Japanese researchers say traces of Buddhism found in ruins in Iran+

KYOTO, Nov. 7 Kyodo - A team of researchers has found indications at ruins in Iran that Buddhism may have been propagated to the country -- more west than the currently thought western limit of the Buddhism propagation in Turkmenistan, the researchers from
Ryukoku University in Kyoto said Friday.

The team this fall found dents in a pillar and walls, which seem to be places
to locate Buddhist statues, in the ruins of a non-Buddhist temple some 8
kilometers south of Maragheh in northwestern Iran, according to the team led by
professor Takashi Irisawa.
Such dents are peculiar only to Buddhist construction but the team did not find
any Buddhist statues or murals in the ruins, according to the researchers.
''Buddhism may have been transmitted to the area and affected its culture
around the 13th century, when the Ilkhanate dynasty, a local Mongol Empire
government, was in place,'' Irisawa said.
The team surveyed ruins in Iran and Turkmenistan from September to October.
In one room in the temple ruins, there was an octagon pillar with seven such
dents -- each some 70 centimeters tall and 45 cm wide.
On the walls of the next room, there were seven to eight such dents, they said.
Currently the western limit of Buddhism propagation is believed to be
Turkmenistan's Merv site, a world heritage site of U.N. Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization.
==Kyodo