This book presents new research on topics which center around the question of how Chinese Buddhist art evolved and what characterizes it as distinctly Chinese. Touching upon the Indian roots of Buddhism, the authors focus on the transformations that took place once the belief system entered the Chinese political, social, and philosophical sphere. Indian architecture, sculpture, and painting transformed indigenous Chinese art by introducing new subject matter, moral ideals, and a novel aesthetic. However, enough native Chinese principles prevailed to inspire the creation of new sutras and legends. These in turn inspired artists to create new visual means of appealing to Chinese audiences who needed to reconcile Buddhism with their existing beliefs and moral systems.



Flowering of a Foreign Faith: New Studies in Chinese Buddhist Art , Janet Baker (editor), Marg, Hardcover, 1988, 146 Pages, $60.00

Janet Baker received her PhD from the University of Kansas. She has published scholarly articles on the art of the Sui and Tang Dynasties at Dunhuang, and created and authored the exhibition and catalogue Seeking Immortality: Chinese Tomb Sculpture from the Schloss Collection.

11 Introduction
20 Gaoli's Discovery of a Miraculous Image
28 Monks among Laymen: Social Activities of the Buddhist Clergy in Medieval China
38 Early Chinese Buddhist Architecture and its Indian Origins
54 Paradise Images in Early Chinese Art
68 Foreigners in Early Chinese Buddhist Art, Disciples, Lohans and Barbarian Rulers
88 Avalokiteshvara in Sixth-Century China
104 Buddhist Sites of Gansu
118 The Development of Buddhist Sculpture in Sichuan: The Making of an Indigenous Art
134 The Development of Buddhist Sculpture in Yunnan: Syncretic Art of a Frontier Kingdom
146 Index