Buddhas in the West Archived Posts

All of the Buddhas in the West social media posts are archived and accessible below. Individual posts are listed chronologically by release, with the oldest at top. Scroll to bottom to sort posts by various tags. For an introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

Johannes Nieuhof’s Temple Interior Engraving [1666]
Shimooka Renjō’s Daibutsu Carte-de-visite [1871]
Postcard from the Old Shinkōji Daibutsu [1910s]
Kannon Hase-dera Talisman [1880s?]
Greta Garbo’s Guanyin in The Painted Veil (1934)
D.A. Ahuja’s Postcard Buddhas [1910s]
Herbert Ponting’s Nichiren Priest Stereoview [1906]
Hyōgo Daibutsu Vignette Postcard [c.1907]
Arbuckle Bros. Coffee Japan Advertising Card [1891]
Hamburg–American Cruise Postcard [1934]
Ueno Daibutsu Postcard [1903]
Bamiyan Buddha Saturday Magazine Print [1836]
Jerome Camp Amida Shrine News Photograph [1940s]
Mott Street Laughing Buddha Postcard [1940s?]
Olfert Dapper’s Formosan Buddha Engraving [1674]
Rose and Pollack’s Buddha Foxtrot Sheet Music [1919]
D.A. Ahuja’s Arakan Mahāmuni Postcard [1910s]
Andrew Marton’s Storm Over Tibet (1952) Icon
Henry Strohmeyer’s Jizō Statues Stereoview [1896]
Singapore Buddhist Hell Guardian Postcard [1920s?]
Lambert and Butler’s Kamakura Daibutsu Cigarette Card [1905]
Fresno Japanese Buddhist Temple Postcard [1908]
Paul Frenzeny’s Chinese Temple Print [1873]
Pierrot’s “Prisonnier dans la pagode” Magazine [1933]
Auguste Wahlen’s “Bonzes chinois” Engraving [1843]
Korea’s Eunjin Mireuk Postcard [1930s?]
Baron Raimund von Stillfried’s Daibutsu Carte de visite [1870s]
American Express Daibutsu Advertisement [1923]
D.A. Ahuja’s Buddhist Priests Postcard [1910s]
The Cheat (1923) Production Photograph
Keystone’s Nara Kokūzō Stereoview [1901]
World in Boston Missionary Expo Buddhism Postcard [1911]
Argosy’s Jungle Justice Pulp Magazine Cover [1930]
Liebig’s Komusō Advertising Card [1905]
Hand-Colored Daibutsu Postcard Comparison [1910s]
1876 Centennial Ivory Pagoda Print
Paris’ Panorama du Tour du Monde Advertising Card [1900]
Vantine’s Buddha Sandalwood Incense Tin [1920s]
A.W. Plâté’s Reliquary Offering Postcard [1900s]
Daibutsu and Tour Group Glass Lantern Slide [c.1910]
Thomas Allom’s Sticks of Fate Engraving [1843]
D.A. Ahuja’s Idol Maker Postcard [1910s]
Albumen Photograph of Sanjūsangen-dō Kannon [1880s]
Anna Eva Faye’s Śiva Mascot Token [1900s]
Tooth of the Buddha Reliquary Postcard [c.1902]
Marguerite Courtot c. 1920 Studio Portrait
Herbert Ponting’s Japanese Pilgrims near Lake Kawaguchi Stereoview [1904]
Pierre Dieulefils’ Angkor Wat Buddhapada Postcard [1900s]
Liebig’s Chinese Buddha Advertising Card [1905]
Fritz Müller’s Tin How Temple Postcard [c.1907]
Hyōgo Daibutsu at Kobe F.S. Postcard [c.1907]
Joseph Keppler’s Crafty Priests Puck Magazine Cover [1888]
Alain Mallet’s Porcelain Pagoda of Baoen Temple Engraving [1683]
George Planté’s Hall of a Thousand Buddhas Postcard [c.1905]
Adolfo Farsari’s Kamakura Daibutsu Photograph [1887]
1933 Golden Pavilion Laughing Buddha Playing Card
D.A. Ahuja’s Buddhist Priest Portrait Postcard [1901s]
Wall Street Mystery (1920) Promotional Handbook
1904 Metropolitan Series “Japanese Pagoda” Stereoview
Pierre Dieulefils’ Tārā Postcard [1900s]
Chocolat Pupier’s Kinkaku-ji Trade Card [1936]
Pacific Curio Shop Niō Statue Postcard [1950s?]
George Planté’s Ruins of Ankgor Postcard [c.1905]
Alain Mallet’s Dalai Lama Engraving [1683]
Hakone Pass Jizō Magic Lantern Slide [1910s?]
Wa Lum (Hualin) Temple 500 Arhats Hall Postcard [c.1910]
Tamamura Kōzaburō’s Hyōgo Vairocana Photograph [1890s]
World Wide Magazine 1938 Laughing Buddha Cover
Arnoldus Montanus’ Great Buddha of Hōkō-ji Engraving [1680]
D.A. Ahuja’s Kyauktawgyi Icon Postcard [1910s]
Ruth St. Denis as Guanyin Tri-Fold Brochure [1920s]
The “Dancing Lamas” and Epic of Everest (1924) Prologue Newspaper Illustration
Herbert Ponting’s Shwethalyaung Sleeping Buddha Stereoview [1907]
Used Postcard with Kamakura Daibutsu Dimensions [1906]
Liebig Dalai Lama Advertising Card [1935]
Pierre Dieulefils’ Angkor Wat Pilgrimage Postcard [1900s]
Kamakura Sightseeing Map (1912)
Ueno Daibutsu after the Great Kantō Earthquake Postcard [1923]
William Alexander’s Idol Temple Aquatint Print [1805]
T. Enami’s “Buddha’s Bicycle” Lantern Slide [1920s]
Joseph Rock’s Photographs of Zhouni (Choni) Monastery [1928]
Kūkai’s Jizō at Hakone Postcard [1930s]
D.A. Ahuja’s Kaunghmudaw Pagoda Postcard [1910]
1922 French Colonial Exposition Angkor Wat Replica Postcard
Guanyin Icon in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
Bourne and Shepherd’s “Native of Thibet” Postcard [1900s]
Underwood’s Four Seated Buddhas of Bago Stereoview [1907]
Chocolat Pupier’s “Le Japon ancien” Trade Card [1936]
T. Enami’s Sanjūsangen-dō Lantern Slide [1920s]
Pierre Dieulefils’ Tien Mu Temple Postcard [1900s]
Harper’s 1871 “Joss House” Print
Olfert Dapper’s “The Idoll Sechia” Engraving [1674]
Eastman Kodak European Tour Group Real Photo Postcard [c.1910]
Wilhelm Burger’s Kamakura Daibutsu Photograph [1870]
Fresno’s “Joss House” Press Photograph [1960]
Buddhist Temple of Los Angeles Postcard [1910s]
Chinatown’s Tin How Temple / Grass Valley Temple Real Photo Postcard [1930s?]
James Ricalton’s Priest at the Temple of the Tooth [1903]
Sherab Gyatso of Ghoom Monastery Postcard [1910s]
Arnoldus Montanus’ Icon with Thirty Arms Engraving [1669]
Eliphalet Brown’s Buddhist Priest at Shimoda Lithograph [1856]
Nipponophone’s Moving Buddha Advertising Postcard [1910s]
Felice Beato’s Kichizo Jizō Photograph [1860s]
Dreamland’s Japanese Tea Garden Pagoda Postcard [1912]
Philip Klier’s “Scene on the Shwe Dagon Pagoda” Postcard [1900s]
Chinese Buddhist Shrine in The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu (1929)
Keystone’s Kotte Temple Stereoview [1901]
Fritz Kapp’s Lamas and Disciples Postcard [1910s]

Posts are tagged and can be sorted according to media type, country, Buddhist figure, etc. If using a web browser, additional tags can be found in the sidebar.

EngravingsLithographsPhotographs
Glass Lantern SlidesStereoviewsPostcards
Trade CardsFilm PhotographyMagazines
ChinaJapanVietnam
CambodiaTibetMyanmar
Sri LankaAfghanistanThailand
IndonesiaUnited StatesGreat Britain
FranceWorld’s Fair / ExpositionsChinatown (US)
Gautama / ŚākyamuniAvalokiteśvara / GuanyinLaughing Buddha / Budai
Buddhist statue / iconBuddhist templeBuddhist cleric

Milestones:
First Social Media Post: June 11, 2024 (Twitter)
100th Social Media Post: May 19, 2025 [First 100 Objects 100 Stories]
Total Count: 108 archived posts (as of November 16, 2025)

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

Wilhelm Burger’s Kamakura Daibutsu Photograph

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Tales of Tourist Photos, Pt. 2*: Old “wet-plate” photography required glass negatives to be coated, sensitized, exposed, and developed in less than fifteen minutes. Using the dry-plate method, negatives could be prepared beforehand; Wilhelm Burger was among the first to use this in Japan.
*[Part 1]

Burger was photographer for the 1869 Imperial Austrian Expedition to East Asia, but illness allowed him to remain in Japan for the winter after the legation left. Tasked in part to photograph art objects, Burger visited the Kamakura Daibutsu with large glass negatives he prepared in Europe.

The handwritten inscription on the back of this photographic print reads, “This Image is all Bronze, name Diaboots.” “Diaboots,” or Daiboots, was the Yokohama treaty port vernacular for the Kamakura Daibutsu through the 1860s.

While Burger created a sizable portfolio of arts and crafts during the embassy, his photographs at Kōtoku-in in Kamakura appear more tourist-like than documentary. Here, several people pose for the camera, including what may appear to be Buddhist priests and three men in European attire.

To my knowledge, the people remain unidentified; Burger’s apprentice, Michael Moser, stayed in Japan after the embassy returned (and remained after Burger left). Moreover, Italian-born Felice Beato operated a successful Yokohama-based photography studio at the time – could either be seen here?

On his return to Vienna in 1870, Burger exhibited his Japanese portfolio to broad public acclaim. For more on Burger’s photographic process, see Tani Akiyoshi & Peter Pantzer’s “Wilhelm Burger’s Photographs of Japan,” PhotoResearcher 15 (2011): 40–50.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Eastman Kodak European Tour Group Real Photo Postcard

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Tales of Tourist Photos, Pt. 1*: If photography changed the way people viewed the world, the Eastman Kodak camera transformed the late Victorian practice of tourism. The handheld Kodak made photography available to casual amateurs, creating the vernacular form of snapshot photography.
*[Part 2]

In contrast to a generation earlier, precise technical expertise was not necessary and photography became increasingly linked to personal experience. Foreign travel, such as visiting the Kamakura Daibutsu, increasingly “required” a photograph to validate the exotic experience.

By 1903, the Kodak 3A was released and fitted with rolled film creating negatives measuring 3¼ in. x 5½ in. – the exact size of a standard postcard. Eastman marketed a broad range of supplies for the amateur, including Velox paper for those developing and printing their own postcards.

This real photo postcard was shot and printed circa 1910–1915 and captures two dozen tourists arranged along the lap and stone pedestal of the Great Buddha of Kamakura.

Some of the earliest photographs of the Kamakura Daibutsu depict people climbing upon its lap and a ladder can be seen for helping a visitor’s ascent in photographs dating to the 1870s. By around 1915 climbing on the statue was prohibited.

For further discussion on the birth of the snapshot and its cultural impact, see Mia Fineman’s “Kodak and the Rise of Amateur Photography,” viewable here: https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/kodak-and-the-rise-of-amateur-photography.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Olfert Dapper’s “The Idoll Sechia” Engraving

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The Atlas Chinensis by Olfert Dapper (1636–1689) is among the most visually embellished European treatments of China from the late 17th century. Never traveling to Asia, Dapper used reports from the 2nd and 3rd Dutch embassies to China and consulted older Jesuit accounts.

The copperplate engravings were likely prepared in the workshop of publisher Jacob van Meurs who found reasonable success issuing illustrated books on Asia. The illustration here is from the 1674 German edition of Atlas Chinensis; it was originally published in Dutch in 1670.

In a section describing Buddhism, Dapper notes that images of the “Idoll Sechia” (Śākyamuni) are found in temples, “in the shape of a fair Youth; with a third Eye in his forehead.” Engravers had great liberty to interpret and add further details.

Some details, such as the European-style crown at the base of the altar, suggest fabricated visual embellishments intended to make the scene more familiar to European readers.

While other details that might appear odd, such as the flanking figures scratching their ears, are actually based on authentic Buddhist imagery of the arhats (C. luohan). Unpublished Jesuit sketches available to Dapper likely informed some of these details.

An English edition of Dapper’s work, published by John Ogilby in 1671 (and curiously misattributed to Arnoldus Montanus), can be viewed through Stanford University here: tinyurl.com/ycyw93eb.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Harper’s 1871 “Joss House” Print

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In 1871, Harper’s Weekly published a wood engraving depicting the interior of a San Francisco Chinese temple, a rare print subject before the 1906 earthquake. Clues suggest it shows the main hall of Eastern Glory Temple located off Jackson St. on St. Louis Alley.

Eastern Glory Temple was privately owned by physician Li Po Tai (1817–1893), an immigrant from Guangdong who opened a general store and apothecary across from Portsmouth Square. His temple was featured in California newspapers in February 1871, just before Harper’s illustration that March.

Despite being called a “Buddhist temple” in some popular accounts, there is no Buddhist icon displayed in the main shrine hall. The central icon is the Northern Emperor, a celestial deity popular among early Chinese immigrants from southern China.

Contemporary newspaper reports claim the icon to the far left was the “controller of fortunes” named “Choy Pah.”

The icon to the far right was a famous military general named “Tun Goa.” The next room over holds a shrine to Guanyin (not illustrated), the sole Buddhist figure, which newspapers describe as a “Cinderella” who is “treated cruelly by haughty women [and performs] act of charity.”

In addition to the Northern Emperor, the central altar displays the famous general Guandi and righteous official Hongsheng. To read more about Li Po Tai, see Tamara Venit Shelton’s Herbs and Roots: A History of Chinese Doctors in the American Medical Marketplace (2019).

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Pierre Dieulefils’ Tien Mu Temple Postcard

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Tien Mu Temple, located in the city of Hue, is among the most historically important Buddhist sites in Vietnam. For its modern political importance, Tien Mu Temple emerged as the center of anti-government protest and was home to Thich Quang Duc who self-immolated in 1963.

Tien Mu Temple, seen here, was founded in 1601, but replaced a much older shrine to local Cham deity, Po Nagar. The seven-story pagoda, now a popular symbol of Hue, was built in 1844 and is nearly 70 ft (21 m) tall; it was originally named the Pagoda of Compassion and Benevolence.

Photographer Pierre Dieulefils opened a studio in Hanoi 1885 and spent the next three decades visually chronicling French Indochina; picture postcards became his specialty. It’s possible the photograph seen on the obverse was taken before a 1904 storm damaged many of the temple structures.

Often misnamed the “Pagoda of Confucius” by turn of the century foreign visitors, the drum and bell tower were also of popular tourist interest. The temple bell was cast in 1710 and is considered an important cultural relic.

The powder blue Austin Westminster car that drove Thich Quang Duc to Saigon in 1963, also seen in the famous photographs of his act of protest against the Diem regime, remains today on display at Tien Mu Temple, a “contact relic” of the venerated monk.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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T. Enami’s Sanjūsangen-dō Lantern Slide

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Before nickelodeons and cinema halls, “magic lantern” shows were an important part of popular American entertainment. Hand tinted glass slides were used by children’s story tellers, stage magicians, and traveling public lecturers in town and cities across the United States.

Enami Nobukuni, known professionally as T. Enami, opened his Yokohama photography studio in 1892 and by 1915 offered a very large glass slide portfolio. Objects such as this would have been sold as visual aids for public presentations or parlor room entertainment.

This slide shows a grouping of the famous one thousand Kannon statues of Sanjūsangendō in Kyoto, one of the most commonly photographed tourist sites in Japan during the late Meiji and Victorian periods.

Enami was celebrated for the beautiful hand tinting of his slides, but the coloring here suggests this slide was produced after his death in 1929, when his son took over the business and did not have an eye for finer detail like his father.

Enami was Japan’s most prolific producer of small format photographs and was often showcased in National Geographic Magazine. To view a selection of Enami’s photographs, see the digitized collection of Kjeld Duits, viewable here: tinyurl.com/245skpf8.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Chocolat Pupier’s “Le Japon ancien” Trade Card

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European and American chocolatiers were among the businesses that embraced the use of beautifully illustrated advertising trade cards. To inspire collection, the cards often depicted romantic, if not highly stereotyped, imagery.

Looking closely, we can see the Kamakura Daibutsu is seemingly portrayed as a sightseeing destination, not a religious icon; the onlookers in Western attire hint more at curious observation than reverence.

Moreover, the caption of “ancient Japan” plays to the idea of an ancient and mystical “Orient,” thus we might read the Buddhist icon as a quaint relic of the distant past, not part of a living religious tradition.

French confectioner Chocolat Pupier was a major producer of chromolithographed trade cards. An “Asia” album with 252 card slots could be purchased to display your collection (we see this is card number 140).

The rise of the postcard at the turn of the twentieth century and the growth of magazine advertising ended the widespread use of trade cards. For more on trade cards, see “The Short Rise and Fall of the Crazy-for-Cocoa-Trade Cards Craze,” viewable here: tinyurl.com/yc2a9y4b.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Underwood’s Four Seated Buddhas of Bago Stereoview

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For nearly six centuries the four seated Buddhas of Bago have towered over the surrounding Burmese countryside. Constructed by the former Buddhist monk turned king, Dhammazedi, in 1476, the four colossal statues represent the four Buddhas of the past.

The Kyaikpun, as this site is known, also houses a relic chamber beneath the central rectangular pillar. Under Mon control, Bago served as a vital regional entrepôt and thriving hub of Theravada Buddhism with many shrines and monasteries.

This stereoview was part of the educational Underwood Stereoscopic Tour series from 1907, comprised of national sets with individual cards arranged as “a tourist might visit the actual scenes.” The Burma set was originally sold with fifty different views (this card is number 12).

The structure, which is over 90 ft. (27m) tall, was in near ruin by the 1890s, but local fundraising was able to repair the statues by the turn of the century. This stereoview, taken around 1905, still shows the remnants of rubble and scaffolding in the rear.

The Buddha facing north, representing Gautama Buddha, remained in the best condition, thus the other three statues were reputedly modeled after it during renovation. To see thirty-six views from Underwood’s Burma series held by the National Archives UK, visit tinyurl.com/3xwvkbsb.

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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Bourne and Shepherd’s “Native of Thibet” Postcard

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The first photographs of Tibet were not actually taken in Tibet, but were staged in British colonial India. To meet consumer demand, enterprising commercial photographers outfitted their subjects with stereotypical objects to create an easily identifiable “Tibetan” type.

In the Victorian era, material markers of religion were often used by colonial photographers to establish “ethnic types.” The material culture of Tibetan Buddhism emerged as a clear visual sign for Tibet; here we find a “Thibetan native” holding a Buddhist prayer wheel and monastic long horn.

Charles Shepherd and Samuel Bourne formed a photography business in 1866 in Kolkata, producing prize-winning photographs of the Himalayan landscape. By the 1890s, commercial tourist photography was transferred to a new popular pictorial format: postcards.

One of the most commonly seen objects in Victoria era photographs of Tibetans is the hand-held Buddhist prayer wheel. The common portrayal of Tibetans holding ritual implements helped further embellish the fantasy of an enduring Tibetan mysticism.

Once one of the oldest operating studios, a 1991 fire destroyed much of the Bourne & Shepherd archives. For more on early photography in the Himalayas, see Clare Harris’ “Photography in the ‘Contact Zone’: Identifying Copresence and Agency in the Studios of Darjeeling” (2017).

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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