The Spread of Buddhism

the spread of buddhism in serindia 105

of Qu , perhaps Chinese or partly Chinese in origin, and in any case

highly sinicised by the early seventh century,^146 with Gaochang —at

that time a Turkic town (Qoo) had developed near Turfan. After 640,

Turfan was, unlike the other towns, a Chinese prefecture, under direct

administration which lasted until the Uighur conquest in 791/792.

Turfan is evoked only twice by Chinese sources in relation to Buddhist

missions: a copy of the Mahyna text A    ashasrik came from Turfan

to China in 382 AD; in the same year the monk Kumrabodhi, the

purohita (in principle, a brhmanic chaplain) of the king of Turfan,

arrived in Chang’an. However, Turfan was renowned as a major cen-

tre for the translation of Sanskrit sources into Chinese, as it was later

(8th–9th century) for the translation from Tocharian (A) into Turkic.

But in Turfan the Chinese population probably grew signi cantly at

an early stage, so that to the eyes of the Chinese the monks from

Turfan were probably not “western” and attracted less attention from

historiogra phers.

For the years before the Former Liang very little material is avail-

able. As for the period between 448 and 640, the Tujue (i.e.

Türk) Buddhist inscription dated 469 on the Idiqutahri temple—it is

impossible to say whether the king who ordered the temple was a mere

sponsor or a dedicated Buddhist—and the ca. 400 Chinese documents

and contracts unearthed between 1959 and 1979 in the Astana tombs

betoken the existence of numerous monasteries. The  rst Qu kings

were rather prone to Confucianism, but Qu Wentai , the last

king, was noted for his devotion to Buddhism.

Buddhism did not stand alone: Mazdean temples are attested,^147

Nestorianism found its way there, probably already in the sixth century,

and Daoist manuscripts and amulets have been unearthed.

3.5. Other Kingdoms: Agni (Qaraahr) and Kashgar (Kar)

If information on Buddhism in Khotan, Kucha or Turfan is insuf cient,

it exceeds the information on the other kingdoms. Agni seems at various

epochs to have been subjected to or pressed by Kucha.^148 It is never

(^146) Twitchett 1979, p. 225.
(^147) Trombert 2002, pp. 525f.
(^148) Tremblay 2001, p. 40 n. 62. So, for instance, the crown of the Agni kings as
depicted on wall paintings seems to have been debased during the sixth century
( J. Ebert, orally), and after Kucha’s fall in 640, the Turkish general in Chinese service
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