Silk Road and Cultural Exchanges in Asia

The Silk Road of Asia Author’s Name: _____________________________ Institutional Affiliation: ________________________________ The Silk Road of Asia Over the centuries, countries like China tend developing trading networks that could connect the Asian region to Europe and Rest of the World for conducting commercial exchanges through selling and buying of goods (Brown, 2014). Among such developments, Silk Road has a prominence since the creation in 2nd century BCE, which is a terrestrial routes connecting East Asia, Southeast Asia with South Asia, Arabian Peninsula, East Africa and Southern Europe. Besides trade belt, Silk Road is also considered a signature of progressive eastward expansion in terms of political and religious exchange during AD 300-700, after Greece and Rome (Brown, 2014). Without Silk Road, Asian would remain abandoned during the period in terms of trading and cultural strengthening at a global spectrum. During the Han dynasty, Silk Road is created as a network for trading routes between Eastern and Western regions. However, the routes surpassed trading and became a mode of cultural, political and religious exchanges between the two regions. Since silk was a lucrative commodity during Han dynasty in China, the route is named as the Silk Road (Homrighausen, 2015). Over the decades, Silk Road played a remarkable role in promoting trade and cultural exchanges between Asian and European countries. Discussion Silk Road and Cultural Exchanges in Asia Primarily, Silk Road is considered a geopolitical expansion of Asian countries during the period of emerging globalization. Similar to empires like Persia and Rome, Silk Road became a route of cultural and religious expansion for Chinese, allowing people to mobilize knowledge, invention and religion through this route (Ejaz & Nauman, 2016). In the 21st century, China is proactively using Silk Road for the same purpose, ensuring sustainability and development from geopolitical perspectives. The historic significance of this route is unmatchable for China, particularly in the dynamic and globalized trade environment today (Ejaz & Nauman, 2016). Nonetheless, the Hans Empire had the most contribution in creating cultural significance through Silk Road. After the prominence widespread of rich European traders and innovators, Hans used Silk Road to promote cultural significance of China globally (Ejaz & Nauman, 2016). Precisely, Silk Road is the backbone of Asian cultural expansion in the Rest of the World. The Silk Road has a remarkable contribution in spreading cultural and religious provisions throughout the European region while trading silk, spices and related manufactured commodities during the period. Religious cultures and traditions like Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam are collectively penetrated in Eurasia through the Silk Road (Clark, 2006). It is strongly argued that Silk Road is responsible for promoting syncretism in the world, which is defined as a combination of different beliefs and schools of thoughts caused due to emergence of multiple religions. Since Silk Road has opened channels of trade interactions for China and Asian countries in Europe, syncretism became inevitable for people worldwide (Clark, 2006). Precisely, ...