Religions along Silk Road (2)
by Rose

April24

In the former, we have related some religions along Silk Road. Glorious Buddhism, original Manichaeism all flourished from Silk Road. Now let us discover the deep mask.

Origin of Judaism along Silk Road
Silk Road

Judaism may have existed in China for as long as two millennia. A stele preserved in the city of Kaifeng in Henan Province suggests that Jews settled there as early as 231 BC, though there is no record of a synagogue until 1163. It is believed that the ancestors of this community migrated along the Silk Road from Central Asia, where a small community still survived in Bukhara. Over the centuries, the Kaifeng Jews became integrated within Chinese society and in particular with the local Chinese Muslim community.

Intermarriage and isolation from both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish communities far to the west led to a loss of religious and ritual customs, as well as social and linguistic tradition. The Kaifeng synagogue collapsed in the mid-19th century, but by this time, it is said, all that survived of Jewish tradition were the injunctions to circumcise sons and to abstain from eating pork. So it is quite probable that last Kaifeng Jews were subsumed in the local Hui Muslim population.

Vigorous Nestorianism along Silk Road
Silk Road

It is thought that Nestorianism penetrated China by way of the Silk Road as early as the 3rd century AD; a metropolitan see was established there by representatives of the Assyrian Church in 411, when Christianity was known as Jingjiao or the Luminous Religion. The Syrian monk Nestorius taught that Christ exists as two persons, the human Jesus and the Son of God Logos. This view was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431, leading to the separation of the Assyrian Church of the East from the Byzantine Church.

Condemned as heretics in the West, Newstorians Migrated east along the Silk Road, spread their variant of Christianity to Central Asia, China, Mongolia and ultimately Japan. The Nestorian missionary Alopen arrived at Changan in AD 635 and was given a warm welcome by the Tang emperor Taizong. The famous Nestorian stele was erected as Changan in 781AD celebrating the accomplishments of the Assyrian Church in China. Murals from a Nestorian monastery as Khocho in Xinjiang from the 7th century also survive.

Silk Road created the civilization and the colorful religions waiting for research and inheriting. Cherish the culture and cherish history!

Post in : Travel in China , China Excursions , Silk Road China Excursions ,
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