The two-faced figure images in the cave temples of Gongxian represented fresh and unique material that only appears at these caves in China.Little research has been done on these images and it is neither known what they were called nor where they came from.On the basis of an examination of Buddhist scriptures and an overall analysis of the carved image, the author concludes that the image is that of the ghost mother deity.He points out that the ghost mother deity appears in the cave as a pictorial representation exemplifying the thought (fangbian shuofa)in the Fahua Sutra,and it was intended to proclaim the Mahayana Vehicle.
