Buddhism Along the Silk Road
Buddhism originated in Northern India, but managed to spread throughout Asia without the aid of any telecommunications or modern technology. Buddhism, like a variety of religions common to Asia was spread by individuals moving along trade routes, most notably the Silk Road - a network of trade routes that ran through southern Eurasia between China and the Medeterranian. The spread of Buddhism, along with many other religions, is well chronicled in the book Religions of the Silk Road by Richard Foltz. In his book Foltz explores how Buddhism was spread over space and time within Asia, and how closely the spread of Buddhism is linked with the Silk Road. Buddhism was primarily spread from Northern India into other parts of Asia by silk road merchants who happened to be merchants, as well as Buddhist converts associated with the diaspora community. As buddhism was spread by these people to a variety of new places and cultures, it did not remain unchanged. In an effort to share Buddhist teachings with people of different cultures, Buddhists would present their message through symbols, terms and figures familiar to these other regions and cultures to more easily convey their message, and make the teachings more likely to persist. This ability to in a way merge Buddhism with other existing cultures and ideologies allowed it to take root in many places and be adopted by many people. There were other factors that also aided the spread of Buddhism, the first being the translation of Buddhist texts into the native languages of various groups of people. Translated texts allowed for Buddhist knowledge to be more accessible to a wider variety of people, and again increased its ability to spread. There were even occasional political factors that helped Buddhism spread. For example, kings in the Tarim Basin geographical region would solicit Buddhist monks from India not because they actively wanted Buddhists but because they wanted to encourage contact between their lands and the prosperous civilizations in India.
Clearly people found Buddhism to be an appealing ideology and religion, or else it would not have persisted throughout time and taken root in such a wide range of places and cultures. However, the spread of Buddhism forward in time and outward to new locations was made possible by a variety of sociopolitical factors in addition to the fundamental religious aspects. The propagation of Buddhism also did not leave the religion unchanged, but caused it to evolve and change a great deal. This is related to the large number of Buddhist schools that exist; when Buddhism would integrate itself into a new culture, ideologies often changed to some extent to better accommodate local cultures, leading to the evolution of new schools of Buddhism. The social, cultural, political, geographical and religious aspects of the spread of Buddhism throughout Asia are explored in Religions of the Silk Road. A link to the book on the publisher’s website has been included if you wish to learn more: