Sogdian Buddhists

[william.douglas]

Jan Nattier, I think, must have written something on Sogdian Buddhism. The
only text of hers I have to hand, _Once Upon a Future Time (Asian
Humanities Press 1991), makes reference to Sogdian materials in passing
(citing E. Benveniste's 1946 edition of the Vessantara Jataka from the
Sogdian & an article by N. Sims-Williams in Sprachen des Buddhismus in
Zentralasien, ed. Roerhborn and Veenker 1983). I know she has done
extensive work across the various Central Asian Buddhist traditions.

To answer your question directly, Nattier cites the Sogdian material
precisely in the context of Buddhist missionary activity. They were also
responsible for the spread of Manichaeism eastwards.

-wbd.

>Does anybody know a reliable (quotable) publication on the religion(s) of the
>Sogdians? What I need to know for sure is that they were not only Zoroastrians
>but also Buddhists and that they contributed in the propagation of Buddhism.
>I4ve found only one very short reference by Oskar von Hinueber so far and I
>could use some more.
>We4ve got lots (over 500) Sogdian inscriptions in Shatial (Upper Indus Valley,
>Pakistan), some of them seemingly in connection with drawings of Stupas, and I
>try to determine whether they do belong together or not.
>In case Nicholas Sims-Williams reads this, sorry for not asking you directly!
>
>
>Dr. Ditte Koenig
>Heidelberg Academy of Sciences
>Rock Inscriptions in the Upper Indus Valley
>eMail: 0622660198.0001 at t-online.de

William Douglas
Wolfson College, Oxford
<william.douglas at wolfson.ox.ac.uk>