If you have been bemoaning the denuded Tang Shipwreck gallery at the Asian Civilisations Museum, then get thee to the British Museum before 23 February 2025! Ten of the gallery’s most beloved highlight pieces – including the solid gold octagonal cup with musicians and dancer, one of the cobalt-blue decorated stoneware dishes, and the Changsha bowl with a curly-haired man – now have pride of place in its recently opened ‘Silk Roads’ special exhibition. A blockbuster exhibition by any standard, the content draws from twenty-nine institutions world-wide, some of which are being shown in Great Britain for the first time.
While the timespan covered in the exhibition is familiar – namely the five principal centuries between 500 and 1000 CE – the geographical span is remarkable. Along with the often celebrated Central Asian and Chinese overland routes and the Southeast Asia maritime route, the exhibition extends its geographic scope to Ethiopia and Madagascar in Africa, Japan and Korea in East Asia, and to the far reaches of Europe including Ireland, the Iberian Peninsula and Scandinavia. This becomes instantly obvious the minute you enter the exhibition and go beyond the iconic Silk Road image of camel silhouettes parading across red sand dunes. The sixth century mixed metal Buddha statue you first encounter was not found in China nor even Indonesia. Made in Pakistan, the figure was uncovered on a small lake island of Helgö in Sweden, nearly five thousand kilometres away!
The curators did a great job making the exhibition comprehensive and yet not chaotic by dividing the silk road narrative into five overlapping geographic zones: 1) the three capitals of east Asia (namely Nara in Japan, Gyeongju in Korea and Xi’an in China); 2) Southeast Asia to the desert oases of northwest China; 3) Central Asia to Arabia; 4) The Mediterranean basin; and 5) The Carolingian empire in Europe and across to Britain. These geographic zones are then linked together by six focused case studies. Each case study highlights a people and site that culturally bridges the overlapping geographic zones. Examples of case studies include the seafarers of the Indian Ocean, Sogdian traders of Samarkand, Buddist believers of Bactria, Vikings raiders in Russia and Byzantium, and the conquerors of al-Andalus in present-day Spain.
Further links are made through grouped artefacts which cover the faiths and beliefs that moved with trade, pilgrimage, and conquest. Along with Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, there are significant displays on Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism and even Judaism is evidenced by a letter in New Persian written in Hebrew script.
And as an extra bonus for those of us in Singapore, you can also view a British Museum rubbing of the Xi’an stele commemorating the propagation in China of the luminous religion from Da Qin while a similar rubbing – usually on display in the ACM’s Christian Arts in Asia gallery – is currently off being restored until January 2025.
