buddhism in the west uyghur kingdom and beyond 249
Further titles derive from Chinese ones such as vapšı (< Chin. fashi 法師
‘dharma master’ = Skt. dharmabhāṇaka ‘the one who proclaims the dharma’),301
samtso (< Chin. 三藏 sanzang ‘(master of ) the tripiṭaka’)302 or bahšı (< Chin.
boshi 博士 ‘teacher’), the latter title being copied into Mongolian.303 We
even find a Sogdian title moč(a)k (< Sogd. mwck), slightly damaged in the
manuscript.304
3 Conclusion
The summary of Uyghur Buddhism in the West Uyghur Kingdom and its adja-
cent regions given in this article could not touch upon other important issues
such as the role of lay Buddhists in general and the importance of donors in
particular. Doctrinal peculiarities were only briefly mentioned. A future his-
tory of Buddhism in the West Uyghur Kingdom would have to include an
attempt to evaluate the relationship between Buddhist centres in the Turfan
region and their respective differences on a local level. What, for instance, was
the relationship between the winter capital in Kara Kočo and the monastic
dwellings in rather remote places such as Toyok, Sängim or Bäzäklik? Are there
certain characteristics of Buddhism at the different sites such as a predilection
for Pure Land Buddhism or for certain genres of texts? Was the influence of lay
Buddhism more pronounced at one place than at another?
301 Zieme, Religion und Gesellschaft, 44.
302 Mirsultan, Aysima, Die alttürkische Xuanzang-Biographie X, nach der Handschrift von
Paris, Peking und St. Petersburg sowie nach dem Transkript von Annemarie v. Gabain ediert,
übersetzt und kommentiert (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010), 315.
303 On the semantics of this title in later texts see the excellent treatment in Doerfer, Gerhard,
Türkische und mongolische Elemente im Neupersischen unter besonderer Berücksichtigung
älterer neupersischer Geschichtsquellen, vor allem der Mongolen- und Timuridenzeit. Vol. 2
(Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1965), 271–277 (No. 724).
304 Zieme, Peter, “Zwei neue alttürkische Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-Fragmente,” Altorientalische
Forschungen 16.2 (1989): 377–378 [reprint: Fragmenta Buddhica Uigurica: Ausgewählte
Schriften von Peter Zieme, ed. Simone-Christiane Raschmann and Jens Wilkens
(Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, 2009), 74–75]. Further titles are dealt with in Zieme, Peter, “Sur
quelques titres et noms des bouddhistes turcs,” in L’Asie Centrale et ses voisins. Influences
réciproques, ed. Rémy Dor (Paris: Inalco, 1990), 131–139 [reprint: Fragmenta Buddhica
Uigurica: Ausgewählte Schriften von Peter Zieme, ed. Simone-Christiane Raschmann and
Jens Wilkens (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, 2009), 574–582].