A newly built Buddhist shrine in the city of Tangshan in China’s Hebei Province uses modern architecture and a combination of concrete and natural materials to merge the building with its surroundings. Built inside a hill and hardly visible from the outside, the shrine evokes a sense of calm and serenity.

After seven years of CT scans and in-depth investigation and analysis, one of the most famous works of Buddhist art in Japan, a three-faced, six-armed statue of Ashura, which has been dated to the 8th century, has revealed some of the secrets to its history and original appearance that have for years been the subject of debate among art historians.

The Museum of Fine Art Boston (MFA) in Massachusetts is offering visitors a unique opportunity to observe the ongoing conservation of an iconic 18th century Japanese scroll painting—Nehan zu (The Death of the Historical Buddha) by Hanabusa Itchō. The live exhibition, titled “Conservation in Action: Preserving Nirvana,” features a team a team of two to six conservators from the MFA’s Asian Conservation Studio and the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art, who will work on the masterpiece in full view of visitors, with scheduled periods for interaction with the public.

For the first time ever, the Indian Museum, Kolkata is making its extensive holdings of Buddhist art available online. The project, which includes the museum’s famed Gandharan sculptures, the largest collection in India, is being developed in collaboration with the Google Cultural Institute. So far, three exhibitions are on virtual display: The Life of the Buddha in Indian Art, Indian Buddhist Art, and a 360-degree panoramic Museum View.

As our pilgrimage through central Tibet proceeded towards Samye prior to our long journey across the Western Tibetan plateau to Mount Kailash, I noticed a palpable excitement building—a sublime, devotional version of boyish glee. As if the two epic days visiting Drak Yerpa and Gangri Tokar (documented in the first part of this series)* were not vast enough, we were now approaching the sacred site of the primary transmission of realization to the early Tibetan masters who established the authentic Buddha Dharma in Tibet. This was the site of the nexus, the initial gateway for the profound teachings that Vajrayana practitioners the world over are receiving and practicing today. 

Archaeologists from Australia’s University of Sydney and the Nan Tien Institute in New South Wales are on a conservation mission to clean and document the hundreds of marble stelae—sometimes referred to as the world’s largest book—at Kuthodaw Pagoda in Mandalay, Myanmar.

A standing bronze statue of the Tathagata Buddha, one of two ancient Buddhist statues stolen from Japan three years ago by South Korean thieves and designated an important cultural property by the Japanese government, has been returned to the island city of Tsushima in Japan’s Nagasaki Prefecture, the city office said.

There is a painting in the Freer Gallery of Art’s current exhibition, Zen, Tea, and Chinese Art in Medieval Japan, that beautifully symbolizes the remarkable cultural exchange and synthesis that occurred in East Asia between the 12th and 16th centuries. The painting Bodhidharma Crossing the Yangzi on a Reed is a copy by a 15th-century Japanese artist of an earlier Chinese painting of the 5th/6th-century Indian patriarch of meditational Buddhism, Bodhidharma. Meditational Buddhism, or dhyana, was transmitted by Bodhidharma from India to China, where it was known as Chan and practiced by thousands of followers and particularly in the southeast, an area where tea was grown and drunk by Chan monks to help them stay awake during meditation. When Japanese Buddhists learned of this practice many traveled to China to study it, drank plenty of Chinese tea, and then transmitted both traditions back to Japan. Just as Bodhidharma supposedly floated along the river on a reed, Chan Buddhism and powdered tea drinking were carried across land and sea from one culture to another, landing in Japan in the late 12th century and changing its culture forever.

“Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.” Chanting the praises of the Lotus Sutra with her eyes closed and hands clasped together, Naima Mora allows her spiritual world to unfold in front of the camera. One might recognize her as the sweet dancing girl from Detroit, or the winner of America’s Next Top Model in 2005. In the short video, the 30-year-old model talks about her childhood, career, ups and downs in life, and her Buddhist faith. It reveals her struggles and how she rose above them. It is a peek into the life of this established model and happy-go-lucky soul. As of today, Mora’s video has received more than 31,000 views on YouTube.