Myanmar and Afghanistan

India and Myanmar (earlier called Burma) have long-standing ties of history, people and culture, despite periods of political trouble. As the birthplace of Buddhism, India is special to many people in Myanmar, who come here on pilgrimage.

They share a land border and a sea boundary in the Bay of Bengal. Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram border Myanmar. In places the border is just a river: the Tio, with Myanmar on one bank and Mizoram on the other.

Myanmar is India's gateway to Southeast Asia. The Land Border Crossing Agreement of 2018 made it easier for people in border areas to cross, boosted trade and brought people closer. In the last couple of years, though, some limits have been put on movement because of conflicts in those areas.

India helped restore the Ananda temple in Bagan (and others) damaged by earthquakes, and gifted a 16-foot copy of the Sarnath Buddha statue to the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

Now west. Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south-central Asia, home to many ethnic groups. It once shared a direct land border with India, but the creation of Pakistan in 1947 placed a country between them and made access harder.

Their links are ancient. The Uttarāpatha, the great northern trade route you met in Part 1, linked the Ganga plains to Central Asia through Afghanistan, from Gandhāra (modern Kandahar) through Takṣhaśhilā, Varanasi and Pāṭaliputra. Along it travelled goods, Buddhism, Hinduism, art and ideas.

Before Islam spread there in the 7th century CE, Afghanistan was a lively centre of Buddhist and Hindu culture; kingdoms like Kapiśha and Zābul were run in Indian ways. The giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, carved into Afghan cliffs, showed how far Mahāyāna Buddhism had travelled from India. Sadly, they were destroyed in 2001.

In recent decades the people of both countries have stayed close. India has helped Afghanistan with education, healthcare and building, including the Afghan Parliament building and the Zaranj–Delaram highway. India is also helping develop Iran's Chabahar Port, a sea route that reaches Afghanistan without crossing Pakistan.