The Assyrian Church of the East sent missionaries east from its base in Mesopotamia into India, Tibet, Mongolia, and China, and then from China into Korea and Japan. Earliest records indicate this may have been as early as the first century to India, and the second or third centuries to Tibet, Mongolia and China, and the eighth to ninth centuries into Korea and Japan. Manichaeanism was also highly successful in its missionary endeavours along the Silk Routes into China from about the third century onwards. Although Mani and his followers held Jesus in high regard, they were not considered to be Christian by the Christian Churches in general