Xuanzang was not afraid to break the rules. This Buddhist monk lived in Tang China during the 7th century AD. Although the imperial court banned foreign travel due to security concerns, this did not deter Xuanzang from slipping out of the country undercover in AD 629. His journey was destined to be a long one. Xuanzang made his way on foot through central Asia to India, where he sought documents about Buddhist teachings. Although Buddhism had been introduced to China during the early centuries AD, there were questions about the accuracy of some Chinese translations of key texts, so Xuanzang sought copies in the original Sanskrit to resolve the matter. He returned to China 16 years later with hundreds of manuscripts. Rather than being sanctioned for his transgressions, Xuanzang received a hero’s welcome and even had a monastery built for him.
The story of Xuanzang illustrates the rewards that long-distance travel could bestow during this era. At the same time, Xuanzang’s manuscripts are not alone as objects that ended up far from their place of origin. Instead, a great web of connectivity can be traced all of the way from east Asia to north-west Europe. Such east–west links are traditionally referred to as the ‘Silk Road’, and perhaps most closely associated from a Western perspective with the 13th-century adventures of Marco Polo. As Xuanzang’s exploits reveal, though, the existence of long-distance connections was allowing individuals to court risk and renown by undertaking extraordinary journeys many centuries earlier. Current research is also emphasising that these routes not only bound together east and west, but also north and south. As a major new exhibition at the British Museum showcases (see ‘Further information’ below), we can add much to our understanding of these regions if we think not of a ‘Silk Road’, but a far more intricate network of crisscrossing ‘Silk Roads’.
Tracking trade
Modern attempts to chart ancient transport connections in central Asia began with two red and blue lines on a map. These both ran from Xi’an in China to Iran, and reflect an 1877 attempt by the geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen to set the surviving information in Greek and Chinese sources within real-world terrain. ‘The term “Silk Road” first started to be used in the 19th century’, says Luk Yu-ping, Basil Gray Curator of Chinese Paintings, Prints, and Central Asian Collections at the British Museum. ‘For a long time, it was attributed to Ferdinand von Richthofen, but more recent research suggests that the term was already in use in Europe when his work was published. So we say that the first use was around then. It really became popularised in the latter half of the 20th century. This was for various reasons, including opening up tourism, transport, and archaeological discoveries, which led to a heightened interest in artefacts from places associated with the Silk Roads. UNESCO also got involved with promoting it as a concept to bring different states and cultures together. There have been a lot of exhibitions about the Silk Road, but this one is hopefully a little different from the ones that came before.’
The 22nd Indo-Pacific Prehistory Congress