Book 8

How to Read Buddhist Art

Most of the books on this list focus on texts. This is a slim, affordable introduction to Buddhist art based on objects in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

• examines fifty-four masterpieces from The Met collection
• explores how images of the Buddha crossed linguistic and cultural barriers
• discusses how these images took on different, yet consistent, characteristics in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Himalaya, China, Korea, Japan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia
• helps the reader understand Buddhist art and practice

Behrendt, Kurt A. How to Read Buddhist Art (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2020).