Buddhist Cosmic Art
HAA 88
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
Long before the modern internet, Buddhism imagined a cosmic network: Indra’s Net—an infinite canopy of interconnected jewels, each reflecting all others in a continuous, endless loop. In this vision of reality, the boundaries between the “one” and the “many” dissolve. Physical scale ceases to matter: a single particle of dust can contain a trillionfold world, and infinity can unfold within a single thought-instant.
This course explores how this cosmos was visualized and staged through art and architecture across Asia. We will examine immersive murals on Silk Road cave walls, the legendary, infinitely reflecting mirror-halls in medieval Chinese monasteries, and monumental, three-dimensional architectural ‘cosmograms’ such as Borobudur. Reading foundational texts—such as the Lotus Sutra and the Flower Ornament Sutra—alongside painting, sculpture, and architecture, we will analyze how texts generate visual worlds and how images and built spaces, in turn, repurpose and reshape textual claims. Ultimately, the course asks how matter and mind, thought and form, interpenetrate—and how cosmos and consciousness may be mutually entangled.
No prior background in art history is required.
Class Notes
Discussion section times will be determined after registration to accommodate students' schedules.
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
NOTE: This course requires additional sections; you will be prompted to choose secondary components during the Add to Cart process
