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China and Inner Asia
Organized Panel Session
The geographic area discussed in this paper involves Central Asia and the northern part of South Asia, mainly covering the Pamir Mountains and India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Girgis, as well as the Tarim basin in Xinjiang, China. Soon after its birth in India, Buddhism gradually developed a religious center in the Gandhara area, which includes ancient northwest India, Swat, Taxila and Peshawar today. From here, Buddhism marched towards Afghanistan, crossing the Amu Darya, entering Transoxiana, and finally traveling beyond the Pamir Plateau, around the 3rd or 4th century AD, making its way into the oasis city of Kashgar in the northwestern Tarim Basin. At the same time, another branch of Buddhism might have started developing itself in another oasis city, Khotan, in the southwestern Tarim basin, after crossing the Karakoram Mountains in an earlier period.
The first phase is the Kushan period, from the 1st to 3rd century AD, when the architecture was distributed largely in the Gandhara area around Peshawar. There was also some Buddhist architecture scattered in the area of Termez around the southern boundary of Uzbekistan and the north shore of the midstream of Amu Dharya.
Through a comparative study of architectural structures of Buddhist monasteries in the above areas, this paper aims to make clear the time and routes of the spread of Buddhism and to further confirm the stable factors that influence this architecture, as well as the less stable or local cultural factors. Hopefully, the study of Buddhist architecture can be improved with such efforts.
Xiao Li
Renmin University, China (People's Republic)