Rubin Museum

This trip was very interesting. I have often been interested in Asian art as well as the religion of Buddhism so it was nice to see more about the culture and arts for the region. What especially interested me were the different statues of the Buddha. The Buddha statues were drastically different depending on the time and location that they were built. The original Buddha statues were well crafted but not very ornate because they were trying to show Buddha’s connection to the earth and that he has forsaken his worldly possessions. Then just a couple of decades later the Buddha’s became more and more ornate until they were covered in jewels and fine clothes, this was to appease to the high class people in society because they wanted the Buddha’s to have a greater resemblance to them. Also as the country of the origin of Buddha statues changed from India to China the Buddha also changed in physical characteristics in order to look more similar to the dominant population. Though Siddhartha was a real man who only looked one way Buddha statues vary drastically around the world and through out time.