temples of Wu-t'ai-Shan would have had
time to become celebrated, and the visits paid to India by
distinguished Chinese Buddhists would be likely to create the
impression that China was a centre of the faith and frequented by
Bodhisattvas.[50] We hear that Vajrabodhi (about 700) and Prajna (782)
both went to China to adore Manjusri. In 824 a Tibetan envoy arrived
at the Chinese Court to ask for an image of Manjusri, and later the
Grand Lamas officially recognized that he was incarnate in the
Emperor.[51] Another legend relates that Manjusri came from
Wu-t'ai-Shan to adore a miraculous lotus[52] that appeared on the lake
which then filled Nepal. With a blow of his sword he cleft the
mountain barrier and thus drained the valley and introduced
civilization. There may be hidden in this some tradition of the
introduction of culture into Nepal but the Nepalese legends are late
and in their collected form do not go back beyond the sixteenth
century.

After Avalokita and Manjusri the most important Bodhisattva is
Maitreya,[53] also called Ajita or unconquered, who is the only one
recognized by the Pali Canon.[54] This is because he does not stand on
the same footing as the others. They are superhuman in their origin as
well as in their career, whereas Maitreya is simply a being who like
Gotama has lived innumerable lives and ultimately made himself worthy
of Buddhahood which he awaits in heaven. There is no reason to doubt
that Gotama regarded himself as one in a series of Buddhas: the Pali
scriptures relate that he mentioned his predecessors by name, and also
spoke of unnumbered Buddhas to come.[55] Nevertheless Maitreya or
Metteyya is rarely mentioned in the Pali Canon.[56]

He is, however, frequently alluded to in the exegetical Pali
literature, in the Anagata-vamsa and in the earlier Sanskrit works
such as the Lalita-vistara, the Divyavadana and Mahavastu. In the
Lotus he plays a prominent part, but still is subordinate to Manjusri.
Ultimately he was eclipsed by the two great Bodhisattvas but in the
early centuries of our era he received much respect. His images are
frequent in all parts of the Buddhist world: he was believed to watch
over the propagation of the Faith,[57] and to have made special
revelations to Asanga.[58] In paintings he is usually of a golden
colour: his statues, which are often gigantic, show him standing or
sitting in the European fashion and not cross-legged. He appears to be
represented in the ea