Reading Buddhist Art: An Illustrated Guide to Buddhist Signs and Symbols

Buddhism has been one of the world’s most successful religions, and travelled from its beginnings in India across Nepal and Tibet, China and Korea and Japan, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. It has evolved in distinct ways like Mahayana, Hinayana, and Vajrayana Buddhism (the last emerging out of Tantrism), took on Zen characteristics in Japan, led to remarkable architecture and religious sites, and a range of Buddhist art and iconography which is the object of research, collecting, and religious contemplation today. Meher McArthur is curator of East Asian Art at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, USA, and has already...