Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

Khotan, located on south of Takla Makan Desert, was a representative Buddhist country. Due to its geographical position, Khotan became a centre of trade in between India, Gandhara and China. With all the other trade goods, Buddhism was also introduced to Khotan much ahead of other countries. As Khotan was built up based on Buddhist ideas, it seemed natural Buddhism became its national religion. This religion, fully supported by the government level, consequently brought enormous development to Buddhism itself. From the arrive of Buddhism to the wane after 7 A.D., Buddhism had ruled over Khotan. When Buddhism was flowed into Khotan, many Buddhist schools had been developed by the immigrants from Taksila and Kashmir. As Buddhism developed, it slowly took the aspects of Mahayana in 2, 3 A.D.. It was not just a religious change. It would not be an overstatement to say that it was a political and diplomatic change to follow up Chinese one. On the other hand, due to its position as a centre of trade, not only a number of Mahayana’s scripts, Buddhist sculptures but also a new religious idea of stupa belief came into the nation. These influences let Khotan be the centre of Mahayana sutras. Khotan’os Buddhist culture had reached its peak in 4~7 A.D.. The monks from Khotan could fluently translate sutras, so they went over to China to be script translators. Moreover, as Mahayana flourished, 60 volumes of the Avatamska sutra were completely translated in China. The Buddhist ceremonies and events at national level influenced a lot to neighboring countries’Buddhism. Even though when the ruling race changed its religion, Buddhism was not vanished away. It just lost its position as national religion, but still remained as a major religion.