Buddhist temple

Joseph Rock’s Photographs of Zhouni (Choni) Monastery

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Joseph Rock took stunning photographs of the Tibet-China borderlands between 1922 and 1935, funded in part by the National Geographic Society. During this span, Rock wrote nine article for National Geographic; some were illustrated with gorgeous hand-colored prints.

Rock arrived in Zhuoni, China in April 1925 and stayed for two years, during which he wrote “Life among the Lamas of Choni” published in November 1928. Zhouni, then a Tibetan ruled chiefdom in Gansu province, was home to a bustling Buddhist monastery with hundreds of monks in residence.

The visual centerpiece of Rock’s article were photos of the Tibetan “Old Dance,” held on the sixth day of the sixth month. Eight agile skeleton dancers were part of the festivities, representing “departed spirits” as described by Rock.

The climax of the Old Dance feature the appearance of Yama, the “grim ruler of the nether world.”

As recounted by Rock, the left-most figure here is Palden Lhamo, the wife of Yama who killed their son, seen dangling from her mouth. According to Rock, due to the British invasion of Tibet decades earlier, it was believed Queen Victoria was a reincarnation of this demon goddess.

Rock developed his own black and white glass negatives and sent them back to the United States. Artists then hand-colored the images according to detailed descriptions furnished by Rock (later, Rock would use potato starch based Autochrome color plates).

Rock was able to purchase a complete set of the Tibetan Buddhist canon printed at Choni Monastery before the printing blocks were destroyed in 1929. To read a digital version of Rock’s account of Choni Monastery in National Geographic, see tinyurl.com/4dwe2tmb.

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 “Buddha’s Bicycle” Lantern Slide

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[Note: This post was originally published on April 1, 2025] Borobudur displays a unique image of the Buddha riding his favorite bicycle, a symbol of his mastery over the cycle of endless rebirth. Borobudur, a 9th century Buddhist monument in Central Java, also depicts bodhisattvas playing basketball and apsaras arm wrestling.


April Fools! In reality, when W.O.J. Nieuwenkamp (1874–1950) arrived in Bali with his bicycle in 1904 to explore, he caused, “real turmoil and panic,” as the Dutchman himself notes in his diary. Soon thereafter, he was immortalized at the Pura Meduwe Karang Temple (not Borobudur) in Bali.

The glass lantern slide was taken by influential Japanese photographer Enami Nobukuni (1859–1929) between 1917 (when the relief was repaired, adding a rear lotus wheel) and 1929 (Enami’s passing). The label of Borobudur – a location also photographed by Enami – is mistaken.

Notably, the relief shows Nieuwenkamp wearing traditional Balinese clothes, creating a fusion of foreign and familiar. For further discussion on this curious relief, see Putra & Abdullah’s “Iconological Analysis of the ‘Man on a Bicycle’ Relief” (2023).

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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William Alexander’s Idol Temple Aquatint Print

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Artist William Alexander (1767–1816) accompanied the first British diplomatic mission to China in 1793 to visually document the embassy’s trip. Eager to be the first Brit to provide wide-ranging eye-witness accounts of China, Alexander’s published works blend fantasy and reality.

After arriving in China and sailing inland routes from Macao to Beijing, Alexander was mostly quarantined to the Summer Palace of the emperor. Alexander’s illustrations sometimes draw heavily upon European chinoiserie imagery, creating idyllic pagoda-filled land

Alexander’s 1805 publication, The Costume of China [sic], was bound pairing images with short explanatory text. It’s notable that while the accompanying image shows a rudimentary Buddhist figure with crossed legs, the text only speaks generically of paganism, idols, and joss houses.

Alexander originally produced sketches and watercolors, but these were rendered into engravings for early publications recounting the British embassy. For The Costume of China, however, the London publisher used colored aquatints, a popular printmaking method at the turn of the 19th century.

As for the “continued biography” of this print, the masking tape indicates it was previously framed. The explanatory text was taped to the back of the image.

The pagoda was one of the most enduring visual icons of China in the European imagination. The crumbling top could indicate the diminishing stature of China in comparison so the growing industrial might and colonial reach of Britain.

Unlike earlier European visitors to China who focused on religion, few of Alexander’s artworks concern this topic, reflecting changing interests. For further discussion of Alexander’s illustrations of China, see Chen Yushu’s “William Alexander’s Image of Qing China” (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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Kamakura Sightseeing Map (1912)

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After the opening Japan in 1859, the old backwater capital of Kamakura was transformed into an international tourist destination. This bilingual tourist map from 1912 (Meiji 45) provides a glimpse into which Kamakura sites were seen as most significant, including the Kamakura Daibutsu.

The Complete Map of Kamakura Famous Places for Sightseeing (Kamakura yūran meisho zenzu 鎌倉遊覧名所全圖), loosely rendered into English as The Drawing of Kamakura Nipoon [sic], came inside a paper folder printed with symbols of the Japanese empire. The map was prepared by Kawakami Yasujirō 川上安次郎.

By the early 1890s, the Kamakura Kaihin Hotel, a converted medical therapy facility for seawater bathing, emerged as the premier resort for Kamakura travelers. In March 1893, the Japanese Welcome Society was established to help promote foreign travel in Japan.

For many Japanese travelers, the main attraction was the Hachiman Shrine, a large complex in the heart of the city found at the end of a long central promenade leading to the ocean. The red dot seen here suggests this site was highlighted by the original owners of the map.

Among the many dozens of sites named on the map, only a handful are marked by a red dot. Of those highlighted is Hase-dera, temple home to a famous 31-foot tall Eleven-Headed Kannon statue.

Another highlighted tourist attraction is the Kamakura Daibutsu at Kōtoku-in, here depicted by a small, yet easily identifiable, icon. For a digitized collection of Japanese maps held by the C. V. Starr East Asian Library at UC Berkeley, see tinyurl.com/yutj576z.

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’ Angkor Wat Pilgrimage Postcard

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Given countless images showing the architectural grandeur of Angkor Wat, it’s easy to forget it was once an important religious site – not just a tourist destination. Here we see a photo by Pierre Dieulefils from 1905 showing “Buddhist monks on pilgrimage” to the sacred site.

In anticipation of the Exposition coloniale de Marseille in 1906, Dieulefils toured Cambodia to take photographs. His photos reveal many active shrines throughout the Angkor Wat complex, most of which have been cleared out and placed in museums today.

Dieulefils arrived in Vietnam as part of French military forces in 1885. Many of his photographs of Angkor Wat were printed as postcards that were popular among French officers who mailed them home to France.

This Theravadin monk wears his outer cloak (saṃghāti) covering both shoulders, while the monk behind drapes his folded cloak over his left shoulder, bearing his right. Based on contrasting shades, we may infer this monk is wearing maroon robes, while the others wear brighter saffron.

Despite Dieulefils’ photographic record, French colonial guide books portrayed Angkor Wat as an abandoned archaeological marvel, see further discussion in Michael Falser’s “From Colonial Map to Visitor’s Parcours” in ‘Archaeologizing’ Heritage? (2013).

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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Arnoldus Montanus’ Great Buddha of Hōkō-ji Engraving

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In 1649, while traveling from Nagasaki to Edo (modern Tokyo), the visiting Dutch Embassy made an obligatory stop in Kyoto where they saw the Great Buddha of Hōkō-ji. The Great Buddha stood nearly 60 feet tall and was completed in 1612, replacing an older destroyed icon.

The original Dutch report by Andries Frisius was eventually published by Arnoldus Montanus in 1669 as part of his Atlas Japannensis. Based in part on the report of Frisius, the printer, Jacob van Meurs, had a large copperplate engraving made to illustrate the embassy’s visit.

The temple icon was Vairocana Buddha which was described by Montanus as a “terrible Image… with his Legs across under him.” Furthermore, “the whole statue represents a Woman sitting in a Ring of Darting beams richly gilded.”

Van Meurs’ engravers seemingly took inspiration from the text, but also had to draw upon their own visual repertoire to fill in details. This includes the masonry columns in the back of the temple as well as playful cherub-like figures in the “Ring of Darting beams.”

“Two horrible Fiends, with Stiletto’s in their hands” – certainly the fearsome Niō – are described a guarding the temple entrance. The engraver places these grotesque figures inside the main temple hall.

Atlas Japannensis was first published in Dutch in 1669; an English version came the following year. The hand-colored print shown here came from the French edition of 1680. As noted by Isa van Eeghen, the English legend was burnished off of the plate and re-inscribed in French.

By the time of printing, the colossal Buddha of Hōkō-ji had been destroyed by an earthquake in 1662; a wooden image replaced it in 1667. The 1669 Dutch edition of Atlas Japannensis has been digitized by the National Library of the Netherlands, viewable here: tinyurl.com/5n6kstfy.

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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Wa Lum (Hualin) Temple 500 Arhats Hall Postcard

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The Hualin Temple in Guangzhou, China was well known among foreign tourists at the end of the 19th century for its Hall of Five Hundred Arhats. Reportedly made of clay, the icons were installed in the early 1850 and remained until the Cultural Revolution a century later.

This postcard dates to c. 1910 and was published by the postcard dealer Moritz Sternberg who operated from Queen’s Road in Hong Kong. The original photo, however, is much older and is often attributed to Lai Afong, the most influential Chinese photographer of the late Qing.

While the temple has a history dating to the 6th century, the Arhat Hall was built in the late 1840s. It was one of the sites visited by the pioneering Scottish photographer John Thompson when he sojourned in China from 1868 to 1872.

By Thompson’s visit, rumor had spread that one of the arhat statues was actually an image of Marco Polo (not shown). Thompson notes “careful inquiry proves this statement incorrect,” nevertheless, the belief still persists to the present.

While the icons were replaced in the 1990s, several photographs exist of the originals that were destroyed. A copy of the original photo for this postcard is found in the Hotz Collection of Leiden University Library, viewable here: https://tinyurl.com/2syahybe

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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George Planté’s Ruins of Ankgor Postcard

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The Golden Age of postcards began with early postcard illustrations of the Eiffel Tower in 1889. Thus, when French military arrived in French colonial Vietnam, then known as Indochina, a market emerged for pictorial imagery of the region – including Buddhist temples.

The caption here give the description: “Souvenir of the Ruins of ANGKOR.” The publisher, George Planté, had operated a photography studio in Saigon and started selling postcards by 1905.

In addition to the large central Buddha statue, several other Buddhist icons are placed on the altar. I have been unable to identify which area of Angkor this photograph depicts.

The design on the back suggests this card was published in 1905 (the date 1906 is inscribed on the front). The front also bears the affixed stamp – this was typically done so the card could be placed in an album and still display the cancelled stamp.

It was likely postcards such as this were printed in Europe using the most up-to-date photo-mechanical printing techniques and then sent back to the colonial publishers for resale.

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 Kinkaku-ji Trade Card

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Turn of the century French chocolatiers took advantage of the popularity of colorful trade cards and included them with their products. In 1936 the Chocolat Pupier company created a collectable Asia series with several illustrations of Buddhist material culture.

An album with 252 card slots could be purchased to display your collection. If completed, Chocolat Pupier offered a gift to the consumer.

Chromo-lithographic printing offered an inexpensive way to mass produce colorful imagery. There is an error on this card, however, can you spot it?

The Gold Pavilion Temple, Kinkaku-ji, is not in Tokyo, buy Kyoto. In addition to Asia, Chocolat Pupier made cards related to Europe, North America, and Africa.

A small collection of Chocolat Pupier card was recently acquired by Duke University Library, see here: https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/chocolatpupier.

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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1904 Metropolitan Series “Japanese Pagoda” Stereoview

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This is not an AI rendered image – it’s a Ferris Wheel towering over Kyoto’s famed Temple of the Golden Pavilion, known as Kinkaku-ji. More accurately, it’s a replica of Kinkaku-ji built for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair advertised as a Japanese imperial gardens pagoda.

The Kyoto original, dating to 1400, houses Buddhist relics while the St. Louis replica was built to serve Japanese tea. In both cases the respective buildings are surrounded by a garden and topped with a phoenix roof ornament.

The St. Louis garden was designed by the Japanese landscape architect Yukio Ichikawa 市川之雄.

Japan’s exhibitions were well attended, in part by the generally positive newspaper coverage as well as the publicity of the ongoing Russo-Japanese War. Many companies made stereoviews of the 1904 fairgrounds, with the Metropolitan Series sold through Sears catalogues.

Many attendees of the St. Louis fair expressed a sense of awe at Japan’s exhibitions. For more digitized photos of the St. Louis fair, see the offerings at the State Historical Museum of Missouri here https://tinyurl.com/5d7jcupa

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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