Ten-thousand Buddha Stele

Northern Zhou, 557-581 AD
Shanghai Museum

A crowned and jeweled Maitreya (see previous page) sits cross-ankled in a lotus niche, with lions at his feet. He is surrounded by three pairs of attendants: disciples, bodhisattvas, and guardians. His niche is embedded in a field of ten thousand meditating Buddhas that reflect the Great Miracle at Shravasti, where Shakyamuni multiplied himself a thousand-fold in order to confound his opponents. The symbolism here is that the future Buddha will multiply himself, like Shakyamuni, so that Buddhas will be present to all believers at all places and times.