Buddhist art - its nature, creation, function, conservation and contemporary manifestations - was the subject of the Buddhist Art Forum, a major conference held at The Courthalud Institute of Art in 2012 and sponsored by The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation. For the first time a representative group of those with a stake in Buddhist art was gathered to address these issues. The 28 papers in this resulting ground-breaking volume consider Buddhist art from the earliest Indian stupas to contemporary Himalayan thangkas, as well as its ritual use and audience, its tourist consumption in expanding economies, its often ill-conceived conservation, and its influence on modern and contemporary western art.