User:Andrew Gray/08

The 1908 Ōtani expedition was a Japanese archaeological expedition to a set of Silk Road sites in the Taklamakan Desert, funded by Count Ōtani Kōzui. The expedition, which lasted from 1908 until 1909, aimed to study the early transmission of Buddhism through Central Asia into China.

Background
Ōtani, a Buddhist priest, had led a 1902 expedition to Central Asia, though his own participation had been cut short by returning to Japan to succeed his father as Abbot of the Nishi Honganji sect. The remainder of the expedition had stayed, studying sites around around Kucha, before the project was suspended. By 1908, however, Ōtani was able to support a second expedition.