the Silk Road, and hope that it can be of some use to you.
The most interesting factor about the Silk Road is that this was the place where two of the greatest countries of the time, China of the East and Rome of the West, had their cultural, economical and
political exchange on the international scale in an extremely friendly manner. Further more, the influence of such exchange between the two great countries expanded to the on the way regions and gave them some great effects in various ways. This was precisely the
international cooperation which we talk about and very much required today. In the history of humanity, it was the most successful and prosperous time for international cooperation.
Sinkiang in China where the delegation visited in last autumn, can be thought as the core of the East part of the Silk Road as a whole. As a consequence, in order to really understand the significance of the Buddhist and other ruins of Sinkiang, just studying about Sinkiang is not enough. It is essential to have the knowledge of the Silk Road as a whole. In other words, it is necessary to understand about the West side Silk Road, fur beyond Pamir Plateau.
I would like people then to understand that by comparing with the West side, the new significance of Sinkiang exists.
During my University days, I researched into the Buddhism ruins of Afghanistan and Pakistan such as Gandhara. The aim of my research was to find out how Buddhism spread from India to China, and eventually from Korea to Japan. In recent years, I am investigating the West side, such as Syria and Turkey, especially I am excavating Palmyra Ruin. From this ruin, Chinese silk is found.
Studying at this Chinese silk, there are some Chinese characters written. This kind of silk is found at Niya and Lou-Lan in Sinkiang. Some of them kept at Urumgi Museum are exactly the same. This means that silk from China used to be used in Syria. But not only that. There are some other silk materials excavated there and they have different patterns on them. Examining them further, it became clear that silk thread was imported from China, and by using the fine quality of silk and mixing silk with wool woven material, produced something quite unique.
