The Great Silk Road
The Silk Road was named by the German geographer, Barn Ferdinand von Richthofen, as the greatest East to West trade route between China, Central Asia and Byzantium. This ancient route between East and West was established during 206 BC to AD 220 in Han Dynasty of China for the political contact with the many Kingdoms of Central Asia. Since then, the Silk Road has also become the trading routes between China and West. In fact the term “Silk Road” has vividly described the complex reality happened along the long way between these two continents politically and economically.
The Silk Road consists of a network of both land and sea routes. Many caravans and ship had successfully made their ways to Eurasia over the centuries, adapting various function according to different political situation, economic conditions, geographic environments, taste and demand of many different races for particular products, religious belief, their artistic aspects as well as development of technology and skills.The flourish of Silk route not only had brought the precious price “silk” from China to West also established many other trades between goods. Eastbound caravans brought gold, precious metals and stones, ivory, coral, spices, tea, paper, textiles, and chinaware, while westbound caravans transported furs, ceramics, incense, cinnamon bark and rhubarb as well as bronze weapons. Of course, on the top of the exchanges of merchandises, the different religious belief of Buddhism and Nestorianism had gotten the chance to explore their way to other areas.Across the multiplicity of trades along the routes, silk was the most prominent products of all because it was used by Chinese as the basic currency to the neighbor countries of the North and West, a means of exchange. The silk also paid off by Chinese government to ensure the pace at the far west borders with nomadic neighbors and to guard against the invaders to destroy their agricultural development. Time by time, the exchanges of supplies had expanded from far East, China through middlemen in Central Asia to the far West, Roman Empire. As the result, the demands of the silk grew rapidly in the West.In fact, the great demands of merchandise exchanges between East and West had made the great network of Silk Road, linking Europe, India, and the Far East, not only was the important paths for traders but also the significant tracks of missionaries, monks, mendicants, and military men. The “exchanges” across the Eurasia were not limited by the merchandises. Along with the bartering of supplies, we often could find the various myths and legends accommodate with the supplies. These myths and legend spanned across the eighth through the tenth centuries with the greatest trade route also lively depicted divers religious belief, different live styles through out various classes in many countries, as well as the social structures and political relationships between countries at different times during this period.This well development of the network of the Silk Road is the precious wonder of mankind in our history. It enabled people in the past to interact with each other that results in the exchanges of culture, religion, technology, skills of art and so on. Because this great interactivities happened along the Silk Road, now today’s’ archaeologists and art historians will be able to excavate the properties in the influences of the multicultural under the ground to work together in order to reveal the true stories in the past. Let us take a close look of the art along the Silk Road in the past to deconstruct the history of the route through the careful examinations of the wonderful features embraced in the art.
Countries on the Silk Road
The Silk Road travel destination that you can explore with Eerald Travel include the following countres, majority of which became availabe for tourists after fall of the iron curtain in 1989:
China – Kyrgyzstan – Kazakhstan – Tajikistan – Uzbekistan – Turkmenistan – Iran – Azerbaijan – Georgia