Buddhist Art and Architecture (World of Art) Paperback – May 17, 1993

Wonderful book! I have five books in this series and They're all my go to reference books. I plan on completing the collection in the near future. The pictures are amazing.AAA+

This book was the cheatsheet that got me an A in my South Asian Art class. Recommend it to anyone.

The 1993 edition of Fisher's "Buddhist Art and Architecture" was reprinted, with revisions, in 2002. The cover of the revised edition is like the 1993 edition (i.e. the Kansas Guanyin), but now framed within a diamond-shape which is inset into a black background. The text is current on recent scholarship, such as the role of aniconism in Early Buddhist art, and cosmological interpretations of Angkor Wat. Attention is paid to the organic development of Buddhist art styles as they evolved in being transmitted from country to country, although I wish that even more emphasis had been put on this.The book is organized by region: of its 200 pages, approximately 40-50 pages each are devoted to India, China, Korea/Japan, and Southeast Asia. The book's wide area coverage is both an advantage and a disadvantage, since much has been left out. For example, there is only one paragraph on the life of the Buddha himself, and not even a mention of Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavillion), arguably Japan's most famous and beautiful architectural icon. I would also have liked to see a greater use of color illustrations (only 32 of 179, in the present edition).I hope that readers who start with this book will go on to more in-depth treatments, such as the same author's excellent introduction to the Art of Tibet (Thames & Hudson, 1998).

Thanks

There were at least two pages missing. Just cut out. Not in a, "we're trying to fool you into buying this book" way but in a drunk college student sort of way. Good experience otherwise, but I really did pay for every page.

Great Book

I am an architectural historian with a fairly extensive knowledge of Buddhist architecture. Even though this is an introductory text, Fisher's book explained some things I've failed to find anywhere else. Another plus is that Fisher includes Buddhist art/architecture from every Buddhist country. Usually books of this type leave out countries for expediency. Though this book is short, Fisher touches it all.

The book is as the description and is pretty good. the tranportation is fast. Thanks.