When a prominent monk passes on, as happened recently in our community, sometimes a Buddha statue is cast with an accompanying chanting ritual, to transfer some of the essence of his teaching and wisdom to the statue, so future generations may profit from it. (If I understood it correctly)

There is a flexible mould of a statue, usually reinforced silicon or vinyl, from which a hollow wax model is created. This is then embedded into a heat-resistant plaster-based material and the wax burned out.
The casting of the bronze into the resulting cavity mould is done in public with monks placed in 4 corners of a square chanting and reciting.

The finished statue in the local wat: