Reviving Ancient Wisdom on the Northern Silk Road: Research on Old Uyghur Buddhism and Buddhist Scriptures

Dear Colleagues,

The historical record is unclear regarding the introduction of Buddhism to the Uyghurs. However, from the second half of the 11th century, Buddhism gradually replaced Manichaeism as the dominant religion among Uyghurs. Buddhism thrived among the Uyghurs from the 11th to the 14th centuries, particularly in the Qocho, Beshbaliq and Ganzhou regions. This period left behind a significant number of manuscripts and block prints with Buddhist content. During the early period of Old Uyghur Buddhism, translations were mainly sourced from Tocharian. However, later, Chinese became the primary source of translation, although some texts were also translated from Sanskrit and Tibetan. Old Uyghur Buddhists not only translated texts, but also created their own literature. They rewrote some Buddhist texts, composed stories and alliterative poems with Buddhist content and left various notes on the manuscripts they read or sponsored, as well as on the walls of the temples they visited.  Brahmi letters and Chinese characters were commonly used in Old Uyghur Buddhist manuscript culture. Old Uyghur Buddhists recited Chinese Buddhist scriptures in the Inherited Uyghur Pronunciation of Chinese, using a similar method known as Ondoku in Japanese Buddhist practice. They also established a system of Uyghur reading of Chinese characters, which is similar to Kundoku in Japanese Buddhist practice. This Special Issue aims to explore aspects of Old Uyghur Buddhism and the unique manuscript culture of the Old Uyghurs, who played an important role in the transmission of religion, knowledge and techniques on the ancient Northern Silk Road.

This Special Issue welcomes contributions dedicating to the discussion of various aspects of Old Uyghur Buddhism, including a historical review, research on monastic life and religious practices in Old Uyghur Buddhist society, and the interaction and conflicts between Old Uyghur Buddhism and other religions such as Manichaeism, Christianity, Daoism and Islam. It gives special place for the contributions that discusses various aspects of Old Uyghur Buddhist scriptures, including manuscript culture, editions or re-editions of Old Uyghur Buddhist texts, translation techniques and linguistic features. We welcome reviews of recent research on Old Uyghur Buddhism, Old Uyghur manuscript culture and research on Old Uyghur Buddhist scriptures. We are delighted to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor, Prof. Dr. Abdurishid Yakup ([email protected]), or to the Assistant Editor of Religions, Ms. Margaret Liu ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Tentative completion schedule:

Deadline for abstract submission: 31 March 2024

Deadline for full manuscript submission: 30 September 2024

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Abdurishid Yakup
Guest Editor

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• Old Uyghur Buddhism
• Old Uyghur manuscript culture
• transmission of religious knowledge
• interaction of religions
• translation technique of Buddhist scriptures
• plurilingualism
• Dunhuang
• Turfan
• the Northern Silk Road