1 East West Encounters

2 Banpo basin prehistoric China, ca BCE. Native American connections? Different peoples. Chinese portrayal. 17th c.

3 Mesopotamia. Persian lion. East Asia connection?

4 Persepolis. Tribute bearers. Greek sculptors?

5 Asoka. Lion capital. Sarnath. 250 BCE. Middle East-India connection?

6 Jan van Eyck. The Madonna of Canon van der Paele Oil on wood. Musee Communal des Beaux-Arts, Bruges, Belgium. Note the rug under the Madonna’s feet.

7 Jan Vermeer, Dutch. The Geographer, 1668.

8 Paisley neck tie, Land’s End mail-order store.

9 Paisley henna hand designs. Entered Indian art through Persia and the 1700s textile trade.

10 Shirin Neshat, artist. Born 1957, Qazvin, Iran Lives and works in New York

11 Shirin Neshat

12 Desert nomads. Punjab, N. India.

13 About the Taklamakan Desert, written by a traveler on journey to India: “One enters the desert from the northwest. Not a drop of water nor a blade of grass may be see. The road stretches on to an unseen destination; you look for the horizon, but the vastness appears to have no end... the wind erupts in forceful, whipping gales, churning the sand and hurling rocks. Whoever is engulfed by it stands at death’s door; the end is certain.”

14 Lady Dai, silk funerary banner, 168 BCE. Warring States period ( BC) nine sections, overall size 66 x 46 cm (26 x 18 in), warp-faced compound tabby in silk SILK Dragon-bird design.

15 Silk Road

16

17 Important Silk Road sites: Turkey: IstanbulUzbekistan China Nemrud DagiAral SeaKizil DogubeyazitKhivaTurfan SmarklandDunhuang Gansu Corridor Wuwei Syria: PalmyraChina:Niya Iran: MasshadBinglingsi Afghanistan: BamiyanXian BalkhYungang caves Longmen caves

18 CONTACT. Despite the great distance between Asia and Europe, the two regions had contact prior to 1st century CE. Traders, pilgrims, warriors Rome to Syria in the West to China in the East. Conquering civilizations: most profound influences. Trade on the Silk Road flourished during 3 major time periods: 1. 2nd c. BCE through 2nd c. CE. 2. 7th to 10th c. CE. 3.12th to 14th c. CE. Periods of the unification of great empires of East and West: Alexander the Great; Islam and Tang; Mongol Empire. 4. Revival of interest in 18th c.: European exploration + archaeology and looting. 5. Today package tours to China, India, Turkestan. Political confrontations, conflicts. Virtual travel via internet.

19 TRAVELERS. Zhang Quian, imperial Chinese officer, became ambassador for Emperor Han Wu Di and headed west outside of China’s borders, north of India, and wrote about his adventures and misadventures (2nd c BCE). Xuan Zang, Buddhist monk who lived in China, 7th c., traveled from China to India and back again. Some say Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant, never traveled to China in the mid-1200s, that he wrote about travel based on the stories of others... Sir Richard Burton, British, traveled to Middle East 19th century. Translated 1001 Arabian Nights into English.

20 Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, along Silk Road (destroyed 2001).

21 Bharati Mukherjee, author of Jasmine.