Sogdians
& Buddhism
Samten de Wet
Tuesday, 12 July 2016
In a review of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism:
Amoghavajra and the Ruling Elite, by Geoffrey C. Goble, we read:
“Goble astutely notes that the esoteric rites
had Central Asian (probably Sogdian or Khotanese) origins and could have
appealed to the military and bureaucratic elite such as Geshu Han, Li Baoyu and
Du Hongjian (pp. 204) who had similar ethnic origins.”
The Review is ONLINE
HERE @ DISSERTATION REVIEWS. And another Review is HERE
.
As Mariko Namba Walter informs us:
“Pu-k'ung (705 -774), Amoghavajra, who
contributed greatly to the introduction of Tantric Buddhism to China, also had
a Sogdian mother and an Indian father.”
Further on AMOGHAVAJRA
@ WIKIPEDIA.COM .
For a comprehensive overview and Introduction, the
articles by Dr. Matteo Compareti and Mariko Namba Walter, at
Sino-Platonic Papers are a good place to start.
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON SOGDIANA
Chiara Silvi Antonini, The Paintings in The Palace of
Asfrasiab (Samarkand), Rivista degli studi orientali, Vol. 63, Fasc. 1/3
(1989), pp. 109-144
Irina Arzhantseva, Olga Inevatkina, Afrasiab
Wall-Paintings Revisited: New Discoveries Twenty-Five Years Old, Rivista
degli studi orientali, Nuova Serie, Vol. 78, Supplemento No. 1: Royal
Naurūz in Samarkand: Proceedings of The Conference Held in Venice On the
Pre-Islamic Paintings at Afrasiab (2005), pp. 185-211
Matteo Compareti, A Reading of the Royal Hunt at Afrāsyāb
Based On Chinese Sources, Rivista degli studi orientali, Nuova Serie,
Vol. 78, Supplemento No. 1: Royal Naurūz in Samarkand: Proceedings oi The
Conference Held in Venice on The Pre-Islamic Paintings at Afrasiab (2006), pp.
173-184
Dr. Matteo Compareti, "Traces of Buddhist Art in
Sogdiana", Sino-Platonic Papers (Sino-Platonic Papers is an
occasional series edited by Victor H. Mair of the University of Pennsylvania's
Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations) CLXXXI, 2008, 42
pp. ONLINE HERE .
Dr. Matteo Compareti, Buddhist Activity in Pre-Islamic
Persia According to Literary Sources and Archaeology. ONLINE HERE .
Richard N. Frye, Sughd and the Sogdians: A Comparison of
Archaeological Discoveries with Arabic Sources, Journal of the American
Oriental Society, Vol. 63, No. 1 (Mar., 1943), pp. 14-16
Gustav Glaesser, Painting in ancient Pjandžikent, East
and West, Vol. 8, No. 2 (JULY 1957), pp. 199-215
Frantz Grenet, Iranian Gods in Hindu Garb: The
Zoroastrian Pantheon of the Bactrians and Sogdians, Second–Eighth Centuries,
Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series, Vol. 20 (2006), pp. 87-99
Frantz Grenet, Zhang Guangda, The Last Refuge of the
Sogdian Religion: Dunhuang in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, Bulletin of the
Asia Institute, New Series, Vol. 10, Studies in Honour of Vladimir A.
Livshits (1996), pp. 175-186
Frantz Grenet, What Was the Afrasiab Painting About? Rivista
degli studi orientali, Nuova Serie, Vol. 78, Supplemento No. 1: Royal
Naurūz In Samarkand: Proceedings Of The Conference Held In Venice On The
Pre-Islamic Paintings At Afrasiab (2005), pp. 43-58
Samra Azarnoush, Frantz Grenet and Samra Azarnouche, Bulletin
of the Asia Institute, New Series, Vol. 21 (2007), pp. 159-177
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Cosmogony, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London, Vol. 12, No. 2 (1948), pp. 306-318
Fiona J. Kidd, Costume of the Samarkand Region of Sogdiana
between the 2nd/1st Century B.C.E. and the 4th Century C.E., Bulletin of the
Asia Institute, New Series, Vol. 17 (2003), pp. 35-69
Vladimir Livšic, The Sogdian Wall Inscriptions on the
Site of Afrasiab, Rivista degli studi orientali, Nuova Serie, Vol. 78,
Supplemento No. 1: Royal Naurūz In Samarkand: Proceedings Of The Conference
Held In Venice On The Pre-Islamic Paintings At Afrasiab (2006), pp. 59-74
Ciro Lo Muzio, Remarks on the Paintings from the Buddhist
Monastery of Fayaz Tepe (Southern Uzbekistan), Bulletin of the Asia
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Studies (2008), pp. 189-206
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On Reconstructions and Details, Rivista degli studi orientali, Nuova
Serie, Vol. 78, Supplemento No. 1: Royal Naurūz in Samarkand: Proceedings of
The Conference Held in Venice On the Pre-Islamic Paintings at Afrasiab (2005),
pp. 107-12
Boris I. Marshak, A Sogdian Silver Bowl in the Freer
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Boris I. Marshak, The Tiger, Raised from the Dead: Two
Murals from Panjikent, Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series, Vol.
10, Studies in honour of Vladimir A. Livshits (1996), pp. 207-217
Boris I. Marshak, Remarks On the Murals of the
Ambassadors Hall, Rivista degli studi orientali, Nuova Serie, Vol. 78,
Supplemento No. 1: Royal naurūz in Samarkand: Proceedings of The Conference
Held in Venice On the Pre-Islamic Paintings at Afrasiab (2006), pp. 75-85
Boris I. Marshak, V. I. Raspopova, Worshipers from the
Northern Shrine of Temple II, Panjikent, Bulletin of the Asia Institute,
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Former Soviet Union (1994), pp. 187-207
Enrico Morano, The Sogdian Hymns of Stellung Jesu, East
and West, Vol. 32, No. 1/4 (December 1982), pp. 9-43
Edwin G. Pulleyblank, A Sogdian Colony in Inner Mongolia,
T'oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 41, Livr. 4/5 (1952), pp. 317-356
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of the Asia Institute, New Series, Vol. 8, The Archaeology and Art of
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V. G. Shkoda, Fifty Years of Archaeological Exploration
in Panjikent, Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series, Vol. 10,
Studies in honour of Vladimir A. Livshits (1996), pp. 259-264
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of the Asia Institute, New Series, Vol. 10, Studies in honour of Vladimir
A. Livshits (1996), pp. 195-206
Walter, Mariko Namba, "Sogdians and Buddhism", Sino-Platonic
Papers (Sino-Platonic Papers is an occasional series edited by Victor H.
Mair of the University of Pennsylvania's Department of East Asian Languages and
Civilizations) CLXXIV, 2006, 65 pp. ONLINE HERE
IMAGE
AT TOP: SOGDIAN MERCHANTS: 9th century fresco from the
Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves near Turfan, Xinjiang, China. Two details from
Praņidhi scene no. 6 in Temple no. 9
SOGDIA @WIKIPEDIA.COM
AFRASIAB PAINTING @WIKIPEDIA.COM
Court art of Sogdian Samarqand in the 7th
century AD. HERE .
The Luxlapis Project, Cape Town
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