168 CHAPTER EIGHTthe Silk Road divided into a northern route through Samarkand and a south-
ern one along the Amu River. The two routes were reunited in northwest
China at the city of Tun-huang, in Kansu province. Along this route, Bud-
dhism acquired many powerful and wealthy patrons among those who had
profited from the trade in goods. Eager to demonstrate their devotion, kings
and merchants financed towering statues, lavish temples, as well as the work of
missionaries and translators.
Unfortunately, we have only fragmentary evidence for the development of
Buddhism in central Asia during this time, so it is virtually impossible to tell
how much the central Asians added of their own to the religion, and how
much they simply accepted and transmitted it in its Indian form. There is the
possibility that the bodhisattva K~itigarbha (Earth Womb )-who later took
the form ofJizo, the bodhisattva of children and aborted fetuses in Japan-was
originally a central Asian figure. Bhai~ajyaguru (see Section 5.5.6) may also
have been a central Asian invention. It is likely that parts of the Avatarrzsaka
Sutra (see Section 4.3), which mentions central Asian place-names, were com-
posed in Khotan. Central Asians were known to have a fervent interest in the
practice of meditation and the development of psychic powers, an interest that
may have stemmed from the strong shamanic traditions in the area.
Reports from Chinese travelers tell us that the city-states of Kucha, Tur-
fan, and others along the northern route of the Silk Road belonged primarily
to the Sarvastivadin school, whereas Khotan and others along the southern
route were strongholds of Mahayana. Khotan in particular seems to have been
the major center of Buddhist activity in central Asia until the eleventh cen-
tury. Chinese travelers left detailed reports of the Buddhist festivals celebrated
there and had high praise for the decorum and discipline ofKhotanese monks.
One of the few Buddhist texts undoubtedly composed in central Asia-the
Book of Zambasta-was written in Khotan. It contains an eclectic mix of In-
dian Buddhist myths and an idealist version ofYogacara philosophy, maintain-
ing that all dharmas, including ignorance and wisdom, are ultimately unreal.
Fragmentary murals found in Khotan depicting mal)-<;ialas centered on
Mahavairocana suggest that the Yoga Tantras also were practiced there.
During this period Chinese pilgrims, convinced of the need to learn Bud-
dhism in its homeland rather than through central Asian intermediaries, began
making the long, arduous journey overland to India. First among these pil-
grims was the Chinese monk Fa-hsien, who reached India in 400 C.E. The last
pilgrims were also the most famous: Hsiian-tsang and I-ching, who made sep-
arate journeys in the seventh century shortly before the Tibetans closed the
route. This period also marks the high point in the history of the major trans-
lation center at Tun-huang. First settled by the Chinese during the Han dy-
nasty (202 B.C.E.-220 c.E.), Tun-huang had for centuries been home to a
cosmopolitan population. As the Chinese demand for Buddhist texts grew,
monk-scholars of many nationalities formed translation teams to meet the de-
mand. Prominent among these teams was the group of Indians and Chinese
who gathered around Dharmarak~a (b. 230), a native of Tun-huang born of
Indo-Scythian parents.