Buddhism in Afghanistan

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One of the Buddhas of Bamiyan
Ancient Buddhist cave in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

Buddhism in Afghanistan first arrived in present-day Afghanistan through the conquests of the Mauryan King Ashoka (r. 268-232 BCE), where the remains of an inscription in Kandahar written in 260 BCE were found on the rocky outcrop of Chil Zena.[1] The religion was widespread south of the Hindu Kush mountains.

Lokaksema (c. 178 AD), who travelled to the Chinese capital of Luoyang and was the first translator of Mahayana Buddhist scriptures into Chinese,[2] and Mahadharmaraksita who, according to the Mahavamsa (Chap. XXIX[3]), led 30,000 Buddhist monks from "the Greek city of Alasandra" (Alexandria of the Caucasus, around 150 km north of today's Kabul in Afghanistan), to Sri Lanka for the dedication of the Great Stupa in Anuradhapura. The Greco-Bactrian King Menander I, (Pali) "Milinda," ruled 165 BC - 135 BC, was a renowned patron of Buddhism immortalized in the Buddhist text the Milinda Panha.

The famous Persian Buddhist monastery in Balkh in northern Afghanistan, known as Nava Vihara ("New Monastery"), functioned as the center of Central Asia Buddhist learning for centuries.

The Buddhist religion in Afghanistan started fading with the Muslim conquest in the 7th century and saw further decline during the Ghaznavid era in the 11th century.[4] Buddhism was eliminated in the 13th century during the Mongols conquests,[5][6] with no further mention of a Buddhist presence in the area past the 14th century.[4]

History[]

Further information: Pre-Islamic period of Afghanistan and Islamic conquest of Afghanistan

The territory within the borders of Afghanistan has seen many cultural and religious shifts over the centuries. The geographical position of the area between the Middle East, South Asian, and Central Asian cultures, and the proximity to the famous Silk Road (connecting East Asian and Mediterranean civilizations, and others in between), have been major drivers of local historical and cultural developments. One major influence was the conquest of the area by Alexander the Great, which incorporated the area for a time into the Hellenistic World, and resulted in a strong Hellenistic influence on Buddhist religious art in that region. In 305 BC, the Seleucid Empire made an alliance with the Indian Maurya Empire. The Mauryans brought Buddhism from India and controlled the area south of the Hindu Kush until about 185 BC when they were overthrown.

Alexander took these away from the Aryans and established settlements of his own, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus (Chandragupta), upon terms of intermarriage and of receiving in exchange 500 elephants.[7]

— Strabo, 64 BC – 24 AD
Mes Aynak stupa

At the time of these developments, most of the area belonged to the kingdoms of Bactria and Sogdiana, including the Scythians, followed Buddhism until the arrival of Islam.

After the Mauryan Empire, Buddhism also flourished under the Kushan Empire, when a tribe called the Yuezhi entered the region of modern day Afghanistan.[8] Many monuments testify to the Buddhist culture in present-day Afghanistan. Additional historical detail can be researched under Pre Islamic Hindu and Buddhist heritage of Afghanistan and Hinduism in Afghanistan.

Soon after the Sassanian Persian dynasty fell to the Muslims (in 651 AD), the Nava Vihara monastery in Balkh came under Muslim rule (in 663 AD), but the monastery continued to function for at least another century. In 715 AD, after an insurrection in Balkh was crushed by the Abbasid Caliphate, many Persian Buddhist monks fled east along the Silk Road to the Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan, which spoke a related Eastern Iranian language, and onward into China. Nava Vihara's hereditary administrators, the Persian Barmakids, converted from Buddhism to Islam after the monastery's conquest and became powerful viziers under the Abbassid caliphs of Baghdad. The last of the family's line of viziers, Ja'far ibn Yahya, is a protagonist in many tales from the Arabian Nights. In folktales and popular culture Ja'far has been associated with a knowledge of mysticism, sorcery, and traditions lying outside the realm of Islam.

The Buddhist religion survived the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan by the Umayyads and rule by the Abbasid Caliphate. Buddhism in Afghanistan was effectively destroyed in the 13th century by Mongol armies during the Mongol conquests.[6][5]

Archaeological finds[]

Manuscript fragment of the Buddhist Jatakamala, Sanskrit, language in the Gilgit-Bamiyan-Type II Protosarada script, Toyuk, probably 8th-9th century - Ethnological Museum, Berlin.

Bamiyan monastery library[]

One of the early Buddhist schools, the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda, were known to be prominent in the area of Bamiyan. The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Lokottaravāda monastery in the 7th century CE, at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, and this monastery site has since been rediscovered by archaeologists.[9] Birchbark and palm leaf manuscripts of texts in this monastery's collection, including Mahāyāna sūtras, have been discovered at the site, and these are now located in the Schøyen Collection. Some manuscripts are in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script, while others are in Sanskrit and written in forms of the Gupta script. Manuscripts and fragments that have survived from this monastery's collection include the following source texts:[9]

  • Pratimokṣa Vibhaṅga of the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda (MS 2382/269)
  • Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, a sūtra from the Āgamas (MS 2179/44)
  • , a sūtra from the Āgamas (MS 2376)
  • Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, a Mahāyāna sūtra (MS 2385)
  • Bhaiṣajyaguru Sūtra, a Mahāyāna sūtra (MS 2385)
  • Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra, a Mahāyāna sūtra (MS 2378)
  • , a Mahāyāna sūtra (MS 2378)
  • , a Mahāyāna sūtra (MS 2378)
  • , a Mahāyāna sūtra (MS 2378)
  • Śāriputrābhidharma Śāstra (MS 2375/08)

Buddhist relics[]

In August 2010, it was reported that approximately 42 Buddhist relics have been discovered in Mes Aynak of the Logar Province in Afghanistan, which is south of Kabul. Some of these items date back to the 2nd century according to Archaeologists. Some Buddhist sites were found in Ghazni.[10] The items in Logar include two Buddhist temples (Stupas), Buddha statues, frescos, silver and gold coins and precious beads.[11][12][13]

Buddhist sites[]

Buddhist historical figures from Afghanistan[]

  • Prajñā, 9th-century Buddhist monk from what is now Kabul
  • Barmakid family, hereditary monks of the Nava Vihara monastery close to Balkh prior to their conversion to Islam

Gallery[]

  • Cave system, stupa and monastery at Samangan, Takht-i-rustam

  • The Bodhisattva and Chandeka, Hadda, 5th century CE

  • Bimaran Casket

  • Wardak Vase in British Museum

  • Bamiyan Grotto paintings

  • Afghanistan, stupa TK23, hadda site, tapa-kalan monastery, 4th-5th cent

  • Afghanistan, capital of stupas, from the site of hadda, chakhil-i-ghoundi monastery, II-III century

  • Afghanistan, stairway of stupas, from the site of hadda, chakhil-i-ghoundi monastery, II-III cent

  • Court with stupa, after excavation, Ali Masjid

  • Shewaki stupa

  • General view of Stupa No. 6, with Buddha images

  • Reconstitution of the Buddhist monastery of Ahin Posh Tepe, Afghanistan

  • Grey schist figure of Buddha, Auckland Museum

  • Afghanistan Buddhist art

  • Begram Decorative plaque from a chair or throne, ivory, room 13, c.100 BCE

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Runion, Meredith L. (2007). The history of Afghanistan. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-33798-7.
  2. ^ Foltz, Religions of the Silk Road, p. 46
  3. ^ Full text of the Mahavamsa Click chapter XXIX
  4. ^ a b Berzin, Alexander (December 2006). "History of Buddhism in Afghanistan". Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  5. ^ a b Steven Otfinoski (2004). Afghanistan (illustrated ed.). Infobase Publishing. p. 6. ISBN 0-8160-5056-2. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  6. ^ a b Amy Romano (2003). A Historical Atlas of Afghanistan (illustrated ed.). The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 25. ISBN 0-8239-3863-8. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
  7. ^ Nancy Hatch Dupree / Aḥmad ʻAlī Kuhzād (1972). "An Historical Guide to Kabul – The Name". American International School of Kabul. Archived from the original on August 30, 2010. Retrieved September 18, 2010.
  8. ^ Runion, Meredith L. (2007). The history of Afghanistan. Westport: Greenwood Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-313-33798-7. The Yuezhi people conquered Bactria in the second century BCE. and divided the country into five chiefdoms, one of which would become the Kushan Empire. Recognizing the importance of unification, these five tribes combined under the one dominate Kushan tribe, and the primary rulers descended from the Yuezhi.
  9. ^ a b "Schøyen Collection: Buddhism". Archived from the original on 10 June 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  10. ^ Embassy of the United States, Kabul. Ghazni 10.26.2011
  11. ^ Embassy of the United States, Kabul. Mes Aynak 10.29.2011
  12. ^ "42 Buddhist relics discovered in Logar". Maqsood Azizi. Pajhwok Afghan News. Aug 18, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-03-17. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
  13. ^ "Afghan archaeologists find Buddhist site as war rages". Sayed Salahuddin. News Daily. Aug 17, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-08-18. Retrieved 2010-08-16.

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