shka, and if his reign began in 78 A.D. or later the first
specimens of it cannot be much anterior to the Christian era. The
earliest Chinese notices of the existence of Buddhism in Kashgar and
Kucha date from 400 (Fa-Hsien) and the third century (Annals of the
Tsin, 265-317) respectively, but they speak of it as the national
religion and munificently endowed, so that it may well have been
established for some centuries. In Turfan the first definite record is
the dedication of a temple to Maitreya in 469 but probably the history
of religion there was much the same as in Kucha.

It is only in Khotan that tradition, if not history, gives a more
detailed narrative. This is found in the works of the Chinese pilgrims
Hsuan Chuang and Sung Yun and also in four Tibetan works which are
apparently translated from the language of Khotan.[518] As the story
is substantially the same in all, it merits consideration and may be
accepted as the account current in the literary circles of Khotan
about 500 A.D. It relates that the Indians who were part-founders of
that city in the reign of Asoka were not Buddhists[519] and the
Tibetan version places the conversion with great apparent accuracy
170 years after the foundation of the kingdom and 404 after the death
of the Buddha. At that time a monk named Vairocana, who was an
incarnation of Manjusri, came to Khotan, according to Hsuan Chuang
from Kashmir.[520] He is said to have introduced a new language as
well as Mahayanism, and the king, Vijayasambhava, built for him the
great monastery of Tsarma outside the capital, which was miraculously
supplied with relics. We cannot be sure that the Tibetan dates
were intended to have the meaning they would bear for our chronology,
that is about 80 B.C., but if they had, there is nothing improbable in
the story, for other traditions assert that Buddhism was preached in
Kashmir in the time of Asoka. On the other hand, there was a dynastic
change in Khotan about 60 A.D. and the monarch who then came to the
throne may have been Vijayasambhava.

According to the Tibetan account no more monasteries were built for
seven reigns. The eighth king built two, one on the celebrated
Gosirsha or Gosringa mountain. In the eleventh reign after
Vijayasambhava, more chaityas and viharas were built in connection
with the introduction of the silkworm industry. Subsequently, but
without any clear indication of date, the introduction of the
Mahasanghika and Sarvastivadi