buddhism in the west uyghur kingdom and beyond 195
2 The Uyghurs
When the Uyghurs first made contacts with Buddhism is not known.21
A conversion story, so often encountered in the history of religions of Central
Asia, is missing. One of their princes who came to power in 629—long before
the establishment of the Uyghur Empire in Mongolia—received the title
bodhisattva (Chin. pusa 菩薩),22 but whether he was a devout Buddhist is
rather doubtful. As to Buddhism in the East Uyghur Empire in Mongolia
some scholars have speculated that a certain passage in the Chinese part of
the trilingual Karabalgasun23 inscription (dated around 815–820), where the
destruction of idols is mentioned as an outcome of the Kagan’s conversion to
Manichaeism, might refer to Buddhist sculptures.24 But this event rather refers
to the native religion of the Uyghurs,25 the idols of which would correspond
most likely to the ongγod of the Mongols.
21 There is no comprehensive monograph on Uyghur Buddhism. Still the best introduction
to Uyghur Buddhist literature is Zieme, Religion und Gesellschaft. Primarily a
bibliographical survey is Elverskog, Johan, Uygur Buddhist Literature (Turnhout: Brepols,
1997). Cf. also Kudara, Kōgi, “A Rough Sketch of Central Asian Buddhism,” Pacific World 4,
3rd series (2002): 93–107, accessed August 26, 2013; http://www.shin-ibs.edu/documents/
pwj3-4/06KD4.pdf; and Scharlipp, Wolfgang Ekkehard, “Kurzer Überblick über die
buddhistische Literatur der Türken,” Materialia Turcica 6 (1980): 37–53.
22 von Gabain, “Buddhistische Türkenmission,” 168. See von Gabain, Annemarie, “Zur
Frühgeschichte der Uiguren, 607–745,” Nachrichten der Gesellschaft für Natur- und
Völkerkunde Ostasiens 72 (1952): 22 and Zieme, Religion und Gesellschaft, 76 as well.
23 Karabalgasun, or Ordo Balık, was the capital of the East Uyghur Empire. The inscription
found at this place bears a Chinese, a Sogdian and a Turkic part.
24 Cf. von Gabain, “Buddhistische Türkenmission,” 168–169; von Gabain, Annemarie,
“Der Buddhismus in Zentralasien,” in Religionsgeschichte des Orients in der Zeit der
Weltreligionen, ed. Bertold Spuler (Leiden, Köln: Brill, 1961), 507. See Klimkeit, “Buddhism,”
56–57 as well. Tang thinks that a passage in the Chinese part of the inscription (“being
ignorant in the past, we called the devil Buddha”) refers to the abandonment of Buddhism
for the sake of Manichaeism. See Tang, Li, A History of Uighur Religious Conversions
(5th–16th Centuries) (Singapore: Asia Research Institute, 2005), 29. Cf. Palumbo, Antonello
“La conversione degli Uiguri al Manichaeismo: La versione cinese,” in Il Manicheismo,
Volume 1: Mani e il Manicheismo, ed. Gherardo Gnoli ([Milano]: Mondadori, 2003), 260,
where we find a plural in the translation: “in passato eravamo ignoranti, e chiamavamo
‘Buddha’ dei demoni”. As “Buddha” is often used in Eastern Manichaeism as a positive
designation of Mani and other apostles, it is clear that the former false worship of the
Uyghurs refers to their native religion.
25 This is the alternative interpretation given in von Gabain, “Buddhistische Türkenmission,”
169.