Buddhism at the Time of Early Chinese and Kushan Influence in Central Asia

China was first unified by the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE). Confucianism and Daoism had developed during the War­ring States period prior to this (481–221 BCE). The Qin found­er, however, conducted a widescale burn­ing of books, as the result of which much of the earlier lear­ning and ritua­ls were lost. He built the first Great Wall as a defense against the peoples of Mongolia. The Qin was fol­lowed by the Han Dynas­ty (206 BCE – 220 CE). 

At approximately the same time as the establishment of the Han, the Xiongnu (匈奴)Empire was founded in Mongolia and East Turkistan. This empire, centered in Mongolia and divided in 58 CE, lasted until the early third century CE. The Xiongnu, who spoke a Siberian tongue, con­trolled trade along the Silk Route and had almost con­stant warfare with Han China. From the Xiongnu, the Chinese deri­ved the customs of wearing pants and fighting with a cav­alry of mounted archers.

Due to the expansion of these Xiongnu and, behind them, the Han Empire of China, a Hunnic group, known to the Chi­nese as the Yuezhi (月氏), were driven out of modern-day west­ern Gansu and East Turki­stan between 177 and 165 BCE. The Yuezhi were referred to as Tokharians in Greek sources. Their tribes scat­tered in different directions, but the major group went north­west to the steppes of the Ili River area of Ka­zakh­stan and Dzungaria. They drove south the noma­dic Shaka people who had been in the Kazakhstan area since the Achaemenid times, occa­sionally allied with the more settled Sogdians. Like the Sha­kas, the Yuezhi were ethnically Turk­ic but spoke an Iranian tongue. 

In the mid-second century BCE, the Shakas conquered Sogdia from the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. They went on to take Bactria itself in 139 BCE, during the reign of the Greco-Bactrian Buddhist King Menandr­os. In Bac­tria, the Shakas began to turn to Buddhism.

During the end of the second century BCE, the Yuezhi began to move south from the Ili River area, driving the Sha­kas further south ahead of them. By around 100 BCE, they had al­ready conquered Sogdia and Bactria from the Shakas, and set­tled in these areas, assi­milating Bud­dhism. The Bactria area and east­wards to the Pamir Moun­tains be­came known as Tokha­ri­stan. The Yuezhi became known as the Kusha­ns, and this was the start of the Kushan Dyna­sty.

Although the Shakas had at times been allied with the Par­thians against the Yuezhi, this was not a stable arrange­ment. Driven out of Bactria, the Shakas took from the Parthian Empire the area of mode­rn-day southern Afghanistan and Balu­chistan, which became their main base. In the late first cen­tury BCE, the Shakas took Gandhara as well and ended the Greco-Bac­trian rule in northwestern India, which had con­tracted to this area.

The Han Dynasty was the first Chinese power to extend its poli­tical influence into East Turkistan. This oc­curred under the rule of Emperor Wu of Han (140–87 BCE), in a policy aimed not only at territorial expansion, but also at con­tain­ment of the Xiongnu who continued to raid and control the Silk Route. No one, however, wanted to co-operate with the Chinese and face the wrath of the Xiongnu. 

First the emperor sent his representative, Zhang Qian （张倩）, to the Yuezhi king­dom in Sog­dia to try to secure an alliance. The mission failed, but Zhang Qian gathe­red much information about the lands of West Turkistan and India that lay beyond to the south. He also visited the Pamir and Karakorum mountain regions that were already under Yuezhi control. There was no mention of Bud­dhism in his reports, although it was already present in most of these areas. 

Zhang Qian was sent on anot­her mission to the Wusun peo­ples in the Ili Valley area where the Yuezhi had been, to the north of Sogdia. He was to try to con­vince the king to move his people further east to contain and attack the Xiongnu from the rear. The king re­fused. The Chinese then estab­lished diplomat­ic relations with Par­thia in order to obtain hor­ses from the Ferghana Valley. They needed these to create a cavalry to fight against the Xiongnu. When the king of Fer­ghana would not cooperate with the Chinese, the Han for­ces attacked in order to secure the horse trade.

By 101 BCE, many of the city states along the nor­th­ern and southern rims of the Tarim Basin had become Chi­nese protector­ates. Kashgar was especially guarded by China for trade pur­poses with Sogdia and Bac­tria. In 98 BCE, Emperor Wu of Han es­tablished the first Chinese mili­tary gar­rison at Dunhuang in wes­tern Gansu. This later became an important site in the interaction between Chinese and Tibe­tan Buddhism. Kucha did not come under Chinese control until the mid-first century CE. Khotan, during this period, remain­ed a powerful king­dom, totally independent of China.

Through his military campaigns and securing of Gansu, Wu of Han was able to prevent the Xiongnu from invading China. Subsequent battles between them were contained within the Tarim Basin. The Xiongnu, however, were weakened by internal quarrels, and their empire was split around 58 BCE. The Eastern Xiongnu Kingdom was mostly in Mongolia and under Chine­se suzer­ainty for its early years. The West­ern Xiongnu state conquered even further west and north of the Tarim. Some scho­lars assert that these Western Xiongnu reap­peared four hun­dred years later as the Huns of Attila, who ravaged Europe.

From their base in Sogdia and Bactria, the Kushans conquered Kashmir, all the Shaka-con­trol­led areas, includ­ing Gan­dhara, as well as some of the easternmo­st parts of the Par­thian Em­pire. The Sha­kas were allowed to retain con­trol over their area in Balu­chistan as vas­sals of the Kusha­n state. Through­out all this period from the second century BCE, both the Shakas and Kus­ha­ns con­tinued to support Bud­dhism in these reg­ions. In Kash­mir, for instance, the pre-Vaibhashika abhid­harma texts and commen­taries of the Sarvas­tivada school were compiled at this time.

The most famous Kushan king was Kanishka I, who ruled from 127 to 150 CE over a huge empire from eastern Iran to the cen­tral part of northern In­dia, including Sogdia and Tokhari­stan. His western capital was at Kapisha, not far from mo­dern-day Kabul. He supported the Sarvas­tivada school of Hina­yana, which was probably the major Buddhist sect throughout his kingdom. Dharma­guptaka and the Lokottaravada branch of Maha­sanghika were also still present in certain areas.

Kanishka sent a mis­sion of five hundred monks from Kashmir to Ladakh, es­tablish­ing the Sarvas­tivada school there. The popular Ladakhi belief is that Buddhism first came to the area at the time of King Ashoka. Kanishka’s mis­sion is purported to have reached the western parts of Tibet as well. It needs to be inves­tigated whe­ther they had any contact with the Tibe­tan kingdom of Zhang-zhung found in this area, with its Bon reli­gion. There is no eviden­ce of any cave monasteries having been es­tablished in Zhang-­zhung by this mission. The Zhang-zhung people generally lived in cave cities. 

There were numerous Buddhist cave monasteries at many sites throughout Bactria, Tokharistan and Oddiyana, in modern-day Afghanistan and Tajikistan. It is difficult to know when they were estab­lished. But they were flourishing during the time of Kanishka. The example most well-known today was at Bamiyan in the cen­tral Hindu Kush moun­tains. Monks from Par­thia later stud­ied in some of these monasteries, particularly in Tokh­aristan, before tra­veling on to tran­s­late in China. 

The Vaibhashika school of Sarvastivada was especially pro­minent at these cave monasteries of Bactria and Tokharis­tan. The Tokharian monk Ghoshaka was one of the com­pilers of the Vaibha­shika commentaries ac­cepted at the Fourth Buddhist Coun­cil held by Kanishka. Other Tokharians trans­lated Vaibhashika texts into their local language. 

King Kani­shka was tolerant of Brah­manism, Zoro­astrianism and the Greek reli­gions practiced within his domain. His poli­cy was a continuation of the Gre­co-Bactrian one that had preceded in Gandh­ara, Od­diyana, Bactria and Sogdia. Reflect­ing this long ongoing tol­erance, one of the most im­portant continuing influ­ences from these south­western Cen­tral Asian area­s was on the Bud­dhist artwork and sculp­ture. What be­came known as the Gandha­ra school was a blend of classical Indian Bud­dhist and Greek styles. This school of art was found through­out Cent­ral Asia.

Although some cultural influence came from Sogdian and Parthian merchants, the main impetus to Buddhism in East Turk­istan came from the Kushans. The Chinese were later recipients of the fruits of that contact.

The furthest extent of Han Chinese conquest in Central Asia occurred during the second half of the first century CE, be­ginning with the reign of Emperor Ming of Han. This is the emperor under whom Bud­dhism is supposed to have officially first en­tered China. Chi­na’s con­quests in East Turki­stan, however, were limited to the northe­rn Tarim states, such as Kucha. At this time, Kho­tan was very strong and ruled the entire south­ern rim of the Tarim Basin. The Chinese were un­able to defeat them. 

The influ­ence of the Chi­nese quick­ly waned in the Tarim Basin at the beginning of the second century CE. The Khotan­ese ex­pelled the Chinese from Kashgar and incor­porated it into their king­dom. 

In about 150 CE, after the passing away of King Kanishka, the Kusha­ns, in turn, conquered and held for a brief per­iod Khotan including Kashgar. The native Khotanese line of rule of the Vijaya Dynasty, however, was never broken. The Sarvastiva­da school, which had already spread to Khotan from Kashmir in the mid-first century BCE, received a further boost. More mon­as­teries were built. During this period, Buddhism, particu­lar­ly Sarvas­ti­vada, b­egan to flou­rish as well in Kucha and the states of the nor­th­ern Tarim Basin. This spread was due to the Kushan in­fluence in Khota­n. 

Towards the end of the Kushan Dynasty, in the beginning of the third cen­tury CE, Iranian ele­ments came into the Bud­dhism of its Central Asian areas. Pre­viously, Kushan coins had both Buddhas and Zoroastrian deities on them. Now, in Bactrian cave monasteries such as Kara Tepe in present-day Uzbekistan there were wall paintings of Buddhas with two auras of flames around them. In­scrip­tions called these figures “Buddha-Mazda.” This was an amal­gam of Buddha and Ahura Mazda, the supreme god of Zoroastrianism. 

The Kushan Dynasty was overthrown in Central Asia in 224 by the Iranian Sasanian Empire. The Sasanians were strong sup­por­ters of Zoroastrianism who tolerated Buddhism. Although not much is known about the Central Asian Buddhism of this period, it is clear that skillful means were employed to make Buddhism accessible to those imbued with the Zoroastrian worldview. 

Although the Sasanians destroyed many of the Kushan palaces, they did not interfere with the Buddhist monasteries. In fact, even more monastic facilities were built. The Hinayana Lokot­taravada followers, for example, built two colossal Buddha statues at Bamiyan in the central Hindu Kush mountains some­time between the third and early fifth centuries. Lokotta­ra­vada asserts Buddhas as superhuman, transcendent beings. To depict this, one of these two statues, at fifty-five meters, is the world’s largest standing Buddha. 

It was shortly after the reign of King Kanishka that Maha­yana began to appear in North India in the beginning of the second century CE. It spread quickly throughout the Kush­an Empire, which at this point included Khotan and Kashgar. Thus, after the Hina­yana Sarvas­tivada tradition had become estab­lished in the oasis kingdoms of the southern rim of the Tarim Basin, Mahayana slowly came there as well. Khot­an soon be­came the stronghold of Mahayana in East Turkistan, although in the early centuries it was favored mostly by a minority. Mahayana was also introduced in Kashgar.

Kucha, however, on the northern rim of the Tarim, remai­ned strongly Hinayana Sarvastivada. Although the famous translator Kuma­rajiva began to intro­duce Mahayana there at the end of the fourth century, it still remain­ed predomin­ately Hinay­ana. Kuma­rajiva had studied Sarvastivada in Kashmir, but then had turn­ed to Mahayana in Kashgar, where it was also a minority faith. It was only at the end of the sixth century that Kucha became a Mahayana land.

The earliest Mahayana sutras that had appeared in India were all translated from Sanskrit and more colloquial Pra­krits into Khotanese. This in­cluded the Prajñāpāramitā, Sukhāvatīvyūha, Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa and Śūraṅgama Sūtras. It is difficult to know exactly when the earliest translations were made. The texts that have survived are dated from the seventh to the tenth centuries but were undoubtedly antedated by earlier copies. Tantric texts were translated during the tenth century. The Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, with its emphasis on gain­ing rebirth in the Pure Land of the Buddha of Boundless Light, was readily accessible to those with a Zoroastrian background. Unlike Tibetan translations, Khotanese ones are not liter­al. Some­times they are expanded and sometimes condensed from the ori­ginals. The aim seems to have been to make the texts as intel­ligible and readable as possible. Tibetans never took such liberty. Occasionally material was added from the commen­tarial tradition. But since the tran­s­lators were expert scho­lars, the sense was never lost. 

Mahayana sutras were also translated from Sanskrit into Kuche­an after the end of the sixth century. The Kuchean lan­guage is sometimes called Tokharian by Western scholars. It has no rela­tion, however, with Tokharistan. 

Furthermore, certain sutras seem to have been compiled in Central Asia itself. Or at least their written form was in­fluenced by the Central Asian context in which they appeared. This is because East Turkistani place names are found in them. For instance, one sutra praises Goshringa mountain, the site of the most famous monastery in Khotan. Another describes emanations of the Bud­dha spreading forth on rays of light to India, China, Khotan and Kucha.

The Hinayana Mahasanghika school, a forerunner of Mahayana, was present in Oddiyana since the mid­dle of the fourth century BCE. It spread from there to the Hindu Kush area of cent­ral Af­ghanistan, where its Lokottaravada subsect established it­self at Bamiyan. Mahasanghika and Lokottaravada may have also made inroads into Bactria and Sogdia, but this is unclear.

Mahayana came to these West Turkistani areas later than it did to East Turkistan. This occurred during the fifth and sixth centuries CE. It apparently came from Kashmir and Gan­dhara. By the fourth century, the former area of Oddiyana was known by two names. The regions to the west of the Khyber Pass, in modern-day eastern Afghanistan, were known as Nagara­hara. East of the Khyber Pass, modern-day northwestern Paki­stan and Swat retained the name Oddiyana. Pockets of Mahayana were found in Oddiyana itself and in the Hindu Kush regions west of Nagarahara. Hinayana, in particular Sarvasti­vada, how­ever, remained the predominant Buddhist tradition of Nagara­hara and Bactria.

The Sogdians had followed the Sarvastivada tradition. Many of them turned to Manichaeism during the fourth century. The major language of the Manichaean scriptures was Sogdian. Some also adopted Nestorian Christianity. As the principal mer­chants of the Silk Route, they seemed to have been open to many foreign religions. They were not only instrumental in the early transmission of Hinayana Buddhism to China but also brought Manichaeism. By 675, Manichaeism was well-established in western China. The Sogdians helped translate both Buddhist and Manichaean texts into Chinese.

Although Mahayana influences from central Afghanistan may have reached the Sogdians in their homeland, the major Mahaya­na contact came from the Chinese. This was in the Sogdian en­claves of the western Chinese cities at the terminus of the Silk Route. Thus, Buddhist translations into the Sogdian lan­guage were made pri­mari­ly from the Chinese and not the San­skrit and Prakrit texts. They too were mostly of the major early Mahayana su­tras, but also incl­uded texts that are no longer extant in Chinese. As with the Kho­tanese materi­als, the surviving manus­cripts date from the seventh century. Since the Sog­dians were mostly merchants resi­dent in China and not ex­pert scho­lars, their translations con­tain many errors.

Thus, it would seem that the early Sogdian Buddhists in Sogdia itself maintained their Sarvastivada tradition in the San­skrit language. This seems to have been the case with the Sarvastivada followers in the other West Turkistani and Afghan lands as well. Cen­tral Asian monks translated texts from San­skrit and Prakrit into Chinese during the early spread of Buddhism into China but seem to have kept the texts in the original in their own lands. 

Since there were so many lands in Central Asia during this early period, and the history is so complex, let us summarize the development of Buddhism in each.

(1) Gandhara was under Seleucid Greco-Iranian rule for only twenty-five years. Then as part of the Mauryan Empire of In­dia, first Theravada, at the time of King Ashoka, and then Sarvastivada spread there. It was conquered by the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. In the first century BCE, it was taken by the Shakas who were based in Baluchistan, having been driv­en south by the Yuezhi. It then became part of the Kushan Dynasty. By the sixth century, Mahayana came from In­dia.

(2) Oddiyana received the Mahasanghika tradition during the mid-fourth century BCE. It was also under brief Seleucid rule and then part of the Indian Mauryan Empire. Although King Ashoka sent a Theravada mission, Thera­vada never became stron­gly established. Oddiyana passed into Greco-Bactrian, Shaka and then Kushan hands. Sarvastivada entered under Kushan in­fluence. Maha­sanghika and its Lokottaravada subsect remained domina­nt in the Hindu Kush regions to the west. By the sixth century, Mahayana spread to its westernmost and easternmost areas from India. The region in present-day eastern Afghani­stan remained Sarvastivadin.

(3) Bactria was under Seleucid Greco-Iranian rule for about ninety years. It then formed the center of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, which included Sogdia. Sarvastivada came to Bactria about forty years later when it conquered Gandhara. A monas­tery had been built in Bactria at the time of the Buddha, but it is uncertain whether there was any lasting influence from that time. Bactria was conquered by the Shakas, who were driv­en south from Ka­zakhstan to Sogdia to Bactria by the Yuezhi. It was then taken by the Yuezhi and made part of the Kushan Dynasty. Mahayana hardly spread to Bactria.

(4) Sogdia was independent of the Seleucid Greco-Iranian Em­pire. It was conquered by the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and received Sarvastivada when Bactria conquered Gandhara. Sogdia was taken by the Shakas who had been driven south from Kazakh­stan by the Yuezhi. It was then conquered by the Yuezhi and formed part of their Kushan Dynasty. 

After the fall of the Kushan Dynasty, the Sogdians became most­ly Manichaean, incor­pora­ting many of their Buddhist con­cepts. Sogdian merchants became the main trans­mit­ters of Mani­chae­ism and Nes­torianism in Cen­tral Asia and China. They help­ed translate Sanskrit Buddhist texts into Chinese. They re­ceived Mahayana from China, most prominently during the seven­th century. They tra­ns­lated Maha­yana texts into Sog­dian from Chines­e. 

(5) Kashmir received Theravada Buddhism from King Ashoka. It then became the stronghold of Sarvastivada, which spread from there to Khotan, Gilgit and Tokharistan. It was conquered by the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. The Yuezhi conquered it as part of their Kushan Dynasty. Sarvastivada then spread from Kashmir to Khotan and Ladakh. Vaibhashika, Sautrantika and Mulasarvastivada all developed in Kashmir. Mahayana came to Kashmir towards the end of the Kushan period.

(6) Parthia was under Seleucid Greco-Iranian rule. It then became the center of the Arsacid Empire that was primarily Zoroastri­an. Dharmagupta came to Parthia from western India, the Sindh and Baluchistan. Parthia had trade relations with China, and the Dharmagupta monastic lineage spread from Par­thia to China. The Parthians studied Buddhist texts mostly in Sanskrit and often at the cave monasteries of Bactria and Tokharistan. Parthian monks helped translate Sarvastivada and Dharmagupta texts from Sanskrit into Chinese. 

(7) Khotan was founded with Gandharan, Chinese and Iranian elements. Sarvastivada came to Khotan from Kashmir during the Greco-Bactrian period. From Khotan, it spread to Kashgar and Kucha. Khotan was conquered by the Kushans, who strengthened Sarvastivada and introduced Mahayana. After the overthrow of the Kushans, Khotan remained independent until it was conquered by the Tibetans in the seventh century. It was a stronghold of Mahayana, and many texts were translated from Sanskrit into Khotanese. 

(8) Kashgar was a Chinese protectorate for about two cen­turies. It was then taken by Khotan, which introduced Sarvas­ti­vada there. After eighty years, Kashgar was taken by the Kush­ans who had conquered Khotan. Mahayana was then intro­duced, but Kashgar remained primarily Sarvastivada. 

(9) Kucha was a Chinese protectorate for about two hundred years. It then became independent. Sarvastivada came from Khotan, particularly during the Kushan period. Although Maha­yana was present to a limited extent in Kucha, Sarvastivada dominated. Texts were translated from Sanskrit into Kuchean.

The pattern of the early spread of Buddhism in Central Asia, then, was different from that in Southeast Asia. Early Indian Mahayana went to Cambodia, south­ern Viet­nam, and later to Sri Lanka, nor­thern Myan­mar and Indonesia. But except for in Viet­nam and Indone­sia, it was supplanted in Southeast Asia by Thera­vada. In Central Asia, on the other hand, the opposite occurred. Except for Bactria, Parthia, eastern Afghanis­tan and Kucha, Maha­yana came to predo­minate over the ear­lier Sar­vasti­vada, Maha­sanghika and Dharmaguptaka. But in most cases, several forms of Hinayana and Mahayana coexisted in the lands of Cen­tral Asia.