Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Women in Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Greco-Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Pre-sectarian Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
History of Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism in Japan wikipedia , lookup
Buddhism in Vietnam wikipedia , lookup
Chinese Buddhism wikipedia , lookup
History of Buddhism in India wikipedia , lookup
Decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent wikipedia , lookup
LONGESSAYQUESTION(LEQ): Ø HistoricalThinkingSkill:Comparison(Compare&Contrast) SamplePrompt: CompareandcontrastthediffusionofreligionsinAfro-Eurasiaduringtheperiodof600BCEto 600CE. LEQEssay RubricComponents InAfro-Eurasia,duringtheperiodof600BCEto600CE,bothIndia THESIS andChinaadoptedBuddhisttraditions,whereastheRomanEmpiredid not and eventually adopted Christianity as its official religion instead. However,BuddhismandChristianitywerebothdiffusedbymeansofthe GreatSilkRoad.Inaddition,thecentralgovernmentsofHanChinaand Mauryan India promoted the diffusion of Buddhism throughout their respectiveempires. OnemajordifferenceinthediffusionofreligionsinClassicalAfroARGUMENTDESCRIPTION EurasiawasthatbothIndiaandChinaadoptedBuddhistreligiousbeliefs (COMPARISON-SIMILARITY) andpractices,whereastheRomanEmpirefailedtodoso.Instead,the Roman Empire eventually adopted Christianity as its official religion. Buddhismfirstdevelopedinthe4thcenturyBCEintheregionofSouth ARGUMENTEXPLANATION AsiawhichwasmuchcloserinproximitytoChinathantheMediterranean (COMPARISON-SIMILARITY) worldwhereRomedeveloped.Duetoitsgreatergeographicproximity and direct links by way of the Great Silk Road from India to China, BuddhismdiffusedmorereadilyfromIndiatoChina.Directcontactsby Buddhist merchants and monastics (monks and nuns) from India, traveling to China, aided in the diffusion of that religion into China. Likewise, Chinese emperors of the Han dynasty regularly sent ambassadorsandpriestsonjourneystoIndiatoseekoutrelicsandtexts oftheBuddhainordertobringthembacktotheMiddleKingdom.This is surprising, perhaps, considering the rampant xenophobia of the Chinese. Unlike China, Rome did not actively seek out religious knowledge,includingBuddhism,fromIndia.Formostofitshistory,Rome was far more interested in preserving the state religion of its empire, whichsometimesincludedtheworshipofitsemperors,or“Caesars”,as gods.Forexample,AugustusCaesarwasdeifiedafterhisdeathbythe Roman Senate and temples were built and dedicated to his memory throughout the empire. Glorification of the Roman state and its emperorswascommonplaceuntilEmperorTheodosiusmadeChristianity EVIDENCE#1 theofficialreligionoftheRomanEmpirebyimperialdecree.Theold Roman polytheistic beliefs were replaced by this newer monotheistic faith and any religion that did not adhere to the religious beliefs of Christianity were outlawed. Earlier, in India, however, Buddhism was EVIDENCE#2 promotedduringtheMauryandynasty,particularlyundertheleadership ofEmperorAshoka.Hispillarsandrockedictsproclaimedprotectionof USEEVIDENCETO BuddhistsandembracedaBuddhist-influencedsystemoflaw,whilestill SUBSTANTIATETHESIS protectingtheHindumajorityofIndia.UndertheGupta,however,this promotionofBuddhismbytheIndiangovernmentcametoanendand HinduismultimatelytriumphedastheprimaryfaithinSouthAsiabythe end of the Classical Era. In China, by the end of the Han dynasty, Buddhism had become quite popular among all classes alongside the EVIDENCE#3 continuing Chinese religious traditions of animism, ancestor worship, Daoism,andConfucianism. Incomparison,BuddhismandChristianitywerediffusedbymeans ARGUMENTDESCRIPTION oftheGreatSilkRoad.ThiswaspossiblebecausetheSilkroutesprovided (COMPARISON-SIMILARITY) directoverlandlinksbetweentheMiddleEast,CentralAsia,SouthAsia, ARGUMENTEXPLANATION and East Asia. The Great Silk Road was further linked to other trade (COMPARISON-DIFFERENCE) routes:TheMediterraneanSeaandRomanroadsintheWestandthe Indian Ocean to the South. Because the Roman Empire included territorieslinkeddirectlybytheGreatSilkRoad,MediterraneanSea,and Romanroads,ChristianitydiffusedrapidlyfromitsoriginsinIsraelinthe MiddleEast.Likewise,BuddhismwasabletodiffusefromIndiatoChina viaGreatSilkRoadconnectionsacrosstheHimalayas.Attheirpeak,the RomanEmpireandHanChinaprotectedextensiveareasoftheGreatSilk Roadwiththeirpowerfularmies.Thispromotedmerchantactivity.Asa result,themerchantsnotonlybroughttheirgoodstosellineachofthese empires,buttheyalsointroducednewfaiths.Oneofthepeoplethatwas EVIDENCE#4 particularlyimportantinspreadingtheideasofJesusalongtheGreatSilk Road,Mediterranean,andRomanroads,wasSaintPaul.Accordingto USEEVIDENCETO theBible,PaulwasanearlyChristianconvertfromSyria.Paulinspired SUBSTANTIATETHESIS other preachers and established some of the earliest churches in the MiddleEastandalongtheMediterraneancoast.Anoutcomeofthisearly evangelismwasthatChristianmonasterieswereeventuallyestablished intheMiddleEastalongtheGreatSilkRoad.Buddhistmonasterieswere EVIDENCE#5 also established along the Great Silk Road, but these were located in CentralAsiaandTibet.ChristianandBuddhistmonasteriespreservedthe USEEVIDENCETO religious traditions of these faiths, but also served as points of further SUBSTANTIATETHESIS religiousdiffusionontheGreatSilkRoad. JustastheGreatSilkRoadwasusedbytravelersandgovernments SYNTHESIS todiffuseBuddhismandChristianityintheperiodof600BCEto600CE, (ADEVELOPMENTINA thenexterasawanewreligionexpandfarmoreeffectivelyacrossthe DIFFERENTHISTORICAL Silk Routes. The Post-Classical Period witnessed the diffusion of Islam PERIOD) alongtheGreatSilkRoad.ThoughIslamlackedmonasticstodiffusethe faith,Islamspreadprimarilyduetomilitaryconquest,merchantactivity, andtheevangelizingeffortsofSufimystics.Islamwasusuallyreligiously tolerant as long as a head tax was paid by the subjects of Islamic governments, so Christianity and Buddhism continued to be practiced alongtheGreatSilkRoad. During the Classical Era of 600 BCE to 600 CE, Afroeurasian THESIS religions of Buddhism and Christianity diffused along the overland silk (RE-WORKED) routes.Inaddition,monasticsandmerchantsplayedamajorroleinthe diffusion of both Buddhism and Christianity. However, whereas Buddhism was promoted by the Mauryan Empire of India and the government of Han China, it did not have a major impact on Rome. Instead, Rome adopted Christian beliefs that were, for the most part, missinginChinaandIndiaduringtheperiod.