certain pure and abstract quality which recalls the Amesha-Spentas of
Persia. But still his attributes are Indian, and there is little
positive evidence of a foreign origin. I-Ching is the first to tell us
that the Hindus believed he came from China.[49] Hsüan Chuang does not
mention this belief, and probably did not hear of it, for it is an
interesting detail which no one writing for a Chinese audience would
have omitted. We may therefore suppose that the idea arose in India
about 650 A.D. By that date the 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 Prajña (782)
both went to China to adore Mañjuśrî. In 824 a Tibetan envoy arrived
at the Chinese Court to ask for an image of Mañjuśrî, and later the
Grand Lamas officially recognized that he was incarnate in the
Emperor.[51] Another legend relates that Mañjuśrî 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 Mañjuśrî 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