THE BUDDHA'S WORDS AT CAVE TEMPLES

Inscribed Buddhist scriptures were a vital part of cave temple architecture in China. This paper focuses on a later phase of development in the eighth century as exemplified by Wofoyuan, Sichuan. The site offers an exemplary case to examine these writings in stone as visual objects and foci of devotion, as it boasts one of the most extensive collections of Mahayana texts and one of the largest reclining Buddha statues in medieval China. This open theater of text and image is believed to have articulated a tangible program of soteriology, which held particular relevance in a time when Buddhist practitioners of the Tang dynasty were actively seeking ways to affirm their faith.