Main Stories
Religions play a central role in the human story. Defining religion, and how it has shaped the evolution of our species, remain among our major intellectual challenges. This online exhibition offers a vision of the role of religion and art at a time of great change on a trans-continental scale, shaped by the collapse of the Roman, Parthian, Kushan and Han empires. The exhibition makes the global accessible through personalised accounts and specific discoveries through the stories below and an exhibit database. The stores include both broad narratives—the main stories—and more focussed discussion of a group of exhibits.
The main stories incorporate all the exhibits in linked narratives exploring the changes brought about by Buddhism and Christianity. They are: Origins; Arrivals; Encounters; Living in Belief; Pilgrimage; Death and Burial; Coda.
The sources of Buddhism and Christianity.
Buddhism arrives in Korea and Japan, and Christianity in northwest Europe.
Conflicts and meetings between old and new gods.
Read about the smells, sounds and practices of the new religions.
Spiritual and physical journeys.
Changing practices for the afterlife.
Buddhism moving west; Christianity moving east.
Focussed Stories
Our focussed stories are shorter but more detailed explorations of a group of exhibition items under the themes: Okinoshima; The Pensive Bodhisattva; Books; Stupas; Crosses; Relics; Horses; Ships and Navigation; Glass; Silk; and Burial Bling.
Explore a sacred island of UNESCO world heritage status.
Follow the movement of Buddhist ideas through religious statuary.
The dissemination of sacred texts.
Religious architecture in the east Asian landscape.
Exploring how this symbol of a new religion was adopted in Britain by the elite, notably women, as a personal expression of faith.
Revering the remains of the pious.
Companions in life and the afterlife.
Traversing the seas and rivers with holds packed with goods.
Cheap and adaptable, used across the Silk Roads.
Sought across the Silk Roads.
Bejewelled from head to toe.