Buddhist art and architecture

By, Sri Lankan Traveller

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Just as the Literature Sri Lanka grew  with Buddhism, so did the country’s craft and building design and additionally form – all key parts of a srilanka’s legacy. It was after Arahant Mahinda introduced Buddhism amid the rule of King Devanapiyatissa  that these started growing. Sri Lanka’s Buddhist  art and architecture  ranging from Dravidian temples to Portuguese Baroque churches – offer a charming visual legacy of the varied influences which have shaped the island’s wide-ranging culture.

Despite the number of races and religions that have contributed to the artistic melting pot, however, the influence of Buddhism remains unchallenged at the centre of the nation’s cultural fabric, and it is in Buddhist art and architecture that Sri Lanka’s greatest cultural achievements can been found.

Sri Lanka’s early Buddhist art shows a calm classicism, demonstrated by the epic simplicity of the great dagobas of Anuradhapura. Although the Mahayana doctrines  which transformed Buddhist art in many other parts of Asia largely bypassed Sri Lanka, the island’s religious art was significantly enriched from around the tenth century by the influence of Hinduism, introduced by the numerous Tamil dynasties which periodically overran parts of the north. This influence first showed itself in the art of  polonnaruwa, and later blended with Sinhalese traditions to create the uniquely syncretized style of Kandyan temple architecture, which reached its summit during the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries.