The Spread of Buddhism

112 xavier tremblay

borrowed from Sogdian, viz. from *wsnt, a loan word from Gndhr

posadhu [*osà (< Skt. upoadha). The latter term is lost as well, but

an enlarged form, ws’ntk is the unique vocable for “fast” attested

in Manichaean and Buddhist Sogdian texts. Uigh. bwst cannot have

been borrowed from Manichaean Sogdian, since ws’ntk is re ected

in Manichaean Uighur by another form, viz. wsnty. Uigh. bq and

bwst are in fact borrowings from spoken Sogdian, without assignable

religious af liation.

We can conclude that the Uighurs learnt their Buddhist vocabulary

not from Sogdian books, but from Sogdian preachers who spoke a

simple, non-technical language free from Chinese cal ques unlike the one

they wrote. As Jes P. Asmussen (1965, p. 147) put it: “The Buddhism

found among the Uighurs is popular.” Nothing militates against the

assumption that the Sogdian preachers were Buddhists, and the above

examples 2, 4 and 5 rule out Manichaeans.

4.3. Multiplicity of Traditions within the Turkic Buddhism

The above leads us to a rather different reconstitution of the beginnings

of Buddhism among the Turks. In the Eastern Türk Empire and in

the Mongolian Uighur Empire before it seized the Tarim Basin (i.e.

before 790), Buddhism was but a part of the Chinese way of life: the

Khans begged for Buddhist manuscripts as they begged for a calen dar,

for silk, and so on. Because of their anti-Chinese policy,^177 the Uighur

Khans (with the exception of the years 779–808) chose a non-Chinese

religion, viz. Manicheism.^178 Earlier Buddhist missions existed during

the Türk Empire, and they may have left so me Buddhist communities

or a general acquaintance with some Buddhist concepts, per haps some

loanwords, but no written translations in Türk Turkic because it was

still an unwritten language. If there were monasteries, their manuscripts

must have been in Chinese or Sogdian.

Despite the court Manichaeism, Buddhist in uence was by no means

insigni cant among the Uighurs, since some details in Manichaean

Turkic texts betray that they were intended for a Buddhist audience.^179

The earlier Buddhist Uighur tradition was laid by Sogdians who came,

as did all Sogdian Buddhists, from China. They addressed laymen, not

(^177) Cf. Mackerras 1969, pp. viii–ix; Beckwith 1987, p. 146; Tremblay 2001,
p. 116.
(^178) Tremblay 2001, pp. 110–114.
(^179) Tremblay 2001, p. 107.
Heirman_f5new_75-129.indd 112 3/13/2007 1:15:58 PM