Blog # 5

Blog # 5:

I started my journey of the Silk Road with very minimal information and now I know much more about the Silk Road and so the mystery is being unveiled.  This week I found that the Sogdians were the inhabitants of fertile valleys surrounded by deserts, the most important of which was the Zeravshan valley, in today’s Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

For this blog, since I’ve read many other scholarly pieces, I would prefer to write important notes in point form and they are as fallow: 

·       The Sogdians were people of Iranian origin, they were important in the commerce of the Silk Road between the fourth and ninth centuries CE. from their home in the region near today's Samarkand in Central Asia

·          Among the most important documents of Sogdian history are five nearly complete letters, discovered in 1907 by the famous British archaeologist Aurel Stein in a Chinese watch tower just west of the Jade Gate, a fortified outpost guarding the western approaches to the administrative and cultural center of Dunhuang (at the western end of today's Gansu Province).

·             Stein's discovery was some 90 km. west of Dunhuang and 550 km. East of Lou-lan, another important outpost on the southern branch of the silk route, which skirted the Taklamakan Desert.

·             It seems likely that the letters were confiscated by a Chinese garrison at a time when Chinese control this far west was being threatened. While there has been considerable controversy over the dating of the letters, the most persuasive arguments

·              While a whole archive of Sogdian documents from several centuries later has been discovered in Central Asia, the Sogdian ancient letters are the earliest substantial examples of Sogdian writing and thus provide extremely important information about the early history of the Sogdian diaspora along the eastern end of the silk route.

·       The letters include the names of several products--silver, linen and a kind of unprocessed cloth, muskUnfortunately the meaning of some terms for other products is not known. 

·              This week’s reading was really interesting especially, now that I read this amazing stuff as evidence instead of just stories really amused me. 

Blog # 4

As the mystery of Silk Road unfolds itself for me, I find myself wanting to write about my travel experiences. I am constantly being amused by the rich and deep histories of the Silk Road, and the role of art in history's preservation. I have always been an art lover and so recovering ancient pieces have truly amused me. On the article by Tansen Sen, there are some highlights that are worth mentioning and those are:

       By examining a series of Tang (618-907) missions to Middle India in the seventh century one can appreciate the multifaceted, complex, and unique nature of China's diplomatic contacts with India. At the same time, the study highlights the significant contribution of individuals to premodern Sino-Indian relations.

      

       Sen’s study focuses on the motives for sending Tang diplomats to India; it not only exposes Emperor Taizong's (r. 626-649) personal interest in Indian longevity doctors late in his life, but also provides a new perspective on to South Asia.

       He then explains the personal and out-worldly objectives of emperors, Buddhist monks, and laymen. These "human elements" of Sino-Indian intercourse, including the transmission of Buddhism, have often been overlooked and, according to Erik Zrcher, deserve due attention.

       Tang’s missions to Middle India demonstrate the Buddhist influence on, and involvement in, China's diplomatic relations with India. The examination of the Tang embassies also seems to indicate that China's spiritual interest in India went beyond Buddhism. The persisting imperial demand for Brahman longevity doctors and drugs, discussed in his paper, is proof of such extended spiritual fascination. It is perhaps right to conclude, therefore, that India occupied a special place in the Chinese world order, which not only deserves due attention, but also needs further in-depth examination.

       The examination of the Tang embassies also seems to indicate that China's spiritual interest in India went beyond Buddhism. The persisting imperial demand for Brahman longevity doctors and drugs, discussed in this paper, is proof of such extended spiritual fascination. It is perhaps right to conclude, therefore, that India occupied a special

place in the Chinese world order, which not only deserves due attention, but also needs further in-depth examination. 

Blog # 1

After reading both articles I concluded that language does affect culture, ethnicity and and Religion. It may not seem that obvious at first but it truly touches every single one of them. looking at this point deeply , I think that understanding the roots of each language can help us figure out many missing parts from history. the article by David Crystal mentioned that by studying the Indo-Europeans, who were originally the seminomadic population living in a steppe regions of Southern Russia, around 4000 BC, they found that these people used words like bride and in-laws which showed a patriarchal society where the bride belongs to the husband's family and another example was the fact that these people used words such as farmer and farm pets that showed they were living off farming and they were in agricultural production. Due to the fact that we have no access to communicate with these people drawing inferences such as the one mentioned, are the most reliable answers we can get and history has proved that these are reliable conclusions. Therefore it is essential to study languages because they help us to reach the type of information that cant be reached any other ways. but then the question is " what happens to the forgotten languages?" if what we know about different cultures and ethnicity and religions is hugely dependent on languages then I conclude that there are still many cultures that we dont know about and I believe the article by David Crystal should have focused more on the history of forgotten languages not the very well-known once such as Persian, Italian and such that are already studied and are well understood both culturally and ethnically. Also I think both articles greatly based on sociological approaches rather than anthropological, and I think if it was done in pure anthropological and or religion perspective it would have been much more helpful to understand the situation in the silk road.

My Silk Road adventure began weeks ago with the topic orientalism, ethnicity, religion, culture, and language. This week I will take a step forward in my study of the silk roads and analyze “Migration and Settlement of the Yeuzhi-Kushan: Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies” by Liu, Xinru.

 I personally found this article by Liu scholarly written and fascinating. What I liked about the article the most was the fact that it was well organized and nicely broken down based on the history and the influence that the Yeuzhi, Kushans, Tukharan people might have had around places that were inhabited by them. Compare to the other articles that I read about the Silk Road, Liu opens the topic fast and proposes the idea quickly. This is very thoughtful because as a reader I really understood the impact of Yeuzhi, Kushans, Tukharan people and grasped the point which I hope I did correctly.

In his article, he basically discusses the relationship of a particular nomadic group, the Yuezhi (which later became the Yuezhi-Kushan), with sedentary agricultural societies across Eurasia. For only about two to three centuries, the Yuezhi-Kushans are directly responsible for some of the greatest historical developments on the Silk Road.

Another important point that I think I should mention is that the Nomads were seen as predators, they did not pay any attention to their environmental harms that they caused due to their secondary civilization.

After reading this article I can not stop thinking about all the “ what if’s” that come to my mind and I hope as I read more about these people I find answers to my “ what ifs”

Blog # 2

To me, history has always been a mystery because when I try to imagine thousands of years ago and understand those “other” people it seems impossible. Now coming from Middle East, I have grown up hearing many myths before falling asleep and so it amuses me how far away from my window, others grew up with myths as well.

To begin with, I would like to talk about Bret Hinsch’s essay “ Myth and the Construction of Foreign Ethnic Identity”. Through this peace he talks about the importance of primordial myths in the construction of ethic identity of the distinct people of Xiong-nu, Xianbei, and Chaoxian in contrast to Han Chinese claim of Chineseness. Due to the fact that Han Chinese has a power over the aforesaid people through myths, they would create a new story for it and use to control or assimilate others. This I believe was the reason behind many myths that came out of Ancient China.

Now after reading this essay, my mind is trying to understand many questions such as: how do we know if these are all the myths we know? Or how were these people really thinking at that time? Or what was the situation that resulted in those myths? These questions are that makes me want to study the silk road because I believe behind all these myths are truths that are hidden to be found and the key to understand future is only if we understand the past therefore studying the Han Chinese or the Chineseness or the construction of all those Asian myths can help us understand who we are and where we are going and that is why history will always stay as a mystery. As we move on, we may be farther away from the past but there are tools that bring us closer to the past.