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What
Are The Silk Roads?
The Silk Roads were a group of trade routes
that connected China and Europe from 300 B.C. to 1500 A.D. Over 8,000
kilometers of road extended from Asia to the Mediterranean Sea. These
routes traversed both land and sea, and ran in all directions. Many
routes sought the highly prized silk from China. During this time,
silk was a precious commodity valued by men and women worldwide because
of its rarity, visual beauty, and unique tactile quality.
Material goods were not the only things exchanged on the Silk Roads.
Religious beliefs, medical practices, general knowledge, and cultural
customs were conveyed in all directions along the Silk Roads. They
represent even greater riches for world culture. This exhibition presents
books and artifacts of geography, culture, history, archeology, trade,
and religion found along the Silk Roads in various historical periods.
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The
Concept of Silk Road
The Silk Road cannot be simply treated as
a network of transportation routes. It was also a conscious concept
of interaction that illustrates the way that commodities, empires,
religions, and even music, have traveled throughout Eurasia for thousands
of years. The Silk Road was a connecting concept over the “West”
and “East” divide, providing an ongoing historical exchange
of human experience.
(The Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative
http://www.ecai.org/silkroad/index.html)
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Buddhist
Art Along the Silk Roads
The
art and civilization of the Silk Roads achieved its highest point in
the Tang Dynasty. Chang’an (Xi’an), the starting point of
the route, as well as the capital of the Tang dynasty, developed into
one of the largest and most cosmopolitan cities of the time. During
this period, in the 7th century, Tang monk Xuanzang traveled crossed
the region to obtain Buddhist scriptures from India. He took the northern
branch route and returned by the southern route. He recorded the cultures
and styles of Buddhism along the way. The majority of cave grottos were
built and painted along the Silk Roads since Tang period.
Trade declined while the medieval Mongol (Yuan dynasty) expanded its
boundaries into Central Asia, and the later Ming and Qing dynasties
pursued isolation from the fast developing western civilizations. The
final demise of the Silk Roads was the development of flourishing sea
travel in the 18th and 19th centuries. The
study of the Silk Roads antiquities was initiated with the expeditions
of the Swede Sven Hedin in 1895. After Hedin, the archaeological race
began with Sir Aurel Stein of Britain and Albert von Le Coq of Germany,
followed by the Russians, French, and Japanese. They produced reports
of excavated material, and removed whatever they could from the sites
for transport to museums at home . The Mogao grottos at Dunhuang was
the crowning discoveries. The manuscripts found along the Silk Roads
are in Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Uighur, Xixia and several other
less commonly known languages. They cover a wide range of subjects
including Buddhist Sutra, and stories and ballads from the Tang dynasty
and before.
(Dr. Oliver Wild http://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html#1)
The ancient Silk
Road, starting from Chang'an (now Xi'an), the capital during the Western
Han Dynasty (206 BC-24 AD), was the most important commercial route
linking prosperous central China with central Asia 2,000 years ago.
Lanzhou, Turfan, Dunhuang, Loulan (Kroraina), Lingwu and about 20
other cities prospered because of the Silk Road.
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Major
Sections Along the Silk Road
The
Silk Road can be divided into three major sections representing different
geographical regions and also different aspects of the silk trade along
the Silk Road. These three sections of the Silk Road trade routes are:
· an eastern section beginning in Chang'an, China, and running
along the northern and southern borders of the Taklamakan Desert to
the Pamir Mountains;
· a Central Asian section crossing the Pamirs and the Central
Asian region of Samarkand; and
· a western section that runs through Persia to the Mediterranean.
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Conference Images |
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Dr. Bob McColl,
"Trade and the Silk Roads"
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Dr. Bob McColl,
"Trade and the Silk Roads"
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Dr. Bob McColl,
"Trade and the Silk Roads"
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Dr. Bob McColl,
"Trade and the Silk Roads"
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Dr. Kathy Libal, "Islamic Women in Central Asia"
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Dr. Kathy Libal, "Islamic Women in Central Asia"
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Dr. Kathy Libal, "Islamic Women in Central Asia"
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Conference Reception
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Conference Reception
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Conference Reception
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Conference Reception
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Conference Reception
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Conference Reception
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Conference Reception
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Conference Reception
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Conference Reception
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Exhibition
Images (Page 1 of 5) |
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Kilim Rug from Turkey
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Pottery
Animal from Central Asia
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Wooden Uzbek Woman Made in a Russian Style
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Wooden
Figure from Kazakhstan
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Kazakh Purse from XinJiang
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Yoruk
Socks from Turkey
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Camel
doll
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Evil
Eye from Turkey
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Kilim Rug from Turkey
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Islamic Prayer Beads from Turkey & Evil Eye
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Various
Scarves from Turkey
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Various Scarves from Turkey
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Tiles
with Islamic Floral Patterns from Turkey
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Tiles
with Islamic Floral Patterns from Turkey
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Lantern
from northern syria
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Next
Page (More Images) >> |
Exhibition Bibliography |
| Explorer/archaeologists
in Chinese Central Asia
· Peter Hopkirk, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road, London : Murray,
1980.
· Aurel Stein, 1862-1943. Ruins of desert Cathay : personal narrative
of explorations in central Asia and westernmost China. New York : Dover
Publications, 1987.
· Henry Yule, 1820-1889. Cathay and the way thither, being a
collection of medieval notices of China, Nendeln, Liechtenstein, Kraus
Reprint, 1967.
Dunhuang
· Duan, Wenjie, Dunhuang art : through the eyes of
Duan Wenjie. New Delhi : Indira Gandhi National
Centre for the Arts : Abhinav Pubs., 1994.
· Fujieda Akira, The Tunhuang Manuscripts: a general description
, Zinbun ix (1966) pp. 1-32 and x (1969), pp. 17-39.
· Roderick Whitfield and Anne Farrer, Caves of the thousand Buddhas:
Chinese art from the Silk Route, London: The British Museum, 1990.
History of Central Asia
· Vadime Elisseeff, The Silk Roads: highways of culture and commerce.
New York: Berhahn Books, 2000
· Richard Nelson Frye, The heritage of Central Asia from antiquity
to the Turkish expansion. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, c1996.
· William Montgomery McGovern, The early empires of Central Asia;
a study of the Scythians and the Huns and the part they played in world
history, with special reference to the Chinese sources. Chapel Hill:
The University of North Carolina Press, 1939.
Religion
· Foltz, Richard Foltz, Religions of the Silk Road : over
land trade and cultural exchange from antiquity to the fifteenth century.
New York : St. Martin's Press, 1999.
· Xinru Liu, Silk and Religion: An Exploration of Mate-
rial life and the Thought of People, AD 600-1200.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Web Resources:
· ECAI Silk Road Atlas The Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative
(ECAI) Silk Road Atlas
http://www.ecai.org/silkroad/index.html
· International Dunhuang Project (IDP)
http://idp.bl.uk/
· Index of the Timeline of Art History (Metropolitan Museum of
Art) Central and North Asia
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hi/hi_ascn.htm
· The Silk Road (Dr, Oliver Wide)
http://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html
· The Silkroad Foundation
http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/toc/index.html
K-12
· Silk Road Encounters (AskAsia.Org)
http://www.askasia.org/teachers/
Instructional_Resources/FEATURES/SilkRoad/HistoryLP.htm
· SPICE Lesson: Along the Silk Road
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/sum-inst/links/silkunit.htm
Exhibition
Brochure
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Library
Contact Info:
Phone: 785-864-4669
Fax: 785-864-5311
Email: vdoll at ku.edu
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