Did ancient Buddhists from Tibet meet Pictish ancestors?
Were our ancient forebears taught by visitors from the Far East? A Victorian scholar thought it a definite possibility, writes Alison Campsie
It was a theory of its day fuelled by one man’s travels to India and the Far East. Thomas A Wise, a doctor from Dundee, left Scotland in 1827 to take up a position in the Bengal Medical Service. It was a journey made by many Scots medical graduates before him.
His 23 years in India fuelled an intense interest in the cultural and social aspects of his adopted home. He wrote papers on the Hindu system of medicine, diseases of the eye and preservation of ice while investing heavily in a hospital and serving as the Secretary to the Committee of Public Instruction in Calcutta. But it was his theory that suggested the ancient Buddhists of Tibet travelled to Scotland to meet the Picts of the North and East that truly consumed the polymath.
On retiring from medicine in 1851, Dr Wise returned to Scotland and absorbed himself in ambitious archaeological projects, such as the excavation of the Barry Hill hillfort near Alyth and the Iron Age broch near Dunrobin.
He became fascinated by the similarities he saw between the Tibetan objects in his collection of relics collected on his travels and the symbols etched into the Pictish standing stones of home.
His theory was that Buddhist missionaries came to Scotland and used the symbols as teaching tools before they were developed by the Picts and used as a visual language. In particular, he drew comparisons between the dorje, the Tibetan thunderbolt symbol – which represents abrupt change in human consciousness – and the prominent Pictish symbol of the double disc. Dr Wise also saw similarities between Tibetan round towers and the cromlech, a type of
single-chamber megalithic tomb. He wrote numerous papers on the subject which culminated in his final publication in 1884, The History of Paganism in Caledonia with an Examination into the Influence of Asiatic Philosophy, and the Gradual Development of Christianity in Pictavia. Several presentations to the Scottish Society of Antiquaries were made.
Christina Donald, curator of early history at Dundee Museum and Art Gallery, said: “His view was that Buddhist monks came to Scotland and used stones and symbols as teaching symbols for the Picts before Christianity took over.
“I wouldn’t call it a crackpot theory – it is not a theory that would be accepted today, but it is interesting that no one has really come up with the definitive theory that explains Pictish standing stones.”
Ms Donald said Dr Wise was investigating the Pictish era at a time when little research was being done on the group of people who populated parts of the North and East from around the 3rd century and the 10th century.
But his theories were far from perfect, she added.
Ms Donald said: “When he excavated Dunsinane Fort in Perthshire he claimed the skulls that were found there were from the Far East, so he did try and shoehorn his theories in where he could. But at the same time, he was thinking about these things at a time when very little was written about the subject. TA Wise was also one of the first to think of the stones as one body of work. How we think of Pictish stones is almost the same today. The interpretation of Pictish stones, and how we think about them, hasn’t moved on that much.”
Ms Donald said it was possible that the disc was merely a universal symbol used by both societies. There is no evidence that Buddhists travelled to Scotland around this period, she added.
Recent research led by Aberdeen University found that the Romans may have influenced the Picts in the development of their own written language about 1,700 years ago. Stones found at Dunnicaer Fort near Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, have now been dated to the 3rd century AD, with the new timeline fitting in with the spread of Roman writing systems.