Re-Study of the Gilt Bronze Buddha Statuettes Unearthed from the Eastern Han Dynasty Tomb in Chengren Village, Xianyang City, China

In 2021, two small gilt bronze Buddha statuettes were unearthed from a tomb from the Eastern Han Dynasty in Chengren Village, Xianyang City, Shanxi Province. The excavation team believe that these statuettes are from the late Eastern Han Dynasty and represent the earliest independent gilt bronze Buddha statuettes ever discovered in China through archaeological excavations, a belief that has attracted widespread interest and debate among scholars worldwide. However, because the tomb had been looted in the past, the publication of these findings immediately sparked considerable debate, particularly over the dating of the statuettes. The main controversy revolves around two dating proposals: the “Late Eastern Han Dynasty” and the “Period of the Sixteen Kingdoms”. This paper proposes a third viewpoint by examining previously overlooked aspects and materials regarding the statuettes and by placing them within the context of the Guanlong region’s tradition of small gilt bronze Buddha statuettes. We contend that the two statuettes were not created at the same time: we believe that the standing Buddha statuette dates from the end of the “Period of the Sixteen Kingdoms”, whereas the flat five-Buddha statuette was likely crafted between the Yanxing 延興 era and the early Taihe 太和 era of Emperor Xiaowen 孝文帝 of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The styles, combinations of forms, and themes in these statuettes are not distinctive and are, in fact, typical of small gilt bronze Buddha statuettes from the late “Period of the Sixteen Kingdoms” to the mid-Northern Wei Dynasty in the Guanlong region.