After the Portuguese reached China in 1514 and Japan in 1542, they soon started trading with porcelain from these countries. Other Europeans also started to engage in the ceramics trade. During the 17^th and 18^th centuries, most porcelain was exported to Europe in bulk to be used as tea and table ware. It was mainly blue-and-white, but there was also a smaller number of more costly overglaze painted ceramics.

The mural paintings in Ajanta constitute a unique example of ancient Buddhist art in Asia. They are the only well preserved mural paintings from this era in India. These paintings from the Gupta period had an important impact on the arts in the rest of India and Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the Indian pictorial tradition spread to the Northeast, East and Southeast Asia via the Silk Road. In the Himalaya, the Ajanta style had a very significant influence on Buddhist art.

In Buddhist art, two different ways of worshipping Shakayamuni have led to the emergence of two types of the triad format. From the Dharma cult, due to which the Dharma (the truth) is the essence of Buddha, has sprung the format of the Buddha surrounded by two attendants. In the context of Mahayana Buddhism, these attendants came to be represented as Mahayana Bodhisattvas. The Buddha cult, according to which there had been many other Buddhas before the birth of Shakyamuni, has given rise to a format showing three Mahayana Buddhas.

Buddhism spread to China during the Han dynasty, but Chinese knowledge about the life and the birthplace of the Buddha was initially limited. In the 5^th century AD, the Buddhist monk Faxian travelled from China to Nepal. His description of Kapilavastu differed from Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures, which idealised the Buddha’s homeland. In the same century, the Chinese monk Sengyou wrote an account on the life of Buddha, which remained faithful to Buddhist translations.

Indian society before the birth of Buddhism and Arab society before the birth of Islam share several characteristics, such as polytheism, the worshipping of idols and the existence of great social inequalities. The Buddha and the Prophet Mohammed were opposed to these. Both religions attempted to unite and find a balance between Eastern and Western elements, between the worldly, material side of life and its spiritual side, between the tangible and the intangible, the profane and the sacred.

The corpus of poems known as Sangam literature was produced over six centuries, from around 300 BC to 300 AD, by Tamils from very diverse social backgrounds. It was compiled in anthologies several centuries later. These works provide insight into early Tamil culture and into trade relations between South India and the Mediterranean, West Asia and Southeast Asia. Due to its codified nature and to the impossibility of establishing a precise chronology, the heroic Sangam poetry constitutes a difficult source for historic research.

Along the “Grand Route”, an ancient caravan route which used to link the Kashmir region to Nepal and Tibet across the Himalaya, a large number of monasteries and temples can be found. The numerous religious artworks in the area are rooted in diverse traditions. Various Buddhist and Hindi representations of deities can for instance be traced to prototypes from the prehistoric Harappan culture in the Indus valley.

In the 1980s, the Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente (ISMEO) carried out excavations in Nepal in cooperation with the Lumbini Development Trust. In Gotihawa, these excavations were conducted around the Ashokan pillar and stupa which were erected during Mauryan times. They have revealed, among other things, fragments of cord- or mat-impressed ware of Neolithic tradition. In Sisania, the examination of surface materials has provided evidence for the presence of a large craft centre during the time of the Kushan Empire.

The Shōsōin in Nara contains a unique collection of very ancient works of art from different countries along the Silk Road, many of which reached Japan via the trade routes. The works that are conserved in the Shōsōin were offered to the temple by the Empress Komyo and her daughter Koken after the death of the Emperor Shomu in the year 756 AD. They form a carefully chosen, coherent collection and have influenced generations of artists.

The conquest of Malacca in 1511 allowed the Portuguese to gain control over the Spice Road between Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf. In the 16^th century, Malay was a widely diffused lingua franca of intra-Asian trade and communication. The presence of the Portuguese in Southeast Asia led to linguistic exchanges: some Portuguese words, which were mostly related to navigation and trade goods, entered the Malay language, and a certain number of Malay words found their way into the Portuguese vocabulary.