Religion or philosophical beliefs plays an important role in the arts of ancient Asia. Different parts of Asia have different religions and beliefs. These differences can be seen in the arts of ancient China and ancient India. After a visit to the Asian Art Galleries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the effects of religion and philosophy and the differences between the different cultures in Asian became even more clear .The first thing that caught my eye upon entering the Asian art galleries at the MET was a gigantic stone mural that is fixed up upon the wall facing the entrance. This huge stone mural stretched along a whole side of a rectangular-shaped room. On the stone mural, was a faded picture in color of many figures doing many things at once. The mural was called the Mural of the Medicinal Buddha. The Buddha was the largest figure in the picture. He was wearing a robe with no jewelry on and is meditating. All around Buddha were a number of divine and mythological figures, including the twelve Guardian Generals and his six predecessors. Because of the size and details, I couldn'92t help but to think about the amount of time and effort it took the artist to complete it. As I glanced around the quiet room, I noticed that there were only a handful of people in the room. .

             The gallery appeared spacious and empty. There was an Asian female guard standing by the exit and a kid around the age of thirteen sitting down on the benches playing with his video game. Some people that looked like tourists were looking at some statues of Buddha. There was also an old man with grayish hair examining the mural that I was just looking at, and another old man looking at a tall statue of Buddha. It seemed that not many people in the museum was interested in the Asian art galleries. Even though that it appeared that not many people were interested in Asian art, it did not change my mind.