Transcript The Silk Roads - Asian Studies Center

Teaching about the Silk Roads
Myth, Mystery, and Mayhem
Map of the Ancient Silk Roads
Map of China
Conduit between East and West
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Commercial trade goods
Travelers of all kinds
Migrations of peoples
Armies and conquests
Inventions and discoveries
Ideas and religions
Art, culture, and music
Central Asian Oud
The Chinese Pipa
Japanese Satsuma Biwa, played
with Plectrum
Renaissance Lute
Geography
• Multiple environments on the silk roads
• Relation of environment to life style
• Population constraints and problems
Steppelands: what kind of life do
they allow?
Nomads and their portable home,
the yurt
Bactrian camels: The workhorses
of the Silk Roads
A camel can carry 1,000lbs and go
15 days without water
Sheep are the basis of life in the
desert and steppe
Horses: transport, trade and war
What kind of life is there in the
desert?
Entrance to a karez: underground
water system
Karez system: lifeblood of the Silk
Roads
What kind of life does one have in
the mountains?
Yaks: Carrying loads in the
mountains
Inventions on the Silk Roads:The
stirrup and the cross bow
The Mystery of Silk
From worm to cocoon
Unreeling the thread
And finally, cloth
Chinese inventions that changed
the world
Chinese porcelain
Inventions the Chinese Borrowed:
Glassware and the Chair
Travelers on the Silk Roads
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Zhang Qian
Fa Xian
Xuan Zang
Genghis Khan
Marco Polo
Ibn Battuta
Aurel Stein
Mildred French
Zhang Qian’s Route
Buddhist Pilgrim Fa Xian
• Description of the Taklamakan desert
• In this desert there are great many evil
spirits and hot winds; those who encounter
them perish to a man. There are neither
birds above nor beasts below. Gazing on
all sides as far as the eye can reach in
order to mark the track, no guidance is to
be obtained save from the rotting bones of
dead men, which point the way."
Buddhist Pilgrim Xuan Zang
World conqueror Genghis Khan
Marco Polo
Muslim Traveler Ibn Battuta
“Foreign Devils” on the Silk Road
Aurel Stein and others
Foreign Devil on the Silk Road
• Aurel Stein
Mildred Cable
• Missionaries on the
Silk Road
Migrations of peoples
• Mummies of Loulan
Groups traveled East to West and
West to East
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Yuezhi
Xiong Nu
Kitan
Turkish groups
(Uyghurs, Kazaks,
Usbeks, Turks, etc)
Mongols
Chinese
• Persians
• Arabs
• Russians
Conquerors on the Silk Road
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Xiong Nu (Huns)
Mongols
Alexander the Great
Tibetans
Arabs
Turkic Tribes
Russians
Chinese
Xiong Nu or Huns
Genghis and the Mongol
Conquests
Alexander the Great
Tibetan Armies
Arab Islamic armies conquer silk
road nations
The Great Game: Russians,
Chinese and British struggle over
“Chinese Turkistan”
Religions on the Silk Road
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Zoroastrianism
Nestorian Christianity
Manichaeism
Buddhism
Islam
Zoroastriaism
Nestorian Christianity
Manichaeism
Buddhism
Dunhuang oasis
Cave temple front
Temple entrance
Buddha and Attendants
Dunhuang wall painting
Heavenly musicians
Boddhisattva playing the Harp
Apsara with Harp
Heavenly kings of the North and
South
Heavenly Kings of the West and
East
Buddhist chanting
Monk and Lay Person
Islam
• Emin Minaret
Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar
Great Mosque of Xi’an
Dongguan mosque in Xining
Dongguan mosque #2
Niujie (Ox Street) Mosque
Islamic Recitations
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. TRANSLATION OF THE
CALL TO PRAYER
• God is most great. God is most great.
God is most great. God is most great.
I testify that there is no God except God.
I testify that there is no God except God.
I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
Come to prayer! Come to prayer!
Come to success! Come to success!
God is most great. God is most great.
There is none worthy of worship except God.
Mosque in Herat
Calligraphy
Non-representational art of Islam