ABC
Religious texts
Religious schools and traditions
Heavenly beings and deities
Legendary and historical figures
Legendary and real places
Symbols and art
Doctrines and rituals
- Awakening
- Community
- Compassion
- Craving
- Dependent origination
- Dharma
- Eightfold Path
- Emptiness
- Five Precepts
- Four Noble Truths
- Happiness
- Heavens and hells
- Impermanence
- Karma
- Koan
- Kung fu
- Meditation
- Merit
- Mindfulness
- Nirvana
- Non-self
- Om (mani padme hum)
- Parinirvana
- Pilgrimage sites
- Prajnaparamita
- Puja
- Pure lands
- Realms of existence
- Rebirth
- Recitation
- Renunciation
- Ritual
- Self
- Suffering
- Tales of rebirth
- Three Jewels
- Three-body doctrine
- Universal ruler
- Vesak
- Ye-dhamma formula
- Yoga
Buddha image
Symbols and art
The first depictions of the Buddha in human shape date back to the first and second centuries and were discovered in the regions of Gandhara and Mathura, respectively. Prior to that, the Buddha was represented only symbolically, for instance, by images of his footprint or his empty throne, as borne out by the art of Sanchi, Bharhut, Amaravati, and Kanaganahalli from the first centuries BCE. The reasons for this change in representation are unclear and debated by scholars to this day. The Buddha is shown either seated, standing, or lying on his right side – signifying his entry into the ultimate nirvana – and performing different gestures.