丝绸之路交通与塔里木地区宗教开放性研究

The Silk Road and the Religious Openness in Tarim

丝绸之路交通畅通东西,对塔里木地区宗教开放包容性有着至关重要的作用。萨满教、佛教、祆教、摩尼教、道教、景教等相继传入塔里木盆地,形成该地区多元宗教并存发展的开放格局。唐宋以降,由于绿洲丝绸之路的阻塞和海上丝绸之路的兴起,尤其是环塔里木盆地西南出口的喀什、和田以及东北出口的高昌不再是繁华的交通要道,不仅在地理上成为一个封闭的单元,而且在宗教文化传播中也逐渐封闭,15世纪后环塔里木地区逐渐进入伊斯兰教一元宗教发展的局面,并影响至今。

Historically,the Silk Road played a decisive role in Tarim's religious openness. Physiographically,Tarim is surrounded on three sides by high mountains and stretches eastwards into a vast desert. It is thus geographically closed. Despite this,the Silk Road successfully turned Tarim into a traffic hub bridging the East and the West. Exactly for this reason,a kaleidoscopic array of religions such as Shamanism,Buddhism,Zoroastrianism,Manichaeism,Daoism and Nestorianism were brought to Tarim one after another.Nevertheless,due to the block of roads interconnecting oases,the decline of key cities such as Kashi,Hetian and Gaochang,and the rise of the Maritime Silk Road since Tang,the dissemination of diverse cultures and religions in this region ceased gradually. As a consequence,Islam predominated in Tarim since the fifteenth century. The Islamic predominance lasts to this day. The reexamination of this history indicates that China's "One Belt,One Road"will definitely and decisively reinvigorate the cultural diversity in this region.