Society and Buddhism on the Southern Route: Niya (Cadota)

77 BCE-450 CE

*Mahayana (Greater Vehicle)

ca. 1st c. during Kushan Empire

Connected to popular worship

Multiple Spiritual beings

Past Buddhas

Historical Buddha

Maitreya: Buddha of the Future

*Bodhisattvas (Enlightened Beings)

Popular worship

Compassion

Devotional worship

Gandharan-style statues

How did statues help to popularize Buddhist teachings?

Retain monasticism and Vinaya rules

Spread of Buddhism

Southeast Asia

Theravada Buddhism (Teaching of the Elders)

Central Asia, China, Korea, Japan

Mahayana (Greater Vehicle) Buddhism

Kushan Empire

Missionaries

Barriers to spread of Buddhism from India to Central Eurasia

What travel and cultural barriers hindered Buddhism's spread to Central Eurasia?

Travel Routes from Gandhara/Kushan Empire to Tarim Basin

Mountains

According to Hansen (pp. 40-46) and Skaff, what rigors were involved in travel between Gilgit in northern Pakistan and Tashkurghan in Southwestern Xinjiang along the route that mainly follows the modern Karakorum Highway? What does the relatively extensive graffiti found in the Gilgit region reveal about the nature of travel and types of travelers on this route?

Taklamakan Desert

Origins of Chinese Documents at Loulan

Han Dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE) Western Campaigns

Gansu (Hexi) Captured

Colonization by over 1 million, 115-72 BCE

*Shanshan (Kroraina)

Han “Conquest “ in 77 BCE

*Loulan

According to Hansen, what do documents of the Han and later Chinese dynasties reveal about the Chinese presence at Loulan in Shanshan/Kroraina?

Origins of *Kharoshthi Documents

Kushan Empire (50-260 CE) conquest of Tarim Basin?

Where did the Kharoshthi writing system originate? What are the two hypotheses about why documents written in Kharoshthi became the writing system of the people of Kroraina? Why does Hansen favor the migration hypothesis? Do you agree? Discussion: Society at Cadota (Niya)

Discussion: Society and Buddhism at *Cadota (Niya)
Hansen 86-93 (docs. 11c-11h)

1. Based on the material remains, what can we learn about society at Cadota (Niya)?

2. Based on documents 11c-11f, how was society organized at Niya (Cadota)?

• What is the ethnic mix of society (11c)?
• What is the status of women (11d-e)?
• What are the signs of social instability and poverty?
• What was the nature of slavery and adoption?

4. Documents 11c-11f are government documents. What seems to be the function of government at Cadota?

5. What can we learn about the practice of Buddhism from documents in 11h?

• What are the social roles of priests and monks?
• Do the monks seem to be following vinaya rules for monks?

6. Foltz writes that “What is true of all the [Buddhist] schools is that their activities had important economic dimensions” (42). Whitfield writes, “Throughout the early Buddhist world we see a symbiotic link between Buddhists and merchants” (p. 85).

• Does the evidence of Niya seem to support the merchant thesis?