莫高窟第428窟=Mogao cave 428; 影塑千佛=clay-molded statues of the Thousand-Buddhas; 三世三千佛=Three Thousand Buddhas in the Three Ages; 禪觀與禮拜=meditation and worship
The Thousand-Buddha motif was a very popular theme in Buddhist art that appears more than almost any other theme in early Dunhuang caves in terms of wall surface used to paint murals and house statuary. There are 1, 485 molded small Buddhas stuck to the upper part of the four walls of Mogao cave 428, the largest amount used to express the Thousand Buddhas motif in any of the Dunhuang caves, all of which were designed according to specific patterns of combination. Together with the illustration of Buddha in a white cassock on the upper level of the large central pagoda in a painting of the Vajrasana Pagoda on the west wall of the cave, this set of artworks combine to form the Three Thousand Buddhas in the Three Ages. The appearance of this theme in Mogao cave 428 was closely related to the activities of both monastic and secular practitioners paying attribute to the Three Thousand Buddhas in the Three Ages, and to the meditation and image-worshiping practices of Zen monks in the Northern Dynasties.
