Making the Buddha: The Creation of the Buddha’s Image in Early South Asia

Robert DeCaroli, Professor of South and Southeast Asian Art History, George Mason University

Professor DeCaroli is a specialist in the early history of Buddhism and has conducted fieldwork in India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia. His first book, Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism was published by Oxford University Press 2004, and his second book, Image Problems: The Origin and Development of the Buddha’s Image in Early South Asia, was published by the University of Washington in 2015. More recently, he co-curated the Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice across Asia exhibition at the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution. He is also the author of several articles and book chapters. He has been was awarded a Getty Research Institute Fellowship and is currently a Robert N.H. Ho Family Foundation Research Fellow.