Part II: Expanding Worlds—Transmission Across Asia
Once Buddhist teachings began their journey beyond India, they encountered new languages, cultures, and civilizations that would transform them in fundamental ways. This section traces how the Dharma traveled along trade routes and through royal courts, carried by translators, missionaries, and merchants who made countless decisions about how to render ancient Indian concepts in Chinese characters, Tibetan script, and Southeast Asian languages. From the Silk Road monasteries of Central Asia to the imperial academies of Tang China to the mountain retreats of Tibet, each cultural encounter required creative adaptation. Translation was never neutral—it carried theological implications, political consequences, and cultural assumptions that shaped how entire civilizations would understand the path to awakening.