The term “Silk Road” refers to the great trade routes that originated in China and extended across Central and South Asia, the Middle East, and into Europe, from the 2nd century B.C. until about the 16th century A.D. The dominant land routes connected China to Syria, then adjoined to sea routes, creating an East-West corridor linking Japan to Italy. These transcontinental caravans resulted not only in trade, of which silk was an important commodity, but also in tremendous cross-cultural interaction among the peoples of the regions; interaction that fostered the exchange of ideas and the fusion of art and aesthetics.
The Silk Road is a legacy associated with rich traditions of oral narrative, epic poetry, and storytelling. Thus, the celebrated trade routes serve Silk Road Theatre Project both as a geographic guide as well as a metaphor for intercultural dialogue.
If we consider the many trade routes the Silk Road spawned and linked up with, then today, the modern nation states of the ancient Silk Road comprise some two-thirds of humanity. Countries of the Silk Road
Afghanistan
Armenia
Azerbaijan
China
Egypt
Georgia
Greece
India
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Korea
Kyrgyzstan
Lebanon
Mongolia
Pakistan
PalestineItaly
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Tajikistan
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
...and more!The Silk Road: A Zhou Brother's Mural
