The Metropolitan Museum’s collection of Chinese Buddhist and Daoist sculpture is the largest in the Western world. In this lavish, comprehensive volume, archaeological discoveries and scientific testing and analysis serve as the basis for a reassessment of 120 works ranging in date from the 4th to the 19th century, many of them previously unpublished.

In addition to detailed discussions of fifty masterpieces—a heterogeneous group including portable shrines carved in wood, elegant bronze icons, monumental stone representations of the Buddha, colorful glazed-ceramic figures, and more—the catalogue presents a groundbreaking study of the methods used in crafting the sculptures. An introductory essay provides an indispensable overview of Buddhist iconography and explores the fascinating dialogue between Indian and Chinese culture that underlies the transmission of Buddhism into China.

Denise Patry Leidy is curator in the Department of Asian Art and Donna Strahan is conservator in the Sherman Fairchild Center for Objects Conservation, both at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.