To many practitioners of the Mahayana schools of Buddhism of East Asia and the esoteric traditions of the Himalayas and Japan, bodhisattvas, or “enlightenment beings,”
One of the most widely practiced of all Japanese art forms is ikebana, or flower arrangement. The word “ikebana” literally means “living flowers,” suggesting that while
In 2006, Taiwanese-American artist Echo Lew (b.1951) was visiting Shanghai from his home near Los Angeles. One night, he found himself standing on a street
Japan’s esoteric Buddhist traditions boast a rich and diverse array of imagery, ranging from figures of individual deities to elaborate mandalas depicting specific deity families
A fuzzy-furred gibbon seated on a rugged boulder reaches an arm out over a rushing river and tries to scoop up the reflection of the
At a distance, the monumental nine-panel painting appears to be an explosion of black calligraphic brushstrokes and electric neon-toned splashes. Wakana Kimura’s (b. 1978) work CHARACTER is a
The Mogao Caves, located near Dunhuang in the Gobi Desert in northwest China, comprise nearly 500 Buddhist cave temples dating from the 4th to the
Japanese artist Takashi Murakami has become renowned internationally for his colorful, smiling flowers, his anime-inspired paintings and sculptures that range in style from erotic to
From 2006 to 2010, Vietnamese American artist Trang T. Lê undertook a monumental artistic and spiritual endeavor. On a series of seven horizontal canvases measuring
From several yards away, the image is instantly recognizable—the head of the Buddha gazing downwards as if deep in meditation, floating on a background of
One of the most fascinating examples of Buddhist architecture is the stupa, a structure that evolved from a simple burial mound into the large-scale domed
For millennia, trees have occupied an important symbolic place in many of the world’s religious traditions, often representing the essence of life or a link
