Buddhism in Iran
Buddhism in Irandates back to the 2nd century, when Parthian Buddhist missionaries, such asAn ShigaoandAn Xuan,were active in spreadingBuddhism in China.Many of the earliest translators of Buddhist literature into Chinese were fromParthiaand other kingdoms linked with present-dayIran.[1]
History
[edit]Pre-Islamic Iran
[edit]Buddhists were persecuted during theSasanidrule in the vast territory they ruled, as they madeZoroastrianismthe state religion in 224 AD, and thereafter burned many Buddhist sites in the regions where it was practiced, namelyCentral Asia.Surviving Buddhist sites in the easternmost Sassanian territories, comprising modern day Central Asia, were later raided in the 5th century by theWhite Huns.[2]
Arab conquests and decline
[edit]"In the centuries before the Arab conquests Buddhism was spread throughout the eastern Iranian world. Buddhist sites have been found in Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, as well as within Iran itself."[3]The Arab conquests brought the final demise of Buddhism in Eastern Iran and Afghanistan, although in some sites likeBamiyanandHaddait survived until the 8th or 9th century.[2]
Ilkhanate
[edit]IlkhanateunderHulagu KhanembracedKagyu schoolofTibetan Buddhism[4]while tolerant to religious diversity, which enabled Buddhism to remain the official religion of the empire till 1295. During this period, Buddhist temples were constructed throughout the kingdom. Additionally, small Buddhist communities settled throughout the Ilkhanate realm, mainly originating from Kashmir andEast Turkestan.[5]Later, Ilkhanate rulerGhazan,who was raised as Nestorian Christian and received Buddhist education in his youth, converted toIslamin 1295 AD and made it the state religion of theIlkhanate.[6]He also prohibited the practice of Buddhism, but allowed monks to go into exile into neighboring Buddhist regions.[7]
Contemporary
[edit]In 2002, 19 Gandharan style Buddhist statues were unearthed in the southern Iranian province of Fars.[8]
In recent years, as part of the post-revolution period, Buddhist ideas and practice, as part of a broader reemergence of various faiths inIran,has experienced an upsurge of interest amongIranians.Some of the poetry ofSohrab Sepehrishows Buddhist influence.[9]
See also
[edit]
- An Shigao
- An Xuan
- Buddhism in Central Asia
- Buddhism in Afghanistan
- Hinduism in Iran
- Sikhism in Iran
- Ugraparipṛcchā Sūtra
Further reading
[edit]- Mostafa Vaziri (2012).Buddhism in Iran: An Anthropological Approach to Traces and Influences.Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN9781137022936.
References
[edit]- ^Willemen, Charles; Dessein, Bart; Cox, Collett; Gonda, Jan;Bronkhorst, Johannes;Spuler, Bertold; Altenmüller, Hartwig,Handbuch der Orientalistik: Sarvāstivāda Buddhist Scholasticism,Brill, pp. 128–130,ISBN978-90-04-10231-6
- ^abEhsan Yarshater(1993).The Cambridge History of Iran.Cambridge University Press. pp. 956–7.ISBN978-0-521-24693-4.
- ^Richard Foltz,"Buddhism in the Iranian World,"The Muslim World100/2-3, 2010, pp. 204-214
- ^Yerushalmi, Dan; Samten, Jampa."Letters for the Khans: Six Tibetan Epistles for the Mongol Rulers Hulegu and Khubilai, and the Tibetan Lama Pagpa. Co-authored with Jampa Samten".Archivedfrom the original on 2021-09-08.Retrieved2021-09-08.
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^Prazniak, Roxann (2014)."Ilkhanid Buddhism: Traces of a Passage in Eurasian History".Comparative Studies in Society and History.56(3): 650–680.doi:10.1017/s0010417514000280.ISSN0010-4175.S2CID145590332.Archivedfrom the original on 2023-01-15.Retrieved2022-05-15.
- ^Dunn, Ross E. (2005),The adventures of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim traveler of the fourteenth century,University of California Press, pp. 86, 161,ISBN978-0-520-24385-9,archivedfrom the original on 2023-01-15,retrieved2016-09-23
- ^Anna Akasoy; Charles Burnett; Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim (2011).Islam and Tibet: Interactions Along the Musk Routes.Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 10–11.ISBN978-0-7546-6956-2.
- ^"Statues in Iran challenge theories on Buddhism's spread".The Japan Times.2002-05-14.Archivedfrom the original on 2022-01-31.Retrieved2022-01-25.
- ^Foltz, pp. 212-213
