page_title: Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
section_title: Central Asian missionaries
hierarchical_section_title: Silk Road transmission of Buddhism / Northern transmission (from North India and Central Asia) / Central Asian missionaries
caption_attribution_description: English: Chinese mural of a bodhisattva from Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, showing strong Central Asian influence, as well as the characteristics of Central Asian Mahayana Buddhism during this time. Français&#160;: Cintāmaṇicakra. Antichambre de la grotte 231, grottes de Mogao, Dunhuang. La partie principale de la grotte 231 date de la période moyenne de la dynastie Tang, mais ce mandala de Cintāmaṇicakra, contrairement à l'intérieur, est un décor plafonnant plus tardif, de la Dynastie Song. Le Cintāmaṇicakra (sanscrit: चिन्तामणिचक्र) est un bodhisattva et une manifestation d'Avalokiteśvara. Il compte comme une des six formes qui représentent le salut accordé aux êtres dans les six royaumes du samsara. Peinture murale chinoise de ce bodhisattva, montrant une forte influence d'Asie centrale, ainsi que les caractéristiques du bouddhisme mahayana d'Asie centrale à cette époque.
context_page_description: Buddhism entered Han China via the Silk Road, beginning in the 1st or 2nd century CE. The first documented translation efforts by Buddhist monks in China were in the 2nd century CE via the Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory bordering the Tarim Basin under Kanishka. These contacts transmitted strands of Sarvastivadan and Tamrashatiya Buddhism throughout the Eastern world.
  Theravada Buddhism developed from the Pāli Canon in Sri Lanka Tamrashatiya school and spread throughout Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, Sarvastivada Buddhism was transmitted from North India through Central Asia to China.
  Direct contact between Central Asian and Chinese Buddhism continued throughout the 3rd to 7th centuries, much into the Tang period. From the 4th century onward, Chinese pilgrims like Faxian and later Xuanzang started to travel to northern India in order to get improved access to original scriptures. Between the 3rd and 7th centuries, parts of the land route connecting northern India with China was ruled by the Xiongnu, Han dynasty, Kushan Empire, the Hephthalite Empire, the Göktürks, and the Tang dynasty. The Indian form of Buddhist tantra reached China in the 7th century.
context_section_description: In the middle of the 2nd century, the Kushan Empire under king Kaniṣka from its capital at Purushapura (modern Peshawar), India expanded into Central Asia. As a consequence, cultural exchanges greatly increased with the regions of Kashgar, Khotan and Yarkand (all in the Tarim Basin, modern Xinjiang). Central Asian Buddhist missionaries became active shortly after in the Chinese capital cities of Loyang and sometimes Nanjing, where they particularly distinguished themselves by their translation work. They promoted both Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna scriptures. Thirty-seven of these early translators of Buddhist texts are known.
  An Shigao, a Parthian prince who made the first known translations of Hīnayāna Buddhist texts into Chinese (148–170)
  Lokakṣema, a Kushan and the first to translate Mahāyāna scriptures into Chinese  (167–186)
  An Xuan, a Parthian merchant who became a monk in China in 181
  Zhi Yao (c. 185), a Kushan monk in the second generation of translators after Lokakṣema.
  Kang Meng-hsiang (194–207), the first translator from Kangju
  Zhi Qian (220–252), a Kushan monk whose grandfather had settled in China during 168–190
  Zhi Yueh (c.230), a Kushan monk who worked at Nanjing
  Kang Senghui (247–280), born in Jiaozhi (or Chiao-chih) close to modern Hanoi in what was then the extreme south of the Chinese empire, and a son of a Sogdian merchant
  Tan-ti (c.254), a Parthian monk
  Po Yen (c.259), a Kuchean prince
  Dharmarakṣa (265–313), a Kushan whose family had lived for generations at Dunhuang
  An Fachiin (281–306), a monk of Parthian origins
  Po Srimitra (317–322), a Kuchean prince
  Kumārajīva (c. 401), a Kuchean monk and one of the most important translators
  Dharmakṣema (385-433), scholar who brought Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra to China
  Fotudeng (4th century), a Central Asian monk who became a counselor to the Chinese court
  Bodhidharma (440–528), the founder of the Chan (Zen) school of Buddhism, and the legendary originator of the physical training of the Shaolin monks that led to the creation of Shaolin kung fu. According to the earliest reference to him, by Yang Xuanzhi, he was a monk of Central Asian origin whom Yang Xuanshi met around 520 at Loyang. Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a rather ill-tempered, profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian. He is referred to as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" (碧眼胡:Bìyǎn hú) in Chinese Chan texts.
  Five monks from Gandhāra who traveled in 485 CE to the country of Fusang ("the country of the extreme east" beyond the sea, probably Japan), where they introduced Buddhism.
  Jñānagupta (561–592), a monk and translator from Gandhāra
  Śikṣānanda (652–710 CE), a monk and translator from Udyāna, Gandhāra
  Prajñā (c. 810), a monk and translator from Kabul who educated the Japanese Kūkai in Sanskrit texts
caption: Bodhisattva mural. Chinese work showing Central Asian influence. Mogao Caves, China.
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