In the process of studying, worshipping and spreading Buddhism, Buddhists have created a lot of Buddhist sculptures, temples and various illustrations for Buddhist sutras and stories. Such creations, with a wide variety of unique artistic styles, have enriched the Buddhist culture.

After Buddhism has spread to other Asian countries, owing to the change in geographical environment, Buddhism gradually integrates with the local cultures and languages. Such integration also facilitates the spreading of the religion. In this way, Buddhist art has taken many different forms and presents rich and multi-cultural facets

Starting from this issue, "Buddhist Door" will present Buddhist art from one individual country in each issue. Due the the limitation in the size of our magazine, we can only present a very amount of such artistic creations. But even such limited selection can illustrate the vastness and the richness of Buddhist art.

We present in this issue 11 Buddhist Sutra illustrations from ancient China. These illustrations are wood engravings in black and whilte. Although the illustrations are about Indian religious stories, all the figures, architecture, landscapes are of distinctly Chinese style. Such integration clearly demonstrates how a religion from a foreign country goes through a process of localization. Such localization certainly has made the religion more intimate and thus more acceptable for the people in that particular culture.