This article focuses on the
depiction in stone sculpture of the NorthernDynasties of four
scenes surrounding the depiction of the birth of the
historical Buddha-the miraculous dream and conception, the birth beneath the tree, the seven initial stepsof Gautama, and the anointment or bathing with water, and describes the passage of imagesof these scenes from north-western India through Xinjiang and to the
Northern areas of theCentral plains of Chian, tracing the process of Sinicization. In the
mid Northern Weidynasty scenes from the life of the historical Buddha are characterized by the extent towhich they draw on Western elements, and the ancestral
images of most scenes can be foundin Gandharan carving. The wall paintings in the Kizil Caves represent the preliminarygradual
acculturation of these images, and after representations of these scenes have madetheir appearance in the northern part of Central China the Sinicization is intense. Fromthe late Northern Wei dynasty onwards, there is a progressive Sinicization in these imagesfrom the life of the historical Buddha on the basis of images of the mid Northern Weiperiod.
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