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The contribution of Buddhism to the World of Art...
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Enlightenment, and his hair is twisted into a topknot, and one of his hands is raised in the gesture of blessing. The art of Buddhist sculpture and of Buddha images in particular, originated in India, and two distinct styles were created. One in the north, in Gāndhāra, where the image-makers looked to the Greeco-Roman tradition for inspiration.
The second style of Buddha image was directly influenced by the earlier Indian style of art peculiar to the south. The first images that we know of appeared in Mathurā. The Mathurā Buddha images had straight hair ticed up in a topknot, and were garbed in the traditional Indian dhoti. The Mathurā Buddhas are often shown, smiling peacefully. As these images were most commonly made of sandstone they are much softer in contour and more rounded and curved than those made in the north. Many early Indian Buddhist images show the Buddha as having the thirty-two marks of a Buddha and with his hands placed in various positions displaying gestures of blessing, meditation and teaching. The number of Buddha images and Buddhist architectural structures, which survive in India, are very great indeed, but in all of the faces of every image, and in the art and design of every stūpa and temple or rock-cave vihāra traces of the BuddhaDhamma are visible.
As Buddhist Art developed and spread outside India the two basic styles were imitated as for example in China where the Gāndhāra style was imitated in images made of bronze. Gradually the faces on these images were made to look more and more Chinese and are even dressed in long flowing, robes and shawls, after the Chinese fashion. In those countries where Sarvāstivāda or Theravāda Buddhism took hold and remained, such as Afghanistan, Laos, and Sri Lanka, famous for its enormous reclining Buddha, and in Siam, modern Thailand, which is famous for its exquisite and graceful ‘Walking Buddhas' or in the temples and shrines of the ancient capital city of Pagan in Burma now known as Myanmar with its many temples, and in the temples of Malaysia, too the Buddha images housed there, show the influence of the early types of Indian Buddha image
