So that, This 's Christian Writer. The first answer is absolutely. The Buddha has never been ordered to make a statue. But the statue was later to make them up as they remembered him as a teacher only. The Buddha taught about cause and effect. He did not teach you in a matter of faith, without any cause and effect. Such as belief in God. We believe that they are ignorant.
The main reason why they built statues is because of their ignorances. Lord Buddha never teaches us to become anything but a practician. We have to "test" and "prove" his words by our own's wisdom not statues !!! Otherwise, we are not his students and followers but a blind.