China Town

Hello Everyone! 

For our first destination, Ms. Myers and I started our journey in China! (China Town). Where we saw some very beautiful Chinese products and creations and tasted some good and...interesting food! We began by first visiting a Chinese store that sold a variety of products; from swords to wood carved pencils, to bamboo plants and mini Buddhas and of course..Silk! We then visited an "outside" mall where the stores and restaurants are all outside but in a closed area. It was very interesting to see the similar foods that many of the restaurants offered and the different kinds of stores-including a store that only sold spices! We proceeded to discuss about the Buddhism religion and its origin as well as the diffusion of Buddhism along the Silk Road. Below is an explanation on Buddhism and its story, beliefs, and origin. 

Great Wall of China 

China Town in Chicago

Buddhism 

Buddhism is said to have developed as an offspring of Hinduism from India. For many, it is considered a religion, though others can describe it to be a philosophy and "way of life." Over 300 million people around the world practice the Buddhism religion and its origin dates back to over 2,500 years ago when Siddharta Gautama reached enlightenment at the age of twenty nine. Siddharta was born to a wealthy royal family in Lumbini (modern day Nepal). His father, King Suddhodana, was the commander of a large clan called the Shakya and his mother was Queen Maya, who died shortly after giving birth to Siddharta. Siddharta's father had kept his son inside the palace; enclosed and unaware of the knowledge and suffering from outside the palace like religion and human affliction. His father also kept Siddharta's wife and family enclosed in the palace as well. Siddharta had grown curious over the years, and at the age of twenty nine, he decided to explore the outside of the palace. He was shocked to find aging elderly people, sick people, and the dead as well. When he returned to the palace, he was no longer delighted by the luxury that was presented to him in the palace, and so he decided to leave the palace including his family, and search for the answers to his questions that he had developed upon discovering the outside world. Siddharta then began his journey by obtaining research of the different religions, asking others, and thinking thoroughly for long periods of time. However, he still did not understand his main question-"Why is there suffering?" But to him, suffering was seeing the things that we wanted to be right, actually be wrong. He then began meditating for many years under a Bodhi Tree until he reached enlightenment. He taught others how to reach enlightenment until his death at the age of 85. 

Buddhist Beliefs

Buddhism helps others reach enlightenment by obtaining a piece of mind and understanding and accepting the true nature of things and reality. You reach enlightenment by realizing that life is suffering and by following a path, you can reach nirvana (referred to as enlightenment). You reach nirvana when you have freedom over worldly concerns like hate, ignorance, greed and worry. The basic concepts of the Buddhist beliefs can be briefly explained through the four noble truths and the noble eight-fold path. 

Four Noble Truths

• First- Accept that life is suffering; both including physical and physiological suffering. Pain, aging, disease, death, disappointment, anger, frustration, loneliness, fear and desire are examples of both physiological and physical suffering. 

• Second- Suffering is caused by dissatisfaction and desire. Wanting and expecting things and people turn out in your favor constantly causes suffering. Instead of wanting many things and searching for the things that you want, learn to not want things that will make you unhappy because of the process you have to go to to obtain what you want. 

• Third- Suffering can be avoided and overcome while still acquiring happiness. Learning to let go of desires and not dwell on events or actions that have happened in the past or will happen in the future and focusing only on one day at a time, helps you obtain more energy and time. Energy and time that can be used to help others and become happy and free (Nirvana). 

• Fourth- The fourth truth is that the Noble 8-fold Path is the path which leads to the end of suffering.

Noble Eight-Fold Path

The Noble Eight-Fold Path helps an individual come to the realization that greed and selfishness cause all suffering. When following the Eight-fold path, one's suffering ends; they serve as moral principles in which all Buddhists should practice; morality, meditation, and wisdom. 

1. Right Knowledge
2. Right Thinking
3. Right Speech
4. Right Conduct
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

Following the Noble Eight-fold Path helps a person realize that greed and selfishness cause all earthly suffering. With this new understanding, one’s suffering may end.

Siddharta Gautama

Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya, India

Check out the cool stuff! 

Top photo: Me trying on a Chinese mini hat
Next photo: Ms. Myers and SILK dress!
Next photo:Bamboo plants
Next photo: Chinese tea cup with filter
Next photo: Shrimp dumplings
Next photo: Mini smiling Buddha
Next photo: Ms. Myers with Chinese restaurant menu. Food items; crab Rangoon and another Chinese dish

Silk Road Info!

The Silk Road began during the First Golden Era which was from the Second Century BCE to Second Century CE after Alexander the Great's empire fell to new powers. A Chinese general and representative of China became the first man to travel to Central Asia. Thus allowing his reports to serve as a guide for China to extend it's influences to the far west all the way to Sogdiana (modern day Uzbekistan) which was the easternmost boundary of Alexander's empire. Chinese ruling over the region lasted a short time but created the official trade routes for Silk and other products.

Alexander The Great

Some items that were traded along the Silk Road were fabrics, spices, and stones (from India). Fragrances, jewelry, spices and silk were traded to Rome in return for European pictures and luxury goods. Furs, skins, honey, and slaves were exported from eastern and northern Europe to China and central Asia. Silk was traded by the Chinese to the Parthians who traded it to the Romans in exchange for gold during the first century BCE. Because silk was very valuable due to it being a beautiful, strong, lightweight fabric that could be used for clothing, China controlled the trade by keeping the secret of making silk hidden from other countries. The diffusion of culture and exchanges occurred as part of the trading through the Silk Road. Between the second and seventh centuries BCE, Central Asia discovered the secret behind how to make silk after China had kept it a secret in order to maintain their global monopoly on Silk. In the Second Golden Era, (Seventh Century to tenth century) during the seventh century, China was very powerful under the Tang Dynasty while the Islam religion began to dominate Central Asia as Arab arms made conquests and unified from Arabia in the west to Kashgar and China in the east.

Animal Furs

Indian Fabric

Gold

Honey

Silk

Spices

Contact with the Silk Road helped spread different types of religions, customs, traditions, foods, and ideas. For example, during the first century CE, Buddhist missionaries introduced Buddhism to China from Central Asia. The Islam religion began to spread to Central Asia during the seventh century as well, many Muslim merchants proceeded through different regions sharing their wares and beliefs with others. A Buddhist monk named Xuang Zang, also traveled from China to India and back introducing new Buddhist schools along the way. 

Buddhist Monks

Islam Religion Symbol

The Silk Road trade declined after the Mongol empire fell because of differences that developed among the Mongol rulers of Russia, Central Asia, and China. Soon after, many European powers tried to develop an alternative route to reach the Silk Road through the Sea to more accurately predict costs and profits of goods. After a  Portuguese sailor named Vasco da Gama sailed successfully from Europe to India from 1497 to 1499, sea trade became the new established way of trading goods. As Silk Roads began to be used less, China completely stopped their silk trade during he 1400's because many parts of Central Asia and Europe had already known how to make it. When trading abstained, cities like Samarkand and Chang'an, and Antioch shrank in size, were ruined by war, or lost value.

Silk Road Map including Sea Routes

Renewed interests has inclined many archaeologists, explorers, travelers, adventures and tourists to visit the once flourishing Silk Road since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Many of these people travel to find lost treasures and find evidence of the once diffused cultures that existed among the silk roads like manuscripts, statues,temples, and murals. Travelers can actually travel along the roads and see where civilizations once used to thrive. Recent conflicts have made it a challenge for travelers to complete the journey across Eurasia (full extent of the Silk Road). 

Tourist attractions/destinations along the Silk Road