The Buddhist disciple Kashyapa

In China, many statues of the Buddha Shakyamuni are accompanied by images of Ananda and Kashyapa, his two favorite disciples. Ananda is portrayed as handsome and youthful, while Kashyapa is shown as an older man with wrinkled brows. (See examples in Gallery 16, Chinese Buddhist Art.)

In the Tibetan tradition, the Buddha Shakyamuni is accompanied by a different pair of disciples, Shari-putra and Maudgal-yayana. Although this pair of sculptures was made in the Tibetan style, the artisans followed the Chinese tradition of featuring the disciples Ananda and Kashyapa.