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Iranian Buddhism: Map shows movement of Buddhism from Saka (Shakyan) Gandhara, the Buddha's country, further west to modern "Middle East" to pre-Islamic Iran (Persia), Sogdia, Kushan Empire, Bactria, Afghanistan, Balkh, Khorasan, India, China, Sakastan, Central Asia (transoxiana.org).
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Archeological and architectural monuments of
Central Asia, which includes now-Muslim
formerly-Buddhist Iran, are mentioned in reports from the 18th and early 19th centuries by European and Russian travelers, merchants, and diplomats.
The Russian Orientalist P. I. Lerkh, who accompanied a minor diplomatic mission, even undertook small-scale excavations. Major archaeological work began, however, only after the Russian conquest of the region, at first it was done by amateurs, especially military officers.
The first professional archaeologist to work in the region was N. I. Veselovskiĭ of the University of St. Petersburg. He undertook minor excavations at several sites in the Tashkent oasis,
Farḡāna and, on a larger scale, in Afrāsīāb (q.v.), the site of ancient
Samarkand.
Seven trenches were dug in different parts of the city, and a plan of the site was prepared.
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| Ajina Tepe preservation, Tajikistan. |
From the extensive finds the site was dated as “
going back to the Greek period” [
see Greco-Buddhism]; in fact, it has a much longer history.
At almost the same time, General A. V. Komarov cut a huge trench through the northern mound at Anaw (q.v.) in southern Turkmenistan....
During the first half of the second millennium B.C.E. [before the common era] the primitive agrarian tribes of southern Turkmenistan started migrating eastwards, to northern Afghanistan, southern
Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
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| This map accompanies surrounding text and shows many Buddhist sites in Central Asia. |
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Since the ecological conditions of Tajikistan were not favorable for irrigation agriculture, the migrants turned to pasturing [like the Shakyans/Scythians]. Living in close contact with the local steppe tribes, they adopted many aspects of their way of life and burial rites.
In southern Uzbekistan the migrants preserved their way of life, founding fortified settlements like Sapalï Tepe [tell or mound], or large settlements like Jarkutan with a “palace,” a temple, and a large necropolis.
During the second half of the second millennium B.C.E. some steppe tribes started migrating south, entering the zone of primitive agriculture. Many scholars connect this movement with the migration of the
Indo-Aryans and the settling of
proto-Iranians in Central Asia....
Archeology of the nomadic tribes
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| Ajina Tepe reclinging Buddha (RSATSR) |
Information obtained from ancient Persian, Greek, Chinese, Syrian, Armenian, Arabic, and other sources -- as well as from the Iranian epic and from linguistic material -- show clearly the important role played by Central Asian nomads in the history of the region and its adjacent territories, in terms of both ethnogenesis and culture.
The archeology of the nomads explores mainly their
kurgans [burial mounds, ancient-
stupas]. Kurgans of the Saka [Shakyan/
Scythian] tribes, dating from the seventh to third centuries B.C.E., can be found in the Semirech’e region (also known as the
Yeti Su, “Seven Rivers”), the Aral region, in
Fergana, and so on.
The burials were usually single, sometimes dual, rarely collective. In the Pamir region, the corpse was often buried in a flexed position. The form and structure of burial sites varied. Most often they consisted of a pit covered with beams, on top of which was piled a rounded mound or erected a circle of stones. The “royal kurgans”...
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