Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

This dissertation addresses the significance of regional developments in Indian art by focusing on the Buddhist art tradition of the Dhaka region in East Bengal from approximately the seventh to twelfth century CE. The Buddhist images and sites examined in this dissertation formed a part of a greater corpus of Buddhist art usually defined as ‘Eastern Indian art of the early medieval period or the PAlA-Sena period’. Art historians have concentrated on explaining common factors that determine Buddhist art of this region, because this is where the last stage of Indian Buddhism flourished, and thus its art has been considered as a product of the same stage of Buddhism as well as the same dynastic patronage. My study of Buddhist art from the Dhaka area is proposed as a first step toward a characterization of the different local traditions in eastern India, particularly, in Bengal, which has been neglected in the study of Buddhist art. The present study divides the Buddhist images from the Dhaka region into two groups according to their size. The size of the images helps one to place them in either a public or a private context. On the basis of surviving sculptures, most of the central Buddhist worship objects from the Dhaka region portray multi-headed and -armed deities that personify transcendent wisdom. Private worship objects also often portray these deities. The presence of large images of unique wisdom goddesses in the Dhaka region, who were never portrayed or only portrayed in a small size in other regions, suggests that the Buddhist practice in the Dhaka region was closely engaged in the assimilation of various goddess cults. The present study challenges the traditional distinction between iconography and style. By discussing individual components of the images as a whole, this dissertation also seeks to identify the major characteristics of Buddhist art from the Dhaka region. / text

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Document formatted into pages; contains xvi,375 p.; also contains graphics. Includes bibliographical references. Abstract available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2009 Aug. 18.

Thèse--Université de Paris.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 399-408).

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 294-303).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 413-423).

This thesis considers whether a Buddhist statue in a museum context can be both aesthetic and devotional. By reexamining the relationship between a devotional object, its surrounding space, and its viewer, this thesis will suggest how a museum gallery, though not a consecrated ritual space, can still potentially be a place for spiritual engagement akin to a religious sanctuary. Through a comparison of Gallery 16 of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco and Mengjia Longshan Temple, Taipei, Taiwan as a case study in terms of their spaces and the movement of people within the space in relation to the objects, this thesis will consider how Buddhist statues may continue to exist as spiritual objects and works of aesthetic appreciation without losing their past as devotional icons, and I will do this by applying Victor Turner’s concepts of liminality and the liminoid.

Buddhism is an integral part of Burmese culture. While Buddhism has been practiced in Burma for around 1500 years and evidence of the religion is found throughout the country, nothing surpasses the concentration of Buddhist monuments found at Bagan. Bagan represents not only the beginnings of a unified Burmese country, but also symbolises Burmese 'ownership' of Theravada Buddhism. ¶ While there is an abundance of artistic material throughout Burma, the study of Burmese Buddhist art by western scholars remains in it infancy due to historical events. In recent years, opportunities for further research have increased, and Bagan, as the region of Buddhism's principal flowering in Burma, is the starting point for the study of Burmese Buddhist art. To date, there has been no systematic review of the stylistic or iconographic characteristics of the Buddhist images of this period. This thesis proposes, for the first time, a chronological framework for sculptural depictions of the Buddha, and identifies the characteristics of Buddha images for each identified phase. The framework and features identified should provide a valuable resource for the dating of future discoveries of Buddhist sculpture at Bagan. ¶ As epigraphic material from this period is very scant, the reconstruction of Bagan's history has relied heavily to this point in time on non-contemporaneous accounts from Burma, and foreign chronicles. The usefulness of Bagan's visual material in broadening our understanding of the early Bagan period has been largely overlooked. This is addressed by relating the identified stylistic trends with purported historical events and it is demonstrated that, in the absence of other contemporaneous material, visual imagery is a valid and valuable resource for both supporting and refuting historical events. ¶ Buddhist imagery of Bagan widely regarded to represent the beginnings of 'pure' Theravada practice that King Anawrahta, the first Burman ruler, actively encouraged. This simplistic view has limited the potential of the imagery to provide a greater understanding of Buddhist practice at Bagan, and subsequently, the cross-cultural interactions that may have been occurring. In this light the narrative sculptural imagery of the period is interrogated against the principal Mahayana and Theravada texts relating to the life of Gotama Buddha. This review, along with the discussion regarding potential agencies for stylistic change, reveals that during the early Bagan period, Buddhism was an eclectic mix of both Theravada and Mahayana, which integrated with pre-existing spiritual traditions. Towards the end of the early Bagan period, trends were emerging which would lead to a distinctly Burmese form of Buddhist practice and visual expression.