Topic- Silk Route and its role in different areas
The term "Silk Route" was first used by
German geographer Ferdinand Von Richthofen in 19th century when he referred to an ancient trunk
road crossing in Central Asia. This Great Silk Route, the first trans
-continental trade and diplomatic road in the history of mankind, connected
China and the Far East with Europe and India passed through Central Asia
covering 6,400 kms.
The Silk Route was a network of roads, which followed
the wide and varied contacts between the peoples of the Mediterranean
countries, Near and Middle East, Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent and East
Asia.
The Silk Route
There was no one Silk Route, but many routes, roads,
and paths that headed in an east-west direction. The route was mainly comprised of three
parent routes as follows:
1.
Oasis Route
The “Oasis Route”, connected the caravan cities in the
desert and semi-desert areas of Central Asia. This was the most popular route
not only because of its historical significance in terms of East-West trade and
cultural exchange, but also because it attracted people mainly because this
route evolved through consistent human efforts, with countless people traveling
along this route over thousands of years. The terminals of the Oasis Route were
Changan (Xian) in the East and Rome in the West; and later on Luayang in the
East and Byzantium (Constantinople) in the West.
The route crossed many hazardous regions such as the
Takla Makan desert, the Tien Shan and Kunlun Shan, the Pamirs, the Karakum and
Kyzylkum deserts, and the Hindu Kush.
The 4,000 kms long section of the Oasis Silk Route
that ran through East and West Turkistan was located in the heart of Asia. The
caravan city states along the Oasis Route maintained accommodation and market
facilities for caravans and travelers.
2.
Steppe Route
The
"Steppe Route", the commercial route controlled by nomadic tribes who
lived in the Eurasian steppe region extending to the north of the Oasis Route.
This was the second important constituent of the Silk Route. It had been used
by nomads when they moved from east to west or vice-versa. They used this route
for securing fodder for their cattle. The Steppe Route originated from the
migration of nomadic cattle raising tribes in the pre-historic age.
The Steppe Route was not a road but it was a
continuation of plains from east to west which served as an artery of traffic
in Northern Eurasia. It was a convenient artery for nomadic equestrian tribes
for migrating in any direction and to breed cattle or trade at various
locations. The Steppe Route was itself a fertile pasturage and also a stage of
military activities.
3.
Southern Sea Route
The "Southern Sea Route", linked the China
Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Southern
Sea Route started from the Southern cost of China in of Kuangchou (Canton),
rounding the peninsula of Indo-China, through the Malacca Straits and up to the
mouth of the Ganga.
Alignment of the Silk Route
The Great Silk Route spanned half the then known
world. It started from Changan, which is today's Xian and was the capital of
China during Chi, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties. Passing through Kansu, the
principal route bifurcated at Anxi near Dun Huang.
·
The northern route passed through well known oasis like Hami, Turfan,
Urumqi and either went further west to IIi and to the area of Caspian Sea or
trenched off south to Korla, Kucha, Aksu and Kashgar. It skirted round the
Taklamakan desert (Tarim Basin) from the North.
·
The southern route passed through Dun Huang, Niya, Keria, Khotan,
Karghalik, Yarkand (Shache) and joined the northern route at Kashgar.
·
The middle route which went west from Dun Huang through Yumen Pass
(The Jade Gate), to Lop Nor going along the extended Great Wall to the ruined
city Loulan from where it either went North West to join the Northern
route at Korla or South West to meet the Southern route at Jechiang (Shanshan).
The road again bifurcated from Kashgar which was the
junction of the two principle routes. Kashgar, being the meeting point of the
various roads of the Silk Route, became one of the most important trade centre
of Central Asia.
·
The western route continued over the Roof of the World
(Pamirs) towards Samarkand, Balkh, Bukhara, Merv, Nissa through Parthia to the
shores of the Mediterranean at Antiock and then on to Rome and Alexandria by
ship.
·
The southern route turned to Tashkurghan to cross the Karakoram pass and
then on to the great Buddhist University of Taxi Ia or to Gandhara.9 There were
other routes also, the one from Khotan or Yarkand to Leh and on to Srinagar in
Kashmir and the other over the Taghdumbash Pamirs, through Wakhan to
Afghanistan and Iran.
Silk Production
Sericulture or silk production has a long and colorful
history unknown to most people. For centuries the West knew very little about
silk and the people who made it. For more than two thousand years the
Chinese kept the secret of silk altogether to themselves. In 8th century
B.C., Lei-tsu, the queen of the legendary Chinese Emperor Huang-ti, invented
the basic methods of weaving and embroidering with silk thread.
Multiples Roles of Silk Route
1.
A link for inter-continental nations: It was virtually a huge
economic and cultural pipeline through which products from both East and West The
goods were bartered or sold in the various oases on the way, in Central Asian
cities like Samarkand and Bukhara, in Parthian and then in the Mediterranean
lands. Goods were eventually shipped to Rome and Alexandria.
2.
Spread of Metal Culture: The nomadic equestrian tribes developed the metal
culture that commonly called Scytho-Sibarian style, disseminated to the East
and West by way of this Steppe Route. This metal culture was diffused by the
sixth to fourth centuries B.C. in the Kazakh plain, Altai mountains, the
semi-plain in the upstream of the Yenisey in the Central Eurasian continent, as
far as the Steppe regions in Southern Russia and the Donau river basin in the
West and the semi -plain, semi- desert region in Mongolia and near the Great Wall
of China in the east.
3.
Facilities for the travelers: The caravan city states
along the Oasis Route maintained accommodation and market facilities for
caravans and travelers.
4.
Development of Cities and Market: At the foot of steep
mountains, there were oases of various sizes with streams and springs. Cities
were constructed in the oases and protected by gates and walls, and these
cities were surrounded by green trees, farmlands and orchards, with ponds
possessing water and flower beds. Many travellers from various lands gathered
in the oases to form markets and open air trading markets where they traded
goods which they had brought from their respective localities. People of these
oasis cities formed caravan and got engaged in the intermediate activities of
the East-West trade.
5.
Spread of technology and information: It was virtually a huge
economic and cultural pipeline through which not only products from both East
and West were exchanged but also technology and information's from various
parts of the world were brought to nomadic equestrian tribes in Central Asia.
New metallurgical techniques as granulation, loop in loop chains and an
early form of cloisonne were acquired from the West via Chinese contact with
the nomads during the Eastern Zhoa dynasty and perfected during the Qin and Han
dynasties.
6.
Life Style influence: The migration of equestrian nomads living in Eurasia
made possible by the Steppe route and this route served as a natural highway
through which the life style of the nomads, animal patterns and gold culture
were diffused in East and West directions.
7.
Trade Route: These nomadic groups conducted trade with neighboring
regions from a very early period, including the purchase of silks, bronze
mirrors and weapons from China; furs and gold from Siberia; nephrite jade and
wool from East Turkistan, and horses from West Turkistan. Rare plants,
medicines, spiced and other goods from the west were to be found in the markets
of the city.
8.
Silk Trade: This was something which happened in the West only in modern
times. The Silk Road was first established, silk was not the chief commodity.
Han dynasty made very little profit from it until the Romans were fanatic about
silk that the large profits came in. The Roams love silk so much that they even
exchanged silk for its weight in gold. During the Tang dynasty, thirty percent
of the trade on the Silk Road was comprised of silk. Silk, indeed, rapidly
became one of the principal elements of the Chinese economy. Silk was used for
musical instruments, fishing-lines, bowstrings, bonds of all kinds, and even
rag paper, the word's first luxury paper.
9.
Cultural Exchange: The Persian empire controlled a large swathe of the
Middle East, regions when Alexander the Great conquered this area as far as
Ferghana on the border of the modern-day Xinjiang region of China. Here, in 329
BC, he founded the city of Alexandria. The people absorbed a lot of the local
culture, and the cultures that passed them by along the route. The settlers
profited from the passing trade, and also absorbed much of the local culture as
well as the alien cultures they encountered through commerce.
10.
The new military technical innovation: The Han dynasty acquired
technical innovations from neighbouring countries through the Silk Road. These
innovations were critical in the development of Chinese civilization and
absorbed via early trade and military contacts on the Silk Road. These
innovations were harnesses, saddles and stirrups (from the Steppe nomads),
construction methods for bridges and mountain roads, knowledge of medicinal
plants and poisons and the cultivation of cotton and seafaring (from India).
11.
The facilities to the travelers: The peasant colonies were
founded in the fertile lands, inns and posts for changing horses were
established along the main routes, messengers and couriers traveled in every
season of the year and the merchant strangers knocked daily on the gates.
12.
Diffusion of Art and Culture: Trade and commerce of Han
dynasty with its neighbours influenced the art. Predominating ideas from Steppe
art, such as confronting animals or openwork narratives and landscapes are to
be found on Chinese bronze belt plaques and harness fittings. A lot of
examples of Han dynasty art reveal contacts with the influences from the
Southeast Asia and Central Asia. The nacked Cherub appears on a liquer plate
unearthed at the tomb of General Zhu Ran (d.249 AD) in Ma'anshan, Anhui
province. Artistic styles such as the carving of narrative scenes on stone and
the production of stone sculpture in the round have no precedent in previous
dynasties. Their origins may be traced to the sculpture and carved reliefs of
the Greco-Roman world and of Assyria by a process of gradual dissemination
along the Silk Road. The Central Asian dancer, who can be visualized
through the Tang tricolored ceramic figurines of foreign entertainers (examples
of which may be found in almost any museum with a significant collection of
Chinese art), to reveal cultural diffusion in the case of music and dance and
to show activities of the court.
13.
Foreign Relations: Tang Emperors of China welcomed foreigners and
foreign trade. In these foreigners many were missionaries, merchants and
pilgrims but every other occupation was also represented. A Persian merchant
and a Central Asian dancer represented the travelers of this time. The Japanese
sent students, officials and Buddhist monks to China for training. The
Japanese, Yellow and Eastern Seas became a continuation of the Great Silk Road.
14.
Spread of Buddhism: Along with trade and migration this world's oldest
international highway was the vehicle which spread Buddhism through Central
Asia. Buddhism came into China from India as early as the first century AD, and
changed the face of Silk Road towns with monasteries and pagodas. The
transmission was launched from north-western India to modern Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Central Asia, Xinjiang, China, Korea and Japan. Buddhism not only
affected the lives and cultures on those regions but also left us with a world
of wonders in arts and literature. Buddhism influence was seen in the art, as
more artists began using the image of the Buddha in their work.
15.
Promotion of languages and literature: During the 4th Century, Kumarajiva, a Buddhist from Central
Asia organised the first translation bureau better than anything that had
existed before in China. He and his team translated some 98 works from many
languages into Chinese of which 52 survive and are included in the Buddhist
literature. While numerous pilgrims arrived China from the West, Chinese
Buddhist pilgrims were sent to India during different times and the accounts
which some of them have left of their travels in the Silk Road provide valuable
evidence of the state of Buddhism in Central Asia and India. Some of the more
famous Chinese pilgrims were Fa-hian (399 to 414), Xuan-zang (629-645) and
I.tsing (671-695).
16.
Establishment of new empires: The Yueh-chi appear to
have begun their migration in about 165 B.C. and arrived in Bactria in about
140 B.C., thus migrating over a distance of more than 4,000 km within a single
generation. They extended their rule across Bactria and the Kabul region and
during the first century A.D. into the Gandhara Kingdom with Panjab. Much of
this was accomplished during the reign of Kujula-Kadphises (ca 30- 80 A.D)
thereby ending Parthian rule in the area. Kushanas conquered large parts of
Central Asia. Kushan kings issued coins that initiated the style of the
Sythians and Parthians who preceded them. Fascinatingly, some of these coins
include depictions of the Roman Emperor, Augustus, with motif.
17.
Establishment of new trade links: The Kushan King sent an
embassy to Rome because China and Persia were made their trade agreement. The
kingdom of Kushans was hoping to form an association with Rome, due to the
differences between China and Kushans. Therefore Rome and Kushans came on common
platform and engaged in direct trade.
18.
The Currency Issuance: There was not any currency in politically unstable
Central Asia like the copper coins of China. Later on, with the contacts of
China, coins were issued by different kingdoms. Kushan kings issued coins that
initiated the style of the Sythians and Parthians who preceded them.
Fascinatingly, some of these coins include depictions of the Roman Emperor,
Augustus, with motif.
Conclusion
The Silk Route had a rich
heritage since its inception and was an early example of political and cultural
integration due to inter-regional trade. It sustained an international culture
that brought together groups as diverse as the Magyars, Armenians and Chinese
and encouraged them to integrate, and helped spread new products and, even more
importantly, new ideas. The Silk Route has benefitted all the regions
equally and helped in setting up of common and mutual relationship in lieu of
economy.
Comments
Post a Comment