Overview of the historic Buddhist presence in Central Asia
Pranidhi scene, temple 9 (Cave 20). Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves
Sogdian merchant donors giving to the Buddha . Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves
Bust of a bodhisattva from Kucha , 6th-7th century. Musée Guimet .
Blue-eyed Central Asian monk teaching East-Asian monk, Bezeklik , Turfan , eastern Tarim Basin , China, 9th century; the monk on the left is possibly Tocharian ,[1] although more likely Sogdian .[2] [3]
Buddhism in Central Asia mainly existed in Mahayana forms and was historically especially prevalent along the Silk Road . The history of Buddhism in Central Asia is closely related to the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism during the first millennium of the common era .
^ von Le Coq, Albert . (1913). Chotscho: Facsimile-Wiedergaben der Wichtigeren Funde der Ersten Königlich Preussischen Expedition nach Turfan in Ost-Turkistan Archived 2016-09-15 at the Wayback Machine . Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), im Auftrage der Gernalverwaltung der Königlichen Museen aus Mitteln des Baessler-Institutes, Tafel 19 Archived 2016-09-15 at the Wayback Machine . (Accessed 3 September 2016).
^ Ethnic Sogdians have been identified as the Caucasian figures seen in the same cave temple (No. 9). See the following source: Gasparini, Mariachiara. "A Mathematic Expression of Art: Sino-Iranian and Uighur Textile Interactions and the Turfan Textile Collection in Berlin Archived 2017-05-25 at the Wayback Machine ," in Rudolf G. Wagner and Monica Juneja (eds), Transcultural Studies , Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg, No 1 (2014), pp 134-163. ISSN 2191-6411 . See also endnote #32 Archived 2017-05-25 at the Wayback Machine . (Accessed 3 September 2016.)
^ For information on the Sogdians, an Eastern Iranian people , and their inhabitation of Turfan as an ethnic minority community during the phases of Tang Chinese (7th-8th century) and Uyghur rule (9th-13th century), see Hansen, Valerie (2012), The Silk Road: A New History , Oxford University Press, p. 98, ISBN 978-0-19-993921-3 .