A Study of the History of the Development of Buddhist Iconography

Abstract

Nowadays Buddhism is one of the world's major religions, and its means of transmission and artistic approach are diverse. As one of these means of communication, Buddhist statuary has also been passed on to the present day as an excellent form of art. The art of statuary is very rich, with different periods of statuary having different characteristics, which have been handed down from one generation to the next. The art of Buddhist statuary also varies from region to region. They have their own history of development, but they are not independent, learning from each other and from other regions and times. There is no clear lineage of the specific development of Buddha's statues and the specific history of their development in different regions and at different times. The aim of this paper is to trace the history of the development of Buddhist iconography, to sort out its development from Hellenism to its arrival in India and its subsequent introduction to China, and to clarify the influence of Greek sculpture on Indian Buddhist iconography and subsequently on Chinese Buddhist iconography.