The south large Buddha from Mogao Grottoes Cave 254
The excavation of Cave 130 in Mogao Grottoes took about 20-30 years during the Kaiyuan and Tianbao periods of the Tang Dynasty. The statue inside the cave is a sitting Maitreya Buddha statue, standing 26 meters high, making it the second largest Buddha statue in the Mogao Caves after the 96th Cave's "The north large Buddha" (33 meters high). Because this great Buddha is located to the south of the "The north large Buddha", it was already referred to as the "The south large Buddha " in Tang Dynasty literature...