A great Buddhist civilization, dating from the first millennium AD, and extending to the rise of Islam which ended it in the tenth century, was only rediscovered in the early 1900s. Manuscripts and brilliant paintings continue to be found in hundreds of desert caves and silk road communities now abandoned. Scholars have retrieved many of these artifacts. Archeologists since the early 1900s have reposed many treasures recovered from Central Asia with the West Berlin State Museum.
The Silk Road exhibition reveals a rich culture which lasted over a thousand years, although it is now almost entirely obliterated in situ. This culture reached its zenith in 500 AD in its adoration of Buddha who had lived a thousand years earlier in northeast India.
The Arts are brilliantly revealed in this published Exhibition, with sufficient detail to permit understandings and demand reinterpretations of mythical beliefs. For example, plate 24 depicts a white King (Ajatashatru) and his dark-skinned wife, both of whom are naked, painted by ascetics living in the caves.
Many of the stories illustrated in the paintings show that religious texts often redraw similar/same parables. Buddha walked on water [89], was often drawn as a Trinity [81] or wearing a 3-point crown [96], in threefold dress [139] . He was painted and sculpted as part woman [71, 131, 145] often engaged in preaching against money-changers and materialism [97].
Vajrapani's cross-shaped navel is unique but common in depictions of or references to Buddha. The adoration of a new-born child [60], preaching nonviolence and altruism [84, 102, 109] and the born-again Buddha [84--Vishvantara gave away everything he had and so achieved Buddhahood in his next life] -- all presage the Christ-cult. [69] A detailed scene from "Hell" is depicted circa 600 on a large wall painting -- showing the damnation of sinners who rejected the redemption taught by Buddha. The sinners are tortured by demons in infinite repetition.
Of particular interest is the fact that this region seemed to flourish in a time of great religious developments. Buddhism was expanding out of India. The missionaries mixed with Nestorian Christians and Manichaeans, who practiced what was by far the most dominant teaching/ belief system. [22, 175] In the 8th century, the Uighurian ruler Bugug Khan converted to Manichaeism, a syncretistic world class religion which drew from Judaic and Zoroastrian roots. The rediscovery of this multifaceted culture [22], which was destroyed by the violence of an Islamic assault indifferent to spiritual quests, is dramatic and revealed in this work.
The illuminated manuscripts also reveal linguistic insights. The oldest Sanskrit manuscript was recovered in the Cave of the Red Dome, which had the remains of a large library which had been systematically destroyed. [41, 22] The holy books of the Manichaians, none of which survive, were largely written in Syriac Aramaic using Judaic script. [175 ff] We now know from fragments, that the half of the Koran which is not devoted to the fictional history of the Prophet Mohamed, was directly taken from Manichaian and Syriac teaching books. [German scholars continue to work on this material to the present day -- of particular interest because we have the established origins of the Koran.] ( )