Buddha

By Elma B.

On a Saturday afternoon, I decided to pay a visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum ("V&A"), which is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, and certainly one of the most well-known museums around the world. After paying a visit V&A's cafe (for a delicious scone with a skinny latte), I stumbled across the renowned collection of Buddhist sculptures.

I found out that the V&A holds one of the most important Asian collections, which contains Central, South, South East and East Asian Buddhist sculptures and paintings. Walking through the collection of Buddhist sculptures, I could feel the serenity of the place. Some of the ancient Buddha sculptures were encrusted in gold; others were made of white-like stone. 

Evidently, the main subject of the collection's admiration was Buddha, who founded Buddhism in the 6th century BC and whose actual name was Siddhartha Gautama.  Buddha means "the enlightened one." Buddhism is an old religion as Buddha lived between just after the mid 6th century and the late 5th century BC. 

Buddha was a real life prince before leaving the life filled with wealth and luxury and embarking upon a spiritual journey. The V&A succinctly explains what exactly transpired during Buddha's life, from his birth until his death at http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/buddhism-and-the-life-of-the-buddha/. 

If in London,  I would highly recommend that you visit the collection of Buddhist sculptures in V&A. For details of my visit, please see all of my personal photos, which I took during my visit to the V&A. 

Entrance Hall to the V&A Museum