Buddhist religious art celebrates the life and ideology of one man, Siddhartha Gautama (died c.400 BCE), now worshipped as Buddha Shakyamuni.

Widely commemorated in Chinese art, Buddhism has inspired countless types of sculpture, notably in monumental statue form, made from a wide variety of materials including gold, bronze, terracotta, jade, stone, ivory and wood.

The Buddha did not lay rules on married life but gave necessary advice on how to live a happy married life.

Korea and China bring Buddhism to Japan during the Asuka Period, with the earliest sculptures and texts imported first from Korea then China.Indeed, images of Buddha are essential features of monasteries, temples and shrines, in both Theravada and Mahayana doctrines.The Mahayana tradition, in particular, has exerted a major influence on the culture of East Asia, especially on Korean art as well as Chinese and Japanese art.The Buddha realized that one of the main causes of man's downfall is his involvement with other women (Parabhava Sutta).Man must realize the difficulties, the trials and tribulations that he has to undergo just to maintain a wife and a family.In China, Buddhism had a huge impact on the country's plastic art: indeed, without Buddhist inspiration, Chinese sculpture might have remained a comparatively minor art.As it is, Buddhist statuary ranks alongside jade carving and lacquerware, as well as Chinese porcelain, as one of China's most distinctive visual arts.