Blog entry #3 Khushan empire

   The readings for this week were Czuma, Stanislaws J. with Rekha Morris.”Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India.” And “Migration and settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan: Interaction and Interdependence  of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies.” By Xinru Liu which  are once again made me wonder about a lot of things: history, art, culture, ethnicity  and so forth. My perspective has changed dramatically since the beginning of the course .I used to think I know what those terms are, and I used to find history …boring. But now I see it all in a new ,different way. Every week’s reading brings up a new perspective it makes you think differently and inquire about every fact that you think you new about.

    Reading about Yuezhi-Kushan tribe was once again  very fascinating. It seems that we know so much about those people, but at the end so little. Well, not enough for many historians today to agree on chronologies and origins of  Yuezhi.

 From what I have gathered tribe and it’s migrations was an important part of the History of The Silk Road and cultural exchange of Eurasia. It made me think what would happened if there was no such tribe, or what if they would never migrate anywhere; where would we be right now(culturally, religiously, linguistically etc. )???Yuezhi, even though , they didn’t have much of their own culture  or religion  played an important role in developing of China, India and Bactria. For example, supplying China with horses made a great impact on its history and culture. What if they wouldn’t have those ‘heavenly horses’ ,would Chinese still have a dragon as their symbol???

      Kushan empire was indeed a great empire at that time, it’s tolerance to religion boost the spread of Buddhism. Unfortunately, they didn’t leave much literature sources (on that we have to rely on Chinese or Indian writers) but, they left their “writings” in art form.It is fascinating that today we can look at work of art from many centuries ago and see a historical development  of Kushans. The sculptures of Buddha or Kaniska king are what we have today to be able to “read” about   Khushan empire. How from very basic sculptures or coins they progressed to more detailed look(snail-curled hair of Buddha), or how we can determine  which region influence the other -by the look of Buddha garment and the drapery with folds arranged symmetrically. My favourite piece would be the BODDO coin dated AD 78-101, where on obverse we can see Kaniska king and on reverse  Buddha wearing boots and his feet are pointing out (typical Kushan style due to horse riding) very cute :)

  There is still a lot of mystery around the Yuezhi-Kushan people the chronology is too complicated due to multiple eras  used for dating; plus lack of writings and archaeological evidence, but it is very clear migration of the tribes played a major role in variety of aspects in developing of sedentary, agricultural societies and it is obvious that migration is important to human kind.

Right now I feel like an old archaeologist or a historian who is anticipating for the next discovery like a missing  piece of puzzle that will help to see the whole picture better.

blog entry #2 The Mistery of History

     Chinese civilization is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. That is why it is full of mysteries and myths and impregnated with culture. It is hard to study history of China and especially come to a conclusion regarding ethnicity of Chinese .Reading “Myth and Construction of Foreign Ethnic Identity in Early and Medieval China» by Bred Hinsch stroke me at first with all the confusion around the history of ethnicity and roots of conquerors.  Then, I came to realization that they weren’t trying to complicate it , but they simply had no choice. The West Region survived a great amount of wars in that period, so they were smart about writing the history to suit the particular time at its best. Sacrificing the “real” history of origins or doing it on purpose to relate themselves to the higher kinships, they made definitely harder for us to study, but probably easier for them to survive. Even though, the times were tuff and most of conquers were cruel and evil they would still try to support and promote the cultural and economic growth. The Han rule period was saturated with cultural values (textiles; clothes beautifully decorated; arms pottery; coins etc.) and how smart it is to use your arm forces as an agricultural colony!(History of civilization of Central Asia).

     It is very interesting to study history of ancient civilizations, especially when it comes to Central Asia and China in particular. There might be some archeological and scientific evidence to some aspects of it’s history(culture, ethnicity, religion) , but the fact that  we perhaps could never find out for sure what was REALLY  happening , how they REALLY  were thinking at that time; all that will remain a mystery that is why it is so fascinating to me.