The Silk Road of Tajikistan

The Silk Road of Tajikistan
By Sunatullo Jonboboev and Sharofat Mamadambarova
The term Silk Road was invented by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richtofen in 1877. But
the history of this route goes back to ancient times, as far as the third to second millennium BCE.
Some other roads directly connected with Tajikistan existed before the Silk Road:
•
First was the Lapis Lazuli Route, via which Lapis Lazuli extracted in the mountains of
Badakhshan was delivered to Mesopotamia, Egypt and India. This was in the third to second
millennium BCE, but in the first millennium BCE the Lapis Lazuli Road turned to the East – to
China.
•
Simultaneously there was another road, known as the Nephrite Road. The nephrite was
extracted in the upper of Yarkent Darya in Khotan. This was the second route.
•
The third road could be called the Steppe Road through Central Asia and Kazakstan to China
(in the middle of the first millennium BCE). The first record of Chinese silk in Rome was in 1BC
and it is supposed that China had been exporting silk to the West since the sixth to fifth
centuries BCE. The peoples of Central Asia - the Sogdians, Bactrians, Sakas, Scythians and
Turks - played a major role in providing contact and mutual cultural understanding between
West (Europe) and East (China, India).
It was through the mediation of the Sakas and the Scythian nomadic groups in 138CE, that an
ambassadorial caravan accompanied by Chejen – Tszyan left the capital of Han.
We are interested here in the four branches of the Road that went through Tajikistan.
1/ The SOGDIAN road
Running from Samarqand to Kokand through Penjikent, Varz (Aini), Bundjikat (Shahristan), Ura –
Tyube, Khojand, Kanibadam and Isfara. The second, the third and fourth branches of the route could
be called the Bactrian Road.
2/ The KARATEGIN road
This route was mentioned by Ptolemy. It connected Termez with Kashgar (China), and ran through
Regar (Tursunzade), Gissar, Dushanbe, Andigon (Kafarnihon) , Vashgird ( Faizabad), Darband (Sarijar),
Gurkand (Garm) and the Alay valley.
3/ The KHATLON road
This route branched off from the Karategin route and headed south through Nurek, Burban
(Dangara), Mezic (Khovaling), Hulbuk, Parkhar, Kabadian and Balkh.
4/ The PAMIR road
The Pamir Road went through Balkh to Barpanja and Khorog and further on to Shugnan, Wakhan and
Murghab, and up to Tashkurgan in China.
The key areas of this route were:
1. BARPANJA– the capital of Shugnan
• A medieval fortress
• Pamirian house
2. KHOROG -Centre of Gorno-Badakhshan
• Mount Kuhi La’l, a source of ‘Badakhshanian la’l’ - spinel.
Marco Polo, during the Mongol Conquest in 1270, wrote: ‘….In Balasian (Badakhshan) the people
are Muslims and they have a special language. It is a large realm: the kings are hereditary. They
are the heirs of King Alexander and the daughters of King Darius, the great ruler of Persia…. There
are a lot of big, precious, beautiful and expensive stones here. They are mined on the orders of
the king. The people are brave here….’
• Garmchashma hot springs
3. WAKHAN
• Qah Qaha fortress (seventh to third century BCE)
• A shrine to Shohi Mardon (Hazrat Ali)
• Yamchu fortress (third century BCE - seventh century CE)
• ‘Bibi Fotimai Zahro’ hot springs (for women)
• A Buddhist complex (fourth to seventh century) in village of Vrang
• The village of Yamg, with a museum devoted to the theologian Sufi Muborakkadam and an
instrument for identifying the time (a calendar of festivals and sowing). The village is famous for
musical instruments, e.g. ‘balandmukom’.
• Petroglyphs in Langar
4. THE SHUGNAN BRANCH
• The ‘Pir Shohnosir’ springs
• The ‘Saroi Bahor’ shrine
• The Pamir botanical gardens
• The village of Bogev: the Kofir- Kala complex
• Lake Sarez
5. DARVAZ
• Vanj blast furnace
• Kalay Khum old fortress
Chinese pilgrims, ambassadors, merchants and missionaries used the Bactrian Road (through
Shugnan and Vakhan). The 27-year-old Suan Tzyan, originally from Gunan – a very famous pilgrim,
travelled to India on religious purposes in 629 and in 645 returned to China through the Pamir with a
large luggage of Buddhist literature on 22 horses. He crossed the Pamir in 642.
The contacts between Central Asians and, through them, between Europe and China had many
aspects. There were military crusades too and most famous of these were:
• The first, in 90 CE. There was a clash between the Chinese general Ban Chao and a Kushan army of
seventy thousand soldiers in the region of Wakhan. The Chinese general planned to cross the Pamir
and move west. Both sides endeavored to take this caravan route under its control. At the same time
a heavy armoured cavalry of seventy thousand passed through Shugnan and Wakhan.
• The second crusade was connected with the rise of the Tibetans, who in the eighth century started
to extend their possessions westwards. The Tan Empire also endeavored to bring Shugnan and
Wakhan under its control and to close the route to the Tibetans.
At the same time another empire - the Arabo-Muslim one - was strengthening. China was afraid of
contacts between Tibetans and Arabs.
Caliph al- Ma’mun set his vizier Faze bin Shall the task of freeing this road up for his trade, and Faze
destroyed an allied army of Tibetians and Arabs in the Wakhan and Tarim basin.
In commemoration of that battle there is a marble slab in the Kaaba, on which it is written: ‘Allah
gifted me a victory in Wakhan over the governor of Hakan and the Tibetian mountains.’
Iranian immigrants used these routes after the fall of the Iranian King Yazdigurd III. Japanese
chronicles, dating to 720, contain information about the arrival of the inhabitants of Tokharistan to
this country in the early seventh century. The military crusades were only episodes in the history of
these relationships. Religious and technological ideas, like other aspects of culture, could spread
easily along trade networks like running water finding open channels. Simultaneously, culture
promoted great progress of trade and production, including silk manufacture. The spread of
Buddhism and its ceremonies demanded a great amount of silk. The Central Asian region played a
great role in the transmission of cultural values between East and West in the past.
CONCLUSION
We know very little about the comprehensive culture of China and Tajikistan. Nevertheless, Tajik
myths tell stories, that not only were lapis lazuli and spinel brought from Tajikistan (Ferghana and
Shugnan) to China, but musical instruments, natural and herbal richness for medical purposes were
also exported. The herbal dog-rose, which is rich with vitamin C, is said to have been picked in the
Gund valley (Shugnan) for the Chinese emperor.
Chinese myths tell of the original homeland of mankind – sacred mountains, in the west of China –
the Kun-Lun range, next to the Pamir. This image of the world mountain in the centre of the universe
tells us about the unity and relationship of human civilisations. The mountain is the image of world, a
sample of the universe. Countries, peoples and civilisations are its most important components.