Cultural Elements In Buddhism (Encyclopaedia Of Buddhist World Series)

Buddhist art originated in the Indian subcontinent in the centuries following the life of the historical Gautama Buddha in the 6th to 5th century BCE, before evolving through its contact with other cultures and its diffusion through the rest of Asia and the world. A first, essentially Indian, aniconic phase, was followed from around the 1st century CE by an iconic phase. From that time, Buddhist art diversified and evolved as it adapted to the new countries where the faith was expanding. It deve