John Guy, Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculptures of Early Southeast Asia (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2014) (From the bookjacket: "From the fifth to the eighth century, a series of kingdoms emerged in Southeast Asia whose rulers embraced Hinduism and Buddhism, two major religions received from India. Yet, until recently, little was known about these enigmatic societies. Lost Kingdoms, the first publication to use sculpture as a lens through which to explore this formative period of Southeast Asian history, is a groundbreaking scholarly contribution. While taking a fresh approach to the study of the early cultures of Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, it also considers the individual sculptures and architectural elements presented here--more than 170 works in all--in terms of their undeniable aesthetic accomplishment. For these are objects of rare and singular beauty, as well as key to understanding an essential phrase of Southeast Asia's past.").
Donald S. Lopez Jr., From Stone to Flesh: A Short History of the Buddha (Chicago & London: U. of Chicago Press, 2013) (From the bookjacket: "Leading historian of Buddhism Donal S. Lopez Jr. tells the story of how various idols carved in stone--variously named Beddou, Codam, Xaca, and Fo--became the man of flesh and blood that we know simply as the Buddha. He reveals that the positive view of the Buddha in Europe and America is rather recent, originating a little more than a hundred and fifty years ago. For centuries, the Buddha was condemned by Western writers as the most dangerous idol of the Orient. He was a demon, the murderer of his mother, a purveyor of idolatry.").
