Gods, Ghosts, and Spirits in Buddhist Art and Tradition

The Buddhist world is alive with the supernatural. Gods, ghosts and spirits, often described as living out the consequences of past actions (good and bad), wander the world imbued with the capacity for either great kindness or terrible wickedness. This talk will examine the hungry ghosts, protective gods, and nature spirits who have haunted Buddhism from its earliest days in India to the present and examine their often-overlooked contributions to its development and survival. Examples from art and literature will be drawn from across Asia.

Robert DeCaroli, Professor of South and Southeast Asian art history at George Mason University, is the author of Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism. His second book, Image Problems: The Origin and Development of the Buddha’s Image in Early South Asia, explores the artistic origins of the Buddha’s image. He has been awarded a Getty Research Institute Fellowship and The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Research Fellowship. More recently, he co-curated Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice across Asia at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art and co-edited the volume Buddhism and the Senses: A Guide to the Good and Bad.

ASL Interpretation will be offered.