Ai-Khanoum, Afghanistan. Source: Wikipedia.
Speaker: Edward Ross (University of Reading)
Date: Monday 26 January 2026
Basement Teaching Room 1 at 5:00pm
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Pusey Lane, Oxford, OX1 2LE
All Welcome
All enquiries: wanyu.zhang@ames.ox.ac.uk
Glorisun Lecture Series in Buddhist Studies 2025-2026
Kindly supported by Glorisun Global Network for Buddhist Studies
Abstract:
During the reign of King Aśoka Maurya (c. 304-232 BCE; r. 268-232 BCE), the teachings and practices of Buddhism were brought to the fringes of the Mauryan Empire and its neighbouring kingdoms. This included the regions to the north-west of the Hindukush, the land of Yonas. According to current scholarly consensus, the primary evidence for the transmission of Buddhism into Central Asia and the activities that took place during this early period are the inscriptions attributed to Aśoka and the 5th-6th century CE Pāli Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa. The Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan (MAIP) has recently unearthed an apsidal temple in Barikot that dates to the time of the Indo-Greeks, and potentially even as far back as Aśoka’s time. This early devotional space, paired with the early stūpa at Butkara 1, presents the most important physical evidence for pre-Kushan Buddhist practice along the major travel routes to Central Asia. Considering how Buddhism became a major, living tradition in Central Asia from the Kushan Period onwards, these early dates support an earlier integration of Buddhist practitioners into Indo-Greek and Greco-Bactrian communities during the Hellenistic Period. This chapter presents a theoretical model for Early Buddhist integration into Central Asian multi-religious spaces, particularly focusing on the Hellenistic city of Aï Khanoum.
Speaker:
Edward A S Ross is a Lecturer in Classics at the University of Reading. He is also Co-Investigator on the iGAIAS (Investigating Generative Artificial Intelligence in Ancient World Studies) project with Jackie Baines. Edward holds a BA (Hons) from McGill University, a Master of Buddhist Studies from the University of Hong Kong, and PhD from the University of Reading. His research interests include the daily religious life of Hellenistic Bactria, ancient religious diversity, the movement of Buddhism into the Hellenistic and Roman East, religious self-sacrifice, uses of generative AI in ancient world studies, and Buddhism in North America. To see more of his work, take a look at his website here: https://edwardasross.wordpress.com/
