Huge figures of Buddhas dominated cave shrines in China—not necessarily the Buddha, for the Chinese worshiped many divine Buddhas, as well as the godlike bodhisattvas. The historical Buddha (left), who lived in India around 500 B. C., was regarded as a spiritual leader, to be emulated rather than worshiped. But the most popular Chinese form of the faith emphasized other Buddhas —literally millions of them, by some reckonings— who dwelled in eternity as gods and had never been men. During the T'ang Dynasty—the height of the Buddhist age of China—most Chinese worshiped the Buddha Amitabha, Lord of the Western Paradise. It was popularly believed that a sincere utterance of Amitabha's name guaranteed a worshiper rebirth into this paradise, a radiant land made of lapis lazuli and dotted with jeweled trees.
AN ALL-KNOWING COLOSSUS, a Statue of the historical Buddha gazes from a cliff at Yun-kang. The head alone is 13 feet high.
SPIRITUAL SYMBOLS (right) are present in the statues of all Buddhas. The head knot indicates that the Buddha is all-wise. The hand position indicates that he is conversing. The "lotus" position of the feet, turned toward heaven, means he is meditating.
A GALLERY OF DIVINE FIGURES at Luiig-men in central China displays a 50-foot~high Buddha flanked by a bodhisattva (center) and two guardians (right).
World History
