The article considers the main stages of the Buryat professional Buddhist icon painting development in the period from the late XVIII to the early XX century. Key aspects and features of Buryat icon painters adoption of general canon traditions of Buddhist art are considered. The article also analyses the existence of two traditions of the Buryat icon painting in the period studied: one based on canonic iconography and the other derived from popular prints art. The icons following the first tradition are painted by the Buryat lamas — icon-painters with strict observance of the Buddhist canons and with preservation of unique original lines of the Buryat traditional art. The others are the works by Chinese travelling craft masters, painted generally at requests of laymen for home altars and known under the name of “huazhin zurag” (“huazhin” in Chinese means “pages covered with pictures”, “zurag” in Buryat means “drawing”). The icons painted by Chinese artists are characterized by negligent adherence of Buddhist canons, careless style and low quality of brushwork, lack of artistic taste which is obvious in icons’ color-schemes. Chinese artists often pained popular images of deities of temple and household rituals which were known to the great masses of believers.