Conversion to Manichaeism
It was undoubtedly with such thoughts in mind that Bogu Khagan declared Manichaeism the Uighur state religion in 762, since Buddhism was not a viable alternative at this time. Furthermore, with its stress on the forces of light gaining the victory over the powers of darkness, Manichaeism would have given the impression of being more suited than Buddhism for a martial nation. Following the lessons learned from the First and Second Eastern Turk Dynasties, the Khagan borrowed the Sogdian alphabet, but not the Sogdian language, and modified it for writing Uighur. He used it for both administrative as well as religious purposes, employing Sogdians to translate Manichaean texts into Uighur.
Having gained experience translating Buddhist texts into Old Turk, the Sogdians had begun to render Buddhist scriptures into their own language during the interim (630 – 682) between the First and Second Eastern Turk Dynasties. This was the period when not only Mongolia and Turfan, but also the entire Tarim Basin had been conquered by Tang China. The Sogdian translators had used primarily Han Chinese sources, the tradition and language with which they were most familiar. With Tang China in such a dominant political position, the Sogdian Buddhists probably had finally felt their identity threatened enough to take this step to distance themselves from possible absorption by Han Chinese culture. Since this Buddhist translation activity was still continuing at the time the Uighurs commissioned the Sogdian translators to prepare Uighur Manichaean texts, and since the Sogdians had already worked with the Old Turk language which was related to Uighur, the Sogdians naturally borrowed a considerable amount of Buddhist terminology for their new task. Popular Resistance to the Conversion
As a result of the Uighur rule of Turfan from 605 to the 630s, many Uighurs had already adopted the Eastern Turk form of Buddhism, particularly the warriors and common people. Yet after the Uighur suppression of the An Lushan rebellion, Bogu Khagan led his men in destroying all Buddhist monasteries and temples when pillaging Chang’an and Loyang. He ordered the subsequent destruction of Buddhist monasteries in other parts of his realm as well, as far away as Semirechye in northern West Turkestan. In so doing, he was undoubtedly trying to reaffirm the pan-Turkic martial tradition and justify his choice of Manichaeism by demonstrating even further the weakness of Buddhism.
Numerous Uighur soldiers, however, undoubtedly still followed a mixture of Buddhism, Tengrism, and Turkic shamanism at this time. This is indicated by the fact that Bogu Khagan had to force his people into accepting Manichaeism. He organized them into units of ten, with one person responsible for the religious observances of each group. Nevertheless, this mainly Sogdian religion never became widespread among the Uighurs. It was limited primarily to the aristocratic nobility, to whom it appealed because of its emphasis on a pure and clean religious elite who were morally superior to the so-called “dirty masses.” Buddhism undoubtedly continued among these “dirty masses” throughout the period of Uighur rule over Mongolia.
Furthermore, the Uighur nobility itself was not exclusively committed to Manichaeism. Twenty years after the official state conversion, Alp Kutlugh (r. 780 – 790) assassinated Bogu khagan for his financial excesses in support of this new religion. Assuming the title Khagan, he requested Patriarch Timotheus (r. 780 – 819) to assign a Nestorian Christian metropolitan for his realm. This form of Christianity, however, like Manichaeism, was still basically a Sogdian faith. Its patronage fit logically within the general Uighur strategy for winning the allegiance of the people of the Tarim Basin as led economically by the Sogdian merchants.
In the seventh and eighth centuries, Nestorian Christianity spread through southern Kazakhstan and Semirechye and later in the ninth and 10th centuries led to the founding of the Metropolitan See of Qarluks. Christian churches still exist in Taraz and Mirke. In Taraz today there are still Christian families of Syrian origin (easily recognized by their dark skin) who claim that their ancestors went there to escape persecutions, the memory of which has been lost in time.
Control questions:
1. Describe three main points of the religious beliefs in the early Turk states on the plateaus of Central Asia coalesced around.
2. How do we know about the principle beliefs and practices of the Tangri cult? Give some examples.
3. Give an analyses of many other religions prior to Islam Turkic groups came into contact in the course of their long history and wanderings
4. How do we know about Taspar (reigned from 572-581) conversion to Buddhism?
5. Provide some modern-day site evidences about Nestorian Christianity spread through southern Kazakhstan and Semirechyeю
2.3.2 Ancient Turks written monuments
In the VI-VII centuries Turkic speaking tribes of Central Asia being in the structure of the Turk khaganate already used their own script. Necessity in a written language arose from needs of administrative and diplomatic practices and fixation of state acts. The Bugut stela is a monument of the evidences about it. It was erected on the mound of one of the Turk’s khagans Taspar (572-581). The inscription was made in the Sogdian language. On one side of the stela there is a text in Sanscrit almost destroyed with erosion. The variant in the Sogdian language that remained a little tells about events of the first thirty years of the khaganate existence. From the address to readers it is seen that the Sogdian script was clear for quite a wide circle of educated people in the khaganate from the upper strata of the Turk society. A great number of the Sogdians lived at court of the Turk khagans: they were diplomats and officials, courtiers and tutors in writing and reading. Their cultural influence upon the Turks was considerable. In those years, when was erected the Bugut stela, was translated into the Turkic language and fixed the Buddiest composition "Nivana sutra" with the purpose of Buddist popularization among the Turks. In the initial period of the Turk khaganate history, not later the second half of the VII century in the Turkic society added with several signs arose a new script. It consisted of 37-38 of geometrical contours not connected with each other, and in contrast to the Sogdians was well adapted for fixation on wood and stone (with scratching and caving). The new written language rather well rendered phonetic peculiarities of the Turkic language. In the process of adapting to the Turkic language the Sogdian alphabet underwent considerable changes: a) italic way of writing some signs was substituted for separate one; b)under the influence of the forms of clan signs (Tamgas) and ideographical symbols, that the Turks had, and also perhaps under the influence of texture (stone, wood, metal) sooth rounded tracing of Sogdian letters was substituted for geometrical tracing; c) since phonetic systems of the Sogdian and Turkic language are different, not all the signs of the Sogdian alphabet were taken, but phonetic symbolism of runic signs not always coincides with phonetic symbolism of similar Sogdian letters; at the same time the runic alphabet was enriched with new signs that were absent in the Sogdian script, partly of ideographic, partly of letter character. In 1696-1722 years these inscriptions were discovered by Russian scientists S.Remezov, F.Stralenberg, D.Messershmid in top of the current of the Yenisei. In 1889, M.Jadrintsev discovered another one on the rivers Orkhons (Mongolia). In 1893, these inscriptions were decoded by the Danish linguist V.Tomsen. And for the first time were read by the Russian linguist V.V.Radlov (1894). The Orhono-yenisei inscriptions concern by VII-XI centuries. The inscription corpus consists of two monuments which were erected in the Orkhon Valley between 732 and 735 in honour of the two Kokturk princes- Kultigin and his brother the emperor Bilge Khan, as well as inscriptions on slabs scattered in the wider area.
The Orkhon monuments are the oldest known examples of Turkic writings; they are inscribed on obelisks and date back to 720 (for the obelisk relating to Tonyukuk), to 732 (for that relating to Kültigin), and to 735 (for that relating to Bilge Khagan). They were carved in a script used also for inscriptions found in Mongolia, Siberia, and Eastern Turkistan and called by Thomsen "Turkish runes".They relate in epic language the legendary origins of the Turks, the golden age of their history, their subjugation by the Chinese, and their liberation by Bilge.The polished style of the writings suggests considerable earlier development of the Turkish language. In the literary and historiographical
