Mapping the Silk Road

Final Blog Project

2010-03-07T16:42:00.000-08:00

The following link is where my Final Project will be presented.

http://theswastikasymboloriginandmigration.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Blog Entry #11

2010-02-08T16:31:00.000-08:00

The articles for this week speak about the influence that modernity and the West has on the image of Islam. The term 'Islam' is meant to be applied loosely, since Islam as a religion, culture, people and image, as depicted by the West, is a multidimensional term. In which the meaning of the term is not meant to be outlined, but is meant to be explored in its context to the West. Last weeks articles (and my previous blog) speak to the common misconception about the veiled woman. The West continued to hold prejudice against Muslims, and specifically stereotypes associated with Muslim women and children. The image of the veiled woman in the west is the personfication of the oppression of women and how mistreated they are by Muslim men. Since the recent attacks of 9/11, the image of the veiled woman instills fear amongst westerners who are ignorant to Islamic law. Ignorance that is rightly justified by lack of experience with Islam. Especially so, when a large experiencial event occured on 9/11, via the taliban. Because of this event, terms such as "muslim", "taliban" amd "Islam" become intertwined and used interchangably, despite their true differences.

Blog Entry #10

2010-02-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

In Islam in the eyes of the West the author describes central points between the doctrinal differences between Christianity (the West) and Islam. However, before laying out these commonalities and differences the author first outlines why the Western perspective of Islam may be misconstrued. For example, how the terms "Arab", "Muslim" and "terrorist" have become interchangable in American forms of media and each term has been widely accepted as a violent image. The bigger example of the ignorance of the West are the images of the veiled woman. This image, for the West, takes on the assumption that Muslim women are oppressed and that they suffer more disadvantages that other women in the world, ie. Christian women. Moreover, little positive attributes are attributed to Islam by the West, making Christianity appear to be superior. Similarly, the article points out that Islamic law was dismantled by the European powers in the countries that they conquered, only leaving drastically modified sections that applied only to personal and family law.

The Prophet Muhammad's divinity was criticized by Christians in two ways; his engaging in battle and his marriages to many women. Christians claimed that because of these two reasons, Muhammad and Jesus were not on the same exalted level. For Muslims, the opposite was true. For them, Jesus' celibacy and nonviolence were unrealistic models for people to follow. In Islam, Jesus did not die on the cross and is still alive in heaven, awaiting the day when he will resurrect to complete his prophetic mission, during which time it is believed that he will marry and judge others, according to the law.

Blog Entry #9-Group Topic

2010-01-10T18:45:00.000-08:00

The Cologne Mani Codex was influenced by many Christian writings such as the apocryphal acts of the apostles and the writing's of Paul. The CMC depicts the life of Mani and his struggles to and from the Jewish Christian baptist sect from southern Babylon. The text was compiled after Mani's death in 270 and was is plausibly from the upper Egypt area. However, it seems interesting that despite being found in upper Egypt, the texts do not seem to be influenced by ancient Egyptian religion at all. The CMC discusses theology and ritual practice of the baptist sect, and even emphasizes Mani's issues with the practice of baptism and purification within the tradition. Mani found multiple baptisms to be unecessary, as one baptism should be sufficient.

The CMC speaks about Mani the way that the Gospel of Thomas speaks about Jesus by "emphasizing the role of the solitary one". Since this was only discussed in part in the article, I decided to include more from the Gospel of Thomas in my blog. Unlike the other canonical gospels, Thomas' account is a narration of Jesus' life and mainly comprises of dialogues surrounding Jesus. I found it particularly interesting that the Gospel of Thomas does not show concern for concepts such as; god, original sin, christ, or divinity. Thomas' focus is on the historical Jesus. Like the CMC, the Gospel of Thomas is also codexed.

Blog Entry #8

2010-01-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

The above picture is courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum and is of the Nestorian tablet, discovered in 1625. Made out of stone stele and is inscribed with both Chinese and Assyrian characters from a Nestorian preist of 781. The actual tablet stands at almost ten feet high!

As a religion major, this weeks readings interested me mainly through the discussion of Nestorian Christianity and its relation to Chinese culture through the 6th century. The Nestorian Church moved and flourished in China without the need for institutionalization and was tolerated by Chinese society, which is why their influence on each other is so prominent in this weeks articles.

Nestorian Christianity denounce the role of Mary as the Virgin Mother, and exemplify her as only giving birth to the human Jesus. Where two versions of Jesus Christ existed, the man and the divinity. They maintain that Mary played no role in his divinity and therefore should not be credited the way she is in Roman Catholicism. Moreover, Roman Catholicism claims there to be three versions of Jesus; the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Horses and the Golden Age of Tang is significant because of its obvious equality given to men and women in regards to horseback riding, and other small game hunting such as falconry. Horsewomen of Chang'an of the Tang dynasty were given equal oppertunity as horsemen.

Blog Entry #7- Group Topic

2009-11-23T15:15:00.000-08:00

"The Caves of the Thousand Buddhas” from the Dunhuang and surrounding areas provide socio-political insight into daily life of the people of the Dunhuang. Scripture, art and documents found from the cave sites provide us with examples of how Buddhism influences the Dunhuang in ways other than art.

Minor influences brought to the Dunhuang from Buddhism include the habit of tea drinking, which Buddhists would drink during meditiation in order to assist acheiving enlightenment. More complex influences include that of astronomy. Buddhist paintings discovered along the Silk Road associate each day of the week with regions of the sky and a bodhisattva, as influenced by the Indian Buddhist pantheon (the seven planetary divinities). Manuscripts from the Library Cave combine Buddhist texts with Confucian classics, and contained educational exercises, multiplication tables, and writing practices. Buddhist monasteries even operated schools that taught Confucian classics to its students, in addition to Buddhist texts.

Chinese aristocrats from the northern Silk Road took up horseback riding, falconry and hunting. Many Buddhist paintings depict and describe falconry among the Chinese Tang. Activites for pleasure even possessed Buddhist influence.

As a side note, I found it intriguing that after Tibetans took over Dunhuang in the 8th century there was a paper shortage in China that forced documents to be reused in order to save paper. Therefore, Buddhist texts were often recorded on the backside of secular texts that were kept in the Library Cave.

Blog Entry #6

2009-11-10T16:08:00.000-08:00

This image is of Prince Siddhartha, before reaching nirvana and becoming Buddha.

I found the three jewels; Buddha, dharma, and sangha the most interesting concept in this weeks readings. They are called jewels because they are rare and unaccessable. Medical metaphors are often used to associate between the three jewels. The Buddha being the doctor, dharma as the medicine and sangha as nurses. The Buddha's job is to find the Way and then show the path to liberation to others. Dharma acts as the path itself, and sangha are one's compassions along the path. The jewels offer refuge and protection to buddhists, where escape from samsara (cycle of rebirth) and reaching nirvana is the ultimate goal. This is where the idea of reincarnation plays off of the human condition. As stated in previous blog entries, humans are weak and in order to subdue fears of death, the concept of samsara calms human insecurities about the unknown. For this reason, I believe in reincarnation, despite my Roman Catholic upbringing. It is calming to believe that deceased loved ones still roam the earth, either as spirits or as other individuals.

Text and scripture play a large role in any religious tradition, and it was surpiring to read that there are many debates regarding Buddhist scripture, including the language Buddha spoke. Just like the New Testament of the Bible, the dharmabhanaka in Mahayanian Buddhism was composed centuries after the death of Buddha. Therefore, disputes regarding their accuracy become prominent.

I also a interested in why Buddhism flourished in China. The readings state that if the Chinese government had been stronger after the Tang, Buddhism would have never taken hold into China the way it did. This is a perfect example of how politics and government play a larger role in religion than one might assume.

Blog Entry #5

2009-11-01T15:06:00.001-08:00

Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest forms of religion, along with Hinduism. Zoroaster is the supreme divinity and Ahura Mazda is the creator, where neither encompass any evil. A large theme of Zoroastrianism is the constant struggle between good and evil forces, where evil forces attempt to create chaos in the universe. In such struggles between good and evil, it is not uncommon to observe the triumph of good over evil, and Zoroastrianism is no exception. From what I understand, after the final defeat of evil, judgement upon the living and dead will occur, just like Christianity.

My favorite part of this article is the 'Basic Observances' section and the theme of fire symbolizing righteousness is clearly very important to the correct practice of prayer and ritual. I also love the idea that after death the soul is believed to walk the earth for three days after death and that during this time the prayers of presits are said to find the wandering soul. On the fourth day, at dawn, the family must gather to bid farewell to the deceased. Ancestor veneration is clearly very important to Zoroastrianism, as well as many other Asian traditions such as Taoism and Confucianism.

Blog Entry #4: Group Topic

2009-10-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

Readings like this weeks remind me of why I love the academic study of religion so much. The term 'religion' in itself packs a large punch that effects many other areas of study, such as philosophy, sociology, psychology and anthropology. "Religious phenomena had been analyzed from the perspectives of various anthropological schools; historicist, functionalist, psychological, structuralist, ecological, cross-cultural, cognitive and symbolic" (pg 1094). Each of these fields have their own take on what religion refers to, and many theorists who have been attempting to perfectly define 'religion' for years and years.

I love the idea, and completely agree with, that the author portrays of religion being a cultural universal. I believe that a culture is not complete without some sort of religious significance within in, whether it be conceptions of the sacred, rituals, religious experience, and conceptions about death and dying. Religion can be accepted and studied from many different angles and points of view. I find anthropolical and sociological definitions of religion most entriguing so I will speak to them in further detail.

Anhropology attempts to define religion in terms of how it has evolved within society over time. Evolutionary models of religion depict a model in which "primitive" religion that used magic (animism) developed into a more complex, but still incorrect polytheism, and then one step further into modern monotheism. Tylor's model gets widely discredited because of his claim that not only the use of magic is primitive, but in the termonology of primitive itself. His theory is highly Western, thus stating that monotheism is the correct form of religious belief. Tylor also states that "religion is as old as humanity" (pg 1093), which feeds back to my previous point that culture does not exist without religion. Wherever there are people, there is religion.

Sociological attempts focus on finding the meaning of religious belief within society. Functionalist theories, such as Emile Durkheim's theories of the sacred, are most interesting to me. Durkheim saw totemism as the most basic form of religion, and placed emphasis on the relationship between the individual and the community as mirroring the relationship between religion and the individual. He saw religion as a mechanism that protected a threatened social order and acts as a glue which holds society together. Sociological theories of religion, define religion as explanation or comfort of the human condition; sactioning social, economical, and political norms; unifying groups of people.

Blog Entry #3

2009-10-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

The Sogdian letters play a very important role in the history of the Silk Road, specifically the east end. Not only did they document history of Sogdian diaspora, they contain information regarding major events, such as the destruction of Yeh and Louyang, two important Chinese cities, contained in letter #2. From this article, I found it most interesting that the Sogdians were among the translators of the Buddhist scriptures in China, which I would assume, helped Buddhism make its mark in China, making Buddhist scriptures accessable to the Chinese. I found it quite humourous that Stein (how am I not surprised) discovered the letters.
Naturally, with my linguistics minor, I was curious to see what type of writing system/language the Sogdians used. I found this website about Sogdian script quite interesting;
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sogdian.htm

Blog Entry #2

2009-10-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

One would assume that historical texts hold significant historical facts, and for this fact I do believe that I would classify the Hou Hanshu texts as historical texts. Since it does outline dates, events, and important historical figures (kings and lords) with great accuracy and detail. A historical text should give the reader a general understanding of historical events at a glance, which is what I got from this text, however the way the author went about doing it was all but intriguing.

Usually I would find reading about wars, beheadings and battles, that occured in the Eastern Han Dynasty, extremely interesting BUT this text was dry to say the least. The author seemed to be mainly concerned with dates, names and geography, which is what is required for a historical work, but does not give the reader an understanding of the significance that any important events had on the people, or Chinese culture as a whole, which I think, is needed in order to grasp the ideas that the text/author are trying to portray.

For this reason, this text is very ethnographic. It deals with describing the individual culture of China using a scientific means (dates, places, names and events) solely. To be honest, I wasn't even able to fully grasp many events described, in order to understand fully what the author was trying to relay, I had to explore many of the battles on my own.

The above picture is one that i stumbled upon while researching the Hou Hanshu. It is a pottery figurine, painted, of a soldier (missing his weapon) from the Eastern Han dynasty. I thought it was cute and thought it was interesting how the soldiers are depicted with no special armour, or weaponry, just regular guys.

Blog Entry #1

2009-09-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

Despite attempting to blow through a very rich and complex history of The Silk Road, I believe Frances Wood's first three chapters of 'The Silk Road' ease the reader into very interesting sets of topics (specifically ch. 2 on the silkworms-who knew?!) with solid historical and factual evidence of the road.

My only issue with this text so far is that he is skipping around a major topic of the Silk Roads influence. Yes it made trade easy (not if you ask those who had to travel it in extreme climates and lack of resources), but it was also a highway of knowledge and culture.

The Silk Road, as depicted by Wood, is multi-faceted network of not only trade, but culture. I had imagined the road more like a one-way highway, but upon further inspection this is not the case. I think that more importantly, the road connected cultures that had otherwise been unknowledgable about. After the Enlightenment Period, European/Western views of Central Asian cultures were less than flattering, but the road allowed not only trade amongst the cultures, but knowledge of the 'other' through direct personal contact, artifacts, and texts-once translated of course. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, and thus, I believe that this gave Central Asian traditions a chance to break the barrier of 'western thought', which at the time was dominated by the 'superior' Christian tradition. If I'm not mistaken, I believe it was Voltar who wrote about how the chronology of the bible was incorrect, and in its entirety was a direct rip-off from Hinduism, which he also claimed was the older of the two traditions, and therefore the truely superior religion.

After the Enlightenment is when trade between Asia and Europe thrived, and very conveniently at the same time there was an intense interest in Chinese thought, as it was (and still is!) full of practical philosophy, uncluttered by worldly consideration. The Silk Road would have made all of this possible.