In the Buddhist art of the Tang's dynasty is found a uniquely ornamented image of the Buddha representing the Buddha's achieving enlightenment upon the conquest of Māra. While many scholars refer to this figure as Vairocana in esoteric Buddhism, the author believes that it should be taken as a representation of the famous image of Sākyamuni's enlightment under the Bodhi tree in the Māhabodhi Monastery in the kingdom of Magadhā. According to legend, the Bodhi image was crafted in the likeness of Sākyamuni by Maitreya. In China during the early T'ang, monks and envoys brought from India illustrarions of this image, which were then quickly reproduced and disseminated throughout the land. Examples can be seen today in the Central Plains region, Szechwan, and Tunhuang. The differences between Bodhi images of the Central Plains and Szechwan and those of Tunhuang demonstrate that more than one illustration was transmitted from India. Furthermore, the original single-figure Bodhi image from India, upon its arrival in China, was not only expanded into group images, but also combined with images of Maitreya in the rock-carved niches of Szechwan. At the same time, with the development of the Hua-yen faith, the Bodhi image, which originally represented the Nirmaṇakāya (transformation-body) Sākyamuni, came to be seen as the Dharmakāya (true-body) Vairocana. However, at this time, the Vairocana Buddha in question was that of the Hua-yen, not esoteric, teachings.
