TY  - BOOK
AU  - Elverskog,Johan
TI  - A history of Uyghur Buddhism
SN  - 9780231215251
AV  - BQ649.X56 
U1  - 294.30951/6 23/eng/20231201
PY  - 2024///
CY  - New York
PB  - Columbia University Press
KW  - Buddhism
KW  - China
KW  - Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu
KW  - History
KW  - DLC
KW  - Uighur (Turkic people)
KW  - Religion
KW  - Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu (China)
KW  - Fellow
KW  - Nina Maria Gorrissen Fellow in History
KW  - Class of Fall 2021
KW  - Written at the Academy
N1  - Introduction -- 1. Becoming Buddhist -- 2. Buddhist Politics -- 3. Buddhist Economics -- 4. Uyghur Buddhisms -- 5. Becoming Muslim -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
N2  - "Today most Uyghurs are Muslims, but this has not always been so. For centuries they were Buddhists, forging their distinctive tradition along the Silk Road at the center of Buddhist Eurasia. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries they were so renowned for their monuments, which spanned Beijing to Baghdad, that Tibetans considered their kingdom to be the mythical land of Shambhala. And yet, during the Qing period they converted to Islam, rewriting their past and erasing their Buddhist history. In the early nineteenth century the European orientalists rediscovered Uyghur Buddhism but did not develop their knowledge until the late 1800s when explorers discovered the treasures of the long-lost civilizations of the Silk Road. The Uyghurs, it turned out, had been not only Buddhists but also Christians and Manichaeans, raising questions about why they became Buddhists and why they converted to Islam"
ER  -