Silk roads shaped cultures and histories

Although its name is derived from the highly lucrative trade of silk that was primarily produced in China, the network also carried jade and precious stones, porcelain, tea and spices from Asia while horses, glassware, textiles, and manufactured goods traveled eastward.

The Philippines’ link to the Silk Road can be gleaned from archaeological finds that provide a material history of extensive trade coming from China through mainland Asia and insular Southeast Asia. During the Song Dynasty’s increased maritime trade, Butuan was a principal Philippine trading port. When Mongols made overland travel hazardous during the Yuan Dynasty, maritime routes flourished, with an eastern path penetrating the Philippine archipelago, as established by an enormous quantity of Yuan ceramics that have been excavated.

The exhibition is a visual feast, focusing on a defining period of the history of the Silk Roads, from about 500 to 1000, a period that ends before Marco Polo’s more publicized travels but is actually quite significant for witnessing the rise and transcontinental activities of several major powers including the Tang Dynasty in China, Islamic states beginning with the Rashidun Caliphate, the Byzantine Empire from Emperor Justinian to Basil II, and the Carolingian Empire in Francia. It also saw the spread of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam; large-scale migrations of peoples; and movement of objects at an unprecedented scale.

Working with 29 national and international partners to present over 300 pieces from many regions and cultures alongside those from the museum’s collection, the show is a unique chance to see objects from the length and breadth of this network—from Tang ceramics destined for ports in the Middle East to Indian garnets found in Suffolk. It also reveals a rich, interconnected world whose horizons stretched even farther than first imagined, conveying not just a multitude of objects and materials but also a steady stream of people and ideas, which were exchanged in many contexts besides trade. These interactions actually shaped cultures and histories across continents.

The very first object on show sets the tone: A figurine of the Buddha—made in Pakistan around 600 AD, but found thousands of kilometers away on the tiny island of Helgö in Sweden where it arrived about 800 AD—drives home the message that this story goes far beyond desert dunes into less familiar lands.

The exhibit is designed in such a way that one can experience this world by winding through geographic zones with a chance to have intimate moments focused on particular people or places of notable cultural interactions in the Silk Roads’ history, like Willibald, a missionary from England who ingeniously smuggled precious balsam through a gourd filled with oil to mask its fragrance. You can smell balsam from an interactive box to complete the immersive experience.

An animated sketch from the “Library Cave” in Dunhuang, a Buddhist center in China, evokes relations between the local ruler, neighboring kingdoms in the Tarim Basin, and Chinese dynasties during the 900s, showing the importance of diplomacy in propelling people, objects and ideas across cultural boundaries.

Another example of people on the move is illustrated by a mural from the Hall of the Ambassadors in Afrasiab (Samarkand), Uzbekistan—a masterpiece of Sogdian art showing the local ruler’s entourage traveling to the shrine of his ancestors. The Sogdians were great traders who left traces on lands from the Eurasian Steppe to India, and from China to the Mediterranean. The entire mural features envoys from distant lands, and scenes about India and China, conveying the Sogdians’ vision of themselves as integral players of the Silk Roads.

Throughout the exhibit, objects evoke the adoption and adaptation of elements from one culture by another, leading to rich, innovative developments. In Italy, the Lombards assumed and modified many Byzantine aspects of life, from political infrastructure to tableware that is represented by an exquisitely fine drinking horn, northern European in form but made from cobalt-blue Mediterranean glass.

Exchanges led to cosmopolitan societies. Ceramic figurines from Tang China show a mix of foreigners who mingled in the capital, from bearded Central Asians to Southeast Asians. When Islam reached the Iberian region which was renamed al-Andalus, art and learning flourished, characterized by a fusion of cultures, faiths and peoples.

The Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan remained a major Buddhist site even after the arrival of Islam around 800 AD, with the area dominated by two colossal rock-cut Buddha sculptures that overlooked the valley for 1,500 years. In contrast to the tolerance shown by early Muslim caliphates, however, the Taliban brutally destroyed the ancient relics in 2001. A small Buddha sculpture, found in a cave near the site, sits in the exhibit as a sad reminder of the desecration that was an affront to everything that the Silk Roads stood for: A peaceful, fruitful exchange between peoples and cultures in an interconnected global world.