Transmission of Buddhism
Buddhist travellers and pilgrims
Although many factors contributed to the spread of Buddhism across Central Asia and China, travellers of the Silk Roads played a vital part. These mostly included Buddhist monks and missionaries, and the travelling merchants that they converted.
Missionaries and merchants
The itinerant storyteller
This paper painting was discovered in Mogao Cave 17 or the ‘Library cave’ at Dunhuang, and dates back to the late 9th century.
It depicts a traveller carrying a pack full of scrolls and a staff. A tiger accompanies him, and in the upper left corner is a small figure of the Buddha on a floating cloud. It is possible that the character could be a pilgrim monk. In later Chinese Buddhism, a similar figure known as the Tiger Taming Monk was one of the eighteen luohan, the original enlightened followers of the Buddha. Similar paintings have been identified as the famous Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang. He had a dream that convinced him to take a 17-year journey to India, the birthplace of Buddhism, preaching his faith and collecting sutras as he went. Alternatively, the image could depict a travelling storyteller, carrying illustrations for his public recitals. Characters such as this would have travelled the Silk Road telling popular Buddhist tales, illustrated by painted scrolls. Both storytellers and travelling pilgrim monks such as these would therefore have played a vital part in spreading Buddhist ideas and imagery upon their travels.
Early on, Buddhist missionaries would travel the Silk Roads to share the Buddha’s teachings through word of mouth. This ‘oral tradition’ allowed the ideas to spread easily to those who could not read. Missionary activity began in the 3rd century BCE, when King Ashoka sent Indian missionaries into Central Asia via the Silk Roads.
Around the 1st century BCE, Buddhists began the practice of writing down and translating scriptures into different languages. Then during the Kushan Empire, Monks from Central Asian areas such as Kucha and Gandhara travelled eastward toward China. On their journeys, they gave teachings and helped to translate the scriptures into local languages.
Merchants and traders navigating the Silk Roads also helped the spread of Buddhism. Gradually, monasteries were set up in oasis towns along the Silk Roads. These places were resting stops for travelling merchants, as well as centres of trade where they would make their living. This made them ideal spots for monks to share Buddhist teachings with passers-by and benefit from the support of the local economy. Merchants who became Buddhist converts went on to spread Buddhism as they continued their journeys.
Chinese Buddhist pilgrims
Once Buddhism was established in China, many Chinese devotees wished to make the journey to India, the sacred land where Buddhism was born. The Silk Road was the only land route by which one could make the journey, and despite the danger and length of the journey, many monks attempted it. The journeys of two Chinese monks in particular became famous because of the accounts they wrote about their travels. They were Faxian and Xuanzang.
Faxian (Fa-hsien)
Faxian was one of the earliest Chinese monks to cross the Silk Roads and make the pilgrimage to India. Once there, he intended to visit holy sites and obtain Buddhist scriptures. He left the city of Chang’an in the year 399 CE and travelled west to Dunhuang, where he stayed for several weeks. The governor of Dunhuang provided him with the support to cross the desert.
On the other side of the desert, Faxian stayed in Khotan for three months before travelling to Gandhara, and then northern India. He spent six years there before returning by sea to China, arriving back in 413. Faxian brought back a great number of Sanskrit texts previously unseen in China, which he went on to translate into Chinese. His travelogue, known as A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms (Foguo ji) is an invaluable record of early Buddhism.
Xuanzang (Hsuan-tsang)
At the age of 20, Xuanzang was an ordained Buddhist monk. He soon became concerned about contradictions in the translated scriptures available in China, and planned a trip to India to acquire untranslated texts. He left China in 629 CE without the emperor’s permission, which meant that he had to avoid Dunhuang and strike out into desert.
Letters of introduction for a Chinese pilgrim
This manuscript contains letters of introduction for a pilgrim monk from China. The letters are addressed to monastic leaders and officials in the next town, requesting that they help the monk on his journey.
Once Buddhism had become embedded in China, many Chinese monks embarked on a pilgrimage to India, the birthplace of Buddhism. They usually did this with the aim of visiting sacred sites, and collecting new scriptures to translate. They would travel the overland routes of the Silk Roads, which could be a long and treacherous journey.
Because these letters are written in Tibetan, the monk’s journey probably took place during the Tibetan occupation of Eastern Central Asia in the mid-8th to mid-9th century. It could also have taken place in the decades following when Tibetan was still a ‘lingua franca’ (a common language between groups who speak different languages). The monk is described as a great ascetic, scholar and upholder of virtue. He is planning to visit the great monastic university of Nalanda in north India and the pilgrimage sites connected with the birth, life and death of the historical Buddha Sakyamuni.
He followed the northern branch of the Silk Road and arrived in Karashahr, where he was warmly welcomed by the king. The king eventually provided him with letters of introduction to the other Silk Road oasis states along his route. These letters of introduction would look much like this one dating back to the eighth to ninth century.
Xuanzang continued his journey through cities such as Tashkent, Samarkand and Peshawar before arriving in Northern India. There he studied at the great monastic university of Nalanda, and spent several years making pilgrimages to Buddhist holy sites. On his return to China, he travelled along the southern branch of the Silk Road, through Khotan to Dunhuang. His journey lasted fifteen years. Xuanzang brought hundreds of Buddhist scriptures back with him, some of which he himself translated into Chinese. Xuanzang’s detailed account of his travels made him famous, and he became the subject of popular folktales and an epic novel, The Journey to the West (Xiyouji). This version of Xuanzang’s story is best known in English through Arthur Waley’s translation, Monkey: A Folk-Tale of China (1942).
