Art of the Silk Routes

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course focuses on the cultural heritage of the overland and maritime silk routes. The silk routes served as a conduit for commercial trade and cultural exchange between China, Central Asia, India and Southeast Asia, and Europe. In addition to mural paintings in the Buddhist cave shrines of northwestern China, we will also study portable paintings, manuscripts, textiles, ceramics, and architecture. We will put these artifacts into context by imagining how they interfaced with the rulers, monks, traders, and nomads who traveled and lived along the silk routes.