Dharma Realms: Buddhist Art Across Asia

ACCOMPANYING BOOK: Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia

Realms of the Dharma (LACMA book)

There's a hardcover book, released July 1, 2025, by Editors Tushara Bindu Gude and Stephen Little and a foreword by Michael Govan. It has 5 out of 5 stars with one (1) rating.

It is a remarkable selection of pan-Asian Buddhist art, showcasing the history and diversity of Buddhist schools with examples across sculptures, textiles, reliquaries, manuscripts, and more.

• Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia (2025 LACMA exhibit)

Buddhist Tibet (LACMA)

Published with LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), this gloriously illustrated celebration of Buddhist art addresses the development of Buddhism and its visual language over a period of nearly 2,000 years, as the Teaching (Dharma) traveled across Asia and was embraced by diverse cultures.

Realms of the Dharma brings together more than 200 works of Buddhist art from India, mainland and island Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, Central Asia, and East Asia.

Buddhist Japan (LACMA)

The book is divided into seven chapters, beginning with an introduction to Buddhism and Buddhist art, followed by chapters on South Asia, Southeast Asia, Nepal and Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan.

The artworks, all from the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), offer a broad perspective on the birth of Buddhism in South Asia and its spread throughout the Asian continent over centuries.

The Buddha's tooth relic (srarira) in China

The artworks include a stunning and diverse range of Buddhas, stupas and reliquaries, religious manuscripts, paintings, and sculptures depicting various Buddhist deities, portraits of Buddhist masters, and other ritual objects.

The remarkably successful expansion of Buddhism was in part due to the ability of its principles to be adapted to and assimilated within a range of preexisting belief systems [usually some form of shamanism, animism, or some form of spirit appeasement].

Gorgeously illustrated with over 250 color reproductions of these exemplary artworks and religious objects, this book celebrates that achievement. More

Realms of the Dharma: LACMA exhibit

Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) 

LACMA has an excellent permanent collection.

"Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia" presents an international survey of Buddhism and Buddhist art, beginning with the religion’s origins in India and following its spread through mainland and island Southeast Asia (Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia), the Himalayas (Kashmir, Nepal, and Tibet), and East Asia (China, Korea, and Japan).

Buddhism Friendship Scholarship Program goes to LACMA

Incorporating 180 masterpieces of pan-Asian Buddhist art, the exhibition introduces key concepts of Buddhist thought and practice viewed through the prism of rare and extraordinarily beautiful Buddhist sculptures, paintings, and ritual objects.

Drawn from LACMA’s permanent collection, with several significant loans from private collections, the exhibition explores:

• the life of the historical Buddha,
• the role of the bodhisattva or Buddhist savior,
• Buddhist cosmology,
• and such key concepts as Dharma, karma, nirvana, mantra, mudra, and mandala.

The show focuses on art associated with such key phases of Buddhism as Theravada (early monastic Buddhism), Mahayana (the “Great Vehicle” populism), Vajrayana (the “Diamond Vehicle”—tantric or esoteric Buddhism), and Chan (Zen).

While closed on the Day of the Dead, the exhibit reopens along with the museum on Nov. 2, 2025, and continues until July 12, 2026. Ticket purchase necessary. Discounted for members.

• Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia | LACMA
• Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia at LACMA — Art of The Ancestors | Island Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Global Tribal Art News
• At LACMA, splendid Buddhist art goes on view after years of delay | Los Angeles Times

Nepal: "Light of the Valley" (LA screening)

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Roberto Ayala (Public Engagement, LACMA)

LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) is holding a FREE screening (advance tickets required) of the Nepalese Buddhist documentary Light of the Valley: Renewing the Sacred Art and Traditions of Svayambhu on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2013 at 7:00 pm.

With a running time of 32 minutes, "Light of the Valley" documents the 15th renovation of one of the most important Nepalese temple monuments (stupas) in the Buddhist world. It has been worshiped continuously for centuries. Following the screening at LACMA, on the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Spaulding Ave., the film's producer and the assistant art director and coeditor of the accompanying book will discuss the topic in a Q&A session.

• LACMA's Bing Theatre (not named after Chandler)
• Call (323) 857-6010 or reserve online
• Free, includes complimentary parking

This Week: Wisdom Network News (II)

Ashley Wells (WQ Weekend Guest Editor)

The Buddha teaching the first discourse ("Turning the Wheel of the Dharma") to the five ascetics and devas in the peaceful Indian countryside at Sarnath (buddhanet.net).

Temporary monks for better society
After six years, the largely negative attitude among many Sri Lankan Buddhists towards temporary ordination has undergone a welcome change.... (Asian Tribune, Janaka Perera, 9/19/09).‎

Best not to bring back religious classes in schools
The third-year civil and environmental engineering student, who is a Buddhist, felt religious knowledge classes he attended back home aided personal and ... (AsiaOne, Hui Yee, 9/17/09).‎

Event offers introduction to Buddhism
‎Change Your Mind Day was founded in 1993 by the Tricycle Foundation as an afternoon of free Buddhist meditation instruction. Now a worldwide annual event... (Daytona Beach News, journal, 9/12/09).

Deputy PM receives "Home-Practice" Buddhists (VOVNews.vn).

• South Tampa religion briefs
  Introduction to Buddhism: Katsel Dharma Center is offering a free introduction to Buddhism at 3:30 pm Sunday at the center, 4822 Limerick Drive.... (Tampabay.com, 9/17/09).‎
• North Tampa Religion Briefs (Tampabay.com)

BACKGROUND: A history of Pchum Ben
What does Pchum Ben Festival mean in Buddhism? In the Khmer language, Pchum or Brochum means “a meeting or gathering.” Ben means “a ball of something”... (Phnom Penh Post, 9/18/09).‎

• Festival feeds into a tradition (Phnom Penh Post).

Buddhist Army chaplain prepares for deployment
‎Thomas Dyer is preparing to deploy with the Tennessean National Guardsman as the Army's first Buddhist chaplain. Dyer, a former Southern Baptist minister... (WBUR, 9/11/09).

LACMA presents a fuller image of Korea
‎Buddhism's arrival in the 4th Century brought new imagery and refinement, reaching its peak in the sculpture, painting, and celadon-glazed ceramics of the... (Los Angeles Times, Suzanne Muchnic, 9/12/09).

Arthur Ashe: A Life Dedicated to the Welfare of Others
“So much of Buddhism reminds me of Arthur's goals in life, but while he certainly knew about Buddhism he was not a student.” Moutoussamy-Ashe does not live... (New York Times, George Vecsey, 8/27/09).‎

From Crisis Comes Rebirth
The concept of rebirth is associated with Buddhism; it indicates a shift in consciousness that forms a continuum within it. Every moment is an experience... (American Drycleaner, 9/18/09).‎

Dalai Lama receives compatriots, Tibetan Buddhists in Taiwan
(CNA) The Dalai Lama received Tibetan expatriates and followers of Tibetan Buddhism in Taiwan Thursday amid tight security deployed to maintain order... (eTaiwan News, 9/2/09).

• VIDEO: Hotel creates Dalai Lama Latte (Reuters)
• Dalai Lama moves thousands at ceremony (Taipei Times)
• China's animosity toward Dalai Lama unfair (TCU Daily Skiff

Lao-American Buddhist community to rebuild burned temple
The Buddhist campus is the heart of a Lao-American Buddhist community that began resettling in North Texas in the mid-1970s. Many of the estimated 11,000... (Fort Worth Star Telegram, Diane Smith, 9/4/09).‎

Pay ATTENTION!
Mindfulness has its roots in Buddhism and was popularized, in part, by Jon Kabat-Zinn who describes it as "moment to moment, non-judgmental awareness.... (Sault Star, Marilyn Linton, 9/19/09).‎

Buddhist Temple consecrated in Zuni Mountains
In Tibet and all Buddhist countries, the sites of stupas are gathering places for Buddhist practitioners, who come to honor, meditate, and make offerings to... (Cibola County Beacon, Diane Fowler, 9/10/09).‎

3rd century Buddhist relics, caves found at Taranga
Further investigations of Taranga Hills, Jogida Hill in particular, revealed several Buddhist cave shelters with proper terraces -- pointing towards the late... (Times of India, 9/4/09‎).

Reproducing the death penalty

The "eye for an eye" preached by certain religions is not permitted in Buddhism. Angulimala, a man who had killed 99 people and was about to kill his own... (The Island [subscription], 9/19/09).

"Night at the Museum," D-FW style

‎No worries, though – Guanyin [Kwan Yin], a Chinese goddess whose roots are in Buddhism, would probably bring peace and harmony. She's the Chinese goddess of mercy... (Dallas Morning News, Joy Tipping, 9/18/09).