Abstract
No Other Expression of Oriental art holds such general appeal and is so widely recognized by the Western world, as the Buddha image. Based on some unknown Indian craftsman's concept of an Indian princeling who became a god, this idealized portrait evolved into the greatest cult-image in the history of mankind, although its human inspiration was already dead for about four centuries when the first effigy was created. Varying in size from the Japanese colossus at Nara which is some fifty-three feet in height, to a miniature icon of no greater span than a man's thumbnail, the multitude of Buddhas past and present, forgotten and existing, are truly more numerous than the Ganges' sands. To the Occident the Buddha image is the symbol of Oriental religion, the common denominator of Far Eastern art, and the perennial ambassador of Asiatic culture. Whether fashioned as the leit-motif of an architectural scheme in sandstone, or carved as an amulet from a bit of precious jade, the Buddha epitomizes the mystic quality of eastern horizons and stands today as token of the metaphysical yearnings of one hundred and fifty million people.
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