History of Central Asia

The Establishment of the Jurchen Empire The Jurchen were a Tungusic Manchu people whose homeland was in northern Manchuria and the adjacent region of southeastern Siberia across the Amur River. They were for­est dwellers whom the Khitans conscripted for their ritual hunts....

The remainder of the Umayyad period over the ensuing years of the first half of the eighth century saw a bewildering frequent change of alliances as even more powers entered the fray for control of West Turkistan and the Silk Route. Through a review of the main events, it will...

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...

This bibliography, compiled in 1996, contains materials for supplementing "The Historical Interaction between the Buddhist and Islamic Cultures before the Mongol Empire" from the previous Berzin Archives website with further parts on the Mongol and Post-Mongol Periods.]...

Buddhism flourished along the Silk Route in East Turkistan (present-day Xinjiang in the People’s Republic of China) from the 1st century BCE until the 14th century CE and is present even today among the Kalmyk Mongols in the north of the province.

A comprehensive overview of the history of Buddhism in Afghanistan from shortly after the time of the Buddha up until the end of the Mongol period in the 14th century.

For those who have the opportunity to receive the Kalachakra Initiation, it is important to take advantage of the opportunity to gain as much as possible from the experience by having knowledge of the Kalachakra practice and the background of the empowerment.

Buddhism was practiced by several groups of Turkic people in Central Asia, from the mid-3rd to the 14th century CE. The Tuvinians in Siberia have followed Buddhism from the 18th century until today.

The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE) was the first Arab empire in the Middle East. It was the first Muslim empire to interact with Buddhists in parts of Central Asia and the western regions of the Indian subcontinent.

The Kalachakra depiction of the non-Indic prophets and its prophecies of a future war with their followers must be understood in its historical and cultural context.