Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

4 .8
roundels formed by twisted lines, and there is a scene of an animal being chased (?),
featuring dogs, birds and hares. One of the roundels contains an image of a reclining
man wearing trousers and a shirt girded by a belt with a round buckle. The man’s head is
turned back unnaturally in relation to his torso. He has a straight nose, large eyes and a
tall headdress. His left hand is raised and his right hand is resting on his elbow.
In terms of the style of depicting human figures and animals and the nature of the
ornamentation, this bowl has many similarities with the paintings from Penjikent
and images found on Sogdian vessels. In all likelihood, the bowl was made in Sogdia,
from where it was transported through numerous Sogdian colonies along the routes
of the Silk Road all the way to the capital of China, Changan, and possibly further to
Korea. Given the prominent role of Sogdians in trade along the routes of the Silk Road,
there is nothing extraordinary about the presence of Sogdian silver in the Far East. For
instance, a silver bowl with a Sogdian inscription was found at a burial site near Canton
on the border with Vietnam. The inscription was deciphered by Yotaka Yoshida and is
evidence that the vessel belonged to the ruler of Chach (Tashkent oasis).
Professor Jeong Su-il, a well-known Korean scholar, has shown me a fax sent to
him by a Korean journalist with a picture of a coin found near Vladivostok, which is
near Korea. The coin belongs to a group of so-called imitation Bukharkhudat coins
bearing the name of Caliph al-Mahdi (reigned AD 775–785), which were issued by
Arab governors, modelled on the coins of rulers of Bukhara (Bukharkhudat), who
had in turn imitated the Sassanian coins of Varahran V. The obverse of the coins has
an image of Bukharkhudat encircled by a Sogdian inscription reading ‘Ruler – King
of Bukhara’. Coins from the time of al-Mahdi include a short legend in Arabic with
the name of the ruler appearing behind the ruler’s head. Bukharkhudat coins bearing
the names of Harun al-Rashid and Suleiman have also been found. The discovery
of imitation Bukharkhudat coins in the Far East is particularly interesting because it
is the first time a coin of this type has been found so far from where it was minted.
Moreover, there have been discoveries of objects of Sogdian origin, including those
with Sogdian inscriptions, in Transbaikalia, Altai and Western Siberia.
Chinese textual sources provide some information on visits by persons of Korean
origin to Central Asia. One of them is the Buddhist pilgrim, the monk Hyecho, who,
like Xuan Zang (albeit a century later), visited Sogdia, Chach and Huttal in AD 723
and provided interesting descriptions of these and neighbouring regions, noting the
presence of Buddhist monuments there.
Buddhism made its way to Korea in the 6th century AD via China. Buddhist
missionary monks from Sogdia, Tokharistan, Bactria and Parthia played an important
role in its establishment here. Consequently, as far as Central Asian and Korean
contacts are concerned, we may also note an indirect, even if not direct, influence of
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