Volume 3 Number 2 December 2005 “The Bridge between Eastern and Western Cultures” In This Issue From the Editor • The International Dunhuang Project As my e-mail inbox keeps excavation co-sponsored by the • Economic and Social Roots reminding me, technology has Silkroad Foundation and the of Buddhism dramatically altered the pos- Mongolian National University and • Byzantine Solidi in China sibilities for meaningful interaction in independent study of petroglyph with those who share an interest sites in the Mongolian Altai, the • Silk Road or Paper Road? in the Silk Road. My cor- application of advanced tech- • East Meets West under the respondents range from middle nologies is uneven. Even where Mongols school students doing History Day they are available, the techniques projects and filmmakers and many not be able to answer some • Two Travelers in Yazd editors needing information for of the basic questions we pose • Kyrgyz Healing Practices documentaries or articles to about such key issues as scholars whose expertise on the chronology. And in too many cases Next Issue languages and history of the Silk still, the lack of access to advanced A special focus on Mongolia, Road far exceeds anything I would techniques for analysis or pre- including: dare to claim for myself. The mere servation of material may be a real • Nicola di Cosmo on early fact that their inquiries come my constraint on the amount of nomads way and from all over the world is information which can be learned • Esther Jacobson on a tribute to the Internet, which has from an excavation. petroglyphs become for many the first choice for information. Is there anyone In any event, the promise of • Guolong Lai on Han mirrors in today with a computer and technology is great, although I Xiongnu graves Internet connection who does not hesitate to say unlimited, since I • articles on the summer 2005 use Google as a reference tool? A am somewhat pessimistic about Arkhangai excavation name on a web page may identify humans being able to devise plus an “authority” whose brain can be technological solutions to all the Ulf Jaeger on the Francke-Körber problems they create. It is also Collection of Khotan antiquities in picked with a few keystrokes. Of course as a teacher, I have to keep undoubtedly the case that for Munich, many aspects of the historical and more…. reminding my students to be critical in their assessment of record, we will never figure out how to fill the gaps, however much About online sources and about the fact information produced with old- the application of new technology The Silk Road is a semi-annual fashioned technology (e.g., ink on may provide us with information publication of the Silkroad Founda- paper) is far from obsolete. and understanding we previously tion. The Silk Road can also be lacked. viewed online at
2 The International Dunhuang Background As Buddhism spread along the Silk Project: Chinese Central Asia Road from India into China at the beginning of the first millennium, Online monks and merchants adopted the Indian practice of paying for cave Susan Whitfield temples to be dug out from cliffs British Library, as an act of merit. These caves London were then painted from floor to ceiling with scenes from Buddha’s life and depictions from the sutras, Despite the excellent work of 80% of the material from and further adorned with statue scholars over the past century, the Dunhuang and a large part of the groupings showing Buddha with his archaeological legacy of the material from other archaeological disciples and guardians kings. The Chinese Silk Road has barely been sites will be available, with over Mogao cave complex at Dunhuang explored. There is so much 200,000 images, scores of was begun in CE 366, and by the material, with more being catalogues, translations, edu- ninth century there were over 500 discovered all the time, and it cational pages, photographs, maps cave temples with many residential covers so many subjects, and research. Chinese Central Asia caves for the scores of artisans, languages, religions, cultures and will be online. painters and sculptors working geographical areas, that decades there [Figs. 1, 6 (p. 7)]. will elapse before all its Dunhuang was one secrets are uncovered. among many such Silk The International Dun- Road cave temple sites huang Project (IDP) is but is unique because of now facilitating access the discovery in 1900 of to and study of this a library cave which had dispersed material by been sealed and hidden making it freely avail- in about CE 1000 [Fig. able on multi-lingual 2]. Containing tens of websites. IDP hopes thousands of manu- that by encouraging and scripts and the earliest promoting international dated printed book, this collaborations the is the world’s earliest importance of this Fig. 1. The northern section of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang. and largest paper wonderful archae- Photo © Daniel C. Waugh 1998. ological legacy will finally be fully appreciated worldwide. The Silk Road is part of all our histories. IDP is bringing it online for everyone.
IDP re-launched its web site (http://idp.bl.uk) in December 2005 offering more powerful full- text search facilities, greater functionality, educational project pages and the personalised “My IDP” project space. The IDP’s web site is now hosted by sites worldwide and in English, Chinese, Russian, Japanese and German versions. After just ten years, IDP already holds information and images of over 50,000 paintings, artefacts, manuscripts, textiles and historical photographs from Dunhuang and other sites in Fig. 2. Aurel Stein’s 1907 view of Mogao Cave 16, with a portion of the Chinese Central Asia. By 2010 over manuscripts from Cave 17 (on right). Photograph © The British Library, Stein Photograph Serindia Fig. 200, used with permission. All rights reserved. © 2005 Susan Whitfield 3 archive [Fig. 3; for other images scientific and scholarly information graphers in Beijing. The Chinese- of some of these treasures, see the (for details see IDP News 24, language version of the web site articles below by Connie Chin and available free from IDP or online and online database were launched Jonathan Bloom]. It also contained at http://idp.bl.uk/pages/ on a local server in November 2002 hundreds of fine paintings on silk, archives_newsletter.a4d). To (http://idp.nlc.gov.cn). Institutions facilitate access IDP such as the NLC are founding decided to create a members and full IDP partners. comprehensive online Local staff at the IDP Centre in catalogue of all the Beijing add information about their material, linked to collections into their local database high-quality digital and local photographers digitise images and sup- the collections, using mutually porting information agreed IDP standards and which would be made procedures (published online on freely available to all. http://idp.bl.uk/pages/ Starting with a technical_resources.a4d). Data are grant from the Chiang synchronised between the Chinese Ching-Kuo Foundation and English servers. The NLC and a staff of one, the images, apart from the reference first few years of IDP thumbnails, are also kept on the NLC server. Fig. 3. Detail of the outer “envelope” of Ancient were spent designing Sogdian Letter No. 2 (BL Or. 8212/99.1), discov- and implementing a IDP acts as a host for some ered by Aurel Stein in 1907 at Watchtower T.XII.a cataloguing and image institutions’ collections. For on the Dunhuang Limes. Photograph © The British management example, the Chester Beatty Library, used with permission. All rights reserved. database. A British Library in Dublin and the Freer Academy-funded Gallery in Washington DC both hemp and paper. Numerous other research assistant started adding have three items from Dunhuang. ancient Silk Road sites in Chinese information about the British They supplied IDP with large- Central Asia yielded other Library manuscripts in 1995. In format photographs of these, important artefacts, paintings, 1997 with a further grant from the which IDP then scanned and added textiles, coins and manuscripts in Heritage Lottery Memorial Fund, to its web site with cataloguing over twenty languages and scripts, IDP expanded and employed staff details. IDP also hosts images of and this and the Dunhuang to start work on the cataloguing the paintings from Dunhuang held material was dispersed to and digitisation of Chinese, Tangut in the British Museum and is just institutions worldwide, making and Tibetan materials from various starting to add images of the access difficult. The amount of Silk Road sites, and in October textiles from the Chinese Silk Road material, its age, fragility and 1998 the web site went online with in the Victoria and Albert Museum uniqueness also created a prob- details of over 20,000 manu- and other artefacts from the British lem for conservators. Throughout scripts. Museum. In all cases the holding the twentieth century much Other projects followed. A institution retains copyright on the remained in need of conservation grant from the Higher Education images and there is a clear link on and therefore also uncatalogued, Funding Council for England led to the IDP site to the institutions’ own unpublished and inaccessible. the launch of a map interface to websites. Information on the the database in 2000. In 2001, a participating institutions and their The International Dun- four-year grant from the Andrew collections is on the advanced huang Project — the First W. Mellon Foundation enabled IDP search page. Ten Years to establish a digitisation studio Other collaborations launched The International Dunhuang with the latest large-format during the past two years involve Project (IDP), with its directorate digitisation equipment. Two the Institute of Oriental Studies in at the British Library, was founded conservators, three photographers St. Petersburg, Ryukoku University in 1994 to address these problems and three Photoshop® operators in Kyoto, and the Staatsbibliothek by creating a partnership of all the were employed to work full-time and Berlin-Brandenburg Academy major holders of the material to on the Dunhuang material. of Sciences and Humanities in work together on conservation and Collaboration started with the Berlin. The online Russian, cataloguing and to increase access. National Library of China (NLC) in Japanese and German versions of To achieve the first, IDP organises the same year, funded by the Sino- the IDP site are hosted by these regular conservation conferences British Fellowship Trust, and the institutions. IDP hopes to start and has a publications programme skills learned in London were similar collaborations with the to disseminate conservation, passed on to the IDP photo- Dunhuang Academy, the National
4 manuscripts. and Loulan in the British Library Similar collections. IDP has also started endeavours digitising Sanskrit, Khotanese and are under- Tangut manuscripts and continues way on all digitisation of the thousands of the collec- historical photographs and maps of tions. the Silk Road and its sites made by Aurel Stein and others. IDP has All these achieved far more than it could scholars possibly have expected when Fig. 4. Administrative document in Kharosthi script, found at have agreed founded a decade ago, but the Niya by Aurel Stein. National Museum, New Delhi. Photograph that their collections are so rich that much © Daniel C. Waugh 2001. catalogues remains to be done. Museum, New Delhi [Fig. 4], the be available online, and the Museum for Indian Art, Berlin [Fig. relaunched IDP website enables In addition to conservation and 5], the Musée Guimet and the users to browse a catalogue and digitisation, IDP continues with Bibliothèque nationale de France. carry out full-text searches. It is scholarly work. In 2005 it At present, over 20,000 high- important to apply internationally- completed a three-year collab- quality images are being added accepted metadata to the online orative research project to annually to the database, but this catalogues, and more will come catalogue and digitise the Tibetan figure will be doubled if funds can online during 2006 as IDP staff tantric manuscripts from be secured to upgrade equipment complete this (the catalogues are Dunhuang. Carried out in and expand existing staffing in the prepared as XML documents). The conjunction with the School of UK, China and Germany. IDP will catalogues offered will include Oriental and African Studies at the add more institutions and include “legacy” catalogues — those University of London and funded in its database small and private published from as early as the by the Arts and Humanities collections throughout the world. beginning of the twentieth century. Research Council, this project by Systematic cataloguing of this Although some of the scholarship Dalton and van Schaik uncovered material is essential if it is to be a in these might now be superseded, many surprising results, including useful scholarly and educational they all contain much useful the possibility that most of these resource. The Chinese Section at information and are an essential manuscripts were transcribed in the British Library has been resource for any scholar. So, collaborating with Chinese scholars for example, by the middle for three decades to make material of 2006 Stein’s original more accessible. As a result, the entries on the Dunhuang previously unconserved and paintings will be accessible uncatalogued fragments from alongside Fred Andrews’ Dunhuang (Or.8210/S.6981 1933 catalogue and Professor onwards) were all conserved in the Roderick Whitfield’s detailed 1980s and cataloguing taken on by 1982-1985 Kodansha pub- Professors Rong Xinjiang (non- lication. Moreover, any Buddhist material) and Fang scholar working on items in Guangchang (Buddhist frag- the database is welcome to ments). The first catalogue was submit his/her research for completed in 1999 and Professor online publication, and an Fang’s is nearing completion. XML template and in- Professor Sha Zhi has also recently structions are available completed his catalogue of Chinese (http://idp.bl.uk/pages/ fragments. Dr. Jake Dalton and Dr. technical_resources.a4d). Sam van Schaik’s catalogue of the Apart from the continuing Tibetan tantric material is now digitisation of Dunhuang online and will be published next Chinese materials in year, Professor Tsuguhito Takeuchi collections worldwide, work has catalogued other non-Buddhist has been completed on the Tibetan material, and Professor Tibetan woodslips from Miran Oktor Skjaervø has catalogued the and elsewhere, Chinese Han- Fig. 5. Leaf from a 8th-9th-century Manichaean Khotanese fragments. Work is now dynasty wood shavings from book. Qocho, Temple K. Museum für Indische starting on the Sanskrit material. the Dunhuang limes, Kunst, Staatliche Museen Preussischer These are just some of the major Tocharian tablets, and Kulturbesitz, Berlin, MIK III 6368. projects on the British Library Kharosthi material from Niya Photograph © Daniel C. Waugh 2004.
5 the latter half of the tenth century children an opportunity to learn and we would like to take this by a small group of scribes. The about their local history. This DVD opportunity to say again how manuscripts were previously uses some of the resources grateful we are for this. We are generally assumed to date from prepared by 12-18 year-olds as particularly delighted by the the period of the Tibetan part of the 2004 Silk Road number of donors who have occupation of Dunhuang, from the exhibition educational project. renewed their grants or made mid-eighth to mid-ninth centuries. Next year IDP will collaborate with additional gifts. These results will form the basis a European Union-funded project In 2005 three major grants of the just-started palaeographical for children in schools throughout came to an end, and IDP has been research programme (see below). the EU. Also coming online in early actively fundraising to enable it to 2006 will be the “Silk Road Quest,” achieve its programme for the next a web adventure for older children Educational Outreach in the five years. It has grants promised devised by Gizella Dewath. Years Ahead from the Leverhulme Trust (for the In doing such projects IDP palaeographical project), the Ford Now the infrastructure and a hopes to bring a greater awareness Foundation (for promoting significant body of material has of this rich cultural legacy to the scholarly interaction between been established, IDP is planning people of the region and others India, China and Russia), the to reach out into the wider worldwide. The web database will Pidem Fund (for general IDP work) community by creating web-based be made even more accessible and from several other foundations educational resources — in local through the addition of the for smaller amounts. In addition languages and with local teachers personalised web space, an to grants from organisations, — and not only for higher interactive map interface, individual donations remain a vital education but also for school- photographs, music, video clips element of IDP’s funding (for a list children from Shanghai to and translations. We are looking see http://idp.bl.uk/pages/ Sacramento. One of the first IDP to make new partnerships with supporterslist.html). For example, educational resources to go online organisations and institutions with these donations have given us the was a history of Chinese book- expertise and presence in the flexibility to enhance the catalogue binding, illustrated by Silk Road region to maximise access and in response to new technologies manuscripts and written and understanding of this material. and requests from our users — as designed by Colin Chinnery. This Cataloguing will continue, and illustrated by “My IDP,” the continues to prove one of the most during the period 2006-2008 IDP personalised IDP web space. visited pages of the web site. Web will also work with scholars and Similarly, “Sponsor a Sutra” (http: pages on Dash, Stein’s canine universities worldwide to create a //idp.bl.uk/forms/ travelling companions, and on new field of palaeographical sponsorSutraChoice.a4d) Buddhism in Central Asia, have studies for East Asian manuscripts. donations have enabled us to been added in the past few years This will include a database of conserve and digitise a number of and also proved popular. The millions of Chinese characters and unique and fragile manuscripts, second of these has now been tens of thousands of Tibetan ensuring they can be accessed by adapted by Sam van Schaik syllables digitally “cut out” from scholars and the wider public now following his teaching of the the manuscript images, along with and in the future. subject at the School of Oriental full details about the physical and African Studies and will form IDP now has a skilled and aspects of the manuscripts, the opening project on the “My committed staff working worldwide including laid and chain lines, type, IDP” personalised web space in and is within sight of its primary colour and size of papers. The early 2006. Educational outreach objective of finally making the dataset will be freely available and projects will be started with the Dunhuang and other Silk Road be used by IDP used to test Dunhuang Academy and the manuscripts, paintings, textiles hypotheses about the date and National Library of China for and artefacts readily available to provenance of the manuscripts. Chinese schoolchildren. all. However, IDP urgently needs The tools prepared on this project, to secure further funding to realise In 2005 IDP collaborated with such as the cutting-out software, this. IDP can celebrate its the Gansu Basic Educational will also be freely available for achievements of its first ten years. Project (GBEP; http://www.gbep. others scholars to use. It is hoped that funds are soon org/en/about.asp) to produce a forthcoming to ensure that the full bilingual booklet and DVD Funding potential of these is realised over containing text, images, music, the next five. and video telling the story of From its inception, IDP has Dunhuang. This is now being been an externally-funded project. About the Author distributed to primary-school The generosity of our supporters teachers in the poorest townships has enabled IDP to accomplish all Susan Whitfield is Director of the of Gansu and will give school- that has been achieved to date, IDP and author of several books,
6 including Life along the Silk Road Fang Guangchang. Ying guo tu shu Asia and westernmost China (1999), Aurel Stein on the Silk guan cang dun hang yi shu mu lu. carried out and described under Road (2004) and a forthcoming (S.6981-S.8400) (Catalogue of the orders of H.M. Indian Historical Dictionary of Exploration Buddhist manuscripts in the government by Aurel Stein. 5 vols. of the Silk Road. She edited the Dunhuang collection of the British Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921. catalogue for the British Library’s Library not included in Lionel Giles’ Silk Road exhibition which she catalogue. First volume [Or.8210/ Tsugohito Takeuchi. Old Tibetan helped organize in 2004, The Silk S.6981-8400]). Beijing: Zongjiao Manuscripts from East Turkestan Road: Trade, Travel, War and wenhua chubanshe, 2000. in the Stein Collection of the British Faith, a volume which contains a Library. 3 vols. The Centre for East number of stimulating essays Rong Xinjiang. Yingguo Tushuguan Asian Cultural Studies for Unesco, presenting the results of new cang Dunhuang Hanwen fei fojiao The Toyo Bunko & The British research in the material IDP is wenxian canjuan mulu (S.6981- Library Board, 1997-. making accessible. 13624) (Catalogue of the Chinese Non-Buddhist Fragments [S.6981- Roderick Whitfield. The Art of References 13624] from Dunhuang in the Central Asia: the Stein Collection British Library). Hong Kong Studies in the British Museum. 3 vols. Fred H. Andrews. Catalogue of Center for Dunhuang and Turfan: Tokyo: Kodansha, 1982-1985. wall-paintings from ancient shrines 4. Taipei: Shin Wen Feng Print Co., in Central Asia and Sistan 1995. recovered by Sir Aurel Stein. Delhi, 1933. Prods Oktor Skjaervø, with How you may support contributions by Ursula Sims- Jacob Dalton and Sam van Schaik. Williams. Khotanese manuscripts IDP Catalogue of the Tibetan Tantric from Chinese Turkestanin the Manuscripts from Dunhuang in the British Library: a complete Details of IDP’s funding appeal Stein Collection. First electronic catalogue with texts and can be found on http://idp.bl.uk/ edition. [London:] IDP, 2005, translations. London: The British pages/about_funding.a4d. All online at
Fig. 6. Façade of Mogao Caves, including Cave 96, photographed in 1908 by Charles Nouette. Source: Mission Pelliot en Asie Centrale. Les Grottes de Touen- Houang (Paris: Geuthner, 1914; facsimile ed. 1997).
7 missionaries and merchants [Liu Monuments in the Desert: A 1988, p. 140]. The Parthians, Yuezhi and Indians mentioned from Note on Economic and Social this time probably all came from Kushana and followed the Roots of the Development of commercial routes through Central Asia into China. Buddhism along the Silk Road Construction of Buddhist caves and statues increased during the Connie Chin third and fourth centuries, reaching its peak during the Northern Stanford University dynasties. There is a historical record of cave cutting in 397 CE in Liangzhou, and the Dunhuang To develop into a social institution, palace full of precious things for caves were started in the fourth a religion must have economic as the Buddha could claim or fifth century. The first caves well as religious roots. This paper Buddhahood from this act of merit. were sponsored by the Former will discuss material, much of it In this text, the main items used Liang, a dynasty that administered found at Dunhuang, which in honoring a Buddha consisted of a vast territory from the Hexi demonstrates the economic base the exotic merchandise later corridor, beyond Dunhuang, on which the Buddhist religion traded extensively along the Silk stretching into Gaochang (Turfan). grew and became an integral part Road: pearls, coral, lapis lazuli, In this area resided diverse of life along the Silk Road. Along and other precious substances peoples, including Han, the Turkic the way it was flavored by diverse were used as religious gifts [Liu Xiongnu and Xianbei, Jie (who ethnic groups, languages, and 1988, p. 93]. The decoration of were perhaps Indoscythians), Qing gender relations, as is revealed in Buddhist monuments with silk was and Di, who were related to the archaeological, art, and encouraged by the Mahavastu as Tibetans and Tanguts [Howard documentary evidence. well, leading believers to decorate 2000, p. 242]. As stations along stupas with thousands of silk the Silk Road, the Former Liang Beginning as a reaction against banners. The items most valued cities were places where differing Hinduism and rejecting attachment in society changed to include the cultures interacted. to all things, Buddhism, paradox- seven treasures needed for ically, spread along the routes of Buddhist worship. The worship of There are fourteen votive commerce and began to develop bodhisattvas, future buddhas who pillars dating to the Liang period into a facet of urban, commercial could use their accumulated merit which portray the synthesis of culture in the Kushan empire, that to help the faithful, by extension covered a territory which is now implied that merit, like goods, northern India, western Pakistan, could be transferred to others or and Afghanistan. During the exchanged for good deeds or transition to Mahayana Buddhism donations. in the Kushan area, the Buddha began to take on supernatural Buddhism had spread rapidly power; thus worshipping relics of across the trade routes all the way the Buddha could bring blessings to China by the Han Dynasty. In to the faithful. Stupas built to the first century, however, contain the Buddha’s relics spread Buddhist communities seem to across northern India. Though the have been mostly foreign families monks in these days were dwelling in urban centers. By the forbidden to worship relics, the second century CE, missionaries laity was encouraged to pay for the were translating the sutras in construction of stupas and their Luoyang. The noted translator- decoration, as well as for the monk Dharmaraksha’s ancestors fundamental requirement to were Yuezhi people who had provide food and housing for the immigrated to Dunhuang a few monks. generations before. The Parthian merchant An Xuan joined An Some Mahayana scriptures, Shigao, a monk, in translating the Fig. 1. Votive pilla, Qocho Ruin E (MIK such as the Mahavastu, claimed sutras, a reminder of the com- III 6838). Museum für Indische Kunst, that worship of and donations to a mercial nature of the foreign Staatliche Museen Preussischer Buddha offered tangible benefits. community and the close Kulturbesitz, Berlin. Photograph © For example, a king who built a relationship between Buddhist Daniel C. Waugh 2004.
© 2005 Connie Chin 8 Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism that developed in the third century. For example, one artifact [analogous to that in Fig. 1 (p. 8) but not shown here], was donated by a patron named Gao Shanmu and dated 428 CE. It has several sections, with a bottom frieze showing four males and four females; incised above each is a trigram from the Yijing, a Confucian text. The writing above that is an early Buddhist text, the Ekottaragma sutra. Above that is a band of Buddhas, and it is topped by the constellation of the Dipper (a Daoist symbol) on its rounded summit [Howard 2000, p. 255; Juliano and Lerner 2001, pp. 152- 155]. This cultural melding is reflected in some of the earliest Fig. 3. East slope of ceiling of Mogao Cave 285, photographed in 1908 by caves. Wenshushan [Fig. 2] in Charles Nouette. Source: Mission Pelliot en Asie Centrale. Les Grottes de Hexi and later, Cave 285 at Touen-Houang (Paris: Geuthner, 1914; facsimile ed. 1997). Dunhuang, include cells on the sides, which were likely used as including Siva, Vishnu and Ganesa, dynasty, the Xianbei rulers used meditation enclosures similar to flank the main Buddha niche on the Buddhism to lend themselves the Indian site at Ajanta. Syncretic west wall. The dated inscriptions legitimacy. Buddhist institutions, Daoist, Indian, and Buddhist on the wall are flanked on the right in turn, garnered political and themes crowd Western Wei Cave by male donors in Tuoba Xianbei- economic support from the 285, which is dated 538 and 539 style clothing, and on the left, by Northern Wei emperors. Much CE. On the ceiling, a central jewel women in long, striped skirts, with Buddhist building activity took is flanked by serpentine beings, larger figures of monks [Whitfield place. The Northern Wei emperors one holding a builder’s square 1995, p. 42]. honored Buddhist teachers as they (Fuxi) and the other a compass tried to control them. Emperor (Nuwa), early Chinese deities [Fig. As time went on, Buddhism Dao Wu appointed Faguo as Head 3]. Thunder gods, birds and became more and more integrated of Monks, and Faguo responded by phoenixes, some with Daoist into Chinese society. Although calling the emperor the modern- immortals riding them, sweep there was a brief period of day Buddha. The rulers and the across the ceiling. Indian deities, persecution, in the Northern Wei monasteries generally lived in harmony because the Buddhists submitted to the government. As the years passed, the number of monks and monasteries began to increase, and the Wei rulers found it difficult to rein them in. In the early 460s a monk from Liangzhou named Tan Yao became Head of Monks. He began the excavation of the earliest caves at Yungang, and had five gigantic statues of Buddha carved out of the cliff, thought now to represent the five emperors of the Northern Wei as incarnations of the Buddha. He requested permission from the Wei emperor to take war captives from Shandong as tenants for Buddhist Fig. 2. Wenshushan. Photograph © Daniel C. Waugh 1998. monasteries, and called them
9 “sangha households.” Each of whose patronage of Buddhists and pilgrims witnessed Buddhist these households paid “sangha laymen was without equal” [Yang, ceremonies in India, visited grain” to the local office of monks. tr. Wang 1984, p. 56]. monumental buildings dating back Tan Yao also asked to convert some The de facto ruler of the to the Kushan king Kanishka, and criminals and slaves to “Buddha Northern Wei dynasty at the time carried Buddhist writings back to households,” whose members Buddhism became a state religion China. The information they cleaned or cultivated land for the was Empress Dowager Wenming, brought back encouraged Chinese monasteries [Wei Shou, tr. Hurvitz who was Chinese. Empress Buddhists to finance rituals, cave 1956, p. 73]. Dowager Wenming was the driving temples, and statues. Emperors and empress- force behind the imperial chapels The Buddhist monasteries dowagers patronized Buddhism by at Yungang. A later Empress launched a large-scale votary building monasteries and Dowager, Lady Ling, was a central movement. The Northern Wei conducting ceremonies. The first figure in Northern Wei court donors expected to receive monastery built by the Northern politics, from making policies to benefits for their future lives and Wei rulers was the Yungningsi in appointing officials. She also was for their deceased relatives in Pingcheng in 476 CE, a landmark a lavish benefactor of Buddhism return for their donations. One of of the capital city with its seven- before a coup resulted in her being the favorite subjects of murals was story stupa. Princes of the royal thrown into the Yellow River and the Tushita heaven, or the Western family contributed the largest drowned. Of course, the greatest Land of Bliss of Amitabha, themes amount of money for monastery woman ruler in China was Empress that are common subjects in cave construction. In the Northern Wei Wu Zetian. During her rule in the art of the time. From a study of capital of Luoyang, some Tang dynasty, the largest Buddha dated inscriptions of the Northern residences were changed statue in Dunhuang, which faces dynasties, we find the most posthumously into monasteries. the visitor upon approaching the common expected beneficiaries The many royal widows and Mogao caves, was constructed were the donor’s direct relatives, concubines were sequestered in [Fig. 4]. This 99-foot high image especially parents. The second nunneries when the princes or of the future Buddha Maitreya group of primary beneficiaries was rulers died, a frequent occurrence emperors, and other statues were due to the constant warfare of the dedicated to empress-dowagers, time. Government ministers, court officials, local administrators, eunuchs, and even the imperial religious teachers, and lay guards built monasteries. Of six associations. While the royal family monasteries built by eunuchs in and ministers and officials Luoyang, five were nunneries patronized the large-scale [Yang, tr. Jenner 1981, p. 231]. construction, in one study it The adoption of Buddhism in appears that common people China opened up new roles for donated 48% of the statues, women. Traditionally confined to followed by monks and nuns the roles of daughter, wife, mother, (19.7%) and donors’ collectives Fig.4. Head of the Maitreya Buddha and mother-in-law, women were (18.9%) [Sato Chisui, “Study of of Mogao Cave 96. Photograph © Votive Inscriptions on Buddhist offered in Buddhist institutions Tese Neighbor. new alternatives outside family Statues in the Northern Dynasties,” life. In Buddhist nunneries women reveals a woman’s bodily form and cited in Liu 1988, p. 163].The could be educated to read and copy clothing [Fig. 5; Ning 2004, p. Buddhist associations were sutras, to manage businesses and 115]. Ning Qiang has argued keep accounts, as well as fulfill that Cave 96, containing the their primary duty of worship and huge sculpture, is a local meditation. As Yang Hsuan-chih confirmation about the describes the Hu-tung Nunnery legitimacy of the rule of Wu (Nunnery of the Chief of Tuoba Zitian and an example of how Monks) founded by the aunt of the social and political issues were Northern Wei empress dowager addressed through religious art. Wenming, “The nuns here were Basing their activities on the among the most renowned and Indian models of the Kushan accomplished in the imperial city, state, the monks of the skillful at preaching and discussing Northern Wei dynasty spent Buddhist principles. They often their time encouraging Fig. 5. The Maitreya Buddha of Mogao came to the palace to lecture on donations and conducting Cave 96, from below. Photograph © Tese Dharma for the empress dowager, rituals. Faxian and other Chinese Neighbor.
10 organized to collect donations. or “pure people” because they the witnesses will immediately Some associations had strong spared the monks the impure tasks be found to modify the contract. family and territorial ties, while of farming, handling gold and This transaction is acknowl- some appeared to be urban-based silver, and trading in goods. edged by both parties. Silver of groups, but they seem to have In the early part of the recognized purity, five ounces, incorporated several social strata Northern Wei dynasty, the local is to be paid to the seller. In in their ranks. monasteries at Dunhuang must case Zan is dispatched on state Buddhist institutions played a have been modest and rather duties or is not at home, a role in social activities, such as inconspicuous [Soper 1958, p. witness can act on his behalf. festivals, and were widely 157]. Dunhuang was not yet a The old contract will be kept by supported by the society. A great pilgrimage center, and the Monk Benjia. description of a Buddha’s Birthday monks must have toiled away at Witnesses from Jiaza tribe celebration in Northern Wei depicts their tasks in relative isolation, a Mazhu (owner of the a thousand images from various few miles south of the great east- horse) monasteries paraded through the west trade route of the Silk Road. thumb print streets of Luoyang, attracting large However, by the mid-Tang dynasty, crowds as they competed in as elsewhere in China where Ying nuo ren (purchaser) splendor with each other [Yang, tr. Buddhist institutions controlled so thumb print Wang 1984, p. 46]. The golden much land that they were regularly Yadengsu Zan carriage of Jingxing nunnery was attacked in memorials to the official seal covered by a canopy hung with throne as parasites on society, the A legal dispute about a young golden bells and beads of the Dunhuang monasteries had slave named Li Yang Bei showed seven treasures, so valuable that become an important part of the that he was also purchased for five the imperial guards were called local economy, owning land, ounces of silver [Pelliot 1081, in upon to carry it. As the parade of lending money, and operating grain Wang 1983, p. 48]. While lengths images stopped at the gate of the mills and oil presses. of cloth, grain, and oil were the palace, the emperor bestowed Documents from the famous currency used for lesser purchases, flowers upon them. Acrobats and Library Cave of Dunhuang, carried apparently horses and people were dancers accompanied the images, off by Marc Aurel Stein and Paul bought with silver. as the people emptied out the Pelliot to Europe, demonstrate the marketplaces in order to see the Another legal document role that Buddhist institutions parade. depicts a lawsuit against a nun, in played in the Dunhuang economy. which intergenerational tensions Monasteries had received land For example, there is evidence that are revealed as much as a property from donors as early as 420 CE, monks and nuns owned and rights dispute [Pelliot 1080, in when an official named Fan Tai built bought property, including slaves. Wang 1983, p. 48, tr. Ernest and the Qihuan Monastery and donated A contract from the Library Cave Connie Chin]: sixty mou (about .14 acre) of fruit [Pelliot 1297, in Wang 1983, p. 59, and bamboo groves for its upkeep tr. Ernest and Connie Chin] reads, The case of nun’s adopted [Gaosengzhuan 7, T 50.368c, in daughter Ch’en 1973, p. 126]. The Sui Year of the sheep, spring, “In the past, in the Year of the Emperor Wen donated 100 qing Shang Liesang and Shang Rabbit, near two tribes, (one qing equals 100 mou, or [illegible] at General Yufanbo and Tuihun, many about 14 acres) of land to the Headquarters. Bhiksu (monk) people suffered from cold and Shaolin Monastery at the foot of Zhang Benjia from Caiduo hunger, waiting to die. When it sacred Mt. Song [Chin-shih ts’ui- tribe… purchased a horse. It is was snowing in the city of pien, 77.16b, in Ch’en 1973, p. a young horse, with a white Shazhou, a poor person 126]. The monks themselves were forelock and color pattern like carrying a bundled up one year forbidden to till the land [Pai-chang leaves and spots on a domino. old baby came to my door and ch’ing-kuei, Record Sayings, in Should any dispute regarding said, ‘The baby’s mother has Ch’en 1973, p. 148].1 The Buddhist the horse arise, Jiazala Zan will died and I have no strength to Vinaya, Rules of Discipline, be the responsible party. In raise her. She will die in a few prohibits farming by monks, on the order to forestall disagree- more days. You can take her as grounds that farming harms living ments we make this contract. your adopted daughter or take things in the earth, and even If the horse’s body has no her as a female slave, either is watering plants harms life disfigurement or damage, it will all right.’ Out of pity I adopted contained in the water. This meant be immediately handed over to her. Like a twinkling of an eye, that in most cases cultivation was the monk Zhang Benjia. If the twenty years have passed. The done by tenant farmers or temple horse changes hair color or girl is now twenty-one. Now, slaves, sometimes called qing ren, pattern in the summer, one of because of [?], the Kung family
11 has instigated the girl’s transactions at the monasteries. Early industrial projects were changing her mind and she has Examples are a contract for the carried out either by rich and threatened me, saying, ‘My loan of beans, with an interest rate powerful families or by monas- maternal uncle is Ni Baitso.’ A of 50%, and a contract for a loan teries, which had access to the woman came from the Tongjia of silk, with a default penalty, large amounts of capital which Yamen [office concerned with which was double the amount were required. One of the most matters between Han and tribal borrowed [Stein 1475 and Pelliot profitable and widespread peoples], and the girl claimed 3004 and 3472, cited in Ch’en enterprises was the water- it was her mother. They talked 1973, pp. 165-167]. Perhaps, as powered mill, or nien wei, which like people insane. The girl also in central China, the Dunhuang ground grain to produce flour. was not keen on working as monasteries served as Several Dunhuang documents hard as before. Because of this pawnbrokers, or repositories are accountants’ reports on income I appeal to you to render where local patrons could keep derived from mills owned by local judgment that the girl belongs their wealth. One document from monasteries.3 For a ten-year to me as designated by the the British Library Dunhuang period between 924 and 945 CE, agreement. No one will be able Archives website is an inventory Pelliot manuscripts 2032, 2040, to ask for her, and no one of cloth and grain, perhaps of 2049 and 3234 show rent earned should do harm. I earnestly ask donations. Part of it says [Fig. 6; by Qingtu Monastery from its you to issue an order with the IDP, BL Or. 8210/S.5691/R.1, tr. milling installations yielded more official seal.” Ernest and Connie Chin]: than 60 shih of flour annually Instruction: “According to the Zhang Yangde [Gernet 1995, p.146].4 In addition, adoption agreement, she is not presents it received 18 shih of bran used as free to select a master. She feed for horses and 5-18 shih of diagonal weave coarse wool must follow the original coarse flour (tsu mien) that the cloth, 2 zhang 2 chi agreement.” gauze sieves had not allowed to Because of the availability of Zhang Ande pass, which was used to feed the scribes and the moral authority total presents female workforce at the monastery 5 lent to contracts signed there, diagonal weave coarse wool [Gernet 1995, p. 355]. Gernet temples in the ancient world were cloth, 2 zhang 5 chi estimates that half of this amount would have provided the needs of a main site for writing contracts, diagonal weave coarse wool the religious community at Qingtu exchanging money, and lending cloth, 1 zhang 2 chi money. This was true in Greek with its population of fifty to temples, the temple in Jerusalem, Monk Dingxing seventy monks at that time. and in Buddhist monasteries. The total presents The flour was also used as a Mahasanghikavinaya sutra justifies Gaocheng coarse wool, 2 medium of exchange and sold to this kind of commercial activity, zhang 7 chi.2 the laity. The monasteries had to saying that if goods donated to the sangha were not consumed by the monks and nuns, the surplus could be sold or loaned out to earn a profit, to be used to support the sangha and Buddhist facilities. This was the scriptural basis of the wu-jin-tsang, or “Inexhaustible Treasury,” a kind of Buddhist savings bank of donations by the faithful which became a flourishing commercial institution in the Tang dynasty. The revenues of the Inexhaustible Treasury were used to repair Buddhist temples and monasteries, to relieve the sufferings of the poor, and for offerings to the Buddha [Taiping kuang-chi, 493.4047 (Peking 1959), in Ch’en, 1973, p. 163]. Many documents from the Library Cave at Dunhuang give Fig. 6. Account Note, BL Or. 8210/S.5691/R.1. Photograph © The British details about commercial Library, used with permission. All rights reserved.
12 pay artisans, hold banquets for much in demand for lamps burning carrying bowls. The people in the officials and lay associations, and in the Buddha Hall, illuminations mural are probably preparing for provide for monks traveling that frequently took place at the a vegetarian feast, one of the through the region. There were monasteries, and for cooking. In activities sponsored several times many feast days on the Buddhist addition, oil served as currency. a month by lay organizations. calendar, which involved not a According to documents from The Buddhist lay associations trivial amount of expense. Dunhuang, one Chinese liter of oil were attached to monasteries and was worth 30 chi (feet) of cloth. A The mills were owned by the assisted in various programs to foot of cloth was worth six liters of monasteries, but maintained by spread the religion among the cereals, so the value of a liter of professional millwrights. Ban- populace. They helped organize oil was approximately 180 liters of quets, to which the millwrights and fund the numerous festivals, millet or wheat [Gernet 1995, p. were invited, celebrated the end often centered around popular 355]. The oil presses were of repair work and opening of the sutra lectures by eloquent monks. operated by specialized house- sluice gates. A document from The Dunhuang manuscripts are holds, which paid the monasteries Anguo nunnery shows the accounts replete with papers and fragments rent spelled out in contracts [Pelliot of the abbess for the year 886, which contain information on the 2032, 2040, 2049, 3234, in Gernet including expenditures of .3 shih lay societies and their activities. A 1995, p. 355]. An example of of millet, .5 sheng of oil, and .1 whole category of manuscripts on expenditures denominated in oil shih of wheat for a banquet on the the British Museum’s Dunhuang comes from Pelliot 3234: .0015 occasion of the opening of the Archives website is devoted to this shih for a quilted gown and a meal; sluice gates [Pelliot 3107, in type of material, which they label .05 shih of oil for the sculptor- Gernet 1995, p.147]. “club circulars.” A typical one reads artisan Ling Hu and workers who [Fig. 7; IDP, BL Or. 8210/S.6066/ Oil presses at Dunhuang were coated the walls [Gernet 1995, p. R.1, tr. Ernest and Connie Chin]: another source of income for the 151]. religious communities. Oil was one You gentlemen are invited on of the most precious commodities, Cave 317 at Dunhuang (Middle the 24th of this month in the Tang, 825-830 CE) early morning (6-8 AM) to meet has a lovely wall at the door of Yaming Temple mural showing these to present contributions. If commodities as used late, the fine will be one beaker in daily life in the of wine. If no show, the fine courtyard of a will be one half container of monastery wine. This notice must be [Whitfield 1995: Vol. passed on quickly with the 1, p. 214]. At the accompanying document. If back of the court- late, you will be fined. yard is a Buddha Ren Zhen Year, 4th month, 23rd figure with bodhi- day sattvas on either Clerk Kung side. Two monks sit in the corners, one Notice copied to 13 names reading from a listed. sutra. In the middle Another such notice was sent of the courtyard a to the membership of a lay long silk banner flies association on the occasion of from a pole, and a Buddha’s Birthday [IDP, BL monk stands Or.8210/S.5813/R.1, tr. Ernest and beneath the banner Connie Chin]: reaching up to place Circular an oil lamp on a five- wheeled candelabra, Second month. Buddha’s preparing for an Birthday Celebration. illumination. A huge From officer in charge of the amount of food, association, Kung Zi Sheng: including noodles On the 20th day of this month and flat cakes, is before evening, deliver one dou piled on a large table and five sheng of wheat and to one side, two sheng of millet. This notice Fig. 7. “Club circular,” BL Or.8210/S.6066/R.1. Photograph © The British Library, used with attended by laymen must be immediately circulated permission. All rights reserved.
13 and must not stop or you will Indeed, it is striking how many and Buddhist institutions flourished be fined. women donors appear in wall under their patronage, becoming Signed murals in the caves. Often there an integral part of society and She Guan (officer of are as many women donors economy. People from all walks of association), Song depicted as there are men. life were involved in Buddhist She Zhang (officer of Women appear in nomad dress in institutions, participating in rituals, association), Zhang. the earlier caves, and in Chinese donating goods and time, and dress in some later caves. They are enjoying feast days. Many women Both Song and Zhang have ini- both lay and monastic, wealthy took part, and developed in roles tialed it with the word zhi and ordinary people. outside the family as Buddhist institutions granted new spaces for “acknowledged.” The Buddhist peoples of Inner them in society. Acts of Buddhist Asia and China, like the Greeks and Most lay supporters, of course, devotion, patronage, and politics Romans, early Christians and many were ordinary people. One caused works of great art to be others, apparently also felt the document in the British Library created and sustained, finally to be need for a female deity or deities. describes a society of fifteen left buried in desert sand, a The most important feminine icon, Buddhist women founded by a nun panoramic fusion of the cultures of the boddhisattva Avalokitesvara, for the promotion of friendship many peoples who lived and or Guanyin, was transformed from among women [Stein 527, in Ch’en traveled along the Silk Road. 1973, p. 288]. Dated 959, the a male to a female on the long trip document opens with a statement along the Silk Road and over the that centuries. Two Tang Caves at About the Author Dunhuang, 45 and 194, show the our parents give birth to this Boddhisattva’s different genders. Connie Chin works at the Center body but friends increase its In Cave 45 [Fig. 8, p. 15] for East Asian Studies at Stanford value; in times of danger we Avalokitesvara is male, protecting University. A graduate of Oberlin support each other; in times of a merchant caravan “carrying College, she studied Chinese at misfortune we rescue each valuable treasures by a precipitous Chinese University of Hong Kong other. In dealing with friends, road in an infinity of lands full of while writing for the South China our words are to be trust- bandits” [Cartouche quoting the Morning Post. She also taught worthy. Older members are to Lotus Sutra in the wall painting in English at Tunghai University in act as older sisters; young ones Cave 45, tr. Whitfield 1995: Vol. Taiwan, where she began to study as younger sisters, paying II, p. 316]. In Cave 194 Avalo- classical Chinese. She is intrigued deference to the older ones. kitesvara is depicted as the by Silk Road cultures and loves to The regulations are established epitome of plump female beauty, read early Chinese history. E-mail: with the mountains and rivers arrayed in the most elegant of High
14 Cultural Relics Publishing House, Wang 1983 Yang, trans. Wang 1984 2000, pp. 239-242. Wang Yaoqian. Dunhuang Tufan Yang Hsuan-chih. 547. Translated Wenxian Xuan by Wang, Yi-t’ung. A Record of International Dunhuang Project Chengdu: Sichuan Minzu Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-Yang. International Dunhuang Project, Publishing House, 1983. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton British Library. http://idp.bl.uk. University Press, 1984. Wei Shou, trans. Hurvitz 1956 Notes Juliano and Lerner 2001 Wei Shou. 506-572. Treatise on Annette L. Juliano and Judith A. Buddhism and Taoism. English 1. An exception to this was the Lerner, eds. Monks and Merchants: translation by Leon Hurvitz, Chan school, whose leader, Huai Silk Road Treasures from Appendix II to an English Hai, had a slogan, “One day no Northwest China. Gansu and translation of the original Chinese work, one day no food.” Ningxia, 4th-7th Century. New York: text of Wei Shu CXIV and the 2. One chi is about 30 cm. One Abrams; Asia Society, 2001. Japanese annotation of Tsukamoto zhang is 10 chi, or 3 meters. Zenryu (repr. from Yun-Kang, The Liu 1988 Buddhist Cave Temples of the Fifty 3. Such reports were presented at the end of each year to the Xinru Liu. Ancient India and Century A.D. in North China, vol. xvi, supplement). Kyoto, 1956. assembly of monks at the relevant Ancient China: Trade and Religious monastery. The famous Japanese Exchanges A.D. 1-600. Delhi: Whitfield 1995 pilgrim monk Ennin described such Oxford University Press, 1988. a session at the Zusheng Roderick Whitfield and Seigo Monastery in Chang-an in 840. Ning 2004 Otsuka. Caves of the Singing 4. A shih (or dan) is about a bushel, Qiang Ning. Art, Religion, and Sands: Dunhuang: Buddhist Art the amount a person could carry Politics in Medieval China. from the Silk Road. 2 vols. on his back. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i London: Textile and Art Press, 2004. Publications, 1995. 5. Pelliot 2049 contains the amount of tsu mien in the year 930 Soper 1958 Yang, trans. Jenner 1981 which was expended on women Alexander Soper. “Northern Liang W.F.J. Jenner, trans. Memories of who were employed to sew and Northern Wei in Kansu.” Loyang: Yang Hsuan-chih and the canopies and make a bonnet for Artibus Asiae, 21 (1958): 131- Lost Capital (493-534). Oxford: the head of a bodhisattva in Qingtu 164. Clarendon Press, 1981. Monastery.
Fig. 8. Avalokitesvara with scenes of the bodhisattva’s miraculous intervention, illustrating the Lotus Sutra. Dunhuang Mogao Cave 45, photographed in 1908 by Charles Nouette. Source: Mission Pelliot en Asie Centrale. Les Grottes de Touen-Houang (Paris: Geuthner, 1914; facsimile ed. 1997).
15 circumstances were they sent from Solidi in China and Monetary Constantinople? Who carried them to the Far East and for what Culture along the Silk Road purpose? How did the con- temporary Chinese treat these Lin Ying exotics? Zhongshan University, From 1959 to 1977 Xia Nai Guangzhou, China published on these finds three articles in which he examined the chronology and epigraphy of these In the summer of 1953, a group from a seventh-century hoard, the coins and discussed their of archaeologists from the Shanxi others are all from tombs. The significance for studying Byzantine Institute of Historical Relics and tomb occupants who once owned relations with China in the early Archaeology arrived at Dizangwan, these gold coins were of various middle ages [Xia Nai 1959; 1961; a small village near Xianyang city, social classes, ranging from a 1977]. In 1988, the Japanese where they excavated the tomb of princess of the Rouran (Juan-Juan) scholar Otani Nakao examined for Dugu Luo (534-599), a high official qaghanate and leader of the Central Asia and China the burial in the Sui period (581-618). The Central Asian immigrant com- custom of the obolus, that is, the yellow soil yielded a small gold coin munity to a small landlord or coin in the mouth of the deceased [Fig. 1], quite different in wealthy citizen. Their chronology [Otani Nakao 1990]. Whereas Xia
Fig. 2. Kaiyuan tongbao, Chinese copper Fig. 1. Solidus of Justin II unearthed at Dizhangwan. coin of the Tang period. appearance from ancient Chinese concentrates in the period of Nai had concluded that the burial coins [Fig. 2]. When it was sent to Northern Dynasties, the Sui and custom of the obolus, which Beijing the following year to display early Tang, i.e. from the late sixth prevailed from the Han to the Tang in a national exhibition of newly century to the first half of the periods in Turfan, Xinjiang, had discovered artifacts, the noted eighth century. These Byzantine originated in inner China, Otani archaeologist and historian Xia Nai gold coins have already raised a argued that it came from Central identified it as a solidus of series of questions deserving Asia. The discussion of these coins Byzantine emperor Justin II (565- further exploration. Under what continued in the 1990s when 578). Although some evidence of Byzantine coins and their imitations had been unearthed in Xinjiang in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries [Thierry and Morrisson 1994, pp. 110-111], the discovery in 1953 was the first such in central China. Since the discovery of that solidus of Justin II nearly fifty Byzantine gold coins and their imitations have been recovered or collected in China. They are distributed from Liaoning, across Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Gansu, Henan and Hebei provinces, to Xinjiang, roughly forming a crescent in north China Fig. 3. Map showing geographical distribution of Byzantine gold coins [Fig. 3]. Except for one gold coin across northern China. © Lin Ying.
© 2005 Lin Ying 16 François Thierry and Cecile intermediate links between had entered the heartland of China Morrisson published a detailed Constantinople and Chang’an that from the mid-sixth century to the catalogue of 27 specimens of solidi one can sort out the channels for early seventh century. It is possible and their imitations so far the eastward flow of solidi and thus that the qaghans of the Rouran and unearthed in China [Thierry and understand the role of solidi and Turks obtained these solidi as Morrisson 1994]. In contrast to the their imitations in China. diplomatic gifts from Roman thousands of Sasanian silver coins caesars and then sent them to According to the scholarship so excavated in China, the finds of Chinese emperors to show the far published, the Byzantine gold Byzantine gold coins are limited. hegemony of steppe people in coins and their imitations in China Given this fact, they concluded that Eurasia. fall roughly into three categories: the presence of the solidus in China might not indicate a direct and (1) official solidi struck in The imitations of solidi in the frequent connection between the Constantinople, bearing clear second group embrace a variety of Byzantine Empire and China, but images and legends and specimens. The initial discoveries instead an uncertain relationship. weighing 4.5 grams; of such were by Sven Hedin in Since their article of 1994, (2) imitations of solidi Khotan in 1896 [Montell 1938, pp. additional Byzantine coins and resembling the real ones in 94-95] and by Aurel Stein in the studies of them have been weight and image, whose Astana Cemetary in the Turfan published in Chinese, among them prototypes thus can be estab- region in 1915, where the two the monograph by the present lished; author [Lin Ying 2004]. (3) gold bracteates, In general, before the 1980s, struck on a very most scholars considered these thin flan finds as evidence for the frequent (unstamped connection between Byzantium metal disk) or and China, which could further be with only one associated with the seven visits of die, weighing Fulin (Rum) emissaries recorded in less than 2 Tang literature. After the 1980s, grams, and more and more researchers tended unlikely to have Fig. 5. Imitation of a solidus of Leo I, to connect these gold coins not had a monetary found in Huangzhou. with official embassies but rather function. with the prosperous international trade along Silk Road. In their The first group of coins, i.e. examples were used as oboli in the opinion, it was possibly Sogdians, official solidi, were all buried in mouths of the deceased [Stein rather than Byzantines, who graves from 575 CE (the seventh 1916, p. 205; Thierry and carried these coins to China in year of the Wuping period, Morrission 1994, p. 111; Wang exchange for silk. Clearly the finds Northern Qi Dynasty) to 621 CE 2002, pp. 72, 339; Wang 2004, p. in China are not isolated and can (the fourth year of the Wude 29, fig. 7]. The imitations range be connected with the events along period, Tang Dynasty). Each grave from the barbarized rough contains more than imitations that follow the official one solidus, the solidi in weight and size to greatest number so counterfeits that look quite “real” far recovered being but can be easily recognized by the five specimens their reduced weight and diameter found in the tomb of [Fig. 5]. These finds have raised Tian Hong [Fig. 4; most interesting questions about see also Juliano and the craftsmanship and usage. In Lerner 2001, pp. order to answer these questions, 282-285]. The they need to be compared with owners of these coins similar finds along the entire Silk Fig. 4. Gold solidus of Justin I and Justinian II, 527 were either the Road, from Central Asia, the CE, found in tomb of Tian Hong (d. 575) at Guyuan. emperor’s trusted western steppe, and the eastern Photograph © Luo Feng, used with permission. officials or relatives Mediterranean. the Silk Road in early medieval of the royal family. Furthermore, times. The route by which they the fact that most of the finds are The bracteates of the third traveled to China began in the in tombs located in the group date from the mid-sixth Byzantine Empire. However, it is contemporary political center century to the mid-eighth century only by examining the various indicates that Byzantine gold coins (from late Northern Qi to the mid-
17 version of a (the Western Region, a term Byzantine ruler’s generally denoting countries west portrait also left of Ancient China) continued to its traces in arouse interest in China in Chinese sources of succeeding periods. For example, the Tang period. the Jiu Tangshu, the standard history of Tang written in the tenth If the official century, describes coin from solidi were carried Nepala (today, Nepal): into China as The state of Nepala is in the Fig. 6. Gold bracteate (imitation of a Byzantine solidus), diplomatic west of Tibet…They use copper found in tomb of Shi Suoyan (d. 656; buried 664), near presents and the coins. The frontal image of the Guyuan. Photograph © Luo Yeng, used with permission. bracteates coin is a human figure, while imitating solidi the image on the back side Tang). Hedin found two in Khotan were used for burial offerings by depicts a horse or cattle. The and Stein one at Astana [British Sogdians, how then did people in coin is not pierced [on the Museum n.d.], which is also the the Far East respond to these small central field like Chinese coin]. location of several other such finds. “gold pieces” over a thousand Down to the eleventh century, Indeed, most of the bracteates years ago? What idea did they the account of western coins can have been discovered in Turfan convey to the Chinese people at also be seen in the official history: tombs in Xinjiang and in the that time? graveyard of the Shi family in The coin of Fulin [possibly Guyuan, Ningxia province [Fig. 6; It is notable that most of the referring to the Byzantine see also Juliano and Lerner, 2001, gold coins are pierced once or Empire or the principality pp. 287-288]. They are similar to twice, indicating that they were established by the Seljuk Turks] the bracteates from Sogdiana in once used as pendants of a is made of gold and silver. The weight, size and type [Naymark, necklace or sewn onto clothing coin is not pierced [on the 2001, pp. 99-120; Lin Ying, [Fig.4 above]. The locations of the central field]. On the frontal 2003b]. Moreover, most of the small holes indicate that owners of side is carved the image of Mile tomb occupants in China proper these coins wanted to show the Buddha [possibly a misun- seem to have had a close viewer the obverse, i.e. the frontal derstanding for a picture of relationship with Sogdians. Some side depicting the Byzantine Jesus]. On the back side is coins are directly from the tombs emperor . carved the name of the king. The common people are strictly of Sogdian descendants, while The portrait of the ruler on prohibited by law to produce others were unearthed in the areas western coins had already been coins. where there were flourishing noticed by Chinese as early as the Sogdian communities in the Tang Former Han period. Shiji, the first Thus many Chinese notes period. Possibly the Sogdians in standard history written ca. 100 about the image of western coins their mercantile context treated BCE by Sima Qian, records: remind us of the story which was coins in a way different from the widely known along the Silk Road Chinese. As a result, Sogdian An-xi [the Parthian Empire] is concerning four heavenly sons, descendants in China, though thousands of li to the west of understood to be the emperors having lived for generations in an Da-rou-zhi [the Great Yuezhi— who ruled the world together. The agricultural society, still demanded Bactria]…Silver coins are used East was ruled by the emperor of western gold coins to express their in this country and own concept of a prosperous life. bear the portrait The seventh century witnessed the of the ruling king. zenith of Sogdian culture in its After the death of homeland and was a time of king, the coins are increasing knowledge and re-minted in order admiration of Byzantium in to depict the Sogdiana. This could have caused portrait of the new the Sogdians to imitate the solidus king [Fig. 7] for decorative purposes and funeral [author’s tr., offerings. It is interesting to note modified with ref. that Sogdians may have based to Watson 1993, Fig. 7. Silver drachm of Parthian ruler Artabanus I (ca. their imaginative depictions of a Vol. II, p. 235]. 127-124 BCE). Photograph © Bob Rives, used with Roman Caesar on the repre- permission. For an extensive selection of Parthian coins, sentation of the Byzantine emperor The images on visit
18 China, the country of human Clearly, coins along Silk Road “Compass” search index,
19 Lin Ying 2004 Byzantines trouvées en Chine.” Xia Nai 1959 Lin Ying. Jinqian zhi lü: Cong Revue numismatique, 36 (1994): Xia Nai. “Xianyang Dizhangwan Junshitandingbao dao Chang’an 109-145 and Pl. XVI. Note: Suimu chutu de Dongluoma jinbi [Journey of solidi: from Thierry and Morrisson mis-date the [The Byzantine Solidus Found in Constantinople to Chang’an]. Hedin finds at Khotan to 1905; cf. the Sui Tomb at Dizhangwan, Beijing, 2004. Montell 1938: 94. Xianyang].” Kaogu xuebao, 25 (1959): 67-73. Luo Feng 2004 Wang 2002 Luo Feng. “Zhongguo jingnei faxian Helen Kay Wang. “Money on the Xia Nai 1961 de Dongluoma jinbi [Byzantine Silk Road: the evidence from Xia Nai. “Xi’an tumencun chutu de gold coins found in China].” In Eastern Central Asia to c. AD 800.” Baizhanting jinbi” [The Byzantine Hanhan zhijian: sichouzhilu yu Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Solidus Found in Tumen Village, xibei lishi kaog [Between Hu and University College, University of Xi’an].” Kaogu, 56 (1961): 446- Han: Silk Road and the History and London, 2002. [also, published 447. Archaeology in Northwest China]. under the same title, London: Beijing, 2004, pp. 113-155. British Museum Press, 2004]. Xia Nai 1977 Wang 2004 Xia Nai. “Zanhuang Li Xizong mu Montell 1938 chutu de Baizhanting jinbi.” [The Gösta Montell. “Sven Hedin’s Helen Wang. “How Much for a Byzantine Gold Coins Found in the Archaeological Collections from Camel? A New Understanding of Tomb of Li Xizong].” Kaogu, 153 Khotan, II.” Bulletin of the Museum Money on the Silk Road before AD (1977): 403-406. of Far Eastern Antiquities 800.” In Susan Whitfield, ed. The (Ostasiatiska Samlingarna) Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Zhang Zhongshan 1999 Stockholm. No. 10 (1938): 83-113 Faith. Chicago: Serindia, 2004, pp. Zhang Zhongshan et al. eds. and 10 plates. 24-33. Zhongguo sichouzhilu huobi [Coins Watson 1993 and the Silk Road in China]. Naymark 2001 Lanzhou, 1999. Aleksandr Naymark. “Sogdiana, Its Burton Watson, tr. Records of the Christians and Byzantium: A Study Grand Historian, by Sima Qian. 2 of Artistic and Cultural Connections vols., rev. ed. New York: Columbia in Late Antiquity and Early Middle University Press, 1993. Ages.” Unpublished Ph.D. dis- sertation, Indiana University, 2001.
Otani Nakao 1990 Otani Nakao. “Guangyu sizhe kouzhong hanbi de xisu [The burial custom of placing coin in the mouth of the deceased].” Renwen zazhi, 73 (1991): 80-86; 81(1993): 81- 87 (translation from article published in Japanese in Toyama Daigaku jinbu gakubu kiyô 13.1).
Pelliot 1923 Paul Pelliot. “La théorie des quatre fils du Ciel.” Toung Pao, 22 (1923): 97-125.
Stein 1916 Aurel Stein. “A Third Journey of Exploration in Central Asia, 1913- 1916.” The Geographical Journal, 48/3 (1916): 193-229.
Thierry and Morrisson 1994 François Thierry and Cecile
Morrisson. “Sur les monnaies 1996 © Daniel C. Waugh Photograph The Cathedral of Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, built under Justinian I.
20 Silk Road or Paper Road? Jonathan M. Bloom Boston College
Well over a century ago, the bamboo strips or Austrian geologist and explorer tablets that had Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833- been used for writing Fig. 1. Han period bamboo woodslip found near 1905) coined the term Seiden- [Figs. 1, 2] and the Dunhuang, Dunhuang Museum. Photograph © Daniel strasse, “Silk Road (or Route)” to silk textiles that had C. Waugh 1998. refer to the network of land routes been used for larger that linked China and Europe from images, such as maps and were the first to discover (or the 3rd century BCE to the 15th drawings. Although the Chinese rediscover) that waste from century CE. Silk, which was traded initially made paper from refuse textiles that were themselves with the West from the later part fibers, they soon found that they made from plant fibers, including of the Zhou period (ca. 1050-256 BCE) was only one of the many commodities traded along these routes, for jade had been brought to China from Central Asia as early as the Shang period (ca. 1600 to ca. 1050 BCE), and Mediterranean glassware reached China during the Qin period (221-206 BCE) [Sørensen and Marshak 1996]. Traders brought exquisite Chinese ceramics to Iraq in the ninth century, when it was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty (749-1258), and Fig. 2. Land-purchase document in Kharosthi script written on a wooden tablet, Islamic underglaze-painted wares found at Niya by Aurel Stein, BL Or.8211/1494 (N.xv.11.a). Photograph © The as well as Iranian cobalt were British Library, used with permission. All rights reserved. See Silk Road Exhi- taken to China, where they bition online at
© 2005 Jonathan Bloom 21 Fig. 4. Letter on parchment from king of Kroraina to local governor in Niya, 3-4 century CE. BL Or.8211/1553 (N.xv.88). Photograph © The British Library, used with permission. All rights reserved. See online Silk Road Exhibition
volumen, has evolved into words papyrus in a wider variety of such as volume and volute (on environments; it was especially account of its shape). Pagina, strong when used in the codex Fig. 3. Draft of a petition to the katholicos the Latin term for a column of format, for the repeated folding by Aurelios Ammon, Scholastikos, fl. 348 text on a papyrus roll, has and exposed edges it demanded CE. Duke Papyrus Archive, evolved into our word “page,” weakened papyrus sheets. P.Duk.inv.18R, online at
22 Fig. 5. Quran on parchment, 8/9th century CE. National Museum, New Delhi 59.187. Photograph © Daniel C. Waugh 2001. documents, which continued to be leather, wood and paper, which copied on vertical-format papyrus Soviet scholars discovered at the scrolls. remote site of Kala-i Mug [Zeymal’ 1996]. A few decades later in 762 The first copies of the entire the new Abbasid dynasty Fig. 6. Sogdian Ancient Letter No. 2, ca. 313 CE, found by Aurel Stein at text of the Quran, which Muslims transferred the capital of the Watch Tower T.XII.a on the Dunhuang believe is God’s revelation to Islamic empire from Damascus in Muhammad, were transcribed on Limes. BL Or.8212/95 R. Photograph Syria to Baghdad in Iraq; this new © The British Library, used with per- parchment codices, although eastern focus, combined with the mission. All rights reserved. Nicholas papyrus, which was still produced government bureaucracy’s soaring Sims-Williams’ translation of the let- in Egypt (conquered by Muslim demand for records, led to the ter is online at
23 of extraordinary literary creativity throughout the Muslim lands. The increased numbers of texts known from the late eighth and ninth centuries in Iraq testifies to a vibrant literary culture in the major cities of the Abbasid realm. As is to be expected, most of the preserved writings from this period concern the religious sciences and auxiliary disciplines such as the history of the Prophet and early Islam, the grammar and vocab- ulary of the Arabic language, and pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, which helped scholars understand the context for the revelation of the Quran. But new “secular” subjects increasingly find place in Arabic literature of the ninth century, Fig. 7. Manuscript of the Quran on paper, Iran, Shiraz ca. 1560-1575. Museum including works on geography, of Islamic Art, Berlin, MIK I.142/68, open to the end of Sura 113 and beginning astronomy, medicine, mathe- of Sura 114. Photograph © Daniel C. Waugh 2004. matics, and literature. Indeed, the 1967]. The extraordinary numbers paper with some suspicion, earliest known manuscript version of volumes in them, even if because manuscripts of the Quran of the popular tales we now know exaggerated by a factor of ten or continued to be copied on as the Arabian Nights was copied more, testify to the flowering of parchment well into the tenth in ninth-century Egypt or Syria, a written culture in the Islamic lands century. The oldest dated copy of time when other, new types of during the medieval period that the Quran transcribed on paper really popular literature were also was made possible by the spread was produced, presumably in Iran, inexpensively copied on paper of paper and papermaking. In in 971-72 by the calligrapher Ali [Abbott 1938; Rice 1959]. Christian Europe, by contrast, ibn Shadhan al-Razi, whose name manuscript books were rare and indicates that he came from Rayy, Such texts indicate how costly. The library of a monastery a city located near modern Tehran. widespread paper became in this in eleventh-century Constan- These first Quran manuscripts on period. It was used not only by tinople, for example, had only paper were copied in scripts unlike Muslims but also by Christians and twelve books, of which eight were the stately “kufic” scripts Jews. For example, the oldest copied on paper, while the library traditionally used for copying the manuscript on “Arab” paper is of the Sorbonne in 1338, said to Quran on parchment and more like believed to be a copy of the be the finest library in the cursive scripts used by Doctrina Patrum, produced at Christendom, had only 338 books contemporary scribes for copying Damascus ca. 800 [Perria 1983- for consultation chained to reading literary works on paper. In time it 1984]. Hundreds of thousands of desks and another 1728 books became common to copy the documents dating from the ninth available for loan, although 300 of Quran on paper, except in Morocco to the thirteenth century that were them were listed as lost [Bloom and Spain, where parchment discovered in the nineteenth 2001, p. 117]. continued to be used for several century in the geniza or storeroom more centuries. Over the following of the Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo The oldest known complete Arabic book copied on paper, centuries, calligraphers continued document the growing use of to develop new and more fluid paper among the merchant dating from 848, was recently discovered in a library in scripts to copy the Quran and other communities of the Mediterranean texts on paper, thereby lands for letters, contracts, Alexandria, Egypt; the second- oldest fragment is a well-known transforming the art of writing in inventories, and deeds [Goitein the Islamic lands [Fig. 7] [Blair 1967-1994]. manuscript dating from 866 in Leiden University Library about 2006]. The Cordoban library of the unusual terms in the traditions of In the thirteenth century the neo-Umayyad caliph al-Hakam II the Prophet. These two Mongol conquests in Central and was reputed to contain some manuscripts are valued for their Western Asia once again 400,000 volumes, many of which precise dates, but thousands of encouraged trade and com- must have been copied on paper. similar manuscripts must have munication along the routes linking Similar libraries are reported in been produced. Nevertheless China to the West, and during the medieval Cairo and Shiraz [Eche Muslims must have initially viewed ensuing Pax Mongolica men,
24 materials, and ideas moved back to have traveled across Eurasia to Europe was forgotten. Von and forth with relative freedom. At from east to west, but the evidence Richthofen was surely correct that this time papermakers in the is moot for perhaps the most the trade routes linking China to Islamic lands, particularly in Iran important technique in this regard: West Asia and the Mediterranean and Iraq developed techniques for printing, particularly with world played a crucial role in making larger and finer sheets of moveable type. This technique human history, but he was wrong paper which were used not only emerged in fifteenth-century to think that silk was the most as supports for magnificent Europe seemingly from nowhere, important good traded along those manuscripts but also as for although printing had been used routes. This brief investigation into drawings that served as inter- in China since the 8th century [Fig. the history of one of the most mediaries between designers and 8], and printing with moveable important, but least appreciated, craftsmen. It is tempting indeed type had been used there since the materials carried across Eurasia to think that the increased east- eleventh. As the use of printing in suggests that it might be time to west communication, documented the Islamic lands before the modify his original idea to reflect in a wide range of media and sixteenth century was restricted to the relative importance of the techniques, led to these technical a very few situations, none of them goods and ideas exchanged alone and conceptual developments in involving the production of books, these routes. In that case, the the Islamic lands, but the question it is virtually impossible to hypo- network would be more accurately is not yet settled [Bloom, in press]. thesize any connection—as known as the Paper Route. Certain techniques, such as the use tempting as it might be—between of pricked drawings and of gridded the development of printing in About the Author plans and drawings, can be shown China and in Europe. Jonathan Bloom shares the WhenNorma Jean Calderwood Europeans Professorship of Islamic and Asian eventually began Art at Boston College with his wife to investigate the Sheila Blair. His many publications history of paper, include Paper before Print (2001), they were initially Early Islamic Art and Architecture confused because (2002) and the forthcoming Arts all the words of the City Victorious: The Art and dealing with Architecture of the Fatimids. paper came from Among the books he has co- Greek and Latin authored with Professor Blair are words for papy- Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith rus, and they and Power (2000) and The Art and thought that Architecture of Islam: 1250-1800, paper must a volume in the Pelican History of somehow have Art which appeared to rave reviews been derived in 1994. He may be reached at from papyrus.
25 the Legacy of Genghis Khan. Ed. Perria 1983-1984 Sørensen and Marshak 1996 Linda Komaroff. Leiden: E. J. Brill, L. Perria. “Il Vat. Gr. 2200. Note Henrik H. Sørensen and B[oris] in press. codicologiche e paleografiche.” Marshak. “Silk Route.” The Bloom 2001 Revista di Studi Byzantini e Dictionary of Art. Ed. Jane Turner. neoellenici, n.s., 20–21 (1983– Vol. 28. New York: Grove, 1996, Jonathan M. Bloom. Paper Before 84): 25–68. pp. 718-723. Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World. New Rice 1959 Soteriou 1999 Haven: Yale University Press, D. S. Rice. “The Oldest Illustrated Alexandra Soteriou. Gift of 2001. Arabic Manuscript.” Bulletin of the Conquerors: Hand Papermaking in Carswell 1985 School of Oriental and African India. Middletown, NJ: Grantha, Studies, 22 (1959): 207–20. 1999. John Carswell. Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain and Its Impact Roberts and Skeat 1983 Tsien 1985 on the Western World. Exhibition Colin H. Roberts and T. C. Skeat. Tsien Tsuen-hsuin. Paper and Catalogue. Chicago: The David and The Birth of the Codex. London: Printing. Science and Civilisation in Alfred Smart Gallery, University of Oxford University Press for the China. Ed. Joseph Needham. Vol. Chicago, 1985. See also his Blue British Academy, 1983. 5, pt. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge & White: Chinese Porcelain around University Press, 1985. the World (Chicago: Art Media Sims-Williams 1987 Resources, 2000). N[icholas] Sims-Williams. “Ancient Zeymal’ 1996 Eche 1967 Letters.” Encyclopaedia Iranica. Ed. T. I. Zeymal’. “Kala-i Mug.” The Ehsan Yarshater. Vol. 2. London; Dictionary of Art. Ed. Jane Turner. Youssef Eche. Les bibliothèques New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Vol. 17. New York: Grove, 1996, arabes publiques et semi- 1987, pp. 7-9. p. 735. publiques en Mésopotamie, en Syrie et en Égypte au moyen age. Damascus: Institut français de Damas, 1967. Hunter 1974 Dard Hunter. Papermaking: The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft. New York: Dover, 1974 (original ed. 1943).
Goitein 1967-1994 S. D. Goitein. A Mediterranean Society. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1967–94. Hoernle 1903 A. F. Rudolf Hoernle. “Who Was the Inventor of Rag-Paper?” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 43 (1903): 663–84. Khan 1993 Geoffrey Khan. Bills, Letters and Deeds: Arabic Papyri of the 7th to 11th Centuries. Edited by Julian Raby. The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art. London: The Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press, 1993. Northwestern and Central Iran
26 Marco Polo’s account is also a East Meets West record of an amazing shopping spree. His description of Tabriz, at under the Mongols that time capital of the Ilkhanid domains, sums up his perspective. Sheila S. Blair He begins with the industriousness of the inhabitants and their major Boston College handicrafts: many kinds of beau- tiful and valuable cloths of silk and Most people think of the Mongols the eastern tributary of the lower gold. The city’s choice location, he only as destroyers, ruthless Volga, first at Old Saray, on the notes, makes it a commercial hub marauders who slaughtered the left bank about seventy-five miles for merchants from Mesopotamia, inhabitants of cities resisting their north of Astrakhan and then from the Gulf, India, and Europe, military advances, barbaric the 1340s from New Saray (Saray especially as it has a great market conquerors who magnified the al-Jadid, modern Tsarev), a further for precious stones. It is, he scale of violence with deadly seventy-five miles upstream. The specifies, a city where merchants mangonels and ratcheted up the Chaghatayids, descended from make large profits. The locals, volume of terror banging on drums Chingis’s second son Chaghatai, however, are good-for-nothing, a as part of their psychological ruled Central Asia from various mixture of classes, ethnicities, and warfare. The Mongols, followers of capitals in Semirechye and religions, including the native the warlord Chingis [Genghis] who Transoxania including the site Muslims who are evil. He ends his amassed the largest contiguous founded by Kebek (r. 1309-26, description with the note that the land empire ever known, were with interruption) near Nakhshab city is surrounded by charming undisputedly deadly and terrifying. known as Karshi (from the Mongol orchards, full of large and excellent But the Mongol conquests in the word for palace). The Ilkhanids, fruits. His record of the city is thus first part of the thirteenth century descended from Hülegü, brother of a brief commercial prospectus. also opened up a commercial the two Great Khans, ruled Trade was not the only nexus across Eurasia, and the western Asia from winter and incentive to travel during this century 1250-1350 when the summer capitals in Azerbaijan and period. So was religion. If Marco Mongols controlled most of Eurasia Iraq. Polo epitomizes the mercantile is often known as the Pax The transcontinental trade that traveler, then the Moroccan Mongolica. In the words of the took place under these various globetrotter Ibn Battuta represents historian Janet Abu-Lughod, it was branches of Mongols is readily the religious one. In 1325, at age the age “before European evident from reports by the spate 21, he set off from his native hegemony,” a period when trade of travelers who crisscrossed Tangier (hence he is sometimes and communication encouraged Eurasia during this period. The referred to as a “tangerine”) on the the sharing of ideas and visual most famous, at least to Western hajj to Mecca. He returned home culture across much of the known eyes, is Marco Polo, the Venetian only in 1349, meanwhile visiting world. merchant who joined his father and Egypt, Syria, Persia, Iraq, East Following the death of Chingis uncle on a trip to China in 1271 Africa, the Yemen, Anatolia, the Khan in 1227, his empire was and spent the next two decades steppes of southern Russia, divided among his family according traveling around the provinces of Constantinople, India, the to the principle of ultimogeniture, China in the service of Qubilai Maldives, Sumatra, and China. succession through the last-born Khan. Marco Polo’s travelogue, Whereas Marco Polo enumerates child. Four major empires were written after he had returned home the goods available in local created. The Great Khans, Möngke and was imprisoned in Genoa with markets, Ibn Batutta sets out the (r. 1251-60) and Qubilai (r. 1260- Rustichello of Pisa, tells of the diverse (and to his eyes, 94), descendants of Chingis’s amazing empire of the Great Khan, sometimes slightly scandalous) youngest son Tolui, ruled Mongolia an urban civilization of dazzling religious activities he encountered and northern China as the Yuan riches and prosperity. This while lodging at local shrines. dynasty from their capitals, first at picaresque travelogue offered an In Delhi, for example, Ibn Karakorum on the upper Orkhon immense body of new geographical Battuta describes the great tank River in Mongolia and later at knowledge to the West and known as Hawz Khass, a reservoir Khanbalik, now Beijing. They were became one of most influential used to collect rainwater for supported by three collateral books of the Middle Ages, the drinking. It served as a gathering branches. The Golden Horde, foremost work in creating an place for musicians. Known as descended from Chingis’s eldest intellectual climate in which Tarab-abad (the city of music), the son Jochi, ruled southern Russia Europeans set out to explore the area included an extensive bazaar, from two capitals on the Akhtuba, non-European world. a congregational mosque, and
© 2005 Sheila S. Blair 27 transverse vault was horizontal along its entire length, but during this period builders played with more complex methods. The south iwan in the mosque at Natanz, for example, has a ramping transverse vault in which the springing lines of the vault are not flat but curve upward and parallel the profile of the cross arches. Built in the first decade of the fourteenth century, the mosque presents the earliest extant example of the break-up of the barrel vault in the Mongol period, but contemporary buildings display similar, and soon more elaborate, methods. Such inventiveness was probably developed at constructions no longer extant in the Ilkhanid Fig.1. Delhi, Hawz Hass. Photograph © Sheila S.Blair. All rights reserved. capitals in northwestern Iran and many smaller mosques as well as an Ilkhanid vizier to commemorate then spread southeast to central forty pavilions that served as the tomb of the Suhrawardi shaykh Iran and thence to Central Asia, housing not only for the musicians `Abd al-Samad [Map, p. 26; Fig. where, under the Timurids in the themselves, but also for singing 2]. The complex incorporates a late fourteenth and fifteenth girls who even, to Ibn Batutta’s congregational mosque with the centuries, builders developed the amazement, took part in prayers typical Iranian plan of four iwans decorative possibilities of during Ramadan. The site still and a domed chamber around a transverse vaulting by reducing the exists [Fig. 1], and during the next central courtyard, the mystic’s load-bearing elements and generation under the Tughlughid tomb sur- ruler Firuz Shah (r. 1351-77), it mounted by a was incorporated into a large pyramidal roof, a madrasa, or theological school. The hospice for Sufis complex comprises two long blocks with a splendid of rooms perched along the east tiled façade, and and south sides of the tank, riveted a soaring min- together by the founder’s tomb, a aret. The some- domed square. The two stories what higgledy- contain interlocking blocks of long, piggledy narrow pillared halls and dome arrangement of chambers, with cells on the lower the buildings story for residence and more open suggests that rooms on the upper story for they had to be assembly and teaching. The jammed into reservoir has now dried up, but the whatever land area lives on as one of Delhi’s chic was available Fig. 2. Natanz, Shrine of ‘Abd al-Samad, view from quarters, dotted with boutiques within the town. minaret. Photograph © Sheila S. Blair. All rights and secluded residences. reserved. Yet the inventiveness of the opening the room to increased light As Ibn Battuta’s long chronicle vaulting shows how sophisticated and applied decoration. shows, such shrine centers were the builders of these local shrines common throughout the Islamic were. During this period in Iran, Like the vaulting, the luxury of lands. Many were centered on the builders shifted their attention the furnishings at Natanz bespeaks tomb of a local sufi (mystic) saint. from structure to space, the wealth available to decorate A prime example of the “little cities developing new and ingenious these local shrines. The shaykh’s of God” constructed at the time of methods of breaking up a long and tomb, for example, was crowned Ibn Battuta’s travels is the shrine dark tunnel vault by using a series on the interior by a stunning at Natanz, twenty miles north of of cross arches that are joined by muqarnas, or stalactite, vault [Fig. Isfahan on the slopes of the Karkaz transverse filler vaults. In earlier 3, next page]. Ten tiers of Mountains in central Iran, built by examples, the crown of the muqarnas rise from the piers of the
28 holder. The Mongols had long been insistent on the sacrosanct status of their ambassadors. The Khwarazmshah’s murder of an official envoy, for example, helped precipitate Chingis’s invasion of Transoxania. In order to facilitate communication through the vast empire, in 1234, during the reign of Ögödei, the Mongols set up an official communication system known as the yam. Marco Polo was particularly impressed with the Mongol system of communication and left a long description of it. A system of highways radiated to all provinces from the capital at Khanbalik. Posting stations were spaced Fig. 3. Natanz, Shrine of ‘Abd al-Samad, muqarnas dome over tomb, 1307. Photograph © Sheila S. Blair. All rights reserved. twenty-five miles apart to provide a ready supply of horses. When cruciform room. The first eight are such tiles are now in museum needed, riders, often in teams, composed exclusively of 45° and collections, many identifiable by were dispatched, each equipped 90° pieces, incorporating an eight- the headless birds, defaced by a with a paiza. Tightening their belts pointed star over each window. In later iconoclast [e.g. Metropolitan and swathing their heads, the order to culminate in a twelve- Museum 12.44 and British Museum riders set off post-haste. As they pointed star at the apex, the OA 1122; Komaroff and Carboni approached the next station, they builders ingeniously altered the 2002, p. 127, figs. 149, 150]. sounded a horn so that fresh system at tier nine by adding Commerce and religion were horses were readied and riders had pentagonal elements on the not the only cause for travel in this only to remount and continue. In diagonal. As light filters through period. So was politics, as shown this way the envoys could cover the stucco grilles and flickers by the many envoys or officials as much as two hundred or even across the vault, it seems to traveling on government business. two hundred fifty miles per day. revolve like the dome of heaven. To insure their safety, these Such passports had already The lower surfaces of the officials carried a passport or been used under the Liao dynasty shaykh’s tomb were once ablaze conduct of safe passage known as in North China (907-1125). One with glazed tiles, many removed paiza, a badge example made of gold inscribed in by later travelers and now that was worn Khitan “By imperial command, scattered in museums around the suspended expedite” was found near Chengde world. The mihrab, or niche in the from belt [Fig. in Hebei province [Komaroff and wall indicating the direction of 4]. According Carboni 2002, p. 69, Fig. 70]. Its prayer toward Mecca, was adorned to contemp- oblong form remained typical with a multi-piece luster ensemble, orary descrip- under the Mongols, who inscribed including a hood now in the Victoria tions and de- their paizas using a variety of and Albert Museum in London (71- pictions, these languages that reflect the polyglot 1885) whose large size (82 cm) passes were nature of society at this time. An and unusual three-dimensional made of wood, early Mongol example made for form make it a masterpiece of silver, or gold the Yuan of cast iron inlaid with potting. The lower walls were and embel- silver and now in the Metropolitan covered with a revetment of star lished with a Museum of Art [1993.256; and cross tiles, in which mono- gerfalcon or Komaroff and Carboni 2002, p. 69, chrome turquoise crosses alter- tiger at the Fig. 69] is inscribed in Phagspa— nated with luster-glazed stars. This top, depend- the square-boxlike script devised dado, in turn, was crowned by a ing on the rank by the Tibetan monk Phagspa for frieze of rectangular luster tiles, and impor- writing Mongolian and adopted decorated with texts from the tance of the under Qubilai in the 1260s. A silver Koran emboldened in bright blue Fig. 4. A paiza from the Golden Horde. example excavated near the on a ground of birds perching State Historical Museum, Moscow. Dnieper in the lands of the Golden amidst foliage. At least twenty Photograph © Daniel C. Waugh 2005. Horde, and now in the Hermitage
29 This paiza probably al-Din as the official spokesman represents the type of who formulated the party line for personal patent that was the Mongols, led Sultan Ghazan (r. widely used under the 1295-1304) to lay down reforms Ilkhanids and deplored to curtail such abuses. by their chief vizier Rashid al-Din. He Such communication and lamented that by the travel, together with common late thirteenth century in roots of authority and prestige Iran, the communication derived from descent from Chingis, system had become encouraged a shared visual corrupted and was ripe culture, particularly among Mongol for reform. According to rulers in the various empires. One Rashid al-Din, everyone example is the royal drinking cups —from wives, princes, made of gold and silver. Such cups and camp officers to are depicted in paintings from the leopard keepers and Jami‘ al-tawarikh, or Compendium equerries—thought it of Chronicles, the history of the essential to use an Mongols and other rulers of the envoy. The roads world compiled by Rashid al-Din. became clogged, the Large double-page scenes that envoys rapacious, and once illustrated the reign of each the people resentful. ruler show the Mongol sovereign Furthermore, many seated beside his consort on a bandits masqueraded as throne and drinking from such a envoys. As a result, real cup. No examples survive from Fig. 5. Paiza in Hermitage Museum collection, St. envoys were often Iran; they were probably all melted Petersburg, ZO-295. Drawing originally published down in times of need. Excavations in the Trudy Vostochnogo otdeleniia prevented from doing at New Saray, the capital of Golden Imperatorskogo arkheologicheskogo obshchestva, their business. All these Vol. 5. problems, says Rashid Horde on the Volga, however, have uncovered numerous examples in Museum in St. Petersburg [ZO- both silver and gold. Some of these 295], is rectangular with rounded shallow cups have scalloped ends and a hole for a cord two- handles decorated with vegetal thirds of the way up [Fig. 5; motifs. Others have dragon Komaroff and Carboni 2002, p. 38, handles that allowed the vessel to Fig. 34]. The top part is fashioned be suspended by the loop in the with the stylized face of a dragon dragon’s mouth [Hermitage SAR- so that the hole falls between the 1625; Komaroff and Carboni 2002, creature’s yawning jaws. The lower p. 170, Fig. 197; see also p. 18, part is inscribed vertically in the Figs. 11, 13]. traditional Uighur script. Such shared culture also extended to more quotidian Similar passports were objects. The typical bowl adopted under the Ilkhanids in associated with the Mongols in Iran Iran. One in Tehran [Fig. 6] is a is the type known as Sultanabad silver-plated copper rectangle with ware, after the city in western Iran a scalloped end near an attached on the road from Hamadan to ring. One side is decorated with a Isfahan where many pieces were walking figure carrying a three- found, though no examples have pronged stick in his left hand and been excavated there. Made of an a roll in his right, perhaps artificial body known as frit or indicating a written decree. The stonepaste, these deep conical plaque is inscribed in Uighur with bowls have a wide rim that names of the Ilkhanid sultan Abu overhangs both interior and Sa‘id (r. 1316-35) and the exterior and are underglaze- Fig. 6. Ilkhanid paiza of the vizier petitioner, the vizier Tudagha. The Tudagha. National Museum of Iran. painted with birds or animals on a passport is also stamped with the Published by Abdallah Quchani, ground of thick foliage. Their seal of a certain individual named “Pa’iza,” Mirath-i farhangi 17 (Summer hemispheric shape, outside Qutlugh Tegin. 1997). decoration with a design of
30 radiating petals, and muted grey- alternate rows. Many motifs They have denser all-over designs, green color scheme connects them display distinctly Chinese themes with a patterned ground that fills to Chinese ceramics, both Cizhou like swan hunts, coiled dragons, the space between roundels or and Jizhou wares. Their interior and phoenixes soaring among medallions. Motifs are set decoration, such as phoenixes clouds. Other Jin silks incorporate symmetrically and include typical typically arranged in groups of foreign motifs but put them in a Chinese dragons and phoenixes, three or four with long curving tail Chinese setting. A stunning red silk but they are given twisted or feathers that emphasize the in Cleveland [1991.4; Watt and writhing bodies and imbued with revolving design, also reflects Wardwell 1997, pp. 114-115; a vitality not seen in the Chinese Chinese models, transferred Komaroff and Carboni 2002, p. 68, models. Often these silks have a through textiles and other media. Fig. 66], for example, is decorated band near one end with a pseudo- Ceramics made for the Ilkhanids’ with the djeiran, a Central Asian inscription in Arabic written in a rivals in southern Russia, the antelope, in a Chinese setting of distinctive plaited script, Golden Horde, and excavated at foliage crowned by a sun or moon sometimes with animal heads on New Saray show similar designs, supported by clouds. When the the letters. but with stiffer drawing and a Mongols transported weavers smoother shape. captured from Central Asia to Perhaps the most spectacular Of all the works of art shared China, they introduced new of these Central Asia silks is a set between the various branches of technical features typical of Central of large tent panels, each of which Mongols in this period, the most Asia, notably paired warps. In measures more than two meters important were textiles, notably addition, the new weavers high. Ten are now in the Museum those woven with gold-wrapped replaced the single asymmetrical of Qatar and the eleventh is in the thread. Known as nasij and nakh motifs typical of Jin silks with David Collection in Copenhagen in Arabic and Persian and panni symmetrical motifs. A bright [Fig. 7; Komaroff and Carboni tartarici in medieval inventories, orange-red silk in Cleveland 2002, p. 45, Fig. 42]. Lampas these cloths were praised and (1994.293; Watt and Wardwell weaves combining tabby and twill, collected as far away as England: 1997, pp. 122-123), for example, the textiles are remarkable for Chaucer mentions “cloth of contains brocaded Tartary” in his “Knight’s Tale.” From teardrops in the the beginning of the thirteenth shape of lotus bulbs. century the Mongols deliberately These symmetrical encouraged the production of such designs are some- textiles. Chingis ordered craftsmen times framed, as in captured in Central and West Asia a silk in Paris that sent to Karakorum, and by the displays confronted time of his son Ögödei, three birds set within a thousand households of weavers frame. Except for from Samarqand were churning the contrasting color out cloth of gold in Xunmalin. Three of the selvage hundred households were at work warps, these silks in Hongzhou, west of Beijing. woven in China under the Mongols Virtually all surviving examples display technical and of such cloth of gold (and there are stylistic features not that many) combine Chinese typical of Central and Persian motifs, but based on Asia. technical and stylistic grounds, scholars are beginning to divide A second group them into regional groups from of brocaded silks North China, Central Asia, and seems distinct to Iran. Silks woven in China under Central Asia or the Mongols continue many eastern Iran. These features of ones woven there complex lampas earlier under the Jin. All are weaves were woven brocaded tabbies, or plain weaves, on drawlooms with with designs set in widely spaced two sets of warps Fig. 7. Fragment of lampas-woven textile. Silk and gilded paper lamella both spun around a silk core and staggered rows. In the Jin and wefts for ground and flat-woven. The David Collection, Copenhagen silks, the brocaded design shows and pattern, some-
31 their lavish use of gold threads, There are good reasons that replace the Great Khans in China. both silk threads spun with gilded so few of these sumptuous textiles Plague struck as well, for the nexus paper strips and flat threads of a survive from the Mongol period. of trade and communication was gilded animal substrate. Each There are no burial goods in the also an axis of evil in the form of panel contains a long arched niche Islamic lands where bodies are rats and disease. The Black Death, enclosing vertical rows of large supposed to be wrapped in plain as it became known in European medallions, each enclosing white shrouds and interred history, had begun during the early confronted roosters or ducks beneath the ground within twenty- fourteenth century on the steppes, separated by a stylized tree of life, four hours of death. The few where a permanent reservoir of alternating with rows of smaller textiles that do survive attest to plague infection existed among the lobed medallions, each enclosing the broad network of Eurasian wild rodents of the region. The a coiled dragon. The background trade during this period. Many of pandemic spread south and west, is filled with vegetal scrolls and the large and fine examples that fostered by the easy com- stylized peonies and lotus flowers. have come on the art market in munication of the Pax Mongolica. At the top is a pseudo inscription recent years were taken from It first descended on China and in the stylized kufic script, one of China and Central Asia to Tibet, India, then moved westward to the features that distinguishes this where they were preserved until Transoxania, Iran and finally the group from the Chinese examples the dissolution of monasteries after Crimean peninsula on the north and suggests an attribution to an the Communist occupation in shore of the Black Sea. From Islamic land. Similarly, the coiled 1959. Similarly, the one inscribed Crimean ports, merchant ships dragons in the lobed roundels and with the name of Abu Sa‘id must brought plague to Constantinople the birds in frames are hybrids of have been discarded after the in mid-1347 and then to other eastern and western models. sultan’s death in 1335. He died harbors around the Mediterranean leaving no heir or even a close basin. Egypt was infected by the A third group of silks can be relation, and the subsequent two fall of 1347 and Syria by the spring attributed to Iran during the decades were filled with chaos and of 1348. But surviving works of Mongol period. The lynchpin for squabbling as a series of art bear witness to the remarkable localizing this group is a silk now ephemeral khans were raised to century of global trade and in the Dom- und Diocezan Museum the throne by competing amirs. communication that followed the in Vienna that is inscribed with the Considered worthless in its original Mongol invasions. name and titles that the Ilkhanid context, the textile was probably sultan Abu Sa‘id assumed after acquired on the cheap by an Italian About the Author 1319 [Blair and Bloom 1994, p. 21, merchant who brought it back to Fig. 23]. It is a complex lampas Milan where he sold it to Rudolf Sheila Blair is the Norma Jean with areas of compound weave in IV, Duke of Austria and founder of Calderwood University Professor of tan and red silk with gold wefts the Austrian branch of the Islamic and Asian Art at Boston made of strips of gilded silver Hapsburg line who turned Vienna College, a position she shares with wound around a yellow silk core. into the cultural and intellectual her husband and colleague The pattern is even denser than center of the Hapsburg Empire. Jonathan Bloom. She has also those found on Central Asian Rudolf died suddenly from an taught at many universities, both examples, with four distinct infection in Milan in 1365, and this in the United States and abroad, stripes. The first is a wide band sumptuous silk, presumably the most recently as a visiting filled with staggered rows of finest that could be acquired by professor at the École des Hautes polylobed medallions and this enterprising monarch who Études en Sciences Sociales in ornamental diamonds with went so far as to forge documents Paris during May, 2005. Her peacocks in the interstices. Next and invent fictitious titles and special interests are the uses of comes a narrower band of running privileges to enhance his personal writing and the arts of the Mongol animals, then a wider one with status and the position of his period. Her tenth book, Islamic writing, followed by a repeat of the family, was then sewn up into his Calligraphy, is due out this winter narrow band with running animals. burial garment. from Edinburgh University Press. The inscription shows that this This network of trans- She may be reached at sumptuous textile belongs to the continental communication came
32 York: Oxford University Press, Ibn Battuta 1958-2000 Sir Henry Yule. 2 vols. 3rd ed., rev. 1989. A highly readable and The Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D. by Henri Cordier. London: J. stimulating interpretation of the 1325-1354. Tr. with revisions and Murray, 1903; reprinted by Dover, global economic system prior to notes from the Arabic text edited 1993. The most famous of the the European “Age of Discovery.” by C. Defrémery and B. R. translations into English. See the Sanguinetti by H.A.R. Gibb. 5 vols. additional volume of notes by Allsen 1997 Works issued by the Hakluyt Cordier, Ser Marco Polo; Notes and nd Addenda to Sir Henry Yule’s Thomas T. Allsen. Commodity and Society, 2 ser., nos. 110, 117, Edition, Containing the Results of Exchange in the Mongol Empire: a 141, 178, 190. Cambridge, for the Recent Research and Discovery Cultural History of Islamic Textiles. Hakluyt Society, 1958-2000. The (London: J. Murray, 1920). Cambridge; New York: Cambridge complete text with extensive indexes and notes. Excerpts, University Press, 1997. A careful Polo 1958 compendium of textual information including his observations on Tabriz on the spread of gold-embroidered and his travel in the lands of the The Travels of Marco Polo. Tr. textiles across Asia under the Golden Horde, are available online Ronald Latham. Harmondsworth: Mongols. The companion volume “Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Penguin, 1958. on other aspects of cultural Africa 1325-1354”
33 TWO TRAVELERS IN YAZD Frank Harold University of Washington, Seattle Photographs by Ruth L. Harold
A branch of the Silk Road skirts judgement, but the beauty of the western and southern edges Yazd’s women was proverbial). And of Iran’s forbidding central desert, Robert Byron, who passed through passing through a string of small Yazd in 1934, was bowled over by cities — Kashan, Nain, Yazd, the buildings, which no one Kerman — on the way to India [see seemed to have noticed before: map p. 26]. Of these, Yazd is the “Do people travel blind?” Our own largest and the most remarkable, account is drawn in the first place a port of the desert from which from notes on a visit in 1970, tracks led to Mashad and on to updated by a return in 2000. Merv, north to Rayy and south to At first sight, Yazd is not Fig. 1. Typical alley in Yazd. Photograph © Ruth L. Harold 1970. the Persian Gulf. Always a prepossessing. Like other towns of provincial city dependent on trade, the Persian plateau, it is a maze are always shut. They conceal Yazd lacks the royal monuments of narrow alleys [Fig. 1] and built courtyards and tiny gardens, but that lure visitors to Isfahan and wholly of mud brick. As a of these the passerby has never a Shiraz, but camels still plod concession to the automobile age, glimpse for the Persian home turns through its streets. Yazd remains the medieval fortifications were inward, away from the street. Few one of the few strongholds of the demolished and a few wide streets houses boast more than two Zoroastrian faith, as well as a punched across the old city, leaving storeys, but all have flat roofs center of Islamic art and learning. severed walls standing like where great coils of dyed yarn dry Few Iranian cities retain so well the survivors of an earthquake. in the sun and children peer down flavor of a civilization that has Nevertheless, as soon as one steps at the rare foreigner. It is startling flourished for millennia in the off those new streets one is to see a man in suit and tie emerge narrow strips of irrigable land transported into an earlier era. The from one of those doorways. More between the mountains and the alleys wind tortuously between in keeping with the atmosphere desert. blank adobe walls, picturesquely are the occasional women, Yazd is today well off the bridged by arches designed to wrapped in the all-enveloping black tourist track, but as a halt on what buttresss the walls against chador, and the men whose green was once the main road, earlier collapse. The occasional doorways, turbans proclaim descent from the travelers knew it well. In the tenth studded with great copper bosses, prophet Muhammad himself. century, Istakhri found it a prosperous and well-fortified town. It was spared the attentions of the Mongols, and so Marco Polo, who stopped there about 1272 CE, lauded Yazd as a “good and noble city”, noted for its fine silks. The Franciscan friar Odoric, on his way home from the Mongol court in the middle of the fourteenth century, commented on the abundance of fruit in this parched place. Tavernier, a French jeweller who wandered all over the Safavid realm in the middle of the seventeenth century, also enjoyed the fruit but reserved his highest praise for the ladies, whom he considered the most handsome in all of Persia (a contemporary visitor Fig. 2. The skyline of Yazd with its badgirs (ventilation towers). must wonder how he made this Photograph © Ruth L. Harold 2000.
© 2005 Frank and Ruth L. Harold 34 The flat skyline is broken by cave in. Yazdis are famous for their hundreds of graceful turrets with skills, and in demand all over Iran. narrow vertical slits. No, not chimneys; these are the famous To feel the pulse of a Persian badgir, windcatchers, an ancient city one must explore its bazaar. form of air conditioning [Fig. 2, This, of course, is the shopping and previous page]. Their purpose is business district, but it is much to capture every breath of wind more than that: mosques, baths, and lead it into the inner rooms, caravanserais and schools were often below ground, where the traditionally built right into the family takes refuge from the fierce bazaar, making it truly the center summer heat. Some are quite of civic life. Conveniently, one of stylish, statements of individual the most conspicuous landmarks taste that relieve the bland of Yazd is the monumental uniformity of adobe architecture. gateway to the bazaar, marked by a pair of tall minarets. But once Along any street one may again, appearances mislead: this Fig. 4. An alley in the bazaar. come across a broad flight of steps building, despite its name, serves Photograph © Ruth L. Harold 1970. descending into chiefly as a the ground, a grandstand from heavy multicolored silk stuffs [Fig. hundred feet and which to watch 4]. In the fourteenth and fifteenth more. At the the processions centuries, the export of silks and bottom is a water and passion carpets to India and Central Asia tap, and this plays at Muhar- underpinned a period of prosperity, prosaic object ram, the season and these items are still holds the key to of deep mourn- celebrated. At one time Yazd was the very exist- ing that com- also known for decorative ence of a sub- memorates the metalwork. That craft seems to stantial city (pop. death of the have died out, but a search led to 70, 000 in 1970) Imam Hussein at the street of the copper workers, surrounded by the battle of adjacent to a picturesque sunny desert: the Kerbala thirteen square loud with the cheerful din qanat. Visitors to hundred years of metal striking metal. Here the Iran will likely ago. At the foot big copper pots and trays are first spot qanat of the gateway hammered into shape, and then from the air, long stands a huge passed on to a neighboring artisan lines of molehills wooden converging upon framework town or village. Fig. 3. A nakhl. Photograph © Ruth called a nakhl In fact, each L. Harold 1970. (one may come molehill marks across several of the opening of a shaft that leads these, tucked away in courtyards to an aqueduct deep underground. and passageways) [Fig. 3]. During This taps water-bearing strata at Muharram the nakhl is draped with the foot of mountains that, to the black banners and pennons, and casual observer, look utterly carried through the streets on the dessiccated. The tunnels slope shoulders of mourners; others gently and may extend for miles; chant and flay their own backs with some of those that supply Yazd chains in an ecstasy of grief. come from the Shir Kuh range, 30 miles to the southwest. The water Yazdis have long enjoyed a flows into underground storage reputation for industry, even tanks, recognizable by their mud- hustle, and the lively bazaar is brick domes and badgir, and then where these are on display. Like distributed through the city. The most traditional bazaars it is siting, excavation and main- vaulted with brick, a welcome tenance of qanat are highly haven from desert dust and wind. specialized occupations; they are The whitewashed corridors are cool also quite hazardous, for the loose and airy, lined with shops that offer Fig. 5. A baker displays his flat bread. soil and gravel is forever poised to great rolls of cotton fabric and Photograph © Ruth L. Harold 1970.
35 who gives each vessel a final coat and one of the finest in Iran [Fig. with green baize, is set apart by of shiny, non-toxic tin. The old 6]. The tall façade, the shallow brass railings. We could not learn crafts are endlessly fascinating: dome and the interior of the who this particular Jaafar was, but the smith at his forge, the furniture sanctuary hall all sparkle with his memory is still green, honored maker turning a lathe with his foot glazed tile. Most of the tilework by women who come to weep and while his helper decorates wooden dates to the fourteenth and pray at the tomb while a pair of chests with red velveteen and fifteenth mullahs chants brass nails. A candy boiler labors centuries, when from the Quran. over a huge tray of crystallized the art was at its The atmo- sugar, a baker shows off flaps of height and the city sphere of Yazd fresh stonebread (sangak), surely rich; no cost was is that of Islam, the best bread ever! [Fig. 5, spared in assem- but the city previous page.] Carding, dyeing, bling thousands of harbors spinning and weaving remind one precisely cut remnants of a that the textile industry, which pieces of colored far older order. once made Yazd famous, is still tile into large Prior to the very much alive. mosaics of geo- Arab conquest The lanes of the bazaar twist metric or floral (642 CE), the and turn and eventually lead to the design [Fig. 7]. In dominant Friday Mosque, the pride of Yazd return for a small religion of Iran tip, the custodian was Zoro- unlocks the steps astrianism, a to the roof, and faith that sees may even allow the world in one to climb a terms of a minaret. In the old contest days, a muezzin between the would scale this principles of five times a day to good and of call his community Fig. 7. Tilework of the Friday Mosque. evil. The duty to prayer; his Photograph © Ruth L. Harold 2000. of man is to modern successor take part in the understandably prefers to issue moral struggle, and to hasten the the summons from below, with the triumph of the good by noble aid of records and a loudspeaker. deeds, right thoughts and proper Its a long trudge up a tight spiral worship. The Parsees of Bombay staircase to the narrow balcony, make up the world’s largest where we hug the wall while Zoroastrian community, but active admiring the view. The city sprawls ones survive in Yazd, Kerman and below, dun-colored like the desert Tehran. Yazd was probably a major that gave it birth. A line of small religious center in antiquity: the domes traces the bazaar by which Friday Mosque was erected on the we came; here and there a larger site of a large fire-temple, and the dome, bright with blue tiles, marks very name of the city recalls that a mosque or a tomb. of the last Sassanian king, Tombs of saints and martyrs Yezdegird, who was driven from his are prominent in the human throne by the Arab armies. Until landscape of Iran. Many are closed quite recently Zoroastrians were to non-Muslims, but we were regarded as idolators and admitted to the Imamzadeh Jaafar, subjected to various indignities: a fine example of the genre. Built like the Jews of medieval Europe in the 17th century, the shrine they were obliged to wear consists of a simple plastered distinctive clothing, forbidden any chamber surmounted by a dome, show of prosperity, and their touch its floor lined with carpets. The was held to pollute Muslims. They carved wooden cenotaph, covered were often persecuted and denied legal redress. But Zoroastrians Fig. 6. Portal of the Friday Mosque, survived as a community and begun in 1325. Photograph © Ruth prospered in business, earning a L. Harold 2000. reputation for honesty and hard work. Under the tolerant regime have been supplemented with University of California at Berkeley. of the Pahlavi Shahs, their position deep wells. The old city, however, He is Professor Emeritus of became secure. Zoroastrians has been carefully protected; now biochemistry at Colorado State occupy a quarter in the south of designated a UNESCO world University and a member of the Yazd. Outwardly, this does not heritage site, it is considerably volunteer faculty at the University differ much from the rest of the tidier than in was then and less of Washington. Ruth is a city, but its alleys seem more picturesque, but probably more microbiologist, now retired, and an animated. That is due to the salubrious. Under the Islamic aspiring painter. The Harold family presence of women, cheerfully Republic dusty alleys have been lived in Iran in 1969-1970, while attired in colored shawls Frank served as Fulbright and baggy trousers tied at lecturer at the University of the ankles, in place of the Tehran. This experience somber black of their kindled a passion for Asian Muslim sisters. travel which has since taken them to Afghanistan and Traditionally, back to Iran, into the Zoroastrians did not bury Himalayas, up and down the their dead but exposed Indian subcontinent and them to the vultures in along the Silk Road between walled enclosures called China and Turkey. They towers of silence. These make their home in are outside the city, and Edmonds, Washington, and even though the custom is Fig. 8. The Zoroastrian temple. Photograph may be reached at fading, they are off-limits. © Ruth L. Harold 2000.
© 2005 Jipar Dushembiyeva 38 visit mazars (shrines), making She relates an incident in the sacrifices and staying there 1970s in the same village which overnight and praying. Although almost persuaded her to give up she could not explain to me the fortune telling. My grandmother source of her power or the way in and Kalïi apa are very close friends, which it operates, she repeatedly and their houses are situated not emphasized that it helps her to far from each other. The son of heal people and she follows its their close neighbor went to serve directions. in the army. While they were Kalïi apa states that she can waiting for his return, with the help heal liver diseases, help those who of the stones, my grandma and have arthritis, and relieve severe Kalïi apa tried to predict the exact lower back pain by drawing blood. time of his arrival. When spread Fig. 1. Kalïi apa treating a patient. Pho- She also takes the pulse [lit.”takes out, the stones would always show tograph © Jipar Dushembiyeva 2001. vein”5]; that is, by touching the a coffin, a prediction which they artery she can tell what the did not dare tell the boy’s mother. paint used for coloring felt rugs. person’s sickness is and the ways Yet he returned home safe and She told me that the bright colors she can help him/her. If, after sound to much rejoicing, only to would lure the evil spirits out of taking the pulse, she knows that die two months later. After that my the child’s body; they would lick the person is incurable,6 she never grandmother swore never to touch the paint and leave the boy alone. tries to heal him/her. In that case the stones again. For a time Kalïi This belief also exists among other Kalïi apa admits her inability to apa refused to tell fortunes, but Central Asian people. However, cure and she advises the patient finally she again gave in to those healers may use different tools in to find some other healer or see a asked for her help. 3 order to achieve the same goal. doctor. However, if she is sure that In addition to her pulse taking, Further, Kalïi apa filled a cup with she can heal the person, she does predicting the future, and healing some ashes and covered it with a everything in her power to help. little children using traditional piece of cloth. Then she touched Kalïi apa also told us that she has ways, Kalïi apa also draws blood. the body of the child from head to “bio-energy” and uses it in her My grandmother still remembers toe with the cup turned upside healing. how it all started. Kalïi apa came down. After she was done, Kalïi apa to their village in 1964 when still uncovered the cup, which was now Another story told by Kalïi apa is quite interesting. A friend of hers very young, some twenty-two or only half full. She poured the twenty-three years old. Nobody remaining ashes onto the toddler’s in the village had cancer. She called in Kalïi apa one day, asking that knew that she had the ability to jacket and left it next to the wood heal illnesses or relive somebody’s stove where it was supposed to lie she take her pulse in order to find out how long she would live. But pain. When children took ill, people for seven days. The boy, who had would not know what to do. To been crying constantly before the Kalïi apa refused to do so and left. Next morning she asked my visit to a good doctor was costly healing, seemed to quiet down and the distance too far; so people now. When Kalïi apa handed him grandmother to come with her and see her friend, but it turned out looked for more immediate help. over to his mother, I started my There were some elderly people in conversation with her. that the latter had died the previous night after Kalïi apa left. the village who could help, but not Kalïi apa remembers that she She says that merely by looking much. Whenever Kalïi apa came to began to heal people at the age of at her friend she knew that “her visit my grandmother’s house and twenty-seven when she came to days were numbered” (köröör would touch a sick child’s head the her husband’s village. She would künü az kaldï). child would feel better. As her reputation for healing grew, people often get sick for no apparent Kalïi apa also claims that she started taking their ill children to reason and would not know what has the ability to find lost or stolen Kalïi apa. From just touching a to do about it. She consulted many things and has the ability to foretell person she slowly switched to healers, but nothing helped. She the future with the help of forty- healing with the help of the ashes, refused to take up the healing one stones.7 When telling fortunes, knives, paper, etc. profession for as long as possible, she never tries to make a person but finally she had to give in.4 She avoid a certain event. She insists My grandmother remembers started with one of the easiest that everything is controlled by that at that time she started practices that can in fact be done God, and there is no way to avoid having constant headaches. She by almost anyone, lifting children’s one’s own fate. However, since she tried taking some pills but hearts, that is, comforting them advises people how to act in a developed allergies to them which when they had experienced a certain situation, they come to her caused her face to swell. Her visit serious fright. She then began to with their various daily problems. to a doctor in Karakol (a town at
39 the east end of Lake Ïsïk Köl) did pieces of cloth, placed them close her bring tea, bread, candies or not help. On the way home, she to the cuts, and lit them with the cookies; some of them leave thought of asking Kalïi apa to draw matches. After that she quickly put money. her blood. Kalïi apa, who had never glasses on top of the flaming I next visited the Kochkor Ata performed the procedure before, buttons. Once the buttons were shrine located in the northwestern was terrified and refused my covered, blood started coming out part of Kum Döbö village. It is grandmother’s request. She said of incisions.9 After 1-3 minutes she called a mazar, or a shrine, a term that she had seen her grandfather took the glasses off and wiped the used to refer to graves of do it but was afraid to try herself. blood from her back. She repeated venerated Muslim saints. The Finally she gave in. My grand- this procedure several times activities at the shrine pointed mother shaved a small area on her making cuts in different places. clearly to the fusion of Islamic head, and Kalïi apa made several After a considerable amount of belief and practice on the one hand cuts on her head through which the blood had been drawn, she and traditional, non-Islamic “bad blood” came out. My stopped the procedure and wiped practice on the other. grandmother says that since then her back with a piece of cloth her head never was cold, and the soaked in alcohol. The shrine consists of two low constant headaches stopped. It is not easy to watch the hills which are joined and people procedure of blood drawing say resemble from a distance a Nowadays, due to my grand- especially if seeing it for the first resting camel. It is visited by many mother’s advanced age, Kalïi apa time. Furthermore, for a person people, often from distant parts of does not make cuts on her head. used to ideas about the importance Kyrgyzstan. Some come every Instead, twice a year, Kalïi apa of a sterile environment, the Thursday to pray for their makes small cuts on her back. procedure would be disturbing. The deceased relatives, others come to Another thing that my grand- tools she was using were very make a sacrifice in their ancestors’ mother remembered was that a basic, the piece of cloth she used honor; a third group comes to find while ago doctors told Kalïi apa’s for wiping the cuts was quite dirty; some cure for their illnesses. One daughter she had a high blood she did not seem to bother about can also meet married couples who pressure and wanted to put her in the cleanliness of her tools and cannot have children and for whom a hospital. Unwilling to trust the disinfecting them and her this is their only place of hope. doctors, Kalïi apa said she would daughter’s back before making any Another significant group of cure her daughter herself; she cuts on it. Only at the end of the visitors are baqshï. Experienced combined all the leeches8 that my whole procedure did she use some ones bring their patients, because grandmother and she herself had alcohol to wipe her daughter’s back it is a general belief that there is a and put all of them on her with the cloth soaked in it. greater chance of a cure if the daughter’s back. According to my performance is conducted at the grandmother, “they sucked off all Blood drawing was the last holy places where the spirit of the the blood that was causing pain.” procedure that Kalïi apa performed ancestors is strongest. Younger The next day the girl went to the that day. Towards the end she felt baqshï come to Kochkor Ata shrine hospital where doctors found out quite tired and looked exhausted. for the initiation ceremony, usually that she did not have any high She explained to me that during accompanied by more experienced blood pressure and was fine. When the procedure she thinks about the ones, and they spend a night the daughter started having patient’s illness and takes it onto there. constant headaches, medicine did herself. She mentioned that not help. Again her mother sometimes she gets sick for a while There is a small three-room convinced her to have her blood herself, because she gives all her building next to the shrine. People drawn, which relieved the pain. energy to the patient. She does not who bring food or slaughter a Since then, she said, she comes take anything for her services; “I sheep for sacrifice use the building twice a year to get rid of her take only whatever my patients as a place to gather other pilgrims, “spoiled blood.” bring me, what comes from their share their food and recite the hearts. I never ask for anything Quran at the end of the ceremony. I witnessed the blood drawing specifically, I don’t ask for money, A local mullah (Muslim religious on one of these visits. The and if they brought anything, they authority) maintains the place and procedure involved the use of leave it on the table,” she said. makes it his task to take people glasses, buttons, a piece of cloth, Later, I found out that she is the around the shrine. The major part matches, a little bucket, and a sole supporter of her family. Her of the ceremony consists of going razor. Having prepared everything youngest son and his wife and around the hill, making some stops Kalïi apa took a blade and made children stay with her, but there is on the designated areas along the three one-inch cuts on both sides no job in the village for them. They way and reciting the Quran. There of her daughter’s back. Then she keep a small number of sheep and are several caves in the mound wrapped the buttons in two small have some cattle. People who visit where candles are set at nighttime.
40 There are many legends about There was a certain path one had those who were buried with Kochkor Ata and why that place to follow. The mullah was in front their clothes, to the blind, and became sacred. Some people say of us constantly saying La Illaha to the great khans. that Kochkor Ata was a Muslim Il-Allah which means “None but Bissimilla Rahman Rahim, saint and was buried in that place Allah is worthy of worship.” He after his death. Since then, the made stops on the way at several I devote my prayer to my place of his burial became a place places, usually next to the big Zhumgal Ata, Tosor Ata, Baba of pilgrimage for many people. rocks, in order to recite The Quran. Ata, Ïsïk Ata, Ïsïk Köl Ata, Others connect the history of After the recitation people kissed Cholpon Ata, and to my Kochkor Ata shrine with Kyrgyz the stone and touched it with their generous Manas Ata, and his folklore. Thus, Kazakh ethno- foreheads.10 The whole process forty companions, to those holy grapher Chokan Valikhanov took us forty-five minutes. We saw fathers and mothers who mentions that Kazakh sultan many pilgrims who were sitting perished between the East and Barak, who lived at the end of down and praying during our walk, the West, to the old people, to eighteenth century, “became and it was quite a busy place. the widows and orphans, to the careless, and showing off his Finally, we reached our starting mother lake and father lake, to strength he invaded the sacred point where our mullah recited The the sacred shrines surrounding 12 place of the Kyrgyz, Koshkar Ata.” Quran for the last time. It was the lake, to the masters of The Kirghiz became angry, there that I met my next those shrines, to Manzhïl Ata, attacked Barak’s camp, and informant, Kümüsh Zhanibek kïzï, to his sacred supporters, to pursued his army as far as the Ili another baqshï from the nearby Kalïghul Ata. River. “The Kirghiz,” writes village, who brought her patients [I devote my prayer] to the Valikhanov, “attributed their to the shrine to perform her seven forefathers of the people enemies’ escape to the holiness of healing rituals in ways which very who came here to visit [the Kochkor Ata” [Valikhanov 1985, p. much resembled shamanic shrine], to the common spirits, 375]. There is another legend told practices described from earlier to all those who passed away, by a man from Cholpon Ata, who times. to all children who died, to their said that Arslanbab (a mazar in Kümüsh approached the shrine seven forefathers and seven Southern Kyrgyzstan) had seven with five of her patients just when foremothers. children. And the seven mazars, we were done with our ceremony. Save from the evil eye and evil Oisul Ata, Karakol Ata, Shïng Ata, Their behavior was submissive, word of others your creatures Manzhïl Ata, Cholpon Ata, Kochkor and they followed her instructions who came here saying your Ata, Oluia Ata, were built in their carefully. They brought some name and asking their wishes honor [Abramzon 1975, p. 304]. bread, watermelons, pilaf, and be granted. Forgive the one It is worth noting that in the Soviet some vegetables to the house next mistake that they made in their period, as part of the effort to to the shrine. She was leading her lives unknowingly. Grant their discourage Islamic practice, the group towards the hill when I dreams and wishes. May their authorities undertook severe started a conversation with her; enemies be far from them and measures to prevent worship at she allowed me to videotape her their friends close to them. mazars. performance. Provide a cure for the illness of I went to Kochkor Ata with my Kümüsh led them to a place these people. Open the white family. We brought some bread, surrounded by small rocks close to path to those who came asking fruits and vegetables, and some the hill. They knelt down, and one for it. If they gave their heart sweets to the shrine. Since we of the men in the group recited The to you, grant their wishes. went on Thursday, the local mullah Quran. After he finished, Kümüsh Oomiin, Alohu-Akbar. was expecting a large number of began her ritual. She recited The people to come that day. We were Quran, and after that she spread Upon finishing her prayer, Kümüsh the third group to enter the house her palms and started saying began her healing. Her patients sat near the shrine. It was full of rapidly the following: down in a row facing Kochkor Ata visitors already. A group before us shrine with their heads down. My kind God, my kind God, my had slaughtered a sheep not long Kümüsh held a whip in her hands; kind God, Bissimilla Rahman ago and the meat was boiling she started walking back and forth Rahim, outside in a big qazan (cauldron). in front of her patients while We were invited to join others for I devote This Quran to Kochkor singing aloud the following song: the meal. After we finished the Ata,11 Shaban Shorobek Ata, to Dear Allah, blessed Allah, meal, the mullah recited The Quran all the spirits surrounding Kochkor Ata, please help, Allah, and took all of us outside the Kochkor Ata, to all those who To a person who came saying building. He led us to the hill, have passed away, to all “Allah” where we started our journey. children who died young, to Open his white road wide.
41 Allah oh, Allah eh… for them, I doubt whether I would have started healing. My Provide a cure for your creature practice is closely connected Who came in illness. with medicine and also with Give cure for [his] sickness. religion.16 If people do not get My first hill, double hill. well we send them to the Kochkor Ata, please help. doctor. We ask them to have My second hill, double hill. the laboratory analyses. The The one which a horse circled. first year when I started Allah oh, Allah eh… examining17 people, I did not I’ll call you, saying “Allah” know how to recite The Quran. Kochkor Ata please heal After that, in my dream I was [them?]. told to recite Quran, and that I’ll call you, saying “Allah” is how I started. Zhumgal Ata please come. Take my white wishes. As one can see, Kümüsh also Allah oh, Allah eh… connects her healing ability to a power, but unlike Kalïi, she knows I’ll call you, saying “Allah” Fig. 2. Kümüsh with her whip. that it comes from God. She clearly Ak Mazar Ata, please come. Photograph © Jipar Dushembiyeva states that she did not have any 2001. Give them their white paths. intention to practice healing. Allah oh, Allah eh… After Kümüsh was done with However, since she was not getting the healing ceremony, I asked Creator Allah, [sacrifice], Allah well from her illnesses, the only some questions regarding her I’ll spread my white beard. way she could be cured was to take performance. She gave me an Ak Mazar Ata, please come up healing, a phenomenon typical explanation of what she had to go Give your help. for other practitioners. Almost all through to become a healer and Allah ho, Allah eh… of them state that “seeing” people her healing method: became a necessity for them: Manas Ata, please help. I would get very sick often. In healing provides relief, and they I called you, saying “Allah.” 1993 I went to Chaek14 to a start feeling better. Kümüsh was Please, you, yourself always certain old woman. She was a the most vocal one of all healers I help. famous healer in that village. I met. Unlike their predecessors, Allah eh, Allah oh… had not been able to give birth modern healers prefer not to for sixteen years. Once I had advertise their talents. In contrast, Creator Allah, bless Allah, entered this path [i.e. began Kümüsh was very outspoken, and Ak Mazar Ata did you come? practicing healing] I helped she was very animated, expressing Baba Ata, you yourself purify. people who had cancer and her emotions during the ritual. Put [them] in the right path. epilepsies. I helped the ones Along with pre-Islamic rituals, If he sinned without knowing, who came out of Chïm- Kümüsh also incorporated Quranic Tosor Ata, please purify. Korgon.15 Here is the boy who verses into her practice. The Allah eh, Allah oh… could not get well in that clinic. syncretic relationship between Islam and pre-Islamic practice was CHUPH, CHUPH, CHUPH… [She pointed at one of her patients.] He was released from reinforced by the location of the Several times during the the clinic not so long ago. I also ritual in the open air next to a ceremony Kümüsh hit some of her help those who have come shrine. patients with the whip she was under the “evil eye” and who holding [Fig. 2]. After she was have some minor illnesses. All My third informant, Sarïpbek done with the song, she started to my ability is from God. With his kïzï Saiasat,18 came from Talas ‘spit’ on her patients and make help I help other people. It has region and now lives in Bishkek. circular movements with her hands been eight years [since I As often seems to be the case with above their heads as if she was started healing]. There are healers, she notes that the practice lifting invisible objects from their some people who got well. ran in the family, where her shoulders.13 She ended her Among the people who came to grandfathers and grandmothers ceremony with the words, “All of me there were people with were also healers even though her you spread your palms, and invoke cancer, and after several parents were not.19 She strongly Kochkor Ata. Tell him the wish with séances they got well. believes that her ability to heal had which you came.” She pronounced After I started my healing been passed down to her from her a prayer in Arabic and said practice, I was able to give birth grandparents. None of her eight “Oomiin” [Amen]. to two children. Had it not been siblings is a healer.
42 Of particular interest in my healing. She uses a whip (qamchï) one of the healers possesses true interview were her observations for very severe sicknesses, healing ability and which does not, about the relationship between psychological sicknesses or when or whether they have any such Islamic and non-Islamic practice. a person is ‘possessed’ by evil ability at all. My intention was to She helps people by reciting surahs spirits. She circles the whip around observe a complex phenomenon from the Quran. Kyrgyz call the her patient’s head and it brings that is still alive and needs further practice dem sal, which, if one them great relief. She uses the study. translates it literally, means small whip for children and people “putting breath,” or giving to a with pain in their lower back. About the Author person life by helping him breathe. Sometimes it is used for the people When asked how she learned this who complain about their sleep and Jipar Duyshembiyeva received practice, she responded: anxiety. Her knife is used for lifting her M.A. from the Department of In my dream somebody told me one’s heart. She uses prayer beads Near Eastern Languages and that I should heal with “si”. I for her daily prayer and for healing Civilization at the University of didn’t know what it was, but people as well. She also widely Washington in 2002. She currently later one person showed me uses different kinds of herbs in works in the University of surahs from the Quran and healing stomach pain and various Washington libraries and plans to there was a surah, which would skin diseases. return to graduate school for Ph.D. start with “si”. My healing is One can find a great number work on Central Asian literature connected with religion. of healers today in Kyrgyzstan. and culture. She may be reached Shamanism and healing are Their practice surfaced in more at
43 Garrone 2000 Notes 7. In the Kazakh case, often 41 Patrick Garrone. Chamanisme et sheep pellets are used [Privratsky 2001, p. 212]. Islam en Asie Centrale. La 1. For the Kazakhs, Bruce Baksylyk hier et aujourd’hui. Paris: Privratsky distinguishes several 8. Leeches are also used to draw Editions Maisonneuve, 2000. categories of healers. The baqshï “spoiled blood.” [Although this Note: Since I do not read French is a shaman in the narrow sense seems bizarre to those whose I have not consulted this but list it of one who may engage in ecstatic perspective is modern Western because of its importance among behavior in invoking spirits. What medicine, the use of leeches was modern studies of shamanism in we describe in this essay for the widely practiced in the Soviet Central Asia. Kyrgyz is more akin to the tawïp Union, not just in Central Asia. or healer, generally a woman During his final illness in 1953, Humphrey 1996 connected with the Islamic Soviet doctors applied leeches to Caroline Humphrey, with Urgune tradition but not necessarily versed Stalin—ed.] Onon. Shamans and Elders: in its textual aspects. The several 9. Since the flames consume the Experience, Knowledge, and Power categories of activity observed oxygen in the air trapped by the among the Daur Mongols. Oxford: among the Kyrgyz baqshïs are glass, suction is created within the Oxford University Press 1996. shared by the tawïps and also to glass which pulls the blood out of greater or lesser degrees are Privratsky 2001 the incision. observed among the other Bruce Privratsky. Muslim categories of Kazakh healers. See 10. The mullah could not give an Turkistan: Kazak Religion and Privratsky 2001, p. 194, and more explicit answer to the question of Collective Memory. Richmond: generally his chapter 6. While the why one had to kiss the stone. Curzon Press, 2001. semantic distinctions in Kyrgyz 11. Ata means father in Kyrgyz. It seem to parallel those Privratsky is more understandable if you read Radloff 1989 has described, among the Kyrgyz Father Kochkor, Father Zhumgal, Wilhelm Radloff. Iz Sibiri [From the term baqshï seems not to be etc. Siberia]. Moskva: Nauka, 1989. quite so specific. 12. By “the lake” she probably Shaniiazov 1974 2. Her first name is Kalïi; the term means Lake Ïsïk Kol. apa means mother in Kyrgyz and Karim Shaniiazov. K etnicheskoi 13. Privratsky notes a similar use it is usually used as a term of istorii uzbekskogo naroda: of the whip by Kazakh healers and respect for older women. (istoriko-etnograficheskoe also the ritual of spitting issledovanie na materialakh 3. For instance, a Tajik healer used [Privratsky 2001, pp. 206, 210- kipchakskogo komponenta) [On goat’s blood to help her patient 211]. the Ethnic Hisotry of the Uzbek who was suffering from stomach 14. Another village in northern People: Historical and pain. See Sukhareva 1975, p. 62. Kyrgyzstan. See map, p. 38. Ethnographic Research on the 4. It is said that if a chosen person Materials of the Kypchak 15. A psychiatric clinic in refuses to be involved with healing, Kyrgyzstan. Component]. Tashkent: Izda- he/she might get sick and even can tel’stvo Fan, 1974. die later. Manaschis, the singers of 16. It is obvious that by the religion she means Islam. Sukhareva 1975 the traditional epic Manas, similarly report experiencing illness when 17. She uses the word “seeing.” O. Sukhareva. “Perezhitki they are being “called” or initiated demonologii i shamanstva u into their profession. Another 18. Saiasat means “politics” in ravninnykh Tadzhikov [Remnants baqshï whom I interviewed, English. of Demonology and Shamanism Kümüsh, likewise reported illness 19. Although, she did not say it among the Valley Tajiks].” In and dreams as part of the initiation openly, it is obvious that her Domusul’manskie verovaniia i process. parents lived during the anti- obriady v Srednei Azii [Pre-Islamic religious politics of the Soviet Beliefs and Customs in Central 5. Tamïr karmait in Kirghiz. This is the common procedure for certain regime, and therefore, even Asia]. Vladimir N. Basilov, ed. though they knew how, they were Moskva: Nauka, 1975, pp. 5-93. of the Kazakh healers [Privratsky 2001, p. 204]. not able to practice healing. Valikhanov 1985 6. Kalïi apa used the word tigindei Chokan Valikhanov. Sobranie bolup kete turgan ubak bolso, sochinenii [Collection of Works]. meaning if the time has come for Almaty: Kazakh Sovet Entsiklo- him to become like that, instead pediasy, 1985. of the word to die.
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