Gandharan Buddhism
[1][2] Ancient Gandhāra corresponds to modern day north Pakistan, mainly the Peshawar valley and Potohar plateau as well as Afghanistan's Jalalabad.
[3] Gandhāra was also home to a unique Buddhist artistic and architectural culture which blended elements from Indian, Hellenistic, Roman and Parthian art.
[3][5] Buddhism first took root in Gandhara 2,300 years ago under the Mauryan king Ashoka who sent missionaries to the Kashmira-Gandhara region following the Third Buddhist council in Pataliputra (modern India).
[15] Kharosthi inscriptions have been found as far West as Wardak along the Kabul river, Uzbekistan (Termez) and Tajikistan (Anzhina-Tepe) and as far south as Mohenjo-Daro and Baluchistan.
[23] The archaeological record shows a dramatic increase in the patronage of Buddhist sites sometime in the 3rd century, with many more images and shrines being added during this period.
[23] Most of the extant architecture dates from this period and includes sites such as Taxila and the large monastic institutions like Takht-i-Bahi, Sahri-Bahlol, Jamal Garhi, Ranigat, and Thareli.
[28][29] After the fall of the Kushanas, small kingdoms ruled the area, most friendly to Buddhism, who continued to promote Buddhist stupas and monasteries.
The Muslim invasions of India caused further damage to the Buddhist culture in Gandhāra, and Buddhism eventually ceased to exist from the region by approximately 1200 CE due to various factors.
[4] Initially, Buddhist art was aniconic, but Greco-Roman influences led to the emergence of anthropomorphic depictions of the Buddha in the 1st century CE.
Gandhāran manuscripts have been found for all major Buddhist genres including prose sutras, poetry, Abhidharma, Vinaya, Avadana, Commentaries and Mahāyāna texts.
[44] Mahāyāna Pure Land sūtras were brought from the Gandhāra region to China as early as AD 147, with the work of Kushan monk Lokakṣema who translated important Mahayana sutras like the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra.
[51] Gandhāran missionaries were influential in bringing Buddhist culture to China during the Han-dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE), through contacts at the towns and cities of the Tarim Basin located in modern Xinjiang, such as Khotan and Turpan.
[52] The region was briefly ruled by the Kushans under Kanishka, and this allowed Buddhist missionaries easy access to the towns of the Tarim Basin.
[53] Important Buddhist figures from Greater Gandhāra who acted as translators in China include Lokakṣema, An Shigao, Dharmarakṣa (265–313), Zhi Qian (220–252), Jñānagupta (561–592), and Prajñā (c. 810).
Vajrayana Buddhists from the Greater Gandhāran regions of Gilgit and the Swat Valley (which is possibly the widely cited Oḍḍiyāna) were also influential on the establishment of Tibetan Buddhism.
Gandharans were instrumental in spreading Buddhism to China, Korea and Japan and thus deeply influenced East Asian philosophy, history, and culture.
