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Explore how Buddhist teachings spread from India to China through trade routes, leading to the creation of iconic sculptures in cave monasteries along the Silk Road. Discover the evolution of sculptural styles and the influence of different dynasties on Chinese Buddhism.
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Background Buddhist teachings & practices spread to China from India via trade routes along both land and sea. Some of the most visible traces of this spread are found along the famous “Silk Road” that ran from the Roman & Islamic empires of West Asia all the way to China, with important side branches descending to North India. The icons shown here were created primarily in cave monasteries that sprang up & flourished at important points along China’s portion of the silk road, from the 5th century CE onward. Although such sculptural styles clearly originated in Northern India, they had evolved there only a few centuries earlier in the 2nd century CE when Roman artisans were hired to work for North Indian patrons. Once settled in China, Buddhist institutions developed primarily during the period of North/South division from the 3rd-6th centuries CE, especially with the patronage of emperors from the Northern Wei dynasty. Monks of the various orthodox schools subsequently consolidated their power during the subsequent unification brought about in the 7th century by the Tang dynasty. The growing sophistication of Chinese Buddhism is reflected in the distinct sculptural forms preserved at the Silk Road monastic centers of Dunhuang & Longmen, along which some Chinese monks traveled back to India to retrieve important texts and pay homage to the Buddha in his homeland.
