Studies In Manichaeism Of Uighur

Established by Mani, a Persian who lived in the third century, Manichaeism got its principal tenets from Zoroastrianism which held that the universe is composed of the duality of brightness and darkness, with the former to be overwhelming the latter, and of the three phases in time, the past, the present and the future, the last being a purified land of supreme harmony and beauty.Manichaeism found its way into China in Tang Dynasty, around 694. It was circulated among the Chinese at the beginning until the Official banning limited it to the migrant westerners only. But a considerable number of Manichaeist preachers remained in central China even till the high Tang period, which made it possible for the Uighur Khans, who at the moment were on friendly terms with the Tang Emperors, to bring the religion to their territory.In 763, Buku Khan of the Uighurs invited four Manichaeist monks to the north, and with their intervention, relinquished their original religion, Shamanism and decreed Manichaeism their "Official Religion". This was the beginning of the century-old Manichaeist Period of the Uighur Khandom.The introduction of Manichaeism to the Uighurs had enormous impact upon the political, economic, and cultural life of the people and contributed greatly to the social development of the Khandom.The present thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter One investigates the reasons, historical and social, why Shaism gave way to Manichaeism, the spread of the new religion among the Uighurs, and its decline. Chapter Two surveys the Turk scriptures (preserved in German) of Manichaeism that have not yet found its way into Chinese scripts and goes on to sum up the studies of these scriptures by Western scholars. Chapter Three analyses the effect of Manim on the Uighur language, calendar, painting and grotto art.