Missionary monks encountered these zones of multicultural influences, either in situ or in the diasporas of the great cities of North India or China, many of them became enamored of the paradoxical presence of metropolitan sophistication and rural isolation that Central Asia afforded

Long seen as a mythical land (See, “Uttarakuru”), Inner Asia was central (via the Silk Road) in not only disseminating Buddhism across Asia in but shaping its mythos as well.