Sounds of Silk an exhibit of Instruments and Textiles from Silk Road Cultures

The Silk Road passed through Central Asia, linking China in the east to Iran and the Mediterranean to the west. Connecting pathways went north to Russia and south to India and Afghanistan. Central Asia was inhabited by nomadic and settled peoples whose lives revolved economically around the Silk Road. They also absorbed new ideas and influences through contact with incoming traders, travelers and conquerors. In this exhibition of Central Asian arts, you can see the legacy of the Silk Road in the blending of these foreign ideas with the existing cultural patterns of both nomadic and settled peoples.

Funded in part by Utah Humanities Council, Utah Arts Council, and Salt Lake County Zoo Arts and Parks Program. Utah Humanities Council promotes understanding of human traditions,

Studies reveal that it was monks who first brought cocoons to Byzantium from China in the year 555 A.D.; the cocoon trade spread from Byzantium to Greece and from there to Italy, Spain and France from the 7th Century onward. The caravans of merchants either followed the road leading to the Caspian Sea by passing through the Afghan valleys, or climbed the Karakorum Mountains and arrived in Anatolia via Iran. From Anatolia, the caravans proceeded to Europe either by sea or by the Silk Road that passed through the Thrace Region. During the time of the Mongols with Ghengiz Khan in the 13th and 14th centuries Marco Polo took the Silk Road to reach China. Even today, the Silk Road offers an extraordinary variety of historic and cultural riches. It still bears the marks of cultures, religions and races of 2000 years. Its vastness, harsh geographical structure and mysteries still bear traces of man's struggle with nature during his long and strenuous journeys. The diverse peoples are vividly portrayed by the Greek historian Herodotus, who describes how societies were organized, their ways of life and close relationship with the Achaemenid empire in Persia. Contacts between east and west were facilitated in the late fourth century BC by the conquests of Alexander the Great, who overthrew the Achaemenid empire and campaigned eastwards as far as India. A Macedonian who became steeped in Greek culture after his conquest of Greece, and then an oriental monarch, captivated by the idealism of the East, Alexander was himself the embodiment of cultural intermingling. During his time the culture of the Greek world was transmitted into Asia in an unprecedented flow of men and ideas, technologies, artistic trends and architectural formulae, as well as drama, poetry, music, religions and above all language and literature. However, the traffic was not only one-way. Alexander and the scholars who accompanied him met Asian philosophers, whose ideas they took back to Greece along with tributes of gold, cattle and artifacts which enriched the classical world of the West. Alexander founded several new cities in Asia, and his men intermarried there, introducing Hellenism but at the same time becoming thoroughly Asianized and integrated into the local population. The influence of this sharing of cultural traditions and linguistic and ethnic groups is visible today. Multi-colored silk ikat is a popular item in Central Asia. Ikat is a weaving process in which thread or yarn is tied, according to a pattern, before it is dyed. The pattern emerges as the threads are woven. This practice has remained due to the craftsman's guilds created over the centuries and their records that remain. Those records account that these craftsmen believed firmly that their Exhibit curated by Eastern Arts skills, their artistry came as a gift from God. Good for the Salt Lake Art Center thoughts and virtuous behavior were necessary for the successful completion of the work. The ikat craftsmen found inspiration in chaotic 20 South West Temple nature and in a culturally resonant vocabulary of design. Using the tools Salt Lake City, Utah of geometry and pure color, they built an ordered universe.

Block printing has a long history in Central Asian textile tradition. Materials made by Central Asian September 5 - October 10, 2009 block-printers were famed for their quality and design and exported to Russia until the 19th century. In recent years block-printing in Uzbekistan has been Public Lecture Demonstration Discussion considered a vanishing type of handicraft, due to low demand by local buyers, also because it has been dyed at Salt Lake Art Center by synthetic colors. Friday, October 2 at 6:30 pm

These figures of the Buddha Triad, along with many Buddhist paintings and sculptures, are located in the cave-temples near the town of Dunhuang in the Gobi Topic: Music and TexTextilestiles along the Silk Road desert in north-west China. It is considered one of the Yesterday and Today most perfectly preserved of the world's great religious sanctuaries. Dunhuang was founded by Wu-ti, the first emperor of the Han Speakers: dynasty in 111 B.C. as one of the four garrison commanderies for the Han army in order to control the silk route. Through all these years, Dr. Bahram Baktiari - Director Middle East Center many foreign merchants and travelers leaving China along the silk road University of Utah would pass through Dunhuang before they continued their journey to the west through East Turkestan, today known in China as Xinjiang, though Dr. Lloyd Miller - Professor Persian & Afghan Music BYU Uyghur inhabitants prefer East Turkestan. Today, this city serves as a Katherine St. John - Director Eastern Arts, staging post for Buddhist monks, missionaries and pilgrims from China Instructor BYU and Korea travelling west in search of images and scriptures.

, The Egyptians, followed by the Romans purchased silk from the Chinese and it began to be used by Westerners as early as 753 B.C.

he Great Silk Road is the popular name The first, the Southern branch, ran from Termez via T given to the system of caravan trade Samarkand to Dushanbe's present location, along a tributary of the routes that lasted for many centuries and Kyzyl-Su up to Alai and exited in the area of modern Irkishtam, linked Eastern and Western civilization where it switched direction towards Kashgar. The second, the between the Ancient and Middle Ages. The Fergana branch, led from Samarkand via Hodjent to Isfara, Kokand main route of the Silk Road traveled through and Osh. China along the Gan-Su corridor, then through The third, Northern branch came from the Tarima basin, and the highlands of the Zamin Rabat to Benkent (Tashkent) , Isfidjab Pamir and Tian-Shan ranges, into Central (Chimkent), Taraz (Jambyl), Nuzket (Kara- Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean Balta), and Balasugun (Burana). From there, Sea, and still further along to the trading centers of the Near East caravans traveled along the Boom Canyon to and Europe. reach the Issyk-Kul area and further to China . The Silk Road first operated as a route between China and The caravan traffic proceeded at a slow the capital of the Roman Empire in the 2 nd century BC. It was pace. A good day's journey covered 8 farsahs approximately 7000 kilometers long. The most valuable material (50 km- 31 miles), a not so good one 4 farsahs commodity imported from China at the time was silk, which is an (25 km- 15 miles). obvious explanation why this entire transcontinental trade route The composition of the caravan trains varied. There are was named The Silk Road. numerous records of some huge trains containing up to 10,000 beasts of The Great Silk Road is, in fact, a network of routes which burden. All along the route, caravan-sarais (meeting places) appeared at played a highly significant role in the lives of many people in regular intervals. Torrential streams were tamed with bridges. There was little caravan traffic from China to the Mediterranean. Because the Eurasia. It was an important artery transporting merchandise and international route opened up access to new places, settled crop information, and the starting point of many conflicts and wars. production began, alongside nomadic livestock breeding. Trade centers and capitals of great empires were built, flourished The pioneer of the Great Silk road as considered by historians and gained fame, and then decayed and declined. The longest part was Chzan Tsan, a Chinese diplomat who lived in the 1 st century BC. The of the Silk Road lies across the territory of Central Asia and fact that Central Asia had been conducting trade in the Tian-Shan is Kazakhstan. Caravans laden with silk from China, spices and verified by the large amount of Chinese coins, bronze looking glasses, precious stones from India, silver goods from Iran, Byzantine silk remnants, and fragments of Chinese pottery which have been found clothes,Turkic slaves, and many other goods, moved through the by archeologists. Thanks to China, silkworm breeding and paper Kara-Kum and Kyzyl-Kum deserts; passed over the ridges of the manufacturing began developing in Central Asia, whereas it was due to Pamirs and Tian-Shan, Altai and Karatau Mountains; and crossed Central Asia that China took up cultivation of grapes, alfalfa, onions, the rivers Murgab, Amu Darya and Syr Darya. cotton, pomegranates, walnuts, fig trees and cucumbers. One irony is that the ancient path of merchants of the East and Along the route of the caravans were rich settlements and the West got its name in the 19 th century. The name Silk Road (also towns - Merv (Turkmenistan); Bukhara, Samarkand, Urgench and called Silk Route) was proposed by Ferdinand von Richthofen, the author Khiva (Uzbekistan); Otrar, Taraz and Chimkent (Kazakhstan); Dgul, of classical works on the physical geography of China and Asia's Suyab, Novokent, Balasagun, Tash-Rabat, Osh and Uzgen Kyrgyzstan. topography. Thus, following his example, this name is recognized all over the world.