Buddhist art is unusually legible once you know the conventions. Almost nothing in a traditional composition is decorative in the way a Western landscape is decorative. The gestures, the flowers, the geometry and the postures all carry specific meanings, established over centuries and repeated deliberately.
Here is enough of that vocabulary to read a piece rather than simply like it.
The hand gestures
The mudras are the most consistently used element in the whole tradition, and they are the fastest thing to learn.
Hands resting in the lap, one on top of the other, palms up, is dhyana, the gesture of meditation. A right palm raised outward is abhaya, protection and the dispelling of fear. A right hand reaching down to touch the ground is bhumisparsha, the moment of enlightenment, calling the earth to witness. Thumb and forefinger touching in a circle is dharmachakra, the teaching gesture. A palm turned outward and lowered is varada, generosity and the granting of wishes.
Once these are familiar, a piece stops being a picture of a Buddha and becomes a picture of a specific moment or quality.
The lotus
The single most repeated symbol in Buddhist art, and the reading is well established. The lotus grows in mud, rises through water and flowers in clean air, which is used as an image of the mind moving from confusion to clarity without ever having been separate from the mud it came from.
Colour matters in some traditions. White is associated with purity, pink with the Buddha himself, blue with wisdom, and red with compassion and the heart. In our own range, the gold face and lotus flower piece places the two central images together, which is the commonest pairing in the whole tradition.
Mandalas
A mandala is a geometric composition organised around a centre, and it works simultaneously as a map, a meditation aid and a representation of a whole cosmos or a state of mind.
The structure is consistent. There is a centre, concentric enclosures around it, and usually a square element with gateways at the four cardinal directions. Traditionally the practitioner moves inward through the composition in imagination, which is why the geometry is so precise: it is a route rather than a pattern.
Modern decorative mandalas, including the blue half Buddha mandala and the gold half Buddha mandala in our range, take the visual language rather than the ritual function. They are designs drawing on the form, and worth enjoying as such rather than mistaken for practice objects.
The features of the figure
The face carries its own set of signs. The raised mound on the crown is the ushnisha, representing expanded wisdom. The long earlobes record the heavy gold earrings the prince Siddhartha wore and gave up. The mark between the brows is the urna, a whorl of white hair standing for vision beyond the ordinary. And the half lowered gaze represents attention turned inward while remaining present.
Our fuller account of these is in how to read the face on a Buddha head.
The scenes that recur
Four moments from the Buddha's life appear again and again: the birth, the enlightenment under the bodhi tree, the first teaching at Sarnath, and the passing into final nirvana, which is depicted as the reclining figure.
The bodhi tree itself is worth recognising, a heart shaped leaf on a spreading fig, which appears in the background of enlightenment scenes and often alone as a subject.
Colour, and what it signals
In Tibetan traditions especially, colour carries meaning: white for purity and learning, yellow for rootedness and renunciation, red for the force of life, green for balance, blue for infinity and healing.
Modern decorative pieces choose colour to suit interiors rather than doctrine, which is worth knowing before you read significance into a colourway. A blue piece in a British homeware range was chosen because British homes have a lot of blue in them.
Choosing a subject for a home
If you want the meaning to fit the room, a few reliable pairings. Meditation gestures suit bedrooms and quiet rooms. Protection gestures suit hallways and entrances. Teaching gestures suit studies and workspaces. Lotus imagery suits anywhere, being the most universally applicable symbol in the tradition. And the reclining figure, depicting the Buddha's passing, is a serious image best chosen deliberately rather than for its horizontal format.
Our Buddha wall art range covers most of these, and the practical side of choosing is in how to choose Buddha art.
Questions people ask
What do the hand positions in Buddhist art mean?
They are mudras with fixed meanings. Hands in the lap is meditation, a raised right palm is protection, a hand touching the ground is the moment of enlightenment, and thumb and forefinger touching is teaching.
What does the lotus flower represent?
The mind rising from confusion to clarity, taken from the way a lotus grows through mud and water to flower in clean air. Colours carry further meanings in some traditions, with white for purity and blue for wisdom.
What is a mandala actually for?
Traditionally it is a meditation aid and a map, organised around a centre with concentric enclosures and gateways at the cardinal directions, moved through inwardly in imagination. Modern decorative mandalas take the visual language rather than the function.
What is the tree in Buddhist paintings?
The bodhi tree, a fig with heart shaped leaves, under which the Buddha reached enlightenment. It appears both in scenes and alone as a subject.
Do the colours in Buddhist art mean something?
In traditional contexts yes, particularly in Tibetan work, where white, yellow, red, green and blue each carry associations. In modern decorative pieces colour is usually chosen to suit interiors rather than doctrine.
