The Silk Road became a meeting point between Iranian religions and another ancient faith, Judaism. Similarly, the tradition of a New Year, Nawruz, is a regional ritual that predates Zoroaster. The famous temple of the Moon (Mah) in Bukhara was devoted to its veneration. In Central Asia, for example, the moon was also seen as a divine force. Even so, Zoroastrianism continued to interact with and be influenced by local traditions and practices in different regions, and there were a number of rituals that distinguished Central Asian Zoroastrians from their Western Iranian cousins. It sanctioned Zoroastrianism as the official religion of the state and supported the codification of its texts, practices, and doctrines. In the 3rd century C.E., long after Zoroaster's death, the Sasanian dynasty began its rule in Iran and embarked on a period of conquest and expansion. Through this approach emerged profound messages of realism and of a necessary struggle to sustain hope (good) by means of ethical action. Juxtaposing Ahura Mazda against Ahriman, Zoroaster viewed human life in a cosmology of an eternal dialectical struggle between good and bad. He also saw an evil force in the Universe called Ahriman (Angra Mainyu). ![]() He taught belief in one God (Ahura Mazda), the Lord of Wisdom, and regarded the other Iranian gods ( daevas) as demons. and somewhere between Mongolia and Azerbaijan. Various accounts place Zoroaster's birth sometime between the 11th and the 6th century B.C.E. ![]() The history of religions along the Silk Road is a remarkable illustration of how beliefs and indeed civilizations often reflect a broad pattern of synthesis, rather than clash. These include local traditions that evolved in ancient China, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Korea and Japan, and the subsequent larger traditions that arose in the region - Judaism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam - as well as the shamanistic and animistic traditions of various nomadic peoples stretching across Central Asia, some of which still are practiced today. This limited notion of commerce, however, overshadows the fact that the Silk Road as a network of trade routes also spread religious ideas and beliefs.Ĭommunities of faith interacted, co-existed, competed, and influenced each other over long periods of time. The Silk Road evokes images of places and peoples linked by the exchange of exotic goods and fabled treasures.
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