Editing Silk Road (section)

== Expansion of religions ==
[[File:Nestorian-Stele-Budge-plate-X.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Nestorian Stele]], created in 781, describes the introduction of Nestorian Christianity to China]]

[[Richard Foltz]], [[Xinru Liu]], and others have described how trading activities along the Silk Road over many centuries facilitated the transmission not just of goods but also ideas and culture, notably in the area of religions. [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Judaism]], Buddhism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam all spread across Eurasia through trade networks that were tied to specific religious communities and their institutions.{{sfn|Foltz|1999}} Notably, established Buddhist monasteries along the Silk Road offered a haven, as well as a new religion for foreigners.{{sfn|Liu|2010|p=77}}

The spread of religions and cultural traditions along the Silk Roads, according to [[Jerry H. Bentley]], also led to [[syncretism]]. One example was the encounter with the Chinese and [[Xiongnu]] nomads. These unlikely events of cross-cultural contact allowed both cultures to adapt to each other as an alternative. The Xiongnu adopted Chinese agricultural techniques, dress style, and lifestyle, while the Chinese adopted Xiongnu military techniques, some dress style, music, and dance.{{sfn|Bentley|1993|p=38}} Perhaps most surprising of the cultural exchanges between China and the Xiongnu, Chinese soldiers sometimes defected and converted to the Xiongnu way of life, and stayed in the steppes for fear of punishment.<ref name="Jerry H 1993">[[Jerry H. Bentley]], ''Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 38.</ref>

Nomadic mobility played a key role in facilitating inter-regional contacts and cultural exchanges along the ancient Silk Roads.<ref name="hermes_2018">{{Cite journal |last1=Hermes |first1=Taylor R. |last2=Frachetti |first2=Michael D. |last3=Bullion |first3=Elissa A. |last4=Maksudov |first4=Farhod |last5=Mustafokulov |first5=Samariddin |last6=Makarewicz |first6=Cheryl A. |date=26 March 2018 |title=Urban and nomadic isotopic niches reveal dietary connectivities along Central Asia's Silk Roads |journal=Scientific Reports |language=En |volume=8 |issue=1 |page=5177 |bibcode=2018NatSR...8.5177H |doi=10.1038/s41598-018-22995-2 |issn=2045-2322 |pmc=5979964 |pmid=29581431}}</ref><ref name="frachetti_2017">{{Cite journal |last1=Frachetti |first1=Michael D. |last2=Smith |first2=C. Evan |last3=Traub |first3=Cynthia M. |last4=Williams |first4=Tim |date=8 March 2017 |title=Nomadic ecology shaped the highland geography of Asia's Silk Roads |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1544288/ |journal=Nature |language=En |volume=543 |issue=7644 |pages=193–98 |bibcode=2017Natur.543..193F |doi=10.1038/nature21696 |issn=0028-0836 |pmid=28277506 |s2cid=4408149}}</ref>

=== Transmission of Christianity ===
{{Further|Nestorianism|Church of the East}}

The transmission of Christianity was primarily known as Nestorianism on the Silk Road. In 781, an inscribed stele shows Nestorian Christian missionaries arriving on the Silk Road. Christianity had spread both east and west, simultaneously bringing Syriac language and evolving the forms of worship.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Belief Systems Along the Silk Road |url=http://asiasociety.org/education/belief-systems-along-silk-road |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117221241/http://asiasociety.org/education/belief-systems-along-silk-road |archive-date=17 November 2016 |access-date=17 November 2016 |publisher=Asia Society}}</ref>

=== Transmission of Buddhism ===
{{Main|Silk Road transmission of Buddhism|Greco-Buddhism}}
[[File:Buddhist Expansion.svg|thumb|right|240px|The [[Silk Road transmission of Buddhism]]: [[Mahayana Buddhism]] [[Chinese Buddhism#History|first entered]] the [[Chinese Empire]] ([[Han dynasty#Religion, cosmology, and metaphysics|Han dynasty]]) during the [[Kushan Empire|Kushan Era]]. The overland and [[Maritime Southeast Asia|maritime]] "Silk Roads" were interlinked and complementary, forming what scholars have called the "great circle of Buddhism."<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Maritime Buddhism |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=[[Oxford]] |url=https://oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-638 |access-date=30 May 2021 |date=20 December 2018 |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.638 |isbn=978-0-19-934037-8 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190219153342/https://oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-638 |archive-date=19 February 2019 |author-last=Acri |author-first=Andrea |doi-access= |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

The transmission of Buddhism to China via the Silk Road began in the 1st century CE, according to a semi-legendary account of an ambassador sent to the West by the Chinese Emperor [[Emperor Ming of Han|Ming]] (58–75). During this period Buddhism began to spread throughout Southeast, East, and Central Asia.{{sfn|Bentley|1993|pp=69, 73}} [[Mahayana]], [[Theravada]], and [[Vajrayana]] are the three primary forms of Buddhism that spread across Asia via the Silk Road.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=James A. |year=2009 |title=China's Southwestern Silk Road in World History |url=http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/6.1/anderson.html |url-status=live |journal=World History Connected |volume=6 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140209152743/http://worldhistoryconnected.press.illinois.edu/6.1/anderson.html |archive-date=9 February 2014 |access-date=2 December 2013}}</ref>

The Buddhist movement was the first large-scale missionary movement in the history of world religions. Chinese missionaries were able to assimilate Buddhism, to an extent, to native Chinese Daoists, which brought the two beliefs together.{{sfn|Bentley|1993|p=16}} Buddha's community of followers, the [[Sangha]], consisted of male and female monks and laity. These people moved through India and beyond to spread the ideas of Buddha.{{sfn|Foltz|1999|p=37}} As the number of members within the Sangha increased, it became costly so that only the larger cities were able to afford having the Buddha and his disciples visit.{{sfn|Liu|2010|p=51}} It is believed that under the control of the [[Kushan Empire|Kushan]]s, Buddhism was spread to China and other parts of Asia from the middle of the first century to the middle of the third century.{{sfn|Liu|2010|p=42}} Extensive contacts started in the 2nd century, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the Kushan empire into the Chinese territory of the [[Tarim Basin]], due to the missionary efforts of a great number of Buddhist monks to Chinese lands. The first missionaries and translators of Buddhists scriptures into Chinese were either Parthian, Kushan, [[Sogdiana|Sogdian]], or [[Kuchean]].{{sfn|Foltz|1999|pp=37–58}}

One result of the spread of Buddhism along the Silk Road was displacement and conflict. The Greek Seleucids were exiled to Iran and Central Asia because of a new Iranian dynasty called the Parthians at the beginning of the 2nd century BCE, and as a result, the Parthians became the new middlemen for trade in a period when the Romans were major customers for silk. Parthian scholars were involved in one of the first-ever Buddhist text translations into the Chinese language. Its main trade centre on the Silk Road, the city of [[Merv]], in due course and with the coming of age of Buddhism in China, became a major Buddhist centre by the middle of the 2nd century.{{sfn|Foltz|1999|p=47}} Knowledge among people on the silk roads also increased when Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty (268–239 BCE) converted to Buddhism and raised the religion to official status in his northern Indian empire.{{sfn|Foltz|1999|p=38}}

From the 4th century CE onward, Chinese pilgrims also started to travel on the Silk Road to India to get improved access to the original Buddhist scriptures, with [[Fa-hsien]]'s pilgrimage to India (395–414), and later [[Xuanzang]] (629–644) and [[Hyecho]], who traveled from Korea to India.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Silkroad Foundation |last2=Adela C.Y. Lee |title=Ancient Silk Road Travellers |url=http://www.silk-road.com/artl/srtravelmain.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090806070134/http://www.silk-road.com/artl/srtravelmain.shtml |archive-date=6 August 2009}}</ref> The travels of the priest Xuanzang were fictionalized in the 16th century in a fantasy adventure novel called ''[[Journey to the West]]'', which told of trials with demons and the aid given by various disciples on the journey.

There were many different schools of Buddhism travelling on the Silk Road. The Dharmaguptakas and the Sarvastivadins were two of the major Nikaya schools. These were both eventually displaced by the Mahayana, also known as "Great Vehicle." This movement of Buddhism first gained influence in the [[Khotan]] region.{{sfn|Foltz|1999|p=38}} The Mahayana, which was more of a "pan-Buddhist movement" than a school of Buddhism, appears to have begun in northwestern India or Central Asia. It formed during the 1st century BCE and was small at first, and the origins of this "Greater Vehicle" are not fully clear. Some Mahayana scripts were found in northern Pakistan, but the main texts are still believed to have been composed in Central Asia along the Silk Road. These different schools and movements of Buddhism were a result of the diverse and complex influences and beliefs on the Silk Road.{{sfn|Foltz|1999|p=41}} With the rise of Mahayana Buddhism, the initial direction of Buddhist development changed. This form of Buddhism highlighted, as stated by Xinru Liu, "the elusiveness of physical reality, including material wealth". It also stressed getting rid of material desire to a certain point; this was often difficult for followers to understand.{{sfn|Liu|2010|p=21}}

During the 5th and 6th centuries CE, [[merchants]] played a large role in the spread of religion, in particular Buddhism. Merchants found the moral and ethical teachings of Buddhism an appealing alternative to previous religions. As a result, merchants supported Buddhist monasteries along the Silk Road, and in return, the Buddhists gave the merchants somewhere to stay as they traveled from city to city. As a result, merchants spread Buddhism to foreign encounters as they traveled.{{sfn|Bentley|1993|pp=43–44}} Merchants also helped to establish [[diaspora]] within the communities they encountered, and over time their cultures became based on Buddhism. As a result, these communities became centers of literacy and culture with well-organized marketplaces, lodging, and storage.{{sfn|Bentley|1993|p=48}} The voluntary conversion of Chinese ruling elites helped the spread of Buddhism in East Asia and led Buddhism to become widespread in Chinese society.{{sfn|Bentley|1993|p=50}} The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism essentially ended around the 7th century with the rise of Islam in Central Asia.

<gallery widths="180px" heights="200px">
File:Buddha of Miran.png|Fragment of a wall painting depicting [[Buddha]] from a [[stupa]] in [[Miran (Xinjiang)|Miran]] along the Silk Road (200–400 CE)
File:Central Asian Buddhist Monks.jpeg|upright|A blue-eyed [[Buddhism in Central Asia|Central Asian monk]] teaching an East-Asian monk, [[Bezeklik]], [[Turfan]], eastern [[Tarim Basin]], China, 9th century; the monk on the right is possibly [[Tocharians|Tocharian]],<ref>[[Albert von Le Coq|von Le Coq, Albert]]. (1913). [http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/LFc-42/V-1/page/0003.html.en ''Chotscho: Facsimile-Wiedergaben der Wichtigeren Funde der Ersten Königlich Preussischen Expedition nach Turfan in Ost-Turkistan''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915144010/http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/LFc-42/V-1/page/0003.html.en |date=15 September 2016 }}. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), im Auftrage der Gernalverwaltung der Königlichen Museen aus Mitteln des Baessler-Institutes, [http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/VIII-1-B-31/V-1/page-hr/0107.html.en Tafel 19] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915183256/http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/VIII-1-B-31/V-1/page-hr/0107.html.en |date=15 September 2016 }}. (Accessed 3 September 2016).</ref> although more likely [[Sogdia]]n.<ref name="gasparini 2014 pp134-163">Ethnic [[Sogdia]]ns have been identified as the [[:File:BezeklikSogdianMerchants.jpg|Caucasian figures seen in the same cave temple]] (No. 9). See the following source: Gasparini, Mariachiara. "[http://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/transcultural/article/view/12313/8711#_edn32 A Mathematic Expression of Art: Sino-Iranian and Uighur Textile Interactions and the Turfan Textile Collection in Berlin], {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525084750/http://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/transcultural/article/view/12313/8711 |date=2017-05-25 }}" in Rudolf G. Wagner and Monica Juneja (eds), ''Transcultural Studies'', Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg, No 1 (2014), pp. 134–63. {{ISSN|2191-6411}}. See also [http://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/transcultural/article/view/12313/8711#_edn32 endnote #32] . (Accessed 3 September 2016.)</ref><ref>For information on the Sogdians, an [[Eastern Iranian people]], and their inhabitation of [[Turfan]] as an ethnic minority community during the phases of [[Tang dynasty|Tang Chinese]] (7th–8th century) and [[Kingdom of Qocho|Uyghur rule]] (9th–13th century), see Hansen, Valerie (2012), ''The Silk Road: A New History'', Oxford University Press, p. 98, {{ISBN|978-0-19-993921-3}}.</ref>
File:AsokaKandahar.jpg|Bilingual edict ([[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Aramaic]]) by Indian Buddhist King [[Ashoka]], 3rd century BCE; ''see'' [[Edicts of Ashoka]], from [[Kandahar]]. This edict advocates the adoption of "godliness" using the Greek term [[Eusebeia]] for [[Dharma]]. [[Kabul]] Museum.
File:A statue depicting Buddha giving sermon, from Sarnath, now at Museum of Asian Art, Dahem Berlin.jpg|A statue depicting Buddha giving a sermon, from [[Sarnath]], {{convert|3000|km|0|abbr=on}} southwest of Urumqi, Xinjiang, 8th century
</gallery>

=== Judaism on the Silk Road ===
Adherents to the [[Jewish faith]] first began to travel eastward from [[Mesopotamia]] following the [[Persia]]n conquest of [[Babylon]] in 559 by the armies of [[Cyrus the Great]]. [[Judean]] slaves freed after the Persian conquest of Babylon dispersed throughout the Persian Empire. Some Judeans could have traveled as far east as [[Bactria]] and [[Sogdia]], though there is no clear evidence for this early settlement of Judeans.<ref name=":42">{{Cite journal |last=Foltz |first=Richard |year=1998 |title=Judaism and the Silk Route |journal=The History Teacher |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=9–16 |doi=10.2307/494416 |issn=0018-2745 |jstor=494416}}</ref> After settlement, it is likely that most Judeans took up trades in commerce.<ref name=":42" /> Trading along the silk trade networks by Judean merchants increased as the trade networks expanded. By the classical age, when trade goods traveled from as far east as China to as far west as [[Rome]], Judean merchants in Central Asia would have been in an advantageous position to participate in trade along the Silk Road.<ref name=":42" /> A group of Judean merchants originating from Gaul known as the [[Radanites]] were one group of Judean merchants that had thriving trade networks from China to Rome.<ref name=":42" /> This trade was facilitated by a positive relationship the Radanites were able to foster with the [[Khazar]] [[Turkic people|Turks]]. The Khazar Turks served as a good spot in between China and Rome, and the Khazar Turks saw a relationship with the Radanites as a good commercial opportunity.<ref name=":42" />

According to Richard Foltz "there is more evidence for Iranian influence on the formation of [[Judaism|Jewish]] [religious] ideas than the reverse." Concepts of a [[paradise]] ([[heaven]]) for the good and a place of suffering ([[hell]]) for the wicked, and a form of world-ending [[apocalypse]] came from [[Iran]]ian religious ideas, and this is supported by a lack of such ideas from pre-exile Judean sources.<ref name=":42" /> The origin of [[the devil]] is also said to come from the Iranian [[Angra Mainyu]], an evil figure in [[Persian mythology]].<ref name=":42" />