Buddhism in the Turkic Khaganate
From Tibet, Buddhism went to the various other Himalayan regions, such as Ladakh, Lahul, Spiti, Kinnaur, the Sherpa region of eastern Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal. Actually, Arunachal, to the east of Bhutan, was part of Tibet until the Shimla agreement with Britain in 1913 when it was incorporated into India. The languages spoken in all these areas are Tibetan dialects. The largest scale spread, however, was to Mongolia. In Mongolia, including both what is known as Outer and Inner Mongolia – an artificial division made by the Manchus in the early seventeenth century before they took over China – there was a first spreading of Central Asian Mahayana Buddhist teachings starting at the end of the sixth century with the Turk and then the Uighur rule. Let us backtrack for a moment.
The early forms of Indian Buddhism that had spread through both West and East Turkistan did not influence only China. They also reached several Central Asian peoples, often in combination with elements of Chinese Buddhism. One important example is the Gök Turks, the earliest recorded people known to have spoken a Turkic language and to have borne the name “Turk.”
The Gök Turks established the Turkic Khaganate in the second half of the sixth century. It soon divided into a Northern and a Western Khaganate. The Northern Turks controlled much of Mongolia and were centered around Lake Baikal and the upper Yenisei River valley, in the regions that later became Buryatia and Tuva in present-day Russia. The Western Turks were centered farther southwest, around Urumqi in East Turkistan (modern Xinjiang) and Tashkent in present-day Uzbekistan.
Buddhism first reached the Turkic Khaganate from Sogdia, in what is now Uzbekistan. Having spread there during the second and third centuries CE, toward the end of the Kushan period, it consisted primarily of Hinayana traditions, with some Mahayana elements as well. Sogdian merchants, who were active throughout the Silk Road, carried their culture and religions wherever they traveled. They also played a major role in the translation of Buddhist literature, rendering Sanskrit texts into Chinese and several Central Asian languages, and later translating many Buddhist works into Sogdian, first from Sanskrit and subsequently mainly from Chinese. Although a few Sogdian translations reached the Turkic Khaganate, most surviving Sogdian Buddhist translations date from the late seventh and early eighth centuries. Some Chinese Buddhist texts that have since been lost survive only in their Sogdian translations.
During the period of the Northern and Western Turkic Khaganates, however, the principal transmitters of Buddhism to the Turks were not the Sogdians but Mahayana monks from the Turfan region on the northeastern rim of the Tarim Basin in East Turkistan. Working together with Indian, Sogdian, and Chinese monks, they translated a number of Buddhist texts into the Gök Turk language. This represents the earliest documented transmission of Buddhism to Mongolia, Buryatia, and Tuva, although it did not endure there for long.
Even before Buddhism reached the Gök Turks, peoples living on the periphery of Mongolia had already come into contact with it. The first empire established on Mongolian soil was that of the Shanyu, known in Chinese sources as the Xiongnu, which arose at the end of the third century BCE. Although they are often identified with the Huns, the Shanyu appear to have spoken a Siberian language rather than a Turkic one.
In the mid-first century CE, the Shanyu split into eastern and western branches. During the mid-fourth century, one group from the western branch established the Later Zhao Dynasty in northern China and adopted Buddhism at the imperial court. Their principal Buddhist connections were with Kucha on the northern rim of the Tarim Basin. The people of Kucha were closely related to those of nearby Turfan, from where Buddhism would spread to the Gök Turks about two centuries later.
Meanwhile, in West Turkistan, the Western Turks continued the Buddhist traditions that they had inherited until they were defeated by the Arabs in the early eighth century and the region gradually became Islamized. Buddhism nevertheless survived there as a minority religion under the Qara Khitai and continued into the early Mongol period in the thirteenth century.
Archaeological evidence indicates that Buddhism also flourished farther north. The ruins of Buddhist monasteries dating from the sixth through the tenth centuries have been discovered in present-day Kyrgyzstan, on the western side of the Tian Shan Mountains opposite East Turkistan. Whether these monasteries belonged primarily to the Buddhist traditions of the Western Turks or the Uighurs, and to what extent they were influenced by Tibetan Buddhism, remains uncertain.
Tibetan influence in the region is, however, well attested. From the late seventh to the late ninth century, the Tibetan Empire ruled large parts of both West and East Turkistan, and in some areas, including the southern Pamir Mountains and the Ferghana Valley in present-day eastern Uzbekistan, Tibetan authority continued into the tenth century. Numerous Buddhist rock inscriptions in Tibetan script, dating from this period onward, have been found in the Chu River valley west of Lake Issyk-Kul in present-day Kyrgyzstan, extending into Kazakhstan, as well as in the Ili River valley southeast of Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan’s Almaty region. These inscriptions testify to the presence of Tibetan Buddhist culture throughout much of this region.
The Uighurs
The Uighurs, a Turkic people related to the Tuvans, conquered the Northern Turkic Khaganate and ruled Mongolia, Tuva, and neighboring regions from the mid-eighth to the mid-ninth centuries. Like the Gök Turks before them, they came under the influence of Buddhism through both Sogdian and Chinese sources. Their state religion, however, was Manichaeism, a Persian religion that they also adopted from the Sogdians. From the Sogdians they likewise adopted their script, itself derived from Syriac. This Uighur script later became the basis of the traditional Mongolian writing system, and it was also used to write Tuvan. Beginning in the ninth century, the Uighurs transmitted elements of Buddhism to the Tuvans, including the cult of Amitābha.
The Uighur Empire, centered in Mongolia, was marked by shifting alliances and frequent warfare with both the Chinese and the Tibetans. In the mid-ninth century, it was overthrown by the Turkic Kyrgyz, who came from the region north of Mongolia, near present-day Tuva. Many Uighurs then migrated southwest to the Turfan region of East Turkistan, where they established the Qocho Kingdom. Centered at Turfan, the kingdom also included Kucha to the west and eventually extended as far as Kashgar and, at its greatest extent, even to Ferghana in present-day Uzbekistan. It survived until the early thirteenth century.
The Uighurs settled in a region with a rich and diverse religious heritage. During the preceding two centuries, the Tibetans had ruled much of the Tarim Basin oasis states, the Pamir region, and parts of West Turkistan. Although Islam had already spread through much of West Turkistan, Buddhism and several other religions continued to flourish alongside it.
Another group of Uighurs migrated eastward into what is now Gansu Province in China, where Tibetan communities were also established. These became known as the Yellow Yugurs. Many of them remain Buddhists today, following the Tibetan tradition, and the Tibetan-Mongolian Gesar epic continues to occupy an important place in their culture.
Turfan and neighboring Kucha had long been major centers of Buddhism. Initially they were strongholds of the Hinayana Sarvastivada tradition, and later of Mahayana. Some of the most influential transmitters of Buddhism to China, including Kumarajiva in the fourth century, came from this region. Buddhist scriptures had already been translated there into the local Indo-European language conventionally—but incorrectly—called “Tokharian” by modern scholars. The people who spoke this language were unrelated to the historical Tocharians of northeastern Afghanistan and southeastern Tajikistan. The language had two principal dialects: Tokharian A, or Turfanian, and Tokharian B, or Kuchean.
Following their migration to Turfan in the late ninth century, the Uighurs began translating Buddhist texts into their own language on a large scale. Their earliest translations were made primarily from Sogdian versions and later increasingly from Chinese. This marks the first phase of Uighur Buddhism.
A second phase was characterized by the growing influence of Tibetan Buddhism. Increasingly, translations were made directly from Tibetan texts, and works by Tibetan masters—including Sakya Paṇḍita (Sa-skya Paṇḍita Kun-dga’ rgyal-mtshan) and numerous authors of the Kagyu tradition—were rendered into Uighur. Rather than translating many technical Buddhist terms, the Uighurs simply transliterated them, and some prayers were reproduced entirely in Tibetan using the Uighur script. This indicates that at least part of the liturgy was recited in Tibetan, a practice that later became standard among the Mongols, Buryats, Tuvans, Oirats, Kalmyks, Manchus, and many Chinese followers of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Qocho Kingdom submitted peacefully to Genghis Khan in the early thirteenth century, as did Tibet. Thereafter, the Uighurs contributed not only their writing system but also their administrative expertise to the Mongol Empire, serving prominently as civil officials. Although Buddhism later spread in Mongolia directly from Tibet rather than through the Uighur tradition, the Mongols continued to use the Uighur method of transcribing Tibetan text titles until the seventeenth century. Despite the continued expansion of Islam, Uighur Buddhism survived in East Turkistan and Gansu at least into the seventeenth century under Manchu rule, and possibly even longer.
The Tanguts of Kharakhota
Between the late tenth and early thirteenth centuries, the Tangut people established a powerful kingdom centered on Kharakhoto, southwest of Mongolia, between China, Amdo in northeastern Tibet, and the Uighur territories. Known as Minyag in Tibetan and Xixia in Chinese, the kingdom occupied a strategic position at the crossroads of Chinese, Tibetan, and Central Asian civilizations. It was a multiethnic state that included large Tibetan communities dating from the period of the Tibetan Empire, as well as substantial Chinese and Uighur populations.
The Tanguts adopted both the Chinese and Tibetan forms of Buddhism. Uighur scholars assisted in translating Buddhist texts from Chinese and Tibetan into the Tangut language. Although the Tangut script resembled Chinese in appearance, it was considerably more complex, while the Tangut language itself belonged to the Tibeto-Burman language family and was therefore more closely related to Tibetan than to Chinese.
The kingdom supported a flourishing Buddhist culture. It contained monasteries of the Tibetan traditions, especially the Karma Kagyu, as well as monasteries belonging to specifically Tangut traditions and others with mixed Tangut-Chinese communities. Knowledge of Tibetan Buddhist literature was essential for anyone seeking an administrative position within the Buddhist establishment, reflecting the prestige of Tibetan scholasticism in the kingdom.
One of the most renowned Buddhist masters associated with the Tangut kingdom was Tsami Lotsawa. In the twelfth century he traveled to Kashmir, where he received a transmission of the Kālacakra teachings that he later brought back to Tibet. This lineage subsequently became one of those preserved within the Kagyu tradition.
The Tangut kingdom was conquered by Genghis Khan in 1226, shortly before his death. Although the state disappeared, its Buddhist traditions continued for many centuries afterward. One group of Tanguts migrated into the southeastern Tibetan region of Kham, where they remained an important part of the local population and helped preserve aspects of their religious and cultural heritage.
Mongolia – the Sakya Period
The second major wave of Buddhism came to Mongolia from Tibet in the thirteenth century at the time of Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, when the great masters from the Sakya tradition, Sakya Pandita and his nephew Chogyal Phagpa (Chos-rgyal ’Phags-pa) went to Mongolia. Genghis Khan, who became acquainted with Buddhism when he conquered the Uighur Qocho and the Tangut Kharakhota kingdoms, had sent a message to Sakya Pandita saying he would like to invite him to Mongolia, but that he had still not completed his necessary conquests and fighting. On his deathbed, he requested that his son, Ogedei, be sure to invite him. Ogedei’s son, Godan Khan, finally did so, and when Sakya Pandita died, Chogyal Phagpa became the Imperial Tutor to Kublai Khan who conquered China and established the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.
Chogyal Phagpa developed a new script for the Mongolian language, called the “Phagpa square script,” to help with the translation of Buddhist material from Tibetan. This supplemented the Uighur script that was already being used, for instance for the writing of the Secret History of the Mongols, which is the account of Genghis Khan, and for administrative purposes. During this second wave in Mongolia, there were also teachers from the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma traditions as well.
Tibetan Buddhism also reached other heirs of Genghis Khan, namely the Ilkhans of Persia and perhaps the Chagatai Khans of East and West Turkistan, although that is not established. There were certainly followers of Tibetan Buddhism throughout Turkistan at that time, despite the predominance of Islam. Buddhism as a minority religion had been there since the time of the Turkic Khaganate and its successor kingdoms. Tibetan Buddhism was made the state religion of Persia for almost a decade at the end of the thirteenth century, although this did not win the support of the native Muslim population. With the fall of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty of China in the mid-fourteenth century, Buddhism, which had been supported primarily by the noble class, weakened once more in Mongolia.
The Establishment of the Gelug Tradition – the Dalai Lamas and Bogdo Gegens
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Mongols began to regather their forces. There were two major groups, who were bitter enemies and fought constantly. The first to become well-organized were the Western Mongols or Oirats. They established a large empire in the fifteenth century, later called Dzungaria. It included northern East Turkistan, much of Kazakhstan and parts of Siberia north of there, the Altai region between Kazakhstan and Tuva, and parts of Kyrgyzstan. For a time, they ruled parts of Mongolia itself, including the ancient capital of Kharakhorum.
Their rival group was the Central Mongols consisting primarily of the Khalkhas in the north and the Chahars in the south. In the early sixteenth century, they reconquered Kharakhorum, and the center of power shifted to them. In the later part of that century, their ruler, Altan Khan, saw that to further unite the Central Mongols, it was necessary to have a literate bureaucracy and an ethical basis. To turn to the Chinese for help in administrative organization risked absorption of the Mongol ruling class once more into the Chinese culture, as had happened during the Yuan period.
Tibet was not a political threat at this time, since it itself was divided with a bitter political rivalry between the rulers of Tsang (gTsang) and U (dBus) provinces. Altan Khan therefore turned to the Tibetan monastic system for help. He invited the great Gelug master Sonam Gyatso (rGyal-ba bSod-nams rgya-mtsho) and recognized him as the Third Dalai Lama, bestowing the title “Dalai Lama” posthumously on his two predecessors. “Dalai” is the Mongolian word for “ocean.” The wisdom of the Dalai Lamas is as vast as the ocean, and, except for the First, all subsequent Dalai Lamas have had the Tibetan word for ocean, “gyatso,” as part of their name. The Dalai Lama at this point had no political position.
This was the start of the third spread of Buddhism in Mongolia. The Gelug tradition was adopted and became the major form of Tibetan Buddhism among the Mongolian peoples, which further helped Central Mongol unification. Traces still remained, however, of the Sakya and Kagyu lines, although not institutionalized. Some few small monasteries did include Nyingma practices, however, but it is unclear whether these derived from Tibetan Nyingma monastic lineages or from Nyingma practices traced from the pure vision lineages of the Fifth Dalai Lama. The first Tibetan style monastery was founded in 1586 at Erdene Zu, the site of the old capital, Kharakhorum.
The Fourth Dalai Lama was born into the Khalkha Mongol ruling family, namely as the great-grandson of Altan Khan. During his short life, mostly in Lhasa, the political conflicts in Tibet continued unabetted. But the relation with the Central Mongols grew, and under their next major ruler, Ligdan Khan, the translation of the Tibetan Kangyur (bKa’-’gyur), the collection of the Tibetan translations of the enlightening words of the Buddha, into Mongolian was completed in the early seventeenth century.
By the mid-eighteenth century, the Tengyur (bsTan-’gyur), the collection of the Tibetan translations of the Indian Buddhist treatises, was translated as well from Tibetan into Mongolian. Many great Mongolian scholars wrote commentaries to the Buddhist texts, sometimes in Mongolian, but mostly in the Tibetan language. Many transliterated Sanskrit names and terms were used in the Mongolian translations, and, at a popular level, transliterated Tibetan names and words were used as well. Although the monastic tradition for monks was transmitted from Tibet to Mongolia, the tradition for novice nuns did not come to either Mongolia or the regions of the Buryat, Tuvan or Kalmyk peoples.
As a further move towards unification of the Central Mongols, the line of reincarnations of the Tibetan master Taranatha (Ta-ra-na-tha) was recognized as the Bogdo Gegens or the Khalkha Jebtsundamba Khutugtus, who became the traditional heads of Buddhism in Mongolia. They were located in the capital Urga, present-day Ulaanbaatar.
Special Features of Mongolian Buddhism
In the course of history, Tibetan Buddhism was slightly adapted to the Mongolian situation. For instance, the First Bogdo Gegen, Zanabazar, who lived in the second half of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries and who was famous as a great sculptor and artist, created a special style of robes for the Mongolian monks, especially when not performing ceremonies. They look like the usual Mongolian-style coat, but with a different style neck and in the monks’ maroon color. He also created the Soyombo alphabet, an elaboration of the Uighur-Mongolian script, used for transliterating Tibetan and Sanskrit words, especially for transcribing the titles of translated works. This replaced the borrowed Uighur method that had been used up until then.
The structure of the Mongolian monasteries, as well as the later ones in Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia, was most often modelled on that of the great monasteries of the northeastern province of Tibet, Amdo, especially Labrang Tashikyil (Bla-brang bKra-shis ’khyil) founded in the early eighteenth century. Thus, most were divided into as many as four colleges, one each for debate, tantric rituals, Kalachakra study and rituals, and Tibetan medicine and astrology. In fact, throughout the Mongolian and Turkic Buddhist areas of Mongolia and the Soviet Union, and later Russia, Kalachakra and Tibetan medicine and astrology seemed to have received even more emphasis in the monasteries than in Tibet.
Another feature shared by the monasteries in Mongolia, Buryatia and other Buddhist regions and most Tibetan Gelug monasteries is a special temple for Amitabha, called Dewachen (bDe-ba-chen), the Tibetan name for Amitabha’s pure land. Tibetan Buddhism does have ritual practices related to Amitabha and being reborn in his pure land, but the technique is through advanced tantric practices dealing with the subtle energy system and not just repeating Amitabha’s name. These do not compare in popularity, however, with the Chinese or Japanese Pure Land traditions among their own native Buddhist population.
The Mongol regions also hold the annual Inviting Maitreya Festival as celebrated in Tibet. The present Buddha, Shakyamuni, is the fourth of the thousand Buddhas of this world age. Maitreya is the next one, who will come in about eight million years from now. During this festival, in accordance with Indian customs, an image of Maitreya is led on a wooden cart in a large procession through the towns. Among the Tibetans, for instance in Lhasa and Amdo, it is held shortly after the Great Prayer Festival, Monlam, in the spring. In Mongolia, Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tuva, it is celebrated during the summer.
As in Tibet, Mongolia had many oracles. The State Oracles of Tibet are from the group known as Kunga (Kun-dga’), which were tamed and made protectors of Buddhism by Padmasambhava. Certain figures from this group also came as oracles through mediums in Mongolia. This practice was prohibited under the Communist rule. The custom of finding tulkus, or incarnate lamas, was also found widespread in Mongolia as it is among the Tibetans.
In the Mongolian debate colleges, the monastic education system did not undergo the organizational reforms of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. Thus, although the curriculum was the same, the system of degrees awarded in Mongolia was slightly different. In Tibet, five subjects are studied at the Gelug monasteries for the geshe degree:
- Prajnaparamita or “far-reaching discriminating awareness,” dealing with the stages and paths for understanding reality and reaching the various levels of spiritual attainment
- Pramana or “valid ways of knowing,” concerning logic and epistemology
- Madhyamaka or the “middle way system,” about the actual view of reality
- Abhidharma or “special topics of knowledge,” treating cosmology and so on
- Vinaya or “methods for becoming tamed,” dealing with the monks’ and nuns’ rules of discipline and vows.
In Mongolia, after completing the first two of these topics, monks were awarded the geshe degree, and upon completion of all five, the kachuba (or kachu) degree. “Kachuba” is the name of the degree presented upon completion of the monastic education system in the Sakya tradition and may be a remnant from the period of Sakya predominance in Mongolia. Kachuba is also the name of the degree awarded in Tibet upon finishing one’s training as a doctor or astrologer.
The most outstanding Mongolian students went to the great monasteries of Lhasa, Tibet, to complete their education. Specifically, most studied at Gomang College at Drepung, Je College at Sera and Jangtse College at Ganden, and also to Tashilhunpo (bKra-shis lhun-po) at Shigatse, founded by the First Dalai Lama, but seat of the Panchen Lamas. There were special divisions and houses at these monastic colleges for the Mongols. Although the requirements and examinations for them were the same as for the Tibetans, they did receive certain privileges of comfort. Monks from Buryatia, Kalmykia, Tuva and East Turkistan or Xinjiang, as well as Manchus and Chinese, were housed primarily at Gomang. Gelug monks from the Himalayan regions were found in all three major monasteries of Lhasa: Ganden, Sera and Drepung.
Debate in Mongolia was always conducted in the Tibetan language, with only a few Mongolian words added to help avoid confusion. In Tibet, not only are scriptural quotations allowed in debates as evidence to support a point, but they may even be used as given fact to start the debate. In the Mongolian style, scriptural quotations were never allowed. Everything had to be proven by pure logic alone.
Although, initially, most of the rituals were chanted in Mongolian translation, this was eventually replaced by the original Tibetan. In the monasteries, especially in the nineteenth century, even the colloquial Mongolian language spoken by the monks was to a large extent Tibetan with Mongolian grammatical endings. Many Tibetan loan words are commonly used in modern Khalkha Mongolian, for instance the names for the days of the week, and most Mongols, Buryats, Tuvans and previously Kalmyks have family and personal names derived from Tibetan. For those groups living at present in Russia, the names have been slightly Russified, so that, for instance, Rabden appears as Rabdanov, Padma as Badmaev, Tsepag as Tsybikov and so on. Many of the customs found among all these peoples are basically Tibetan. Thus, the connection between Mongolia and Tibet has remained very strong, with especially deep devotion to the Dalai Lamas.