Telling the Story of the Silk Road

The Highway to Trade

Buddhist adoption in Asia, through the Silk Road

Expansion of Early Buddhism

As we read Chapter 16 from Bresnan's Awakening: An Introduction of the History of Eastern Thought and watch The Silk Road: Where East Met West, we are introduced to the journey of Mahayana Buddhism and its evolution in China through the Silk Road. The Silk Road is connected all throughout China and other pars of the Eurasian continent, stretching from east to west and also south into India. The road helped trade move back and forth, also giving opportunity for "Buddhist ideas, Buddhist books, and even Buddhist monks to enter the flow and move wherever the Silk Road may take them" (Bresnan 377). One city that largely established Buddhism was Xian, "seen as the beginning of the Silk Road" (Silk, 7:43 - 7:46). But as time passed in China's capitol city Xian, so did the livelihood of Buddhist culture. 

Similar Statue of my family's

I find the history of expansion of Buddhist culture very interesting because growing up Chinese and Filipino American, I never really associated Buddhism to be originally practiced in India. My family would have Buddha statues sitting (in Lotus position) at the entrance of our door, and before we exit, we would have to rub his belly for good fortune. And being so young, I thought these practices were a main apart of my Chinese culture. I agree with Bresnan's comment, saying that Mahayana Buddhism making its way into China through the Silk Road and becoming strongly intergraded with its culture is "a very interesting intermediate step that most people in the modern world have never heard about" (Bresnan 377). Because I am one of those modern people, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were more. 

The Ancient Trade Route

As we gain knowledge about the Silk Road, I noticed that the text only briefly introduces us at the beginning of the chapter while the video mainly focuses on the topic throughout. Each source started with the length of the route, describing it to be the source of trade and culture expansion. "Along its many miles, there was money to be made. But the people on the Silk Road not only bought and battered goods, they also exchanged ideas and techniques" (Silk, 1:47 - 1:58). Unlike the text, the video doesn't state which exact ideas and techniques were exchanged in the beginning, "Buddhism traveled far ahead, hitching a ride on that fascinating highway of trade, an extremely long caravan route that connected China with other parts of the Eurasian continent" (Bresnan 377). After the brief introduction of Buddhist travel, the text describes what they brought and exchanged on their journey. To further expand my knowledge of trade on the Silk Road, I watched this video from Crash Course History on YouTube:

The Influence of Cultures on Europe

One topic in particular that I found interesting was the influence of Eastern culture on European cities, such as Venice, Italy. As we know, the Silk Road carried on for many miles throughout different regions and exchanged not only goods, but cultures and their ideas and techniques. Near the beginning of the video Sam Willis, the video's main historian, mentioned that in 1844, Charles Dickens visited Venice and have a very strange feeling that it wasn't an European city, "but an oriental one that was troubled by the wild luxuriant fancies of the East" (Silk, 3:06 - 3:28). Meaning that Dickens found much of Venice's environment to be influenced by Eastern Asian culture and Muslim styled architecture. Safe to say that the influence of Eastern culture, most likely came from the stream of trade. As someone whose visited multiple cities in Italy, one including Venice, it never occurred to me before how different it was compared to maybe Rome or Naples. 

Work Cited

Bresnan, Patrick. Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought. 6th ed., Routledge, 2018.

Downes, Richard. "The Silk Road: Where East Met West." BBC UK, performance by Sam Willis, Season 1, Episode 1. Accessed 25 Apr. 2021.

Kartapranata, Gunawan. Buddhist Adoption in Asia, Mahayana Buddhism First Entered China through the Silk Road. 31 Jan. 2014.