Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia - by Tushara Bindu Gude & Stephen Little (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This publication was sent to press in February 2025, several months before the exhibition opening. To provide readers with additional materials about the exhibition's design, installation, and impact, we will release a PDF supplement containing installation photography, interpretive content, press clippings, and other information after September 1, 2025. The supplement will be free to download and print and can be accessed at lacma.org/publish"--Colophon.

Book Synopsis

A remarkable selection of pan-Asian Buddhist art, showcasing the history and diversity of Buddhist schools with examples across sculptures, textiles, reliquaries, manuscripts and more

This gloriously illustrated celebration of Buddhist art addresses the development of Buddhism and its visual language over a period of nearly 2,000 years, as the faith traveled across Asia and was embraced by diverse cultures. Realms of the Dharma brings together more than 200 works of Buddhist art from India, mainland and island Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, Central Asia and East Asia. The book is divided into seven chapters, beginning with an introduction to Buddhism and Buddhist art, followed by chapters on South Asia, Southeast Asia, Nepal and Tibet, China, Korea and Japan. The artworks, all from the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), offer a broad perspective on the birth of Buddhism in South Asia and its spread throughout the continent over centuries. The artworks include a stunning and diverse range of Buddhas, stupas and reliquaries, religious manuscripts, paintings and sculptures depicting various Buddhist deities, portraits of Buddhist masters and other ritual objects. The remarkably successful expansion of Buddhism was in part due to the ability of its principles to be adapted to and assimilated within a range of preexisting belief systems. Gorgeously illustrated with over 250 color reproductions of these exemplary artworks and religious objects, this book celebrates that achievement.

This book was published in conjunction with Los Angeles County Museum of Art.