As early as the fifth century C.E., the thousand buddha motif had become a prevalent feature in the art of many cave-temples in Gansu, China. Past scholarship concentrated on tracing the textual sources of the motif and with relating it to the practices associated with the devotion to the three thousand buddhas of the three ages. Past research has not considered how the thousand buddhas may have been a reflection of a wider range of religious practices and popular beliefs nor has it explored the motif's artistic origin. / By demonstrating that the earliest examples of the two-dimensional painted form of the thousand buddhas came from Gansu and that the motif was related to an iconographic and architectural design that existed between several Gansu cave-temple sites, this study proposes that the thousand buddha motif was a Gansu cave-temple art innovation that influenced cave-temple decor in areas west of Gansu. In addition, possible reasons for the prevalence of the motif are suggested by considering that it may have reflected the relationship between the thousand buddhas and meditative practices as well as the acts of chanting and circumambulation.

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