earliest monuments still preserved are stone mounds, known as stupas, such as the Great Stupa at Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh, India (fig.1). These monuments mark the location
