Traders Along the Silk Road Spread Buddhist Teachings as They Travelled

Buddhism and Its Spread Forth the Silk Road

"There one sees a structure of an pinnacle prodigious in height; it is supported by gigantic pillars and covered with paintings of all the birds created by God. In the interior are two immense idols carved in the rock and ascension from the pes of the mountains to the peak....One cannot see anything comparable to these statues in the whole earth."
---Yakut describing Bamiyan in his geographical lexicon in 1218

Besides silk, paper and other goods, the Silk Road carried another article which was as pregnant in world history. Forth with trade and migration, the world's oldest international highway was the vehicle which spread Buddhism through Central Asia. The transmission was launched from northwestern India to modern Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Xinjiang (Chinese Turkistan), China, Korea and Nippon. Buddhism not but affected the lives and cultures on those regions but also left u.s. with a globe of wonders in arts and literature. (Figure on the right: Princes from Central Asian states in Lamentation, Dunhuang Cave 158. Subsequently Sakyamuni entered nirvana, princes of dissimilar Central Asian states gathered to express their grief, crying, beating their chests, piercing themselves with swords or knives, or cutting off their noses or ears. This painting not only depicts their devotions to Buddha, but likewise accurately presents the appearances, garments and customs of unlike nations along the Silk Route and the history of cultural exchange betwixt them.)

Birth of Buddha and the Development of Buddhism in India
According to legend, the Buddha (The Awakened), or Gotama (Sanskrit) lived in northern India in the 6th century BC. Gotama was his family proper name and his personal proper name was Siddhattha in Pali linguistic communication. He was born in a noble family and ancient lineage, the Sakyas. A title past which Siddhattha came to be known every bit 'the Sage of the Sakyas', Sakyamuni. To the West, he is known as the Buddha.

What is known of the Buddha'southward life is based mainly on the prove of the canonical texts, the most all-encompassing and comprehensive of which are those written in Pali, an aboriginal Indian language. Co-ordinate to the canon, Buddha's nativity place was Lumbini, virtually the small urban center of Kapilavastu on the borders of Nepal and India. In his twenties, he renounced his life in the palace and left home in search of enlightenment after witnessing sights of suffering, sickness, aging and death. He achieved Enlightenment at Bodh Gaya and gave the first sermon at Sarnath. He spent his remaining life in travelling, pedagogy and spreading Buddhism.

It is not clear when the first Buddhist community was established in India. By the time of Buddha'south death at the historic period of 80 he had become a famous and respected figure and had allies and supporters among rich and poor. In 484 BC, 7 days afterward the Buddha'southward expiry at Kushinagara (modern Kasia), his body was cremated and the relics were divided every bit among eight clans. Each of these built a sacred cairn over the relics, a grade of memorial known in India every bit a stupa, which later became the focus for Buddhists' devotions. For the adjacent two centuries, there was a steady growth of Buddhism in India.

Not long after the Buddha's death, the followers gathered at Rajagriha for the first full general council. The 2nd council was held in Vaishali one hundred years after the decease of Buddha. The third i is said to be held in Pataliputra in the fourth dimension of the Mauryan king Ashoka.

The Indian King Ashoka (273-232 BC), the grandson of the founder of the Mauryan dynasty, demonstrated his conversion to Buddhism by vigorously promulgating the organized religion across India. His edicts were carved on pillars of rock and wood, from Bengal to Afghanistan and into the south. He celebrated the distribution of the ashes of the Buddha, according to legend, placed inside 84,000 stupas. His all-time-known dedications are the Sarnath king of beasts capital imprinted on India'south currency and the Wheel of the Police force at the center of the national flag of India. Ashoka's empire extended to the northwestern borders of the Punjab. The Buddhist monks were free to move throughout the whole area. As the result, the Buddhist community probably had reached the Hellenized neighbor, the Kushan/Bactrian kingdom, by the end of Ashoka's reign.

The Dissemination of Buddhism by Kushan/Bactria
The Kushans dominated the areas of Hindu Kush into Kabul, Gandhara, northern Pakistan and north-western India. They controlled the trade between Bharat, Prc, Parthia and the Roman Empire. This provided an ideal medium for the further spread of Buddhism. From the 2th century BC to the 2nd century Advertising, Buddhism gradually developed in northwestern Republic of india and the not bad Kushan ruler, Kanishak reigned from 144-172, was converted. Under his influence, Gandhara, a Buddhist settlement, flourished and created a distinctive Graeco-Buddhist fine art form, which affected the arts in Primal Asia and eastward in the first four centuries of our era, which is to exist discussed later.

According to Prof. A. Litvinskii, Buddhism had reached Merv and Parthia as early on as Achaemenid times. The Mahavamsa, the Great Chronicle of Ceylon described that Parthian and Alexandrian delegates were in omnipresence at a Buddhist council held by King Duttha Gamani (108-77BC). With the extension of Kushan influence, Buddhism further penetrated the realm of the Parthians and Sassanians. Parthian's Buddhist faith was besides confirmed by the Chinese records of the missions of the Parthian Buddhist preachers, An-Shih-Kao and An Hsuan during the 2d century.

Bactria was introduced to Buddhism by the 1st century AD every bit suggested past the Buddhist settlement discovered at Airtam, xviii kilometers northwest of Termez. For the side by side few centuries Kushan/Bactrian Buddhist centers were expanded to Hadda, Bamiyan and Kondukistan. Among them the virtually important one is Bamiyan, 240 kilometers northwest of Kabul, Transitional islamic state of afghanistan. It became ane of the greatest Buddhist monastic communities in all Primal Asia by the 4th century. At the west stands the 53 meter Buddha (Figure on the left), nonetheless the largest statue in the earth. With its strategic location at the intersection of roads to Persia, Bharat, Tarim basin, and Mainland china, it adult an art style with a fusion of Iranian, Indian, Gandharan and local manner into an contained manner of its ain. This style of Buddhist art traveled due east and was quickly adopted at Kizil, Xinjiang and ultimately Dunhuang. Buddhism reached the height of its power in the 8th and 9th centuries in Afghanistan earlier information technology barbarous to the Arabs.

In terms of the distribution of Buddhist schools, we rely on the travel accounts of the pilgrims and envoys. Hadda was a centre of Hinayana (Small Vehicle). Bamiyan, described by Xuan Zang in the 7th century, practiced Hinayana Buddhism whereas by 727 AD, another visitor Hui-chao described the monastery devoting to Mahayana (Big Vehicle) Buddhism. Other centers such as Kapisa, Kakrak and Fondukistan seemed to also follow Mahayana Buddhism, from the evidence of their paintings and sculptures.

Buddhism in the Tarim Basin
We larn that by the 7th century all the small kingdoms of the Tarim region had been entirely won over to Buddhism, which brought with information technology and so much of Indian culture that Sanskrit had get the religious language. Equally Buddhism advanced towards the Tarim bowl, Kashgaria with Yarkand and Khotan in the west, Tumsuk, Aksu and Kizil in the north, Loulan, Karasahr and Dunhuang in the due east, and Miran and Cherchen in the south became of import centers of Buddhist art and thought. The Buddhist texts were translated from Sanskrit into various local Indo-European dialects such as Tocharian or Kuchean. By 658 Kucha developed to be a leading center of Hinayana Buddhism and the paintings were found at the cave temples of Kizil (near Kucha) (Figure on the right: Goddess and Angelic Musician, Wall-painting at Kizil cavern. 600-605 AD) dated from the 1st to 8th centuries. The early fine art class in the Tarim area were strongly Indo-Persian in style, but Persian elements were gradually overlaid by the Chinese in the sixth century later Tang's ability dominated the Tarim basin.

Information technology is impossible to make any general rules about the precise schools of Buddhism that flourished in the Tarim basin, merely the early on pilgrims who traveled in that location gave some clues. Fa-hsien and Xuan Zang appeared to indicate that near of the kingdoms such as Kashgar, Kizil, Karashahr and Kucha on the northern route followed the Hinayana Vehicle whereas Mahayana flourished forth the southern route including the kingdoms of Khotan and Yarkand.

The Nomads Established the Buddhist Organized religion in the Steppes
The data on how the nomads adopted Buddhism is fragmentary only the Chinese seemed to indicate that Buddhism penetrated Hun, or Xiongnu (Early Hun), as early equally the 2nd century BC. The Xiongnu lost few major battles at Hexi Corridor (Gansu province) and surrendered to Han general Ho. It was reported that the Xiongnu chief Kun-hsieh offered General Ho a golden statue called "Corking Divinity". The statue was later on placed in the Kanchuan Temple. People burned incense and worshipped him. This incident seems to indicate that the conversion to Buddhism had taken place among the Xiongnu at an early stage of Buddhism.

Buddhism certainly had a potent outcome on another lives in the steppes. Grousset has pointed out that once a nomadic tribe adopted the Buddhist faith, they no longer possessed tough barbaric and soldierly qualities. Eventually they lost their nomadic identity and were absorbed by the civilized neighbors. This can demonstrated past the Tobgatch Turks or the Toba, whose empire extended to Mongolia and northern Cathay. From 386-534, they controlled northern China under the Northern Wei dynasty. These eastern Turks had contact with Chinese Buddhism early on on. Some of the Turkic emperors were foremost patrons of Buddhism. In 471 Toba king Hung was so devoted to Buddhism that he had his son go a monk. This son, Toba male monarch Hung Two (471-499), was equally devoted to Buddhism and under his influence he introduced a more humane legislation. By the time he moved his capital letter from Pingcheng in Jehol to the south, Loyang in 494, he and his Turkic people have been completely sinicized. At his instigation, work began on the famous Buddhist Longmen caves, s of Loyang. According to Chinese sources, Turkish Buddhist temples were erected for the Turkish ruler, Mu-han (553-572) in Ch'angan and other places during Northern Chou dynasty (556-581). Mu-han's successor and younger brother Tapar Qayan (To-po, 572-581) was also devotee to Buddhism and erected a Buddhist temple. In 680 Eastern Turks, the kingdom of Kok-Turks (682-745) disassociated themselves from Chinese Buddhism and returned to their nomadic native life style and religion.

The next time Buddhist activities were seen in this area were by the Uighur Turks who became masters of the steppes around 745. Effectually 840 the Uighur Turks were driven out from Mongolia and many settled in the area of the northern Tarim oases, mainly Turfan from 850 to 1250. They practiced Manichaeism but quickly abased it in favor of the local Buddhist religion. In the early 20th century, much Turkish Buddhist literature was discovered in Turfan, Hami and Dunhuang. At the terminate of 10th century, a Chinese envoy, Wang Yen-te, establish in Kaochang (virtually Turfan) a flourishing Buddhist culture with some l Buddhist convents and a library of Chinese Buddhists texts. Turfan remained the principal center of Turkish Buddhism until the end of the 15th century when its ruler converted to Islam.

As for the Western Turks, who came in power in the steppes during the middle of 8th century, nosotros have the records that they established Buddhist sanctuaries in the Kapisa (Begram) area. When the Chinese Buddhist monk Wu-kung visited Gandhara betwixt 759-764, he plant there Buddhist temples, which as he believed, were built past the Turkish kings. Fifty-fifty though their empire stretched far to the Sassanian border and may have included some Buddhist communities, little is known of their Buddhist activities.

While the Mongols were decision-making the Silk Road, Kublai Khan conspicuously showed his preference for Buddhism even though nigh of the Mongol kingdoms converted to Islam. Buddhist doctrine was expounded past Na-mo, who won the debate with Taoists in 1258. Marco Polo tell us that Kublai Khan accorded a magnificent ceremonial reception to the relics of the Buddha, sent him by the raja of Ceylon. Well-nigh of Kublai'south successors were every bit fervent Buddhists. Khaishan Khan (1307-1311) had many Buddhist texts translated into Mongolian.

Buddhism Introduced to China from the Silk Road
It is not sure when Buddhism reached China, but with the Silk Route opened in the second century BC, missionaries and pilgrims began to travel between China, Fundamental Asia and Bharat. The record described that Chang Ch'ien, on his return from Ta-hsia (Ferghana) in the 2nd century BC, heard of a state named Tien-chu (India) and their Buddhist teaching. This is probably the outset time a Chinese heard about Buddhism. A century later, a Buddhist customs is recorded at the court of a Han prince. However the most famous story is the Han emperor Mingdi's dream about Buddha. In 68 Advert, Mingdi sent his official Cai Yin to Central Asia to larn more about Buddhism afterwards a vision of a gilded effigy appeared to him in a dream. The adjacent morning time he asked his ministers what the dream meant and was told that he had seen the Buddha - the god of the West. Cai Yin returned later 3 years in Republic of india and brought back with him not merely the images of Buddha and Buddhist scriptures only also two Buddhist monks named She-mo-teng and Chu-fa-lan to preach in Mainland china. This was the first fourth dimension that People's republic of china had Buddhist monks and their ways of worship. A few years later, a Buddhist community was established in Loyang, the capital, itself. From then on, the Buddhist customs grew continuously. They introduced the sacred books, texts and nearly importantly the examples of Buddhist art, never before seen in China. In 148 AD, a Parthian missionary, An Shih-kao arrived People's republic of china. He fix a Buddhist temple at Loyang and began the long piece of work of the translation of the Buddhist scriptures into the Chinese language. The piece of work of scripture translation continued until the 8th century when access to Central Asia and Bharat past land was cut off by the Arabs. In 166 AD Han Emperor Huan formally announced Buddhism by having Taoist and Buddhist ceremonies performed in the palace. The unrest state of affairs in Red china at the end of the Han dynasty was such that people were in a receptive mood for the coming of a new organized religion.

During the quaternary century, Kumarajiva, a Buddhist from Fundamental Asia organized the showtime translation bureau meliorate than anything that had existed before in Cathay. He and his squad translated some 98 works from many languages into Chinese, of which 52 survive and are included in the Buddhist canon. By around 514, there were two million Buddhists in China. Marvelous monasteries and temples were built and the work of translating the scriptures into Chinese was undertaken with great manufacture.

Buddhism in Cathay reached its apogee during the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907). Pop forms of Buddhism percolated downward to the ordinary folk. A fully sinicized Buddhist organized religion and fine art. (Figure on the right: Buddha preaching to his disciples. Silk banner from the Dunhuang cave, 8th century) emerged and spread into Korea, and thence into Japan by the finish of the sixth century. However in 845 a persecution of Buddhists in Cathay had 4600 temples destroyed and 260,500 monks and nuns defrocked; this was a severe setback Buddhism.

While numerous pilgrims arrived China from the Westward, Chinese Buddhist pilgrims were sent to Republic of india during dissimilar times and the accounts which some of them have left of their travels in the Silk Road provide valuable evidence of the state of Buddhism in Central Asia and Bharat from the 4th to the seventh centuries. Some of the more than famous Chinese pilgrims were Fa-hsien (399 to 414), Xuan-zang (629-645), and I-tsing (671-695).

Turn down of Buddhism
The reject of Buddhism along the Silk Route was due to the collapse of the Tang Dynasty in the East and the invasion of Arabs in the Due west. The conversion to Islam started in the 8th century in Primal Asia. Since Islam condemned the iconography, most of the Buddhist statues and wall-paintings were damaged or destroyed. Buddhist temples and stupas were abandoned and buried beneath the sand. By the 15th century, the unabridged Central Asia basin had been converted to Islam.

Buddhist Fine art and its Impact
Information technology is impossible to talk about Buddhism without mentioning its profound affect on the evolution of Central Asian art. It is through those artworks that a fusion of eastern and western cultures was demonstrated. The art of Buddhism left the world the nigh powerful and enduring monuments along the Silk Road, and amidst them, some of the most precious Buddhist sculptures, paintings and murals. Furthermore the contact with the Hellenized Gandharan culture resulted in the development of a new art form, the Buddha statue, sometimes referred equally a Buddha image. Before Buddhism reached Gandhara in the third century BC, there had been no representation of the Buddha, and it was in the Gandharan culture that the apply of Buddha images had begun. The earliest Buddha images resembled the Greek god Apollo. (Effigy on the left: Buddha image, Gandhara, two-three century) It has been suggested by the scholars that the earliest Buddha images in Gandhara were created by the local Greeks who carried their classic artistic conception and Indianized it by transforming information technology into the figure of the Greek-featured Buddha, dressed in a toga and seated in the yoga pose. The Gandhara style represented a union of classical, Indian, and Iranian elements continued in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan and the neighboring regions throughout most of the get-go millennium until the end of the 8th century.

Though it was largely equally a outcome of Greek influence that Gandhara became the eye of evolution in Buddhist sculpture, it was on the Indian foundation from which Buddhist architecture evolved. The development of Buddhism along the Silk Road resulted in a proliferation of monasteries, grottoes, vishanas and stupas throughout the entire Buddhist communities. Nonetheless the cave temples hold the most unique position in the development of Buddhist compages. The Buddhists' devotion was deeply reflected by the wall paintings of its rock-cut caves. From Gandhara, Bamyin, Kumtura, Kizil, to Bezeklik, and Dunhuang, the Buddhist artists, with arduous labor , created the about impressive wall paintings of cave temples dedicated to the Buddha, his saints, and his legend. They nowadays us an astonishing pageant of local societies with kings, queens, knights, ladies, monks and artists. Aside from their creative values, those cave temples provide us with an immense amount of historical information. The portraits of Kizil donors with light complexions, bluish eyes, and blond or ruby-red hair teach us they are more Indo-European than Mongol in advent. The processions of Uighur prince and princess from Dunhuang illustrate how Uighurs dressed in the 9th century. Information technology is from these wall paintings that we can have a glance at the lives and cultures of these fascinating merely vanished ancient peoples.

Timeline on the Buddhist Activities Along the Silk Route

Periods	Events
560s BC	Buddha's nativity
484 BC	Buddha'south expiry
484-494	The First Council in Rajagriha.
350-300	The second Quango in Vaishali.
272-231	Buddhism flourished in Bharat under male monarch Ashoka.
272-231	Missionary activity started under Ashoka's reign.
272-231	The offset known carving of monumental shrines into the sides of mountains appeared in Bihar, India
250	The Third council of Buddhist monks met at Patna in Ashoka's reign.
100BC-200AD	Buddhism flourished in Kushan.
0-100AD	Mahayana schoolhouse appeared.
0s	Buddhist settlement in Airtam-Termez, Bactria
100	Gandhara art school flourished. Artform of Buddha images introduced from Gandhara. The site was destroyed by Hephthalites in sixth century.
144-172	Kushan ruler, Kanishka disseminated Buddhism.
148	An Shih-kao, a Parthian missionary arrived China. Scriptures translations.
170	Chu-sho-fu, an Indian missionary arrived China. Scripture translations.
181	An Hsuan, Parthian missionary arrived China.
200s	Buddhist shrine at Giaur Kala (Merv).
223-253	Che One thousand'ien Yueh-chih missionary translated several Buddhist writings into Chinese in China.
300s	Buddhist stupa at Merv.
300s	Buddhist settlements at Hadda, Transitional islamic state of afghanistan. Destroyed by the Hephthalites in 450.
300s	Buddhist customs established and the world's largest statue of 53-memter Buddha created at Bamiyan. The site was destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1222, but the statues remain.
300s	Sassano-Buddhic art seen Kabul valley and penetrated into the Tarim bowl.
300s	Anti-Buddhist propaganda of Varahran IIs adviser, Kartir, the Mazdean evangelist in Sasania (Persia).
344-413	Kumarajiva, Indian pilgrim, congenital the largest Buddhist text translation bureau in China.
366	Mogao caves started in Dunhuang.
395-414	Fa-hsien's pilgrimage to Bharat.
450-750	Buddhist caves started in Kizil, Xinjiang
446	Persecution of Buddhism past Toba Turkic king
450-494	Yunkang cave temples
494	Buddhism again adopted by Toba Turkic Male monarch Hung 2. Buddhist crypts of Longmen started. Gupta kingdom in Republic of india. Stiff Buddhist religion and fine art evolution.
500s	strong Buddhist faith in the Tarim bowl, particularly Kucha - religious culture developed.
515-528	Queen Hu of Toba sent the Buddhist pilgrim Sung Yun to northwestern Republic of india.
520	Sung Yun'due south pilgrimage to India. passed through Lob Nor, Khotan, the Pamirs, and Hephthalite Huns in Badakhshan, Udiyana and Gandhara.
520	Persecution of Buddhism in Gupta empire by the invading Hephthalites
553-582	Muhan
550s	Paramartha, an Indian, lived in Prc and translated some seventy works.
629-644	Xuan Zang's pilgrimage to Republic of india.
682-745	Kok Turks abased Buddhism and returned to nomadic organized religion.
800s	Buddhist Uighur kingdom appeared in Turfan until 1250.
845	Persecuation of Buddhists in Red china.
1258	Buddhist debated with Taoist and won in Kublai Khan'southward court.
1307-1311	Translation of many Buddhist texts into Mongolian.

Central Asian Translators Working in Communist china (to 316 AD)
Yard=Kuchean; Kh=Khotanese; P=Parthian; South=Sogdian; Y=Yueh-chih

Names	Periods
An Shih-kao (P)	Parthian prince 148-170
An Hsuan (P)	Parthian merchant who became a monk in China 181
Lokaksema (Y)	167-186
Chih-yao (Y)	Yueh-chih origins; 185
K'ang Meng-hsiang (S)	Forefathers from K'ang-chu; 194-207
Chih Ch'ien (Y)	Grandfather had settled in China during 168-190;220-252
Chih Yueh (Y)	worked at Nanjing; 230
K'ang Seng-hui (Due south)	born in Chiao-chih in extreme south a Chinese empire, son of Sogdian merchant; 247-280
Tan-ti (P)	Parthian origins; 254
Po Yen (K)	Kuchean prince; 259
Dharmaraksa (Y)	Family had lived for generations at Dunhuang; 265-313
An Fa-chi'in (P)	Parthian origins; 281-306
Po Srimitra (M)	Kuchean prince; 317-322

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