In July of 1996, a cellar of stone Buddhism statues was discovered in Zhigu, dingjia Village, Changwu County of Shannxi Province. Twenty-four of them are made of sandstones. Almost half have certain chronological records .Being judged from the inscriptions, such as Taihe, Jingming, Yanchang, most of the statues are works of the Northern Wei. Their styles are high relief sculpture with screened back and caved back. The popular form is one Buddha and two Bodhisattva figures (3 in all). One statue which was made in the second year of Yanchang (A.D.513)has a crossed-feet sitting Maitreya as its main body, and this exquisitely caved statue has colored drawings. These abundant and well-preserved Buddhism statues, the most important discovery of Shannxi Buddhism archaeology, are great value to the search about the development and plastic arts of Buddhism in the Guanzhong area from the Northern Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty.
