Buddhism in Central Asia mainly existed in Mahayana forms and was historically especially prevalent along the Silk Road. The history of Buddhism in Central Asia is closely related to the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism during the first millennium of the common era. Buddhism dominated the pre Islamic central Asia. It has been argued that the spread of Indian culture and religions, specially buddhism as far as Sogdia corresponded to the rule of the Kidarites over the regions from Sogdia to Gandhara.[4]
^For information on the Sogdians, an Eastern Iranian people, and their inhabitation of Turfan as an ethnic minority community during the phases of Tang Chinese (7th-8th century) and Uyghur rule (9th-13th century), see Hansen, Valerie (2012), The Silk Road: A New History, Oxford University Press, p. 98, ISBN978-0-19-993921-3.