Introduction
Welcome! The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a public-facing digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences.
This project is motivated by the question of how a visual literacy of Buddhism spread across the globe in the modern era. We are further guided by questions examining how advancements in travel and print technology over the past four-hundred years shaped the visual and material exposure to Buddhism beyond Asia. This dovetails into broader social and economic inquiries about colonialism, immigration, and commodification.
The selected artifacts comprise a wide variety of print media, ephemera, and other materials. Items include seventeenth and eighteenth century copperplate engravings, early nineteenth century lithographs, late nineteenth century newspaper and magazine boxwood engravings, albumen photographic prints, Victorian trade cards, stereoviews, magic lantern slides, postcards, and silent movie production stills. We hope this project reveals the diversity of ways in which Buddhist statues, temple architecture, and Buddhist practitioners were depicted and disseminated in the West up through the early twentieth century.
The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is intended for broad audiences. The hope is to facilitate communication between scholars as well as promote the understanding of religion and religious representation among the public. Consequently, the main avenue of interaction for the current iteration of Buddhas in the West Material Archive is through social media. Each social media post provides brief historical context for a single artifact.
Currently, content is first posted on Bluesky (@buddhasinthewest.bsky.social) and Instagram (@buddhas.in.the.west).
Finally, other resources found below include links to an archive of social media posts, a Google map of sites pertinent to posted artifacts, related teaching materials, exhibit information, and published scholarship.
Archived Social Media Posts
A log of each social media post is archived on this website.
The most recent archived posts can be found below.
Buddhas in the West Locations Map
Google map showing relevant locations of archived artifacts.
Related Teaching Resources
General overview for how to perform a material analysis and introduction to crafting an object biography [with PDF]
Example questions for performing a material analysis (tailored for a university Religious Studies course)[with PDF]
Related Exhibits
Related Resources & Scholarship
Elements of this archive have inspired the following pieces.
The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital public scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. Further inquires can be directed to peter.romaskiewicz[at]gmail.com.
Personal Site of Peter Romaskiewicz 