Buddhism in Five Minutes - Elizabeth J. Harris
50. Why do Buddhists Make Art?
Buddhism in Five Minutes - Elizabeth J. Harris
Christian Luczanits [+]
SOAS
Christian Luczanits is David L. Snellgrove Senior Lecturer in Tibetan and Buddhist Art at the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Description
There is no term for “art” in Buddhist literature. Instead, the terms used make clear that what we understand as art today was made for a purpose. Buddhist texts also rarely explain this purpose, so the information has to be pieced together from scant references and the visual evidence itself. In the following, I focus on the Buddhist art of India and Tibet and consider the purpose of art parallel to the historical development of Buddhism.