Bhadrakalpika Sūtra

[2] Other parallel versions of the sutra are available in Chinese, Mongolian, and Khotanese in variants that differ slightly as to the number of Buddhas.

Various lists of thousand Buddhas have also been found in Khotanese sources, verifying the importance of this narrative theme for the Buddhist Iranian Kingdom of Khotan.

[3] According to Skilling, the idea that one thousand Buddhas will arise in this good eon "circulated in the north and northwest of the Indian subcontinent by the beginning of the Christian Era, if not earlier.

The frame narrative states that sutra was taught by Shakyamuni Buddha in Vaiśālī on the request of bodhisattva Prāmodyarāja.

As a result of the good merit of this, the monarch and his thousand sons spend eighty eons serving over three billion Buddhas.

The list of thousand plus (the numbers varies in the different versions) Buddhas starts with Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kasyapa, Shakyamuni, and Maitreya and ends with Rochasimhakhya ("Roca, the One Called Lion").

This includes their birthplaces, families, physical appearance, their sangha, chief disciples, lifespans, length of their teaching career and their relics.

This third enumeration (all in verse) explains the past life circumstances which lead each of the Buddhas to give rise to bodhicitta (the compassionate resolve aimed at awakening).

Buddhist stele with the Thousand Buddha motif, Northern Wei dynasty , early 6th century CE. The motif of a "thousand buddhas" (or 10,000) is a common one in Mahayana Buddhism.
A wall of Buddhas at the Thousand Buddha Mountain (千佛山; pinyin: Qiān Fó Shān), southeast of Jinan , the capital of Shandong .
Photo showing Dunhuang Cave 16 and the manuscripts piled up for Aurel Stein near the entrance to Cave 17, the “library cave” at the Mogao Caves