Buddhism in Central Asia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves
Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves
Musée Guimet
.
Turfan, eastern Tarim Basin, China, 9th century; the monk on the left is possibly Tocharian,[1] although more likely Sogdian.[2][3]

Buddhism in Central Asia mainly existed in

common era
.

History

Buddhist monastic groups

A number of Early 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):[4]

  1. Dharmaguptaka
  2. Sarvāstivāda
  3. Mūlasarvāstivāda

The Dharmaguptaka made more efforts than any other sect to spread Buddhism outside India, to areas such as

A.K. Warder, in some ways in those East Asian countries, the Dharmaguptaka sect can be considered to have survived to the present.[6] Warder further writes:[7]

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 into

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. The Mahīśāsakas and Kāśyapīyas 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 their Vinaya
remained the basis of the discipline there.

In the 7th century CE,

Greco-Buddhism

Standing Buddha (Tokyo National Museum)
.

Buddhism in Central Asia began with the syncretism between Western Classical Greek philosophy and Indian Buddhism in the Hellenistic successor kingdoms to Alexander the Great's empire (Greco-Bactrian Kingdom 250 BCE-125 BCE and Indo-Greek Kingdom 180 BCE - 10 CE), spanning modern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. See Greco-Buddhism and Dayuan (Ta-yuan; Chinese: 大宛; literarily "Great Ionians"). 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.[9]

The first

Digha Nikaya, that discouraged representations of himself after the extinction of his body.[10]

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 develop

Ptolemy I in Egypt, 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-God Apollo, or possibly the deified founder of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, Demetrius), with the traditional attributes of the Buddha
.

Many of the stylistic elements in these first representations of the Buddha point to Greek influence: the Greek

). 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).

Kushan Empire

At the beginning of the Kushan dynasty (circa 30 AD), various religious systems were widespread in Central Asia. These included the cult of

Sogd) Siyâvash; as well as the Greek pantheon, including Zeus, and Helios
.

According to Chinese chronicles, Buddhism arrived in China in 147 from the Kushans (who were known in China by an older, Chinese

Great 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 under

Mahāyāna
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 in

Sogd (Tali-barzu, Zohak-i-Maron, Er-Kurgan and others) and Old 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 in Takhar previously Tukhara or Tokharistan, in modern Afghanistan.[14][15]

Khotan

The ancient Kingdom 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.[16] Its capital was located to the west of the modern city of Hotan. The inhabitants of the Kingdom of Khotan, like those of early Kashgar and Yarkand, spoke the Iranian Saka language.

Available evidence indicates that the first Buddhist missions to Khotan were carried out by the Dharmaguptaka sect:[17]

... the Khotan

Kharoṣṭhī-written Gāndhārī. Now all other manuscripts from Khotan, and especially all manuscripts written in Khotanese, belong to the Mahāyāna, are written in the Brāhmī script, and were translated from Sanskrit
.

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):[18]

When in 260 AD, the Chinese monk Zhu Shixing chose to go to Khotan in an attempt to find original Sanskrit sūtras, he succeeded in locating the Sanskrit

Prajñāpāramitā in 25,000 verses, and tried to send it to China. In Khotan, however, there were numerous Hīnayānists who attempted to prevent it because they regarded the text as heterodox. Eventually, Zhu Shixing stayed in Khotan, but sent the manuscript to Luoyang where it was translated by a Khotanese monk named Mokṣala. In 296, the Khotanese monk Gītamitra came to Chang'an with another copy of the same text.[19]

When the Chinese monk

Sarvāstivāda sect.[20] Xuanzang records there being about 100 monasteries in Khotan, housing a total of 5000 monastics who all studied the Mahāyāna.[20]

A manuscript in

After the

Mogao 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 the Han and Tang dynasty.

Shanshan

Kharoṣṭhī manuscript from Shanshan
The Tarim Basin in the 3rd century

Buddhism was known to be prevalent in the kingdom of Shanshan. An inscription in the Kharoṣṭhī script was found at Endere, 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."[22] 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.[22]

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."[23]

Iranian Buddhism

Parts of the Buddhist

Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī, a Persian scholar and writer in service to the Ghaznavids
, 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, including

Shaolin Kung Fu, is described as a Buddhist monk of Iranian descent in the first Chinese reference to him (Yan Xuan-Zhi, 547 CE).[26] Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian, and he is referred as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" (碧眼胡, Bìyǎn hú) in Chinese Chan texts.[27]

Nava Vihara's hereditary administrators, the Iranian

Arabian Nights. In folktales and popular culture Ja'far has been associated with a knowledge of mysticism, sorcery, and traditions lying outside the realm of Islam. Such traditions of mysticism and syncretism continued in Balkh, which was the birthplace of the medieval Persian poet Rumi, founder of the Mevlevi Sufi Order
.

The many Buddhist references in

Mongol
period in the 13th century or, at minimum, that a Buddhist legacy remained for centuries among the Buddhist converts to Islam.

Later history

Other religious kings, such as the 16th century Mongol potentate Altan 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[28] of the population. The only functioning Buddhist temple in Uzbekistan is called “Jaeunsa” (“Compassion”), which belong to the Korean Buddhist Jogye Order and is located on the outskirts of Tashkent.[29]

Buddhism in Kazakhstan at present consists of Korean Buddhists, whom embraced Won Buddhism. There are also Buddhists with diverse ethnicity who consider themselves the disciples of Dalai Lama or Lama Namkhai Norbu, and other belonging to the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.[30]

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 like

Nipponzan Myohoji and Karma Kagyu in the country.[31]

Taller, 55 meter Buddha in 1963 and in 2008 after destruction
Smaller, 38 meter Buddha, before and after destruction.

The Afghan Taliban destroyed the Buddhist statues and other relics in Bamyan province in 2001. They also clamped down on other religions.

Buddhist percentage by country

Below are the percentages of Buddhists in some of the Central Asian countries from many different sources:

Buddhism by country in the Central Asia
National flag Country Population(2007E) % of Buddhists Buddhist total
Kazakhstan 15,422,000 0.50% [32] 81,843
Kyrgyzstan 5,317,000 0.35% [33] 18,610
Tajikistan 7,076,598 0.1% [34] 7,076
Turkmenistan 5,097,028 0.1% [35] 5,097
Uzbekistan 27,780,059 0.1% [36] 5,300

Gallery

  • Buddha in Nirvana, 7th-8th Cent AD reclining Buddha statue 12 meters (39 feet) long.
    Buddha in Nirvana, 7th-8th Cent AD reclining Buddha statue 12 meters (39 feet) long.
  • Buddhist cloister of Ajina-Tepa, near Kurgan-Teppa, Tajikistan
    Buddhist cloister of Ajina-Tepa, near Kurgan-Teppa, Tajikistan
  • I-III cent. AD Fayaztepa. Old Termez, Uzbekistan
    I-III cent. AD Fayaztepa. Old Termez, Uzbekistan
  • Fayoz Tepe
    Fayoz Tepe

See also

References

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  2. ISSN 2191-6411. See also endnote #32 Archived 2017-05-25 at the Wayback Machine
    . (Accessed 3 September 2016.)
  3. .
  4. ^ Willemen, Charles. Dessein, Bart. Cox, Collett. Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism. 1997. p. 126
  5. ^ Warder, A.K. Indian Buddhism. 2000. p. 278
  6. ^ Warder, A.K. Indian Buddhism. 2000. p. 489
  7. ^ Warder, A.K. Indian Buddhism. 2000. pp. 280-281
  8. ^ Yijing. Li Rongxi (translator). Buddhist Monastic Traditions of Southern Asia. 2000. p. 19
  9. ^ Halkias “When the Greeks Converted the Buddha: Asymmetrical Transfers of Knowledge in Indo-Greek Cultures.” In Religions and Trade: Religious Formation, Transformation and Cross-Cultural Exchange between East and West, ed. Volker Rabens. Leiden: Brill, 2013: 65-115.
  10. ^ "Due to the statement of the Master in the Dighanikaya disfavouring his representation in human form after the extinction of body, reluctance prevailed for some time". Also "Hinayanis opposed image worship of the Master due to canonical restrictions". R.C. Sharma, in "The Art of Mathura, India", Tokyo National Museum 2002, p.11
  11. ^ Standing Buddha:Image Archived June 16, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ Standing Buddha:Image Archived October 21, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ Belvedere Apollo: Image Archived 2014-06-03 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ "The History of Buddhism in India and central Asia". Idp.orientalstudies.ru. Archived from the original on 2 October 2006. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  15. ^ "About religion in Central Asia :: Islam Central Asia. Suphism Central Asia. Buddhism Central Asia. Zoroastrianism Central Asia". Orexca.com. Archived from the original on 16 July 2018. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  16. ^ "Khotan - Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2012-04-06.
  17. ^ Heirman, Ann. Bumbacher, Stephan Peter. The Spread of Buddhism. 2007. p. 98
  18. ^ Forte, Erika. 2015. "A Journey “to the Land on the Other Side”: Buddhist Pilgrimage and Travelling Objects from the Oasis of Khotan." In Cultural Flows across the Western Himalaya, edited by Patrick Mc Allister, Cristina Scherrer-Schaub and Helmut Krasser, 151-185. Vienna: VÖAW. p.152.
  19. ^ Heirman, Ann. Bumbacher, Stephan Peter. The Spread of Buddhism. 2007. p. 100
  20. ^ a b c Whitfield, Susan. The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith. 2004. p. 35
  21. ^ a b Nattier, Jan. Once Upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline. 1991. p. 200
  22. ^ a b Walser, Joseph. Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. 2005. p. 31
  23. ^ Walser, Joseph. Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. 2005. p. 32
  24. .
  25. ^ Zürcher, Erik. 2007 (1959). The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China. 3rd ed. Leiden: Brill. pp. 32-4
  26. . pp. 54-55.
  27. ^ Soothill, William Edward; Hodous, Lewis (1995). "A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms" (PDF). London: RoutledgeCurzon. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-03-03. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  28. ^ "Uzbekistan, Religion and Social Profile". The Association of Religion Data Archives. Archived from the original on 2021-06-17. Retrieved 2023-07-04.
  29. ^ "A Bit of Zen in Tashkent: The Structure of the Only Functioning Buddhist Temple in Central Asia". cabar.asia. 2019-01-30. Archived from the original on 2021-08-30. Retrieved 2021-08-31.
  30. ^ "Kazakhstanis in Search of Nirvana: How Buddhism Came to Kazakhstan". cabar.asia. 2019-01-14. Archived from the original on 2021-08-30. Retrieved 2021-08-31.
  31. ^ "Life of the Only Buddhist Community of Kyrgyzstan". cabar.asia. 2019-01-10. Archived from the original on 2021-08-30. Retrieved 2021-08-31.
  32. ^ "Religious Intelligence - Country Profile: Kazakhstan (Republic of Kazakhstan)". 30 September 2007. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  33. ^ "Religious Intelligence - Country Profile: Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic)". 6 April 2008. Archived from the original on 6 April 2008. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  34. ^ "Religious Freedom Page". 29 August 2006. Archived from the original on 29 August 2006. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  35. ^ "Turkmenistan". State.gov. Archived from the original on 8 June 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  36. ^ "The results of the national population census in 2009". Agency of Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan. 12 November 2010. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2010.

Bibliography

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