André BUENO

Original title: Yungang: um Buda Chinês para os Romanos

Published in

Keywords: Ancient China, Buddhism, Buddhist Iconography, Intercultural Dialogue, Roman Empire.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the Akshobhya Buddha statue (in Chinese, Achurulai 阿閦如来), located in the cave 16 in Yungang Complex (Yungang Shiku 雲崗石窟), which is situated in northern China, and is built in 5th century CE. Our proposal is that this statue was sculpted to receive foreigners, especially the Romans, using an in Buddhist iconographic experience that incorporated elements Greco-Roman, Indian and Chinese.