The Victoria and Albert Museum in London recorded approximately 3,110,000 visitors passing by its grand entrance in 2023. Each month, hundreds of thousands of people marvel at the breathtaking, spacious wings of art that have set the V&A apart as one of the UK’s essential cultural and artistic institutions.

Some among these many enjoyers of the V&A’s art and design galleries will have heard of Buddhism. Many will not, or if they have, have neither the time, knowledge, nor access to qualified teachers who can give them a greater understanding of the Buddhist tradition. Through encountering striking and inspiring sculptures, monuments, and artifacts of the Buddha, Buddhist deities, and other spiritual beings, people from around the world are able to meet the Buddha and engage with his story.

Encountering the Buddha’s story is an intensely personal experience that can sometimes only occur between an individual and a piece of art from an ancient or more recent time. It cannot always be facilitated by even a well-meaning Buddhist teacher or a Dharma talk. Therefore, while curators are not spiritual teachers, it can be argued that their curatorial work and research into Buddhist art can take on a dimension beyond the strictly secular.

Artworks are not supposed to feel inaccessible. They provide a glimpse into different worlds that are still connected to us intimately. They can help us understand ourselves and deeper truths.

Under the guidance of museum director Dr. Tristram Hunt, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Galleries have become among the most celebrated and well-known wings of the V&A. These galleries, first opened in 2009 and then closed in 2013 for renovations (they reopened in 2015), are located in halls 17–20, west of the John Madejski Garden, and in hall 47f. Each hall highlights specific themes in Buddhism, and hall 20 showcases items that are particularly conducive to a personal encounter with the Buddha. This section contains representations of the Buddha, particularly through works originating from the earliest schools and locations of Buddhist art, and representations that defined how the early Buddhist community worshipped and remembered Shakyamuni Buddha (although hall 47f also contains several aniconic and early human representations of the Buddha).

Nick Barnard is a senior curator at the V&A and introduced to Buddhistdoor Global 16* of what he found to be the most representative items within the galleries. Years ago, Leeds-born Barnard was a student at Oxford, and credits his visits to the Ashmolean Museum with igniting within him a love of history, art, and a fascination with Asia. A longtime staff member at the V&A, his team recently welcomed Dr. Louis Copplestone, whose expertise in South and Southeast Asia complements Barnard’s extensive experience in Jain and Buddhist heritage.

Barnard’s discussion demonstrated a thorough treatment and deep historical appreciation of the pieces. For example, he highlighted the Gandharan The Death of the Buddha (IM.247-1927) as one of the more emotional pieces of the hall. It is a powerful piece that invites emotional engagement, even existential reflection. He pointed out the exquisite execution of dramatic tension in the scene of the Blessed One’s Parinirvana. He highlighted the incredible grief that is so clearly expressed by the assembled mourners, who are depicted as local nobility.

There are other poignant reminders of the sober, reflective atmosphere of the frieze, including that of a beautiful weeping tree spirit (one of the most common pre-Buddhist spirits seen in ancient Indian art). Barnard described the protector deity Vajrapani, in the form of a muscular Greek Heracles, as having collapsed to the ground. The only figure that is exuding calm is Subhadda, the last individual the Buddha converted. His figure is sitting calmly under the Buddha’s tranquil form even as the wailing and mourning of the other figures can almost be heard from the frieze. This is one of the most expressive pieces of Gandharan Buddhist art that unambiguously brings the viewer into a visual and psychological engagement with the Buddha.

Even as the sculptor/s of this masterpiece humanized and empathized with the grief over the Buddha’s death, the inclusion of Subhadda might remind us of the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, wherein Anuruddha rebuked the assembled monks who were mourning: “Enough, reverends, do not grieve or lament. Did the Buddha not prepare us for this when he explained that we must be parted and separated from all we hold dear and beloved? How could it possibly be so that what is born, created, conditioned, and liable to wear out should not wear out?” (SuttaCentral) And, of course, the Buddha himself exhorted those around him before his passing: “Come now, mendicants, I say to you all: ‘Conditions fall apart. Persist with diligence.’” (SuttaCentral)

The Death of the Buddha is a multifaceted encounter with the Blessed One that addresses our feelings of loss even after two and a half millennia, as well as the spiritual path that he set and urges us on. Despite the theme of death and traceless enlightenment, it is a powerful and intimate meeting.

The experience visitors can receive at the V&A is universal and can occur at other museums or galleries, as long as they have good curators and a sound philosophy of museology. Museology is the art of curating a museum experience, from how displays are positioned to lighting and the deployment of multimedia or augmented reality. Another institution where the collections of Buddhist art are impressive and well-organized enough to make a long-term impact on visitors is the Guimet Museum in Paris. But thanks to staff like Barnard and Dr. Copplestone, both of whom are particularly eloquent in highlighting the galleries and narrating the history of their items, the V&A as a whole, not only those of Buddhist art, remain world-class and difficult to surpass in terms of curatorial quality.

Museums are cultural establishments that have a role to educate and empower, without judgment or bias. By presenting Buddhist art in an engrossing and distinctive way, galleries and museums are actually planting seeds in our mind-streams and consciousnesses. How these seeds grow, perhaps neither we nor the museums and agnostic curators are sure of. They will take time to germinate, and some might not until many years after the encounter. But germinate they will, and the Buddhist statues, carvings, artifacts, and reliquaries will still be there, waiting to inspire old and new visitors alike.

The most compelling kind of museology is one that tells a story that stays with the visitor long after they have returned home. And if that story happens to be part of the Buddha’s journey, or shares the presence of other Buddhist personalities and deities, then the museum will have, in a very real sense, served as a vehicle for the most public, universal kind of Buddhist education.

* The items showcased by Barnard were:

Birth of the Buddha (IM.109-1927)
Head of the Buddha (IM.3-1931)
The Great Departure of the Buddha (IM.30-1935)
The Death of the Buddha (IM.247-1927)
Reliquary, probably before 100 BC (IM.219-1921)
Reliquary, probably 100–1 BC (IM.221-1921)
Reliquary, 100–1 BC (IM.223-1921)
Pillar from the Buddhist Tree Shrine at Bodhgaya (IS.1065-1883)
The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (the ‘Sanchi Torso’) (IM.184-1910)
The Bodhisattva Maitreya (IS.100-1972)
The Mahasiddha Virupa (IS.12:1-2010)
Torso of Seated Buddha (IS.213-2006)
The Adoration of the Empty Throne (IS.1039-1883)
Buddha Seated in Meditation (IS.108-2001)
Seated Buddha IM.13-1991)
The Buddha Amitabha (A.4-1924)

See more

The Great Discourse on the Buddha’s Extinguishment (SuttaCentral)

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