Buddhist Art History

Saicho

(767 - 822) was a Japanese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Tendai school in Japan, based around the Chinese Tiantai tradition he was exposed to during his trip to China beginning in 804. He is also said to have been the first to bring tea to Japan. Esoteric Buddhism became an important aspect of the Tendai school, which was primarily focused on the Lotus Sutra.

Kukai

(774-835) Kukai was a Japanese monk, civil servant, scholar, poet, and artist, founder of the Shingon or "True Word" school of Buddhism. His religious writings, some fifty works, expound the tantric Buddhist Shingon doctrine. In 804 Kūkai took part in a government-sponsored expedition to China in order to learn more about the Mahavairocana Sutra. The expedition included four ships, with Kūkai on the first ship, while another famous monk, Saichō was on the second ship.

Four Noble Truths

(The list of the Four Noble Truths are on page 3 of our textbook) 1. Existence is fundamentally painful 2. This pain is the result of the desire (or thirst) for things and states of beings 3. This pain can be relieved 4. And an Eightfold Path of practice and understanding is the cure.

Axis mundi

(pillar) world center or the connection between Heaven and Earth.

Avalokiteshvara, also known as Guanyin (China) and Kannon (Japan)

Avalokiteshvara is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. This bodhisattva is variably depicted and described and is portrayed in different cultures as either female or male. In Chinese Buddhism Avalokiteshvara has become the somewhat different female figure Guanyin. Avalokiteshvara is one of the more widely revered bodhisattvas in mainstream Mahayana Buddhism.

Maitreya

regarded as a future Buddha of this world in Buddhist eschatology. In some Buddhist literature, such as the Amitabha Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, he is referred to as Ajita.

Iconoclasm

the action of attacking or assertively rejecting cherished beliefs and institutions or established values and practices.

Ushnisha

three-dimensional oval at the top of the head of the Buddha. It symbolizes his attainment of reliance in the spiritual guide.

Pure Land

tradition of Buddhist teachings that are focused on Amitābha Buddha. Pure Land oriented practices and concepts are found within basic Mahāyāna Buddhist cosmology, and form an important component of the Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and Tibet.

Empress Wu Zetian

"Empress Wu", was a Chinese sovereign, who ruled officially from 690 to 705. She was the only female emperor of China in more than four millennia. She is the only recorded woman to rule China in her own right. As a woman, Wu Zetian could not rely on perennial Confucian themes to justify her usurpation of the throne and instead cited the apocryphal "Great Cloud Sutra," which extolled the just rule of a woman several centuries after the death of the Buddha.

Ashoka (r. 269-232)

Ashoka was the powerful third ruler of the Mauryan dynasty (323-185 B.C.E.). He controlled an empire (the largest until British rule) that ranged from Bangladesh in the east to Afghanistan in the north and included much of the southern part of the subcontinent. Ashoka's decision to promote Buddhism and govern according to religious principles stemmed from his dismay at the destruction and bloodshed wrought by his conquest of the eastern coastal regions in 267 B.C.E.

Amitabha Buddha

Amitabha is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism. Amitabha is the principal buddha in the Pure Land sect, a branch of Buddhism practiced mainly in East Asia. Amitabha possesses infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakara. Amitabha is translatable as "Infinite Light," hence Amitabha is also called "The Buddha of Immeasurable Life and Light".

Aniconic/ Iconic

Aniconism = practice of or belief in the avoiding or shunning of images of divine beings, prophets or other respected religious figures, or in different manifestations, any human beings or living creatures. iconic = of, relating to, or of the nature of an icon.

Chakravaratin

Chakravaratin is an ancient Indian term used to refer to an ideal universal ruler, who rules ethically and benevolently over the entire world. Also known as "Wheel of the Dharma." In Buddhism and Jainism, three types of Chakravartis are distinguished: -- Chakravala chakravarti, a ruler over all four continents postulated in ancient Indian cosmography --Dvipa chakravarti, a ruler over only one of four continents --Pradesa chakravarti, a ruler over only part of a continent. The first references to a cakravala cakravrtin appear in monuments from the time of the Maurya Empire (322-185 BCE), dedicated to Chandragupta Maurya and his grandson Ashoka. It has not been generally used for any other historic figure. In Buddhism, the chakravarti came to be considered the secular counterpart of a Buddha. In general, the term applies to temporal as well as spiritual kingship and leadership, particularly in Buddhism.

Shakyamuni

Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sag on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in eastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries B.C.E. The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one".

Gupta Dynasty

In the first part of the fourth century, much of northern India was under the rule of the Gupta dynasty. This period--which lasted from about 319, when the name of the dynasty was first announced, to about 500, when King Buddhagupta died--was one of prosperity and patronage of the arts.

Pilgrimage sites: Lumbini, Bodh Gaya, Sarnath, Kushinagara

Lumbini (birth): Lumbini is a Buddhist pilgrimage site in the Rupandehi District of Nepal. It is the place where, according to Buddhist tradition, Queen Mayadevi gave birth to Siddhartha Gautama in 623 BCE. Lumbini is one of the four holy places of Buddhism. Bodh Gaya (enlightenment): Bodh Gaya is a religious site and place of pilgrimage associated with the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar. It is famous as it is the place where Gautama Buddha is said to have obtained Enlightenment under what became known as the Bodhi Tree. Sarnath (first sermon): Sarnath is a city located 13 kilometres north-east of Varanasi near the confluence of the Ganges and the Gomati rivers in Uttar Pradesh, India. The deer park in Sarnath is where Gautama Buddha first taught the Dharma. Kushinagar (death): Kushinagar is a town in Kushinagar district of Indian state of Uttar Pradesh located around NH-28, being 52 km east to Gorakhpur city. It is an important Buddhist pilgrimage site, where Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha attained Parinirvana after his death.

Mahayana Buddhism

Mahayana Buddhism, also known as "the Great Vehicle," is the form of Buddhism prominent in North Asia, including China, Mongolia, Tibet, Korea, and Japan. Mahayana texts claim to have been preached in abstract locations divorced from linear time. They celebrate Shakyamuni as one of several transcendent--as opposed to historical--buddhas and advocate the pursuit of enlightenment for the benefit of others. Mahayana followers celebrate the path of the bodhisattva, one whose essence (sattva) is spiritual wisdom (bodhi) and who has attained enlightenment in order to help others on the path.

Prince Shotoku

Prince Shotoku (also known as Prince Taishi) is said to have written commentaries on several sutras; given lectures on others; and sponsored the buildings of monasteries, as did several members of the ruling Soga family. By the twelfth century, he had become a national icon for the introduction of Buddhism to Japan and the focus of an independent cult stressing the sanctity of his life and his understanding of Buddhism.

Vairocana Buddha

Vairocana is a celestial buddha who is often interpreted, in texts like the Flower Garland Sutra, as the Bliss Body of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama).

Jataka

any of the various stories of the former lives of the Buddha found in Buddhist literature.

Bahkti

devotional worship directed to one supreme deity, usually Vishnu (especially in his incarnations as Rama and Krishna) or Shiva, by whose grace salvation may be attained by all regardless of sex, caste, or class. It is practiced by the majority of Hindus today.

Northern Wei Dynasty

dynasty founded by the Tuoba clan of the Xianbei, which ruled northern China from 386 to 534. Described as "part of an era of political turbulence and intense social and cultural change," the Northern Wei Dynasty is particularly noted for unifying northern China in 439: this was also a period of introduced foreign ideas; such as Buddhism, which became firmly established.

Abhaya Mudra

hand pose that is the gesture of reassurance and safety, which dispels fear and accords divine protection and bliss to the devotee. In Abhayamudra, the right hand is held upright, and the palm is facing outwards.

Urna

is a spiral or circular dot placed on the forehead of Buddhist images as an auspicious mark.

Silk Road

network of trade routes, formally established during the Han Dynasty of China, which linked the regions of the ancient world in commerce.

Lotus Sutra

one of the most important texts in Mahayana Buddhism, significant particularly in China and Japan and given special veneration by the Nichiren sect.

Tushita Heaven

one of the six deva-worlds of the Kāmadhātu, located between the Yāma heaven and the Nirmāṇarati heaven. Like the other heavens, Tuṣita is said to be reachable through meditation.