The Kashmir Valley, 6,000 feet above sea level in the foothills of the Himalayas in present-day northernmost India, was an important Buddhist center by the second century C.E. Buddhist art and architecture flourished during the reigns of the eighth-century king Lalitaditya and his successors. The warm, yellowish color of an image of a crowned Shakyamuni Buddha (Fig. 9) is typical of Kashmiri bronzes and their particular alloy of zinc and copper. Also characteristic of Kashmiri metal sculptures are this Buddha's arched eyebrows, the fact that the knees of his crossed legs jut out slightly past the edge of his lotus seat, and the inlaid silver eyes and copper lips, which (as can be seen in Fig. 8) influenced Tibetan sculpture.

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