The Golden Lands: Cambodia Indonesia Laos Myanmar Thailand & Vietnam (Architecture of the Buddhist World 1)

About this book

A groundbreaking survey of the Buddhist architecture of Southeast Asia abundantly illustrated with new color photography and 3-D renderings Over the course of its 2 500-year history Buddhism has found expression in countless architectural forms from the great monastic complexes of ancient India to the fortified dzongs of Bhutan the rock-carved temple grottoes of China the wooden shrines of Japan and the colorful wats of Cambodia Laos and Thailand. Architecture of the Buddhist World a projected six-volume series by the noted architect and scholar Vikram Lall represents a new multidisciplinary approach to this fascinating subject showing how Buddhist thought and ritual have interacted with local traditions across the Asian continent to produce masterpieces of religious architecture. The first volume in the series The Golden Lands is devoted to Southeast Asia home to many of the most spectacular Buddhist monuments. Following a general introduction to the early history of Buddhism and its most characteristic architectural forms (the stupa the temple and the monastery) Lall examines the Buddhist architecture of Myanmar Vietnam Indonesia Cambodia Thailand and Laos in turn. For each country he provides both a historical overview and case studies of noteworthy structures. Lalls concise and accessible text is illustrated throughout with new color photography as well as 3-D architectural renderings that make even the most complex structures easily comprehensible. The monuments that Lall considers in The Golden Lands range from the modest Bupaya stupa constructed in Bagan Myanmar in the third century AD to the vast complex of Borobudur in Central Java the worlds largest Buddhist monument; his achievement is to place them all within a single panorama of history religion and artistic innovation. Distributed for JF Publishing