Rhie (art history, Smith College, Mass.), a leading scholar of Chinese Buddhist art and sculpture, continues her survey of early Buddhist art in this volume, the third she's published in the
series. Focused on the exceptionally rich and well-preserved caves at Ping-ling ssu and Mai-chi shan, the text traces in great detail the style of the wall paintings and sculpture, with
discussion of influence, iconography, inscriptions, religious meaning, and comparative works. Three substantial chapters present the history of the Western Ch'in era (385-421 AD) and the
primary sources on Buddhism remaining from that era, a full analysis of the bronze Buddha altar with canopy found in eastern Kansu in 1976, and five-Buddha and multiple Buddha groupings
throughout China and Central Asia in the early period. Particularly notable are the plates: there are a group of 20 color and hundreds of b&w plates of excellent quality, many of the sites
themselves. Thorough and authoritative, this impressive volume fills a large gap in the scholarship and will be essential to any serious library on Buddhist art and culture. Annotation 穢2010
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