This introduction to the religious art of Asia provides, for the first time, an understanding of the crucial links between the cultural roots from which the belief-systems sprang, the sacred texts that form one expression of the culture, and the art forms which are the graphic and material creations essential to the practice of these living beliefs. In this book the author has adopted a central or classical viewpoint from which to interpret the art forms. He has attempted to allow the art to speak for itself through the texts of the religious traditions which have produced that art.