Buddhism Along the Silk Road: 5th-8th Century November 21, 2012

Drawing together objects from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the western reaches of Central Asia--regions connected in the sixth century A.D. through trade, military conquest, and the diffusion of Buddhism--the exhibition illuminates a remarkable moment of artistic exchange. At the roots of this transnational connection is the empire established the end of the fifth century by the Huns (Hunas or Hephthalites) that extended from Afghanistan to the northern plains of India. Although this political system soon disintegrated into chaos, over the next century trade routes connecting India to the western reaches of the Central Asian Silk Road continued to link these distant communities, facilitating ideological exchange and financing the production of Buddhist imagery of great artistic sophistication.