There are many Lotus sutra illustrations in Dunhuang murals but depictions of Mahabhijna-Jnanabhibhu Buddha and the Sixteen Princes are fairly rare and appeared only very late in the era of the Five Dynasties. However, there are more than ten illustrations of this subject in the cave images, steles, and inscriptions of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and He’nan that appeared over the period from the Northern Wei to the Sui dynasty. Though this scene was originally from the smaller "Parable of the Magic City," because the basic spirit of the Lotus Sutra can be detected within the motif it is considered as requiring more detailed attention.
