buddhism in the west uyghur kingdom and beyond 193
constructed a new identity of a powerful polity in the steppe supportive of
a very influential and truly international religion. They certainly benefited
from the Manichaean trade network in ancient Central Asia, which was under
the control of the Sogdians. And another important cultural achievement in the
history of Turkic peoples has to be mentioned: With the East Uyghur Empire
the process of urbanisation began which paved the way for the spread of
Buddhism which is intimately connected with sedentary urban culture in the
Tarim basin.
1 General Introduction
When Turkic-speaking peoples first embraced Buddhism is not known.12 The
activities of the Buddhist Monk Jinagupta (528–605) from Kapiśa at the court
of the Kagan Ta bo (他鈢)13 which next to the alleged translation of a cer-
tain Nirvāṇasūtra into Old Turkic is the most outstanding event reported in
Chinese sources for the 6th century.14 But the reliability of this information is
difficult to evaluate because we do not have any written records in Old Turkic
from that period.15 The remark that the text was translated into the language
of the Tujue (突厥 = Türk/Türküt) could refer to the Sogdian language because
Sogdian was the official language of chancellery in the First Türk Empire.16
12 Annemarie von Gabain gave an overview of Chinese sources dealing with the First Türk
Empire in a famous article published in 1954, which since then is very often quoted. Cf.
von Gabain, Annemarie, “Buddhistische Türkenmission,” in Asiatica: Festschrift Friedrich
Weller. Zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet von seinen Freunden, Kollegen und Schülern, ed.
Johannes Schubert and Ulrich Schneider (Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1954), 161–173. Klimkeit’s
article written in 1990 is, in fact, in parts a kind of paraphrase of von Gabain’s study. See
Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim, “Buddhism in Turkish Central Asia,” Numen 37.1 (1990): 53–69.
13 Laut, Jens Peter, Der frühe türkische Buddhismus und seine literarischen Denkmäler
(Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1986), 2, gives the name Tapar for the Chinese name Ta bo.
According to recent research, the Kagan’s name was Tatpar (formerly read as Taspar
Kagan). According to the History of the Sui Dynasty (Chin. Suishu 隋書), Tatpar was
sympathetic to Buddhism after conversing with the monk Huilin (惠琳). Cf. von Gabain,
“Buddhistische Türkenmission,” 164.
14 See Zieme, Peter, Religion und Gesellschaft im Uigurischen Königreich von Qočo: Kolophone
und Stifter des alttürkischen buddhistischen Schrifttums aus Zentralasien (Opladen:
Westdeutscher Verlag, 1992), 11–12.
15 von Gabain, “Buddhistische Türkenmission,” 164–165. On Buddhism in the Empire of the
Western Türk see von Gabain, “Buddhistische Türkenmission,” 166–167.
16 The same opinion is advanced in Tremblay, Xavier, “The Spread of Buddhism in Serindia—
Buddhism Among Iranians, Tocharians, and Turks before the 13th Century,” in The
Spread of Buddhism, ed. Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacher (Leiden, Boston: