By the 2nd century CE, Buddhism was spreading through oasis towns of the Tarim Basin using Silk Road trade links. The Khotan–Kashgar–Kucha corridor on the southern and western edges of the Taklamakan Desert became a practical route for monks, merchants, and texts moving between South Asia, Central Asia, and China.
Around the early 4th century, major Buddhist cave temples began to be created at Kizil near Kucha. These caves used painted murals and carved spaces for worship and teaching, showing Kucha’s role as a strong Buddhist node on routes linking the western oases to China.
Kumārajīva was born in Kucha in 344 CE, in a region known for Buddhist learning and connections across the Silk Road. His later work as a translator would help carry Central Asian Buddhist scholarship into Chinese-language Buddhism, strengthening Kucha’s long-distance influence.
In the early 5th century, the Chinese monk Faxian traveled through the southern Silk Road oases and reported strong Buddhist institutions in Khotan. His account is important evidence that Khotan was already a mature Buddhist kingdom with major monasteries and public religious activity.
In 401 CE, Kumārajīva was brought to Chang’an, where he led a major program translating Buddhist texts into Chinese. This created a powerful link between the Tarim Basin’s Buddhist centers (including Kucha) and the growth of Chinese Buddhist schools, with texts and ideas moving along Silk Road networks.
From the 5th century onward, many Buddhist manuscripts were written in the Khotanese language, showing sustained local scholarship and translation. This manuscript culture demonstrates how Khotan served as both a religious center and a transmission point, adapting Buddhism to local languages while staying connected to wider Silk Road learning.
By the 6th century, Dandan Oilik in the Khotan region flourished as an oasis settlement with Buddhist remains, including shrines and artworks. Sites like this show that Buddhism along the Khotan segment was not limited to capitals: it spread through smaller nodes that supported travelers and local religious communities.
In 644, the pilgrim Xuanzang passed through Kashgar and stayed in Khotan for an extended period, describing dense networks of monasteries and large monastic populations. His reports help confirm that the Khotan–Kashgar segment remained a major Buddhist corridor in the mid-7th century, linking Central Asian practice with Chinese Buddhist interests.
Between 648 and 658, the Tang dynasty installed the Four Garrisons of Anxi in key Tarim Basin city-states, including Kucha, Khotan (Hotan), and Kashgar. This reshaped security and administration along Silk Road routes, affecting how monasteries, pilgrims, and trade operated under changing political oversight.
From 670 to 678, Tibetan campaigns reduced Tang influence and brought large parts of the Tarim Basin under Tibetan control. This shift changed the political conditions for Silk Road travel and for Buddhist institutions across the Khotan–Kashgar–Kucha corridor, as patronage and security depended more on Tibetan power than Tang administration.
The Book of Zambasta, an important local Buddhist work in Khotanese, includes parts dating to the 5th–6th centuries and was likely completed by the 7th century. Its survival in multiple copies (popular into the 10th century) shows ongoing learning and textual exchange tied to the southern Silk Road network.
The Kizil cave complex developed over centuries, with major phases of painting and construction continuing into the 8th century. These murals and cave layouts provide direct evidence of long-term Buddhist patronage in Kucha and illustrate how styles and religious ideas moved along the Silk Road between India, Iran, and China.
Khotanese Buddhist manuscripts are dated broadly from the 5th to the 10th century, showing centuries of sustained religious writing and copying. This long manuscript record helps trace how Khotan remained a Buddhist cultural node even as political control in the Tarim Basin shifted among competing empires.
In 1006, the Kara-Khanid ruler Yusuf Qadir Khan of Kashgar conquered the Kingdom of Khotan, ending it as an independent state. This conquest is widely treated as a turning point that accelerated the decline of Buddhist institutions along this southern-route corridor, as Islamic rule expanded across the western Tarim Basin.
Southern Silk Road: Khotan–Kashgar–Kucha route (2nd–10th century CE)