Where are all the sculptures?

Although artisans made the sculptures of very durable material, few examples from China have survived. In the year 845, near the end of the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism became forbidden and many monasteries and Buddha images were destroyed. It is likely that many of the Buddha sculptures were burned in this purge¹.

Buddhism spread to Japan in the sixth century and Chinese art followed. The technique of dry lacquer sculpture was imported to Japan from China during Japan’s Nara period in the 7th and 8th centuries, and as in China was used primarily in Buddhist sculpture². Luckily, there are more sculptures that have survived from Japan than from the Tang Dynasty, which has made more in-depth study of the dry lacquer process possible. Following are three of the four remaining hollow Chinese buddhas in North American museum and one in Kojufuki Temple in Nara, Japan.

1. Lee, “A Dry Lacquer Buddhist Image from T’ang China,” 95.
2. Encyclopedia Britannica Editors, “Tempyō Style | Britannica Concise Encyclopedia – Credo Reference.”