Book chapter
The Silk Road and the "Cotton Road": Buddhist Art and Practice Between Central Asia and the Western Deccan
The World of the Ancient Silk Road, pp 378-387
2023
Abstract
The chapter explores how Buddhism and its art tied together two major international trading systems in antiquity: the Silk Road and the "Cotton Road", an ancient commercial network centered on the distribution of cotton textiles produced in Western Deccan across the Indian Ocean. In the 5th and 6th centuries, both the Gansu corridor and the Western Deccan experienced an unparalleled flourishing of Buddhism and rock-cut architecture. A channel of communication existed across the Buddhist world between sites along the Silk Road and the Western Deccan; the movement of Buddhist devotees, both monastic and lay, along established trade routes, facilitated the exchange of ideas among distant regions where the phenomenon of Buddhist rock-cut architecture had become so central.
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Details
- Title
- The Silk Road and the "Cotton Road"
- Creators
- Pia Brancaccio - Drexel University
- Contributors
- Xinru Liu (Editor) - College of New Jersey
- Publication Details
- The World of the Ancient Silk Road, pp 378-387
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Edition
- 1
- Number of pages
- 10
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Art and Art History
- Other Identifier
- 991020534920504721