Course Description
The historical developments of Buddhist ideas, practices, institutions, and visual culture are remarkably diverse. This course will explore various aspects of Buddhist Visual Culture influenced by Mainstream, Mahayana and Esoteric Buddhist doctrine, philosophy and ritual across the broad yet interrelated areas of India and the Himalayan region of Nepal and Tibet.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be expected to produce an extensive
research paper on specific works or issues related to the field
and the methodologies appropriate to the topic under
consideration in the course. This paper will be a detailed,
in-depth consideration of the student's chosen theme requiring
not only a demonstration of advanced research skills (including
the ability to read and use material presented in foreign
languages), but also an articulation of the student's ability to
understand and manipulate the critical apparatus of art history
in connection with Buddhist Art.
Athena Title
BUDDHIST ART
Prerequisite
Two ARHI 3000-level courses and permission of major
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course will explore the development of Buddhism and Buddhist Visual Culture from its inception in ancient India during the early centuries before the Common Era (4-5th centuries B.C.E.) to the Medieval period (8-12th centuries C.E.) in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet. Emphasis will be placed on studying the genesis of Buddhist art, architecture, thought, institutions and ritual practice in light of the changing historical, social, economic and intellectual circumstances within which Buddhist communities found themselves on the subcontinent and in the Himalayas. In this regard, some of the major topics to be considered in this course include: the socio-religious context out of, and into which the Buddha, presumably, as well as Buddhism emerged in India; the historical development of settled monasticism and its influence on the production of – and innovation within – Buddhist art and architecture; the history of the ‘ascetic ideal’ of renunciation in Indian and Himalayan Buddhism; the rise of Mahayana and Esoteric Buddhist communities and their associated literature, art and rituals. Special attention will also be given to the interaction between Buddhism and the indigenous religious and artistic traditions of India, Nepal and Tibet, the way Buddhism adapted and changed as a result of this interaction, and how this process found expression in different Buddhist artistic traditions. Throughout this course, the various ways in which the often mercurial relationship between doctrine and practice within Buddhism progressed over time will also be a recurring theme, and one of the fundamental goals of this course is to cultivate an understanding of how this dialectic both created and sustained significant changes, continuities and syncretism within different Buddhist visual cultures. At the end of the course successful students will have demonstrated that they can research and write persuasively about topics in Buddhist Visual Culture that are covered in the course, and that they understand some of the methods, values, and procedures that shape the history of Buddhist Visual Cultures in ancient and medieval India, Nepal and Tibet. Students will be expected to pass two written exams and write a short research paper on an assigned topic.
Topical Outline
1. The Academic Study of Buddhism and the Limitations of Source Material 2. Introducing the Buddha - The Problems of Biographical Diversity 3. Maintaining Contact with the Founder- Buddhism and the Cult of Relics 4. Early Buddhist Art and Architecture in India 5. Iconic Traditions in early Buddhist Art 6. Buddhist Doctrine and the Monastic Ideal 7. Buddhist Monasticism, Wealth, Property and Art 8. 'New' Iconographies : Mahayana Buddhist Art 9. Tantra and Transgression in Esoteric Buddhist Art 10. The Buddhist Art of Tibet - Ritual Objects and Paintings 11. The Buddhist Architecture of Tibet - Monumental Monasteries 12. Vajrayana Art and Ritual in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal