It was not just goods that travelled along the Silk Road. Ideas were on the move, too. As communities and peoples came into contact with each other, culture, religious beliefs and technical developments were all soon passed on.

Religion and Philosophies

Not surprisingly, it was the proselytizing religions that travelled furthest. Flowing east were the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Persian religious traditions such as Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism found audiences, too. South Asian religions, including Buddhism and some aspects of Hindusim, cut off from China by the Tibetan plateau, passed east along the Silk Road, and reflected the Far East by sea. In the other direction, Daosim and Confucianism made no real progress west along the Silk Road, except when practiced by Chinese migrants – officials, troops and settlers – in the western regions. Daoism is a philosophical tradition based on more abstract concepts such as the Flow of the Universe, and Confucianism approximates more closely to a moral, ethical and philosophical social system. Neither offered a personal path to salvation in the way that Buddhism, Christianity and Islam did. Yet, perhaps because of the dominant cultural role played by China in East Asia, Daoism and Confucianism did spread east and south from the Middle Kingdom to the kingdoms of Korea, Japan and Vietnam.

Zoroastrianism

This is a late 19th-century term for the religion based on the teachings of the Persian prophet Zoroaster, who was active around the 5th century BC. Also known as Mazdaism, it acknowledged one universal and transcendental god called Ahura Mada. The best-known oroastrian symbol is fire, which is kept burning in Zoroastrian temples and represents radiance and purity. For this reason Zoroastrians have often been styled fire worshippers by proponents of other religions. At one time, this monotheistic belief dominated much of the greater Iranian world and had a significant impact on both Greek and Roman thought. Under the Sassanids, Zoroastrianism spread north to the Silk Road to Xinjiang and China. Zoroastrianism in the East centered on communities of Sogdian traders. Remains of their temples have been found in the Tarim Basin, notably at Dandan Uilik, and further to the east at Dunhuang, Kaifeng and Zhenjiang in China. Significantly, there were at least four Zoroasterian temples in Tang Dynasty Chang'an (Now Xian).

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Difficult Stages on the Old Silk Road

Silk Road is hard and dangerous. What the most difficult stages on the Old Silk Road are those that crossed the Tarim Basin circling the barren central Taklamakan Desert and the passes across the Pemir and Karakoram ranges. Caravans would generally halt for a longer rest, perhaps for a week or two, before setting out to face these natural difficulties. This imparted particular importance to the bazaar towns on the Central Asian Silk Road, and further to the west at Palmyra and Petra in the Syrian and Jordanian deserts. For different climate, different locations, as well as different geography, there will be always difficulties appeared!

Basic Cast of Silk Road

Trading along the Silk Road in either direction was no small undertaking, whether for small-scale trader or merchant prince. This road was tough, often beset by bandits or dangerous animals, and suffered extremes of weather. Along this road there was a greater safety in numbers, and travelers would wait in urban centers or even at remote caravanserais to join major caravans that might include hundreds or even thousands of camels and horse, sometimes accompanied by armed guards. As well as merchants sometimes accompanied by family members, servants and translators, there were many specialties, including camel-drivers, doctors and vets, local guides, cooks and guards. Journeys could last for weeks or months, with the precise distance covered per day liable to the availability of water and the exigencies of the weather, nomadic raiders and local politics.

Mixing People in Caravan Cast
Merchants Caravan were often joined by private individuals, whether itineraries traders, monks and religious teachers, entertainers moving between urban centers, adventurous, or even covert criminals and escaped slaves. Musicians would travel east from Persia and Sogdiana, Khotan and Kuqa, while some travelled west from China into Central Asia, adding to the sounds of the journey, and though their songs are lost to us, we can see from murals and paintings the kind of instruments they played. Because of this mix people, as well as for purpose of taxation, regulation and promoting peaceful commerce, notably at times of dynastic strength.

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Detail Information about the Caravanserais

A series of overnight halts known as caravanserais or khans was established to provide food, water and security for the travelers and to promote and protect the trade that enriched their kingdom. The word comes from the Persian karvan, meaning a company travelling together, and sara, a living place though In Persia it was also called a khan, in Turkey a han. Ideally these were roadside inns placed a day apart where travelers could eat, sleep and recover from the day journey, with their animals securely tethered, watered and fed, and their precious goods safety within walls.

Of course, the harshness of the terrain and the great distances involved meant that inns of such quality were the exception rather than the rule, especially in the wilder reaches of the Middle Eastern deserts and Central Asian Mountains. Typically, caravanserais were built within a square or rectangular wall to give protection from attack as well as from the elements, excessive heat and cold, rain and snow, dust storms and hail. They were entered by a single, easily defended gate that was wide enough and high enough to permit fully laden camels to pass through.

Bazaars on Silk Road

Bazaars, by contrast, were not established at regular intervals in the wild, but were naturally found in towns and oases, especially at large commercial crossroads such as Lanzhou, Dunhuang, Yarkand and Palmyra. The very greatest were at Xian in the East, at Kashgar and Samarkand in the centre and at Baghdad, Damascus and Aleppo in the West. Today, remarkably, the great souqs of Damascus and Aleppo survive almost unchanged. 1,500 years on. It seems entirely possible that a time traveler from Abassid Aleppo could find the spice bazaar or the gold market of Aleppo walled and covered souq in exactly the same location today as it was during his or her lifetime.

In contrast to the simplicity of the caravanserai, essential a transit stop where men and beasts rested overnight, layovers in the great bazaars could easily extend into weeks or even monts. Trade was carried out in these locations, goods sold, purchased and exchanged for onward carriages or for local consumption.