Win Pe. The Shwedagon.Rangoon: Printing and Publishing
Corporation, 1972.
PAULSTRACHANS ́IKSANANDA
S ́iksananda (652–710), a native of Khotan, was one of
the major translators of MAHAYANAsutras into Chi-
nese. Conversant with both Mahayana and mainstream
Buddhist scriptures, as well as with non-Buddhisttexts,
S ́iksananda came to China with a complete set of the
HUAYAN JING(Avatamsaka-sutra; Flower Garland Sutra)
in Sanskrit after learning that Empress Wu (r. 690–
705) had sent envoys to Khotan to search for the San-
skrit edition of the scripture and its translators. Under
Empress Wu’s auspices, S ́iksananda joined the trans-
lation team that undertook the translation and re-
translation of nineteen Mahayana scriptures, including
the Huayan jingand the LAN ̇KAVATARA-SUTRA(Dis-
course of the Descent into Lan ̇ka). The newly translated
Huayan jing,completed in 699 in a total of eighty fas-
cicles, was said to be a literal translation, closer in both
style and language to Buddhabhadra’s sixty-fascicle
translation from the early fifth century than to the
more recent translation of XUANZANG(ca. 600–664).
In 704 Empress Wu allowed S ́iksananda to return
to Khotan, but he was summoned back to Chang’an
in 708. Zhongzong (r. 705–710), then the reigning em-
peror, and all the monks in the capital greeted S ́ik-
sananda at Kaiyuan Gate with banners and parasols.
Apparently in poor health at this time, S ́iksananda was
unable to take on any additional translation assign-
ments and died in 710 at the age of fifty-nine. His body
was cremated and his remains were escorted back to
Khotan. His followers built a seven-story pagoda at the
cremation site and named it “Pagoda of the Trepitaka
Huayan” to commemorate him.
See also:Kumarajlva; Paramartha
Bibliography
Ch’en, Kenneth. Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey.Prince-
ton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1964.
Song Gaoseng zhuan(Biographies of Eminent Monks Compiled in
the Song Dynasty). Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1987.
CHI-CHIANGHUANGSILENT ILLUMINATION CHAN. SeeMozhao
Chan (Silent Illumination Chan)SILK ROADBuddhism spread from India to Central Asia and
China via an overland network of major and minor
routes popularly called the Silk Road. This network
connected Buddhist centers in Northwest India, west-
ern Central Asia, the Tarim basin, and China during
the first millennium C.E. In the broadest sense, the silk
routes extended from China to the Mediterranean, in-
corporating routes through Syria, Mesopotamia, and
Iran. Primary routes in western Central Asia ran
through Margiana and the Oxus River (Amu Darya)
valley, reached Bactria in northern Afghanistan or
branched northward to Sogdiana, and continued to the
Tarim basin in eastern Central Asia. Capillary routes
through the Karakoram mountains in northern Pak-
istan directly linked the silk routes of eastern Central
Asia with the major arteries for trade and travel in
Northwest India. Northern and southern routes
around the Tarim basin rejoined at DUNHUANG, the
westernmost outpost of the Chinese empire, and pro-
ceeded through the Gansu corridor to central China.
The transmission of Buddhism from India to Cen-
tral Asia and China corresponded with the develop-
ment of the silk routes as channels for intercultural
exchanges. Chinese contacts with the “Western Re-
gions” (Xi-yu) of Central and South Asia expanded
during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.). By 111
B.C.E., the Han controlled the Gansu corridor to Dun-
huang, and garrisons and irrigated agricultural oases
around the Tarim basin were established in the first
century B.C.E. Although Chinese control of these areas
fluctuated, prosperous trade in luxury items (includ-
ing silk) and dynamic cultural exchanges continued.
Chinese historical chronicles of the Han period re-
fer to the gradual migration of Yuezhi nomads from
the area around Dunhuang through the Tarim basin
to Bactria in the second century B.C.E. The Kushans, a
branch of the Yuezhi, advanced from Bactria across the
Hindu Kush into Northwest India in the first century
C.E. By the second century C.E. during the reign of
Kanishka, the Kushan empire controlled the routes
that connected northern India with the silk routes.
Kushan control accelerated economic and cultural
contacts and stimulated the movement of Buddhism
beyond South Asia to Central Asia and China.SILKROAD