%0 Journal Article
%T Tang China and the Buddhist Silk Roads: The Historical Geographies of Daxingshan Temple
%A James M. Smith
%J Advances in Anthropology
%P 235-244
%@ 2163-9361
%D 2023
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/aa.2023.133015
%X Tang ChinaĄŻs capital was the
wealthiest and most cosmopolitan city in the<span><span style=\"font-family:;\" \"=\"\"> world from the early seventh to mid-eighth
centuries. Crucial to its prestige <span>was its
tolerance of multiple religious traditions and support for long-distance</span> commerce. The Silk Roads, a series of paths through deserts, mountains and <span>grasslands traversing 5000 kilometers of China and
Central Asia carrie</span>d world-</span></span><span><span style=\"font-family:;\" \"=\"\">tr<span>ansforming cosmologies and luxury
products between China, India an</span>d <span>Persia.
This paper explores how this dynamic circulation created sacred pla</span>ces
and iconographic landscapes in XiĄŻan, Shaanxi,</span></span><span><span style=\"font-family:;\" \"=\"\"> </span></span><span><span style=\"font-family:;\" \"=\"\">China. I deploy insights from world history and
historical geography as an interpretive framework to engage Da</span></span><span><span style=\"font-family:;\" \"=\"\">x</span></span><span><span style=\"font-family:;\" \"=\"\">ing</span></span><span><span style=\"font-family:;\" \"=\"\">s</span></span><span><span style=\"font-family:;\" \"=\"\">han, a Tantric Vajrayana temple and crucial site for the translation of
Mahayana Buddhist sutras. Finally, I describe experiential fieldwork at the
site, an engagement with an otherworldly sacred space that was and is a
creation of a previous era of cultural globalization.</span></span>
%K China
%K Buddhism
%K Sacred Space
%K Silk Roads
%K Cultural Globalization
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=126905