Art, Architecture and Religion Along the Silk Roads

Art, Architecture and Religion Along the Silk Roads will be volume 12 in the Silk Road Studies series. It has been produced by the Ancient History Documentary Research Centre at Macquarie University, Australia and edited by Ken Parry, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University. It consists of selected papers from the 2004 conference of the Australasian Society for Inner Asian Studies. The volume contains 14 articles of  350 pages with 40 illustrations and covers topics relating to Ancient Chorasmia, Sogdia and China, Buddhist and Manichaean art, Middle Iranian manuscripts and Buddhist manuscripts from Afghanistan, Nestorian Christianity and contemporary Islam, Silk Road clowns and headcoverings of Central Asia. The collection highlights the range and depth of Australasian scholarship on Inner Asia and demonstrates that there are still many unexplored aspects of Silk Road Studies.  

Part 1. Chorasmia, Sogdia and Uzbekistan

Alison V. G. Betts & V.N. Yagodin, Tash-k'irman-tepe Cult Complex: An Hypothesis for the Establishment of Fire Temples in Ancient Chorasmia

Dee Court, The Ordinary and the Extraordinary in Central Asian Headcoverings

Fiona Kidd, The Early Medieval Necropolis at Pap in the Ferghana Valley: Republic of Uzbekistan

Michelle Negus Cleary, Walls in the Desert: The Phenomenon of Central Asian Urbanism in Ancient Chorasmia

Part 2. Christianity and Manichaeism

Samuel Lieu, Manichaean Art and Architecture Along the Silk Road

Samuel Liščák, Early Chinese Christianity in the Tang Empire: On the Crossroads of Two Cultures

Geoff Watson, The Ultimate Evangelical Away Game: British Missionary Endeavour in Central Asia c. 1830-1930

Part 3. Buddhism and Islam

Mark Allon, Recent Discoveries of Buddhist Manuscripts from Afghanistan and Pakistan and their Significance

Ken Parry, The Buddha as Colossus in Central Asia and China

Colin Mackerras, Religion in Contemporary Xinjiang

Part 4. Silk Road Exchanges

Holly Adams, Clowns on the Silk Road

Peter Edwell, Palmyrene Art, Architecture and Religion on the Euphrates: The Early Evidence for a Palmyrene Community at Dura Europos

Jonathan Markley, What Huo Qubing Did: The Problem of Feng Shan Sacrifice

John Sheldon, Middle Iranian Textual Sources of Silk Road Religions: Overview and Assessment