The Silk Road Chapter Summaries

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Xinru Lui from The College of New Jersey provides scholarly readers with insight into the Silk Road legacy and the spread of Buddhism and Islam through Central Asia during the first century. This specific article was first presented at the 2009 Numata Conference “Buddhism and Islam” May 2009 at McGill University in Montreal Canada. Professor Lynda Shaffer, who was a coauthor and first reader, helped edit and revise the article Xinru Lui wrote regarding the Silk Road. This article explores and reveals the religious and social life of Central Asian people both before and after Islamization. Using sources written in Arabic, Persian, and Chinese, all records found are translated; many translated and edited in more recent decades by experts who …show more content…
He states in chapter four how in particular, “Buddhism becomes more conventionally religious, with an emphasis on the supernatural, as it evolved from Theravada to Mahayana forms” . Due to Buddhism evolving over time it is a relatively recent phenomenon that we associate it so heavily with supernatural and transcendence. However, during the sixth and seventh centuries in places such as Sogdian and Tukharistan people followed a variety of religions. Some including Buddhism and Zoroastrianism. These religions were embedded into their culture of appreciating music, wine, and dance, to celebrate life. Accordingly, this related the underlying and deep-rooted culture of Buddhism and celebration, to a life and culture of the people of Central Asia regardless of their religious …show more content…
I believe the article emphasizes a major and crucial transitional period during the history of the Silk Road that must be understood to comprehend the fluid religious evolutions during history. While appreciating the argument of how Central Asians survived through the many changing situations of the past I can better understand the religious oppression and wars occurring in our world today. The convincing argument in the article presented is that from observing and studying how Central Asian people have survived the various calamities and still thrived in an ever-changing environment we can make it applicable to our time today. Demonstrating how people of the past have overcome religious persecution, oppression, and domination as a citizen of the world I am convinced I will be fine. Whether through beliefs in reincarnation from Buddhism, or the possibility of moving up in the caste system, or the transcendence to a more divine being, religion has always and will continue to be used a scape for people of the past and present. We can learn from history and see that although there is a transition from Buddhism to Islamic rule the people of the region have
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