Religions along the Silk Road: Early Globalism and Cultural Exchange

Undergraduate

For centuries, travelers, merchants, and missionaries of various religions crisscrossed Asia along the so-called Silk Road, trading silk, horses, and spices while exchanging ideas about gods, divine powers, and efficacious rituals for securing the living and the dead. This class explores a variety these religious traditions, including Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity, Islam, Manicheism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. These discussions will also explore how religions, languages, and ethnic identities were understood in traditional Asia. Our focus will be on the religious interactions and acculturation processes of these traditions in China, ranging from the first encounters with Buddhism in the first century CE, to the migration of central Asian peoples into China, the translation of scriptures across languages and cultures, and to the religious policies of the Mongol empire, in the 13th century. These cultural and religious exchanges remain important in understanding current religious policies in China and in Central Asia. As the faculty-led class of the Chinese LSA this course will consist of both in-class meetings on the BNU campus, excursions to relevant sites in Beijing, Shandong, and most importantly, on a 10-day trip along the Silk Road, from Xian to Dunhuang. Students will be expected to prepare and present research on the sites along our route. Not open to students who have received credit for ASCL 80.12/ REL 80 .12