According to Hsuan Chuang’s religious conspectus of these regions, Kashgar, Osh and Kucha belonged to the Small Vehicle, Yarkand and Khotan mainly to the Great.  The Small Vehicle also flourished at Balkh and at Bamian.[495] In Kapisa the Great Vehicle was predominant but there were also many Hindu sects:  in the Kabul valley too Hinduism and Buddhism seem to have been mixed:  in Persia[496] there were several hundred Sarvastivadin monks.  In Tokhara (roughly equivalent to Badakshan) there was some Buddhism but apparently it did not flourish further north in the regions of Tashkent and Samarkand.  In the latter town there were two disused monasteries but when Hsuan Chuang’s companions entered them they were mobbed by the populace.  He says that these rioters were fire worshippers and that the Turks whom he visited somewhere near Aulieata were of the same religion.  This last statement is perhaps inaccurate but the T’ang annals expressly state that the population of Kashgar and Khotan was in part Zoroastrian.[497] No mention of Nestorianism in Kashgar at this date has yet been discovered, although in the thirteenth century it was a Nestorian see.  But since Nestorianism had penetrated even to China in the seventh century, it probably also existed in Samarkand and Kashgar.

The pilgrim Wu-K’ung spent five months in Kashgar about 786, but there appear to be no later data of interest for the study of Buddhism.

The town of Kucha[498] lies between Kashgar and Turfan, somewhat to the west of Karashahr.  In the second century B.C. it was already a flourishing city.  Numerous dated documents show that about 630 A.D. the language of ordinary life was the interesting idiom sometimes called Tokharian B, and, since the Chinese annals record no alien invasion, we may conclude that Kucha existed as an Aryan colony peopled by the speakers of this language some centuries before the Christian era.  It is mentioned in the Han annals and when brought into contact with China in the reign of Wu-ti (140-87 B.C.) it became a place of considerable importance, as it lay at the junction[499] of the western trade routes leading to Kashgar and Aulieata respectively.  Kucha absorbed some Chinese civilization but its doubtful loyalty to the Imperial throne often involved it in trouble.  It is not until the Western Tsin dynasty that we find it described as a seat of Buddhism.  The Tsin annals say that it was enclosed by a triple wall and contained a thousand stupas and Buddhist temples as well as a magnificent palace for the king.[500] This implies that Buddhism had been established for some time but no evidence has been found to date its introduction.

In 383 Fu-chien, Emperor of the Tsin dynasty, sent his general Lu-Kuang to subdue Kucha.[501] The expedition was successful and among the captives taken was the celebrated Kumarajiva.  Lu-Kuang was so pleased with the magnificent and comfortable life of Kucha that he thought of settling there but Kumarajiva prophesied that he was destined to higher things.  So they left to try their fortune in China.  Lu-Kuang rose to be ruler of the state known as Southern Liang and his captive and adviser became one of the greatest names in Chinese Buddhism.