Transmission of Buddhism
Early Buddhist kingdoms
During its short reign in the 1st to 3rd centuries CE, the Kushan Empire allowed Buddhism to proliferate across Central Asia and take root in towns along the Silk Roads, such as Kucha and Khotan. As well as being wealthy centres for trade, these two oasis cities became Buddhist kingdoms for most of the 1st millennium.
Kucha
Kucha was an oasis city on the northern Silk Road, north of the Taklamakan desert. It was populated by people of Indo-European origin, who spoke the language known as Tocharian. The Kucheans adopted Buddhism during the time of the Kushan Empire. By the 3rd century CE, Kucha had become one of the most important sites for both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism in Central Asia. Kucheans were known to have built a large number of monasteries and stupas in the area.
Wall painting from the Kizil Caves
This wall painting fragment depicts four standing Kushan worshipers with swords, thought to be the figures of donors who may have commissioned the creation of the cave. The painting comes from Kizil cave eight or ‘Cave of the sixteen sword-bearers’.
The Kizil Caves is a huge complex of rock-cut Buddhist caves, located in Xinjiang, China. The complex is one of ten built by the Buddhist kingdom known as Kucha, who ruled the area from the 1st to 8th centuries CE. They are believed to be the earliest surviving Buddhist cave complex in China, with nearly 400 surviving caves.
These caves were used for various forms of Buddhist worship, and were filled with wall paintings and sculptures. Most of these are Buddhist artworks, but a number are also secular and reflect daily life in Kucha. The artworks are known for representing a fusion of artistic styles from various cultures along the Silk Roads. One of the most distinctive features of the paintings in the Kizil caves is the use of blue pigment, which can be seen in this artwork.
Within Kucha are ten Buddhist cave complexes, including the vast Kizil complex that holds nearly 400 caves. Many of these caves were adorned with Buddhist wall paintings and were used as centres for religious practice. The Buddhism of Kucha influenced other states along the northern Silk Road (such as Turfan and Karashahr) and Kuchean Buddhist missionaries travelled eastward, some of them reaching China. Kumarajiva, one of the greatest of the translators of Buddhism into Chinese, came from Kucha.
By the 8th century CE, following conquests by the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618–907) and later the Uyghurs, Kucha was no longer active as a Buddhist centre.
Khotan
Khotan was an ancient Buddhist kingdom located on the southern Silk Road, south of the Taklamakan desert. The Khotanese people were descended from Persian or Indic immigrants from the west, and Chinese immigrants from the east. Khotan was a centre for trade, with jade being its most valuable product. Buddhism first arrived in Khotan from the west, helped by the flourishing of trade along the Silk Road and the growing power of the Kushan Empire.
Khotan was on the route between North-west India and China, which was also the main route for the Tibetan empire’s expansion into Central Asia. This position ensured Khotan’s importance in the transmission of Mahayana Buddhism from India to China and Tibet. Khotanese texts also were found in the library cave in Dunhuang, indicating links between Khotanese Buddhists and the Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist communities further east. Buddhist monasteries and temples associated with Khotan also existed further afield.
Votive panel from Dandan-Uiliq
This painted wooden votive panel from the 6th century CE was found in Dandan-Uiliq, a ruin north-east of Khotan. It depicts religious deities from both Buddhism and Hinduism, illustrating the cultural interactions that took place on the Silk Roads.
On one side are two seated Buddhas and two seated bodhisattvas. Painted on the reverse are three seated figures. The two flanking deities are believed to be Hindu deities incorporated into the Buddhist pantheon. The left deity holding a Vajra has been identified as Indra, god of the atmosphere. The three-headed god on the right is believed to be either Brahma or the Sogdian god Weshparkar. It has been suggested that the central four-armed figure that holds the sun and the moon is a goddess of Abundance.
Between the 7th and 9th centuries, Khotan came under Chinese and then Tibetan rule. Khotan remained Buddhist until the Kara-Khanid Turks of Kashgar conquered it around the year 1000, and Buddhism was replaced by Islam.
The Buddhism of Khotan
All surviving Khotanese Buddhist literature dates from the 7th to 10th centuries CE, and these texts are Mahayana. The manuscripts, written in the Brahmi script, contain texts both in Sanskrit and in the local language of Khotan. An early form of Vajrayana Buddhism also existed in Khotan. The accounts of the two most famous Chinese pilgrims, Faxian and Xuanzang, who passed through Khotan in the 4th and the 7th centuries CE respectively, confirm that Khotan was a Mahayana Buddhist country during this period. Both travellers were impressed by the commitment of the Khotanese rulers and their people to Buddhism. Faxian wrote:
The country is prosperous and the people are numerous; without exception they have faith in the Dharma and they entertain one another with religious music. The community of monks numbers several tens of thousands and they belong mostly to the Mahayana.
One of the most significant surviving expressions of Khotanese Buddhism is the text known to scholars as The Book of Zambasta. The text is a ‘metrical’ or poetic account of Buddhism, which whilst based on Indian sources, is an original Khotanese text.
The Book of Zambasta
This is a leaf from the Khotanese text The Book of Zambasta, probably the most important local Buddhist composition from Khotan. Parts of it date from the 5th to 6th centuries but judging from references to the Tibetans, it likely was not completed until the 7th century. The text’s original title is unknown. It was given the title The Book of Zambasta by scholars because it was copied at the request of an official named Zambasta. The text is a ‘metrical’ or poetic account of various different aspects of Buddhism. As well as its significance in the history of Khotanese Buddhism, The Book of Zambasta was also an important source in deciphering the Old Khotanese language.
While based on Indian sources, it is an original Khotanese text. Numerous fragments exist of at least five different copies, proving its popularity extended into the 10th century, well after the date of composition.
