History of Buddhism

The Political and Religious Climate among the Tanguts With the establishment of the Khitan Liao Dynasty in Mongolia, Manchuria, and parts of northern Han China in 947, and the Northern Song reunification of the rest of Han China in 960, the Tanguts became pressed from both the...

Tangut Thwarting of Qarakhanid Plans for Further Expansion After the fall of Khotan, the Qarakhanids could not press further eastward in their campaign to capture the rest of the southern Tarim. Mahmud of Ghazni attacked from the south and war ensued between the two Turkic...

The Situation of the East-West Trade Routes The overland Silk Route from China to the West passed from East to West Turkistan, and on through Sogdia and Iran to Byzantium and Europe. An alternative route passed from West Turkistan through Bactria, the Kabul and Punjabi...

Tibetan Relations with China Tibet and China had first established diplomatic relations in 608 when Emperor Songtsen-gampo’s father, Namri-lontsen (gNam-ri slon-mtshan), had sent the first Tibetan mission to the Chinese court at the time of the Sui Dynasty. Songtsen-gampo, in...

The Dzungar Mongols, from whom the Kalmyks broke away when they migrated to the Volga at the beginning of the seven­teenth century, originally had seven stone monasteries in East Turkistan. Three were in the north near the Russian border, with one at Hoboksar 和布克塞尔 and two to...

The Kyrgyz Conquest of Mongolia The Kyrgyz (Kirghiz) were originally a Mongolian people from the mountain forests of the present-day Altai and Tuva districts of southern Siberia north of Dzungaria. Some of their tribes also lived in the western reaches of the Tianshan Range to...

The Ghaznavid Campaign in Gandhara and Northwestern India After Mahmud of Ghazni was repulsed in 1008 in his attack on the Qarakhanid Empire to his north, he enlisted the Seljuq Turks in southern Sogdia and Khwarazm to defend his kingdom from Qarakhanid retribution. The...

Introduction There are between 20,000 to 40,000 Yellow Yugurs (Yugu Zu 裕固族), a Turkic people residing in Gansu 甘肃, China. The Yellow Yugurs are related to the Uighurs of East Turkistan (Xinjiang 新疆), but they still follow Tibetan Buddhism, unlike the Uighurs, who converted...

Introduction The Ningxia Hui Autono­mous Regi­on 宁夏回族自治区, located between southern Gansu 甘肃 and Inner Mongolia 内蒙古, is the homeland of the Hui Chinese Muslim minority. Previ­ously, Ningxia was a province of Inner Mongolia and was in­cluded in its westernmost region, the...

The Initial Military Drive across Northern India In 1148, Ala-ud-Din of the nomadic Guzz Turks from the mountains of Afghanistan conquered the region of Ghur in eastern Iran, which gave its name to his Ghurid Empire (1148 – 1215). He proceeded to take Bactria from the...