Buddhism in Central Asia mainly existed inMahayana forms and was historically especially prevalent along theSilk Road. The history ofBuddhism inCentral Asia is closely related to theSilk Road transmission of Buddhism during the first millennium of thecommon era. Buddhism dominated in Pre-Islamic Central Asia. It has been argued that the spread of Indian culture and religions, especially Buddhism, as far asSogdia, corresponded to the rule of theKidarites over the regions fromSogdia toGandhara.[4]
Buddhism has now been largely replaced byIslam in modern Central Asia.Uzbekistan[5] andKazakhstan[6] have the most Buddhists, largely practiced by theirKoryo-saram minority, although the former has the lowest percentage of Buddhists. Due to historicalTibetan,Mongol andManchurian influence,Kyrgyzstan[7] has the highest percentage of Buddhists in Central Asia.
A number ofEarly Buddhist schools were historically prevalent throughout Central Asia. A number of scholars identify three distinct major phases of missionary activities seen in the history of Buddhism in Central Asia, which are associated with the following sects (chronologically):[8]
The Dharmaguptaka made more efforts than any other sect to spread Buddhism outside India, to areas such asAfghanistan, Central Asia, and China, and they had great success in doing so.[9] Therefore, most countries which adopted Buddhism from China, also adopted the Dharmaguptaka vinaya and ordinationlineage forbhikṣus andbhikṣuṇīs. According toA.K. Warder, in some ways in those East Asian countries, the Dharmaguptaka sect can be considered to have survived to the present.[10] Warder further writes:[11]
It was the Dharmaguptakas who were the first Buddhists to establish themselves in Central Asia. They appear to have carried out a vast circling movement along the trade routes from Aparānta north-west intoIran and at the same time intoOḍḍiyāna (theSuvastu valley, north ofGandhāra, which became one of their main centres). After establishing themselves as far west asParthia they followed the "silk route", the east-west axis of Asia, eastwards across Central Asia and on into China, where they effectively established Buddhism in the second and third centuries A.D. TheMahīśāsakas andKāśyapīyas appear to have followed them across Asia into China. [...] For the earlier period of Chinese Buddhism it was the Dharmaguptakas who constituted the main and most influential school, and even later theirVinaya remained the basis of the discipline there.
In the 7th century CE,Yijing grouped the Mahīśāsaka, Dharmaguptaka, and Kāśyapīya together as sub-sects of the Sarvāstivāda, and stated that these three were not prevalent in the "five parts of India," but were located in some parts of Oḍḍiyāna,Khotan, andKucha.[12]
.jpeg)
Buddhism in Central Asia began with thesyncretism between WesternClassical Greek philosophy and Indian Buddhism in the Hellenistic successor kingdoms toAlexander the Great's empire (Greco-Bactrian Kingdom 250 BCE-125 BCE andIndo-Greek Kingdom 180 BCE - 10 CE), spanning modernAfghanistan,Uzbekistan, andTajikistan. SeeGreco-Buddhism andDayuan (Ta-yuan;Chinese:大宛; literarily "GreatIonians"). The later Kushan empire would adopt the Greek alphabet (Bactrian language),Greco-Buddhist art forms and coinage, and Greco-Buddhist religion of these Hellenistic kingdoms.[13]
The firstanthropomorphic representations of theBuddha himself are often considered a result of the Greco-Buddhist interaction. Before this innovation, Buddhist art was "aniconic": the Buddha was only represented through his symbols (an emptythrone, theBodhi tree, theBuddha's footprints, theDharma wheel). This reluctance towards anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha, and the sophisticated development of aniconic symbols to avoid it (even in narrative scenes where other human figures would appear), seem to be connected to one of the Buddha's sayings, reported in theDigha Nikaya, that discouraged representations of himself after the extinction of his body.[14]
Probably not feeling bound by these restrictions, and because of "their cult of form, the Greeks were the first to attempt a sculptural representation of the Buddha". In many parts of the Ancient World, the Greeks did developsyncretic divinities, that could become a common religious focus for populations with different traditions: a well-known example is the syncretic GodSarapis, introduced byPtolemy I inEgypt, which combined aspects of Greek and Egyptian Gods. In India as well, it was only natural for the Greeks to create a single common divinity by combining the image of a Greek God-King (The Sun-GodApollo, or possibly the deified founder of theIndo-Greek Kingdom,Demetrius), with the traditionalattributes of the Buddha.
Many of the stylistic elements in these first representations of the Buddha point to Greek influence: the Greekhimation (a lighttoga-like wavy robe covering both shoulders), thehalo, thecontrapposto stance of the upright figures (see: 1st–2nd century Gandhara standing Buddhas[15] and[16]), the stylizedMediterranean curly hair and top-knot apparently derived from the style of theBelvedere Apollo (330 BCE),[17] and the measured quality of the faces, all rendered with strong artisticrealism (See:Greek art). Some of the standing Buddhas (as the one pictured) were sculpted using the specific Greek technique of making the hands and sometimes the feet in marble to increase the realistic effect, and the rest of the body in another material. Foucher especially considered Hellenistic free-standing Buddhas as "the most beautiful, and probably the most ancient of the Buddhas", assigning them to the 1st century BCE, and making them the starting point of the anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha ("The Buddhist art of Gandhara", Marshall, p101).
At the beginning of the Kushan dynasty (c. 30 AD), various religious systems were widespread in Central Asia. These included the cult ofAnahit (originating inArmenia);Zoroastrianism, including the cults ofMithra/Mitra,Ormuzd,Verethragna and (especially inKhorezm andSogd)Siyâvash; as well as theGreek pantheon, includingZeus, andHelios.
According to Chinese chronicles, Buddhism arrived in China in 147 from the Kushans (who were known in China by an older, Chineseexonym: theGreat Yuezhi) and the work of Kushan missionaries resulted in Buddhism being adopted as the official religion of the court of the Chinese emperor,Emperor Huan of Han (reigned 146–168).
In the middle of the 2nd century, the Kushan empire underKanishka I expanded into Central Asia and went as far as taking control ofKashgar,Khotan andYarkand, in theTarim Basin, modernXinjiang. As a consequence, cultural exchanges greatly increased, and Central Asian Buddhist missionaries became active shortly after in the Chinese capital cities ofLuoyang and sometimesNanjing, where they particularly distinguished themselves by their translation work. They promoted bothHīnayāna andMahāyāna scriptures.
The followers of Buddhism had been banished from Iran in the 2nd and 3rd centuries and found support in Central Asia, where Buddhism became widely practiced.
During modern archeological excavations inKhorezm (including Bazaar-Kala, Gyaur-Kala, Gyaz-Kala),Sogd (Tali-barzu, Zohak-i-Maron, Er-Kurgan and others) andOld Termez it was found that many settlements and forts dated back to the Kushan period. However, the largest number of traces of Buddhist culture during the Kushan period were found inTakhar previously Tukhara orTokharistan, in modernAfghanistan.[18][19]
The ancientKingdom of Khotan was one of the earliest Buddhist states in the world and a cultural bridge across which Buddhist culture and learning were transmitted from India to China.[20] Its capital was located to the west of the modern city ofHotan. The inhabitants of the Kingdom of Khotan, like those of early Kashgar and Yarkand, spoke the IranianSaka language.
Available evidence indicates that the first Buddhist missions to Khotan were carried out by the Dharmaguptaka sect:[21]
... the KhotanDharmapada, some orthographical devices ofKhotanese and the not yet systematically plottedGāndhārī loan words in Khotanese betray indisputably that the first missions in Khotan included Dharmaguptakas and used aKharoṣṭhī-written Gāndhārī. Now all other manuscripts from Khotan, and especially all manuscripts written in Khotanese, belong to the Mahāyāna, are written in theBrāhmī script, and were translated fromSanskrit.
By the 3rd century CE, it appears that some Mahāyāna texts were known in Khotan, as reported by the Chinese monk Zhu Shixing 朱士行 (d. after 282):[22]
When in 260 AD, the Chinese monk Zhu Shixing chose to go to Khotan in an attempt to find original Sanskritsūtras, he succeeded in locating the SanskritPrajñāpāramitā in 25,000 verses, and tried to send it to China. In Khotan, however, there were numerousHīnayānists who attempted to prevent it because they regarded the text as heterodox. Eventually, Zhu Shixing stayed in Khotan, but sent the manuscript toLuoyang where it was translated by a Khotanese monk named Mokṣala. In 296, the Khotanese monk Gītamitra came toChang'an with another copy of the same text.[23]
When the Chinese monkFaxian traveled through Khotan, he recorded that everyone there was Buddhist. According to his accounts, there were fourteen main monasteries, and he stayed at the most important of these, the monastery of Gomatī, which housed 3000 Mahāyāna monks.[24] WhenXuanzang was later traveling through Khotan in the 7th century, he wrote that the king came out to personally greet him at the border of Khotan. He was escorted to the capital, and lodged at a monastery of theSarvāstivāda sect.[24] Xuanzang records there being about 100 monasteries in Khotan, housing a total of 5000 monastics who all studied the Mahāyāna.[24]
A manuscript inTibetan calledThe Religious Annals of Khotan was found atDunhuang, and may date to sometime in the 8th century CE.[25] It describes the initial appearance of Buddhism in Khotan, including the eight major tutelary deities of Khotan, the "self-originatedbodhisattvas" of the country, and a description of the major principles of theŚrāvakayāna and the Mahāyāna, though the Mahāyāna is given preeminence. Theśrāvakas are depicted as entering the Dharma through theFour Noble Truths, while the Mahāyāna bodhisattvas are depicted as entering through non-conceptualization and the ŚūraṅgamaSamādhi.[25]
After theTang dynasty, Khotan formed an alliance with the rulers of Dunhuang. Khotan enjoyed close relations with the Buddhist center at Dunhuang: the Khotanese royal family intermarried with Dunhuang élites, visited and patronized Dunhuang's Buddhist temple complex, and donated money to have their portraits painted on the walls of theMogao grottoes. Through the 10th century, Khotanese royal portraits were painted in association with an increasing number of deities in the caves.
Khotan's indigenous dynasty (all of whose royal names are Indian in origin) governed a fervently Buddhist city-state boasting some 400 temples in the late 9th / early 10th century—four times the number recorded by Xuanzang around the year 630 CE. The Buddhist kingdom was independent but was intermittently under Chinese control during theHan and Tang dynasty.
Buddhism was known to be prevalent in the kingdom ofShanshan. An inscription in theKharoṣṭhī script was found atEndere, originally written around in the middle of the 3rd century CE. The inscription describes the king of Shanshan as a follower of Mahāyāna Buddhism — one who has "set forth in the Great Vehicle."[26] The king who this refers to was probably Aṃgoka, who was the most powerful king of Shanshan. According to Richard Salomon, there is every reason to believe that Mahāyāna Buddhism was prominent in Shanshan at this time and enjoyed royal patronage.[26]
More evidence of official adoption of Mahāyāna Buddhism in Shanshan is seen in a letter inscribed in wood which dates to several decades later. The letter describes the Great Cozbo Ṣamasena as one who is, "beloved of men and gods, honoured by men and gods, blessed with a good name, who has set forth in the Mahāyāna."[27]
Parts of the BuddhistIndo-Greek Kingdom (180 BC - 10AD) and its successor, the BuddhistKushan Empire (30AD - 375AD), in particularBalkh, were and still remain,Iranian speaking. The famous Buddhist monastery in Balkh, known asNava Vihara ("New Monastery"), functioned as the center of Central Asia Buddhist learning for centuries. Soon after theSassanian Persian dynasty fell to the Muslims (in 651), Balkh came under Muslim rule (in 663), but the monastery continued to function for at least another century. In 715, after an insurrection in Balkh was crushed by theAbbasid Caliphate, many Persian Buddhist monks fled east along theSilk Road to the BuddhistKingdom of Khotan, which spoke a relatedEastern Iranian language, and onward into China.Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī, aPersian scholar and writer in service to theGhaznavids, reported that around the start of the 10th century, the monasteries in Bactria, including Nava Vihāra, were still functioning and decorated with Buddha frescoes.
Several Iranian Buddhist monks, includingAn Shigao andBodhidharma, played key roles in theSilk Road transmission of Buddhism and the introduction ofBuddhism in China. An Shigao (Chinese:安世高) (fl. c. 148-180 CE)[28] was the earliest known translator of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese. According to legend, he was a prince ofParthia, nicknamed the "ParthianMarquess", who renounced his claim to the royal throne of Parthia in order to serve as aBuddhistmissionarymonk inChina.[29]Bodhidharma, the founder ofChán-Buddhism, which later becameZen and the legendary originator of the physical training of theShaolin monks that led to the creation ofShaolin Kung Fu, is described as a Buddhist monk of Iranian descent in the first Chinese reference to him (Yan Xuan-Zhi, 547 CE).[30] ThroughoutBuddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian, and he is referred as "The Blue-EyedBarbarian" (碧眼胡, Bìyǎn hú) in Chinese Chan texts.[31]
Nava Vihara's hereditary administrators, the IranianBarmakids, converted from Buddhism to Islam after the monastery's conquest and became powerful viziers under theAbbasidcaliphs of Baghdad. The last of the family's line of viziers,Ja'far ibn Yahya, is a protagonist in many tales from theArabian Nights. In folktales andpopular culture Ja'far has been associated with a knowledge of mysticism, sorcery, and traditions lying outside the realm of Islam. Such traditions of mysticism andsyncretism continued in Balkh, which was the birthplace of the medieval Persian poetRumi, founder of theMevlevi Sufi Order.
The many Buddhist references inPersian literature of the period also provide evidence of Islamic–Buddhist cultural contact. Persian poetry often used the simile for palaces that they were "as beautiful as a Nowbahar [Nava Vihāra]." Further, at Nava Vihāra andBamiyan, Buddha images, particularly ofMaitreya, the future Buddha, had 'moon discs' or halo iconographically represented behind or around their heads. This led to the poetic depiction of pure beauty as someone having "the moon-shaped face of a Buddha." Thus, 11th-century Persian poems, such as Varqe and Golshah byAyyuqi, use the wordbudh with a positive connotation for "Buddha," not with its second, derogatory meaning as "idol." This positive connotation implies the ideal of asexual beauty in both men and women. Such references indicate that either Buddhist monasteries and images were present in theseIranian cultural areas at least through the earlyMongol period in the 13th century or, at minimum, that a Buddhist legacy remained for centuries among the Buddhist converts to Islam.
Other religious kings, such as the 16th century Mongol potentateAltan Khan, invited Buddhist teachers to their realm and proclaimed Buddhism as the official creed of the land in order to help unify their people and consolidate their rule. In the process they may have prohibited certain practices of non-Buddhist, indigenous religions and even persecuted those who followed them, but these heavy-handed moves were primarily politically motivated.
Buddhism in Uzbekistan is currently practised by 0.11 per cent[32] of the population. The only functioning Buddhist temple in Uzbekistan is called “Jaeunsa” (“Compassion”), which belong to the Korean BuddhistJogye Order and is located on the outskirts ofTashkent.[33]
Buddhism in Kazakhstan at present consists of Korean Buddhists, whom embracedWon Buddhism. There are also Buddhists with diverse ethnicity who consider themselves the disciples of Dalai Lama or Lama Namkhai Norbu, and other belonging to theKarma Kagyu school ofTibetan Buddhism.[34]
Buddhism in Kyrgyzstan has only one registered Buddhist community called “Chamsen”, which exists since 1996 and their membership consist of mainly Koreans, Russians and Kyrgyz. There are also practitioners of other Buddhist denominations likeNipponzan Myohoji and Karma Kagyu in the country.[35]
The Afghan Taliban destroyed theBuddhist statues and other relics inBamyan province in 2001. They also clamped down on other religions.[citation needed]
Below are the percentages of Buddhists in some of the Central Asian countries from many different sources:
| National flag | Country | Population(2007E) | % of Buddhists | Buddhist total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Kazakhstan | 15,422,000 | 0.50%[36] | 81,843 |
 | Kyrgyzstan | 5,317,000 | 0.35%[37] | 18,610 |
 | Tajikistan | 7,076,598 | 0.1%[38] | 7,076 |
 | Turkmenistan | 5,097,028 | 0.1%[39] | 5,097 |
 | Uzbekistan | 27,780,059 | 0.1%[40] | 5,300 |
.jpg)
.jpg)
.svg)
