Relaxing Music Highlight: Silk Road by Kitaro
Relish the enigmatic beauty of the ancient trade routes through Kitaro's signature sound
I heard Kitaro’s Silk Road in a documentary series about the ancient trade routes some twenty over years ago. Even up to today, every time I hear this score, I’ll see flashes of images from the TV series in my mind.
In my opinion, the music fits the documentary like a glove. It brings out the mysterious and otherworldly aura of the important trans-continental network that lasted almost 3,000 years.
The Silk Road was perhaps the world’s longest shopping belt ever existed that spanned across several ancient civilizations. Spices, medicines, herbs, fabrics, perfumes, precious stones, rare metals, toys, exotic goods and of course silk, as well as people, ideas, cultures, beliefs and knowledge were exchanged in the many bustling markets that dotted the routes. “Made in China” probably meant a whole different thing then than what it implies today.
Today, many of the bustling cities and markets are long gone. What have been left behind are only sand buried towns, torn walls, broken ceramics and sculptures, and ancient murals and scriptures that give us some clues to the vibrant activities and exchanges that had once taken place.
What was it like to live in one of the towns during those times? How would I respond to all the seemingly endless confluence of people, things and cultures?
I could only imagine through the music of Kitaro now.
The track Silk Road is found in Kitaro’s album, Silk Road, Volume 1. There are altogether two volumes in the series.
Interesting Facts about the Silk Road
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The Silk Road is not a single highway linking the East and the West as what its name implies. It consists of several routes that each passes through a number of common strategic cities along the way.
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The Silk Road first started from the lucrative trading of silk within China. The business flourished, and the trade routes eventually expanded into a transcontinental network that included trading of all sorts of goods and products.
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Back then, going on the Silk Road isn’t exactly as fun as it sounds. Parts of journey involved crossing inhospitable deserts and treacherous mountains, not to mention the possibility of meeting ruthless bandits along the way.
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Xuanzang (玄奘), the Chinese Buddhist monk who made a 17-year pilgrimage to India, had traveled the Silk Road to reach the land of Buddha. His legend was later immortalized by the epic novel Journey to the West, which is a fantasy version of his travel.
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Dunhuang (敦煌) is one of the most well-known stops on the Silk Road. It’s located in northwestern Gansu province, Western China, and is home to Mogao Caves, where large numbers of important ancient scriptures and sculptures, mostly related to Buddhism, are found. There are even some Christian artifacts being found in the caves, revealing the rich mix of cultures that intermingled with one another along the Silk Road.
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Countless treasures along the Silk Road (including those from Mogao Caves) are in the possession of museums and private collectors outside of China after they were plundered by archaeologists in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Although there are some merits to the argument that the plunders had helped to save the treasures from destruction, now that China has more than enough capacity to protect and restore its own treasures, it remains to be seen whether these art works will be returned to where they came from.
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Overland trade via the Silk Road gradually lost its importance to the silk route by sea due to practical (ease of travel), business (no middlemen fee) as well as safety (no mountains and deserts to overcome) reasons.
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After a long period of disuse, the Silk Road is active once again, thanks to increasing trade as well as tourism activities in the ancient trade routes.
