At the top of a lonely ziggurat in the remote Pamir Mountains, sits a stone with a single footprint set into it.
This is a relic of the once-mighty Kushan Empire, which took Buddhism across the world from Central Asia

The road along the Wakhan River Valley, in Tajikistan's eastern Pamir region, does not see much traffic today. One and a half thousand years ago, it was a busy thoroughfare, not only for silk, but for the spread of religions and ideologies.
The civilisations which passed along this mountainous branch of the Silk Route have left an eclectic collection of monuments, strung along the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. One of these is an unusual ziggurat, perched above the village of Vrang, on a cliffside pitted with man-made caves.
This stone pyramid is capped with a large rock, containing a deep impression of a footprint. The footprint, along with other devices (a prayer wheel, an empty throne or a Bodhi tree), was used to symbolise the Buddha, who is said to have discouraged representations of himself.
The Chinese traveller Suan Tsian found the Buddhist monastery here in the VII century and described it in his journal. The 5-tiered ziggurat was in the centre of a courtyard, surrounded by a high wall with towers. The remains of this structure can still be seen, although the site has not been fully excavated. The monks lived in the caves around the perimeter, which are still there today.
Buddhism was brought to the Wakhan Valley centuries before Suan Tsian's visit, by the Kushan people. The Kushans were descended from nomads who migrated from China into Afghanistan. Finding themselves situated exactly midway along the Silk Route, they exploited their position and gained vast wealth and power. Nancy Dupree writes:
"The rise to world prominence had wrought great changes on the nomadic Kushans. Having no traditions on which to build a settled way of life, they adapted what they found in ways best suited to their own personality. What emerged was a vibrant and indigenous culture born of the fusion of western-oriented Bactrian ideals with those from eastern-oriented India, interpreted by the forceful, free character born on the Steppes of Central Asia. The result was vital and dynamic."

The Kushan King Kanishka revived the ancient religion of Buddhism. He was famous for his syncretism, honouring Zoroastrian, Greek and Brahman deities as well as the Buddha. Around the turn of the II century AD, Kanishka called a great council which sanctioned a new school of Buddhist thought (Mahayana Buddhism), stressing the miraculous life and personality of the Buddha.
The Kushans were strongly influenced by Greek/Bactrian culture (brought to Central Asia several centuries earlier by Alexander the Great), and these influences are evident in Mahayana, as the faith developed its sophisticated philosophical approach and a man-god treatment of the Buddha somewhat reminiscent of Hellenic gods. This humanising of the Buddha, together with the influences of Greek art and its “cult of form”, led to the desire for a representative figure of the Buddha. So East and West joined in the creation of the familiar Buddha figure. Some of Kanishka's coins bear the earliest representations of the Buddha on a coin (c.120 AD) in Hellenistic style and with the word "Boddo" in Greek script.
From this time, the Kushan civilisation began to erect huge statues of the Buddha in human form. The best known of these were of course the standing Buddhas at Bamiyan in Afghanistan. The Small Buddha (38m tall) was the first figure to be sculpted into the cliffs, some time during the III century. The Large Buddha (55m) was made about 2 centuries later. It is tragic that these relics of Kushan achievement survived for one and a half millennia only to be destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Today the huge niches stand empty. The piles of rubble at the bottom have been collected and sorted, but will not be reconstructed.
Despite the absence of their standing tenants, the niches remain impressive and are clearly visible across the Bamiyan valley. The Japanese artist Hiro Yamagata is working on a project to recreate representations of the Buddha with lasers, scheduled to open in 2009. In the meantime, Bamiyan is still a fascinating place to visit. A complex of stairways and caves winds its way up the side of each niche, and brightly-coloured frescoes remain on many of the walls. Above each niche is an open gallery which connects the cave complexes on each side. Preservation work has been carried out on the niches and caves and fresh archaeological work is being carried out on the site.
Besides Bamiyan, there are many other Buddhist sites across the former Kushan Empire, in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Close to the Oxus is a Buddhist stupa called Takht-i-Rustam (“Rustam's Throne”). Local people do not like to be reminded of their Buddhist forebears and prefer to believe that the mound and monastery caves mark the location of the wedding of the semi-mythical Sogdian hero Rustam to the daughter of the King of Samangan, Takhmina.
About an hour's drive south of Dushanbe is the hill of Ajina-Teppa, site of a Buddhist temple and monastery complex built by the Kushans. This two-courtyard complex had domed and cupola-topped structures around the perimeter and a tall tower at the centre of the temple. When Soviet archaeologists uncovered the site in 1966, they found the walls were covered with paintings and bas-reliefs, and hundreds of sculptures of Buddha were installed in deep niches. Many of these artefacts are now in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. In 2005, UNESCO and the Japanese government launched a $700,000 project for the preservation of the Ajina-Teppa site, which will hopefully lead to the monastery being listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The greatest find at Ajina-Teppa was a 14m reclining statue of the Buddha. The Buddha lies on his side, his face showing absolute serenity, reflecting the nearness of achieving Nirvana in the last moments before his death. This statue forms the centrepiece of Tajikistan's Museum of National Antiquities in Dushanbe, and is now the largest representation of the Buddha in Central Asia. The museum also contains many Greek/Bactrian and Kushan artefacts.
As the Kushan Empire expanded into the Pamirs, so its influence spread into China and the Far East. Buddhist missionaries followed the caravans of the Silk Route, establishing shrines and monasteries such as the complex at Vrang.

The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism ended around the VII century with the rise of Islam in Central Asia.

To arrange a trip to visit the main Buddhist sites in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, contact the Great Game Travel Company

WEBSITES
Kabul Museum Online
www.afghan-web.com/kabul-museum/

Includes a video of the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban
Bamiyan Laser Buddhas
www.bamiyanlaser.org

Kushan Empire (Wikipedia)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushan

Author article & photos Michael Davis