‘The life of Buddha constitutes the principal subject of the various Buddhist art forms starting with the successive incarnations until his birth under the name of Siddhartha (563 B.C.) and culminating in his spiritual illumination and his preaching as Buddha. Early Buddhist art is exclusively symbolic and presents the four principal events in his life: his birth, his spiritual illumination, his first sermon, and his death. Once it became acceptable to depict him in human form however many other events from his life were used to better illustrate his teaching. From the 3rd century A.D. onwards, Buddhism began to spread throughout India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Far East. New concepts such as bodhisattva, the future Buddha, added to the wealth of beliefs and led to new ways of depicting Buddha. The extraordinary geographical expansion of the faith is illustrated by the way its art assimilated various local styles giving rise to a range of artistic expressions and enriching its own artistic tradition. This UNESCO sponsored photographic exhibition aims to introduce these examples of Eastern religious art to the Western public unfamiliar with the subject or acquainted only with the better known examples of exotic art.’