lly stretch across time and space to far off origins. Here are
coins and seals of Hellenic design, nude athletes that might adorn a
Greek vase, figures that recall Egypt, Byzantium or the Bayeux
tapestry, with others that might pass for Christian ecclesiastics;
Chinese sages, Krishna dancing to the sound of his flute,
frescoes that might be copied from Ajanta, winged youths to be styled
cupids or cherubs according to our mood.[481]

Stein mentions[482] that he discovered a Buddhist monastery in the
terminal marshes of the Helmund in the Persian province of Seistan,
containing paintings of a Hellenistic type which show "for the first
time _in situ_ the Iranian link of the chain which connects the
Graeco-Buddhist art of extreme north-west India with the Buddhist art
of Central Asia and the Far East."

Central Asian art is somewhat wanting in spontaneity. Except when
painting portraits (which are many) the artists do not seem to go to
nature or even their own imagination and visions. They seem concerned
to reproduce some religious scene not as they saw it but as it was
represented by Indian or other artists.

2

Only one side of Central Asian history can be written with any
completeness, namely its relations with China. Of these some account
with dates can be given, thanks to the Chinese annals which
incidentally supply valuable information about earlier periods. But
unfortunately these relations were often interrupted and also the
political record does not always furnish the data which are of most
importance for the history of Buddhism. Still there is no better
framework available for arranging our data. But even were our
information much fuller, we should probably find the history of
Central Asia scrappy and disconnected. Its cities were united by no
bond of common blood or language, nor can any one of them have had a
continuous development in institutions, letters or art. These were
imported in a mature form and more or less assimilated in a precocious
Augustan age, only to be overwhelmed in some catastrophe which, if not
merely destructive, at least brought the ideas and baggage of another
race.

It was under the Emperor Wu-ti (140-87 B.C.) of the Han dynasty
that the Chinese first penetrated into the Tarim basin. They had heard
that the Hsiung-nu, of whose growing power they were afraid, had
driven the Yueh-chih westwards and they therefore despatched an envoy
named Chang Ch'ien in the hope of inducing the Yu