Sogdians and Buddhism

A forum for those wishing to discuss Buddhist history and teachings in the Western academic manner, referencing appropriate sources.
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Samten de Wet
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Sogdians and Buddhism

Post by Samten de Wet »

I have placed a Bibliography of the above subject HERE:
http://www.luxlapis.co.za/sogdian.html
Further Research is posted at my Facebook RESEARCH INTO BUDDHIST ICONOGRAPHY
https://www.facebook.com/ResearchIntoBu ... onography/
Yours Sincerely
Samten de Wet
Fortyeightvows
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Re: Sogdians and Buddhism

Post by Fortyeightvows »

Thanks for sharing this! Welcome to dharma wheel! Glad to have you here!
tingdzin
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Re: Sogdians and Buddhism

Post by tingdzin »

Thanks for the bibliography. Parenthetically, the Wiki entry for Amogavajra is wrong about his ancestry. Chou Yi-liang, the author of "Tantrism in China" (avaialable at jstor online, and reprinted in the book "Tantrism in East Asia"), came to the conclusion (if one reads between the lines of his article) that Amogavajra was Sogdian, a fact that Charles Orzech acknowledged in his own book on Amogavajra. Also, pace Wiki, it was not "foreign" monks who were expelled, but "Hu" monks, who were differentiated from Indians (Vajrabodhi's bio in the same article notes that he was exempt from this expulsion). Chinese Buddhists at some point evidently tried to erase Central Asian connections with Buddhism, either because they concluded that all authentic Buddhism (including their own apocryphal but popular sutras) must have come from India, or out of racial prejudice (Inner Asians, like other neighbors of China were often considered barbaric).

There are (largely forgotten) Sogdian connections with Tibetan Buddhism too. Lists of Padmasambhava's disciples usually include a couple of people who, by their names, were Sogdians.

Belatedly, very belatedly, mainstream scholarship is beginning to abandon the view that Inner Asia contributed nothing to the development of Buddhism, but only passed on Indian forms to China and Tibet.

Unfortunately, I don't patronize Facebook, so I can't see your research unless it appears somewhere else.
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Samten de Wet
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Re: Sogdians and Buddhism

Post by Samten de Wet »

GREAT POST:
Some more data:
Review by Jonathan Walters of: Asvaghosa. Life of the Buddha. Translated by Patrick Olivelle. Clay Sanskrit Library Series. New York: New York University Press and JJC Foundation, 2008
https://networks.h-net.org/node/6060/re ... ife-buddha

Then the Old Classic:
The Buddha-karita of Asvaghosha: Part I: Buddhist Mahâyâna Texts, Translated by E. B. Cowell, F. Max Müller and J. Takakusu, Oxford, the Clarendon Press, [1894] Vol. XLIX of The Sacred Books of the East
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe49/sbe4902.htm

And:
The Buddha-Carita, or The Life of Buddha by Asvaghosa edited and translated by Edward B. Cowell
http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/T ... carita.pdf
Fortyeightvows
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Re: Sogdians and Buddhism

Post by Fortyeightvows »

At the getty center in west los angeles, part of the exhibit on the dunhuang caves has an amazing document on display, it's a copy of the great commpassion mantra in Brahmi script, with a transliteration in Sogdian script. from 700-800 CE.
e893263e-49f1-4a79-bc02-060db6019955.jpg
e893263e-49f1-4a79-bc02-060db6019955.jpg (17.21 KiB) Viewed 2211 times
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