This study reexamines the function of the painted Buddhist caves of Kucha, with particular attention to the central pillar type, arguing that ancestor commemoration constituted a significant, though not exclusive, dimension of their ritual use. Through the analysis of the caves’ visual program, this article proposes that they served multiple functions, including the performance of commemorative rituals linking the living and the deceased within a Buddhist framework. Material evidence—including cinerary remains, donor representations, and iconographic features such as the makara boats crossing the ocean of saṃsāra—suggests the commemorative dimension of these spaces. Kuchean practices appear to have been influenced by Indian concepts such as śrāddha and the preta, which were reinterpreted in a Buddhist context, specifically in the context of merit transfer. The gifts from the living, channeled through the monastic community and the Buddha, were believed to benefit the deceased relatives of the living donors. The findings suggest that the central pillar caves of Kucha functioned as dynamic loci where Indian funerary traditions were not merely transmitted but reimagined to serve local religious and social needs.