在敦煌瑞像圖中，有一些身著白色袈裟的于闐立佛瑞像，這些造像多數在背光中佈滿化佛或者頭上戴冠繫带。斯坦因（A. Stein）在中國新疆和田地區法哈特伯克亞伊拉克（Farhad Beg Yailaki）遺址發現了白衣立佛的兩塊木板畫，在熱瓦克佛塔寺院則發現了兩尊在背光中佈滿化佛的大立佛。本世紀初在達瑪溝托普魯克墩1 號佛寺遺址又發現了在背光中佈滿化佛的白衣大立佛，是敦煌繪畫中相關造像的原型。新疆克孜爾等石窟中也發現了在背光中佈滿化佛的立佛像，這種造像樣式，可能與舍衛城神變故事對佛教造像的影響 有密切關係，在犍陀羅藝術中也有這種造像形式的原型。在印度阿旃陀石窟第10 窟石柱表面壁畫上，也有5–8 世紀繪製的白衣佛。由此我們能夠了解白衣佛造像從印度到西域，再到敦煌的傳播情況。
In Dunhuang murals containing ruixiang 瑞像 (‘Auspicious Images of Buddha’), some are Khotanese images which portray Buddha as in a standing position, clad in a white robe, filled with ‘transformation Buddhas’（Ch. huafo 化佛）in the background halo, or wearing a crown-like headband. Aurel Stein discovered, in the Farhad Beg Yailaki ruins in Khotan, two wooden planks with the imagery of white-robed standing Buddhas; and has also discovered, in the Rawak Stūpa, a statue of white-robed standing Buddha. At the beginning of this century, another white-robed standing Buddha that has ‘transformation Buddhas’ in the background halo, was discovered in a monastery relic (No.1) in Toplukdong; it is the prototype for the related images in Dunhuang. Moreover, in the Kizil Grottos in Xinjiang was also unearthed a standing Buddha filled with ‘transformation Buddhas’ in the background halo. Overall, this kind of portrayal of Buddha may be influenced by the story about the miracles that Buddha performed in Shravasti. A similar style could also be observed in the Gandhāran art. In the stone pillar in Cave 10 in Ajantas Grottos in India, we could also find the white-robed buddhas created from the fifth to eighth century. By studying these cases, we could understand the transmission of the white-robed Buddha from India to Western Regions and to Dunhuang.
