AbaqaOnHorseArghunStandingGhazanAsAChild

Buddhism in Iran dates back to the 2nd century, when Parthian Buddhist missionaries, such as

An Shigao An Shigao (, Korean: An Sego, Japanese: An Seikō, Vietnamese: An Thế Cao) (fl. c. 148-180 CE) was an early Buddhist missionary to China, and the earliest known translator of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese. According to legend, he was a pri ...

and

An Xuan An Xuan () was a Parthian layman credited with working alongside An Shigao () and Yan Fotiao () in the translation of early Buddhist texts in Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of ...

, were active in spreading Buddhism in China. Many of the earliest translators of Buddhist literature into Chinese were from

Parthia Parthia ( peo, 𐎱𐎼𐎰𐎺 ''Parθava''; xpr, 𐭐𐭓𐭕𐭅 ''Parθaw''; pal, 𐭯𐭫𐭮𐭥𐭡𐭥 ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Med ...

and other kingdoms linked with present-day

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

History

Pre-Islamic Iran

Buddhists were persecuted during the

Sasanid The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

rule in the vast territory they ruled, as they made

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...

the state religion in 224 AD, and thereafter burned many Buddhist sites in the regions where it was practiced, namely

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. Surviving Buddhist sites in the easternmost Sassanian territories, comprising modern day Central Asia, were later raided in the 5th century by the White Huns.

Arab conquests and decline

"In the centuries before the Arab conquests Buddhism was spread throughout the eastern Iranian world. Buddhist sites have been found in Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, as well as within Iran itself." The Arab conquests brought the final demise of Buddhism in Eastern Iran and Afghanistan, although in some sites like Bamiyan and Hadda it survived until the 8th or 9th century.

Ilkhanate

Ilkhanate The Ilkhanate, also spelled Il-khanate ( fa, ایل خانان, ''Ilxānān''), known to the Mongols as ''Hülegü Ulus'' (, ''Qulug-un Ulus''), was a khanate established from the southwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. The Ilkhanid realm ...

under

Hulagu Khan Hulagu Khan, also known as Hülegü or Hulegu ( mn, Хүлэгү/ , lit=Surplus, translit=Hu’legu’/Qülegü; chg, ; Arabic: fa, هولاکو خان, ''Holâku Khân;'' ; 8 February 1265), was a Mongol ruler who conquered much of We ...

embraced Kagyu school of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

while tolerant to religious diversity, which enabled Buddhism to remain the official religion of the empire till 1295. During this period, Buddhist temples were constructed throughout the kingdom. Additionally, small Buddhist communities settled throughout the Ilkhanate realm, mainly originating from Kashmir and

East Turkestan East Turkestan ( ug, شەرقىي تۈركىستان, Sherqiy Türkistan, bold=no; zh, s=东突厥斯坦; also spelled East Turkistan), is a loosely-defined geographical and historical region in the western provinces of the People's Republic of ...

. Later, Ilkhanate ruler

Ghazan Mahmud Ghazan (5 November 1271 – 11 May 1304) (, Ghazan Khan, sometimes archaically spelled as Casanus by the Westerners) was the seventh ruler of the Mongol Empire's Ilkhanate division in modern-day Iran from 1295 to 1304. He was the son of ...

, who was raised as Nestorian Christian and received Buddhist education in his youth, converted to Islam in 1295 AD and made it the state religion of the

. He also prohibited the practice of Buddhism, but allowed monks to go into exile into neighboring Buddhist regions.

Contemporary

In 2002, 19 Gandharan style Buddhist statues were unearthed in the southern Iranian province of Fars. In recent years, as part of the post-revolution period, Buddhist ideas and practice, as part of a broader reemergence of various faiths in

, has experienced an upsurge of interest among Iranians. Some of the poetry of Sohrab Sepehri shows Buddhist influence.Foltz, pp. 212-213

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buddhism In Iran

Religion in Iran