Imagining the Silk Road

Smithsonian’s Asian art museum has a new exhibit on ancient Yemeni regimes and the role they played in the Frankincense trade from the region. These kingdoms were at the center of the trade networks connecting the Southern Arabian Peninsula with the Indian subcontinent across the Indian Ocean on the eastern side and the Mediterranean and the red sea regions of Africa on the west. The exhibition has a few artifacts found at the archeological sites in the region that attest to these trade relationships.

One example of this is the torso of a female statue of Indian origin in an upright position (first photo). What I found also interesting is the similarity between this statue and the relief found in Gandhara (Kandahar), which is also in another permanent exhibition in the museum (second photo). The relief from Gandhara has Buddha’s mother standing in an upright position similar to the statue of the torso (third photo).

When I first learned about the destruction of the Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, I must admit that I was perplexed about the location of the Buddha statues on the northwest side of India. I did not know that Buddhism spread from the northwest route to Central Asia, Tibet, China, and Japan. I later learned more about it while I was in the southern Kazakhstan region after visiting history museums and the Buddhist petroglyphs in Tamgaly-tas from the Dzungarian occupation era. I, therefore, attributed my earlier confusion to my ignorance of the history and geography of the region.

Apart from the similarities between the two statues, the new Yemen exhibition also reminds me of another similarity between Gandhar and Yemen. The museum has an information board (picture not posted here) that explains what is currently happening in Yemen. Many Yemeni archeological sites are being destroyed and archeological artifacts in local Yemeni museums similar to these exhibits are looted as a consequence of the ongoing war.

Certainly, the unnecessary proxy war between two regional neighbors on Yemeni soil is taking a huge toll on the civilian population of Yemen. Lamenting about the loss of local archeological artifacts and sites, therefore, may sound a lot lame. However, I am now realizing that archeological sites and museum artifacts serve a vital purpose. They keep the past connections between the people in the region alive in our minds. I now think that my confusion about the Buddhism presence in Afghanistan mentioned earlier was not solely due to my ignorance per se. It’s also because the memory of these connections is gradually eroded as less and less information about their past existence is readily available.

My larger concern is about the impact of the eroded trade and cultural connections between south and central Asia as well as the middle east and the Mediterranean from what was at one time considered the flourishing ‘Silk Road’ or ‘Spice Route’. I believe that the trade links are now replaced by many “us versus them” walls that foment mistrust and enmity more than any other emotions among the people of the region. They prohibit the development of new trade links that could break the enmity walls, replacing them with interdependence, for the benefit of the whole region.

I do not think that I can explain my argument to the younger ‘me’, who was more interested in under-ocean fiber optic cables between India and the west than these past trade connections between the nearby regions. To be sure, the under-ocean fiber optic cable connections are vitally important from economic and cultural points of view. Moreover, my livelihood was directly dependent on it before, and indirectly it still does now. I am therefore not suggesting an either-or case. But I believe that both types of communication and trade links are vital for the prosperity and security of the broader region.

I admit that this is all arms chair philosophy and I feel fortunate to pontificate on this thought from far away, while the people in the region are suffering behind these hate walls. But I also admit that I sometimes like to listen to the lyrics of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ song, however unrealistic they may sound, because of their soothing effect on me.