HAA 182G - Art and Embodiment in Buddhism

Eric Huntington

What is a sacred image? Does it embody a presence or merely serve as a visual reminder? Does it need to look like its subject? How is it manufactured, used, repaired, and discarded? How do sacred images differ from tourist art or works in a museum?

This course investigates answers to such questions for Asian Buddhist traditions, foregrounding an interdisciplinary examination of visual art, material culture, literary text, and ritual performance. At the intersection of these realms, visual representations take on complex significance as both results of and tools for specific practices and goals. Understanding the central role of art objects in daily Buddhist life, conceptions of "art" and "object" are fundamentally transformed. These items are not passive representations but active mechanisms in the complex world of lived religion.

Organized thematically, this course highlights embodiment, resemblance, replication, substitution, artistic technique, materiality, ephemerality, ritual language, consecration and deconsecration, performance, and spatial and temporal context. The course addresses regions from across Buddhist Asia, highlighting India, Nepal, and Tibet but also featuring Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Korea, and Japan.