Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.71

v2.c11.71

In the middle period of 5th century CE, Buddhist Haribhadra from Jinbin (present day Kashmir in India) came to the capital of Northern Wei Dynasty – Pingcheng (present day Datong, Shanxi) to build the Buddha. In the autumn of the first year of Xingguang reign of Northern Wei Dynasty (454 CE), he was ordered to build five Sakyamuni statues for five emperors following Emperor Daowu of Northern Wei (Tuoba Gui, reign from 404-408 CE). Each was 16 chi long, and used 250,000 jin of red cooper. In the early Taian reign of Northern Wei Dynasty (455 - 459 CE), the Buddhists Yashajit and Buddhanandi of Simhala came to China to present Buddha. It was the mature Gupta Buddha, which was of exquisite workmanship, received the highest praise in the western regions, and became the model.