The rituals of the Southern Silk Road.
By Euphoria Snaks
Originally, the wonderful GDM people asked me to write two different articles; one on the foods of the southern silk road route regions and the other on the culture of food in said regions. But all the research in conjunction with my foodienerdybuddies proved the two were inextricably linked and that we needed to create one fabulously enlightening (if somewhat long – apologies now!) story.
So, off we go on another journey originally taken by the intrepid ancient Chinese from China through the Karakoram mountains. This range spans the borders of Pakistan, India, China and extends in Afghanistan and Tajikistan in the northwest.
From there, the southern route branched off south to the sea as well as over the Hindu Kush mountains and into Afghanistan, joining the northern routes before reaching Merv in Turkmenistan. From there, the southern-bound adventurers travelled westward in almost a straight line through northern Iran, Mesopotamia and the northern outskirts of the Syrian Desert to Levant, where ships were waiting to take the precious cargo across the Mediterranean to southern Europe.
There was a southwestern route, too, that wound from China to India through the Ganges Delta. Archaeologists have declared the delta a vital trading route having discovered countless goods from all parts of the world in excavations, including ancient Roman beads and gemstones from Thailand and Java.
Other southern routes stretched from the Yunnan region in China to Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar.
But in my world, it’s all about the food and culture and the expansion of all these routes is rooted in the spice trade.
So, off we go on another journey originally taken by the intrepid ancient Chinese from China through the Karakoram mountains. This range spans the borders of Pakistan, India, China and extends in Afghanistan and Tajikistan in the northwest.
From there, the southern route branched off south to the sea as well as over the Hindu Kush mountains and into Afghanistan, joining the northern routes before reaching Merv in Turkmenistan. From there, the southern-bound adventurers travelled westward in almost a straight line through northern Iran, Mesopotamia and the northern outskirts of the Syrian Desert to Levant, where ships were waiting to take the precious cargo across the Mediterranean to southern Europe.
There was a southwestern route, too, that wound from China to India through the Ganges Delta. Archaeologists have declared the delta a vital trading route having discovered countless goods from all parts of the world in excavations, including ancient Roman beads and gemstones from Thailand and Java.
Other southern routes stretched from the Yunnan region in China to Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar.
But in my world, it’s all about the food and culture and the expansion of all these routes is rooted in the spice trade.
The definition of food culture can be described as the beliefs, attitudes, and practices related to producing and consuming food.
That may sound a bit basic, but what it means is that food culture lies at the heart of our relationship with our food and the food systems that produce and deliver it to us.
Because food is such an important part of our heritage and ethnicity, traditional foods and recipes play a key role in our food culture. When we sit down with friends and family to enjoy a meal together, we are literally ‘breaking bread’ with them. Cultural elements that lack a physical form but are instead expressed through knowledge, skill or ritual are equally important to shaping living culture.
Food and culture are interwoven. The processes involved in preparing, serving and sharing certain foods and drinks might appear simple, but they often carry important social and cultural significance. Recipes and dietary practices can be used to transmit knowledge from one generation to the next. Such is its importance, UNESCO formally recognised 30 food and drink-related traditions as part of its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2022.
Predictably, food culture is influenced by factors such as local geography and weather, resulting in variations even within a single country. The history of the country also has an impact on the food culture and traditions of the people living there. Taking time to reconnect with food traditions, cooking from scratch more often, taking time to share food with others, and slowing down to really savour the taste of your food are all ways that you can create your own sample of the silk road food culture!
Here are 6 food and drink-related traditions Silk Road travellers may have encountered along the southern routes currently recognised by UNESCO and its Representative List.
That may sound a bit basic, but what it means is that food culture lies at the heart of our relationship with our food and the food systems that produce and deliver it to us.
Because food is such an important part of our heritage and ethnicity, traditional foods and recipes play a key role in our food culture. When we sit down with friends and family to enjoy a meal together, we are literally ‘breaking bread’ with them. Cultural elements that lack a physical form but are instead expressed through knowledge, skill or ritual are equally important to shaping living culture.
Food and culture are interwoven. The processes involved in preparing, serving and sharing certain foods and drinks might appear simple, but they often carry important social and cultural significance. Recipes and dietary practices can be used to transmit knowledge from one generation to the next. Such is its importance, UNESCO formally recognised 30 food and drink-related traditions as part of its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2022.
Predictably, food culture is influenced by factors such as local geography and weather, resulting in variations even within a single country. The history of the country also has an impact on the food culture and traditions of the people living there. Taking time to reconnect with food traditions, cooking from scratch more often, taking time to share food with others, and slowing down to really savour the taste of your food are all ways that you can create your own sample of the silk road food culture!
Here are 6 food and drink-related traditions Silk Road travellers may have encountered along the southern routes currently recognised by UNESCO and its Representative List.
1: Tea Culture in China
The Southern Silk Road route is also often referred to as the ‘Tea Horse’ route, earning this name because of the common trade of Tibetan ponies for Chinese tea. Tea is a way of life in China and was recognised by UNESCO for the critical role tea processing, drinking and sharing plays in Chinese culture. There are more than 2,000 different teas produced in China from different categories of leaves and certain flowers and herbs.
2: Bread Culture in Pakistan
Pakistani cuisine is the lesser-known food of the sub-continent and is rich in tradition, full of marvellous and diverse dishes. But it’s primarily generally regarded as a bread culture, with meals being eaten with the right hand and naan bread or roti used to scoop up curries and accompaniments as is the practice in Muslim culture. Other popular breads include chapati and parata – fried bread stuffed with dhal or meat and vegetable mixtures.
The cuisine has developed over many years and incorporates elements from neighbouring India, Afghanistan and Iran with the blend of cooking techniques creating a distinctive mix of complex flavours.
The Southern Silk Road route is also often referred to as the ‘Tea Horse’ route, earning this name because of the common trade of Tibetan ponies for Chinese tea. Tea is a way of life in China and was recognised by UNESCO for the critical role tea processing, drinking and sharing plays in Chinese culture. There are more than 2,000 different teas produced in China from different categories of leaves and certain flowers and herbs.
2: Bread Culture in Pakistan
Pakistani cuisine is the lesser-known food of the sub-continent and is rich in tradition, full of marvellous and diverse dishes. But it’s primarily generally regarded as a bread culture, with meals being eaten with the right hand and naan bread or roti used to scoop up curries and accompaniments as is the practice in Muslim culture. Other popular breads include chapati and parata – fried bread stuffed with dhal or meat and vegetable mixtures.
The cuisine has developed over many years and incorporates elements from neighbouring India, Afghanistan and Iran with the blend of cooking techniques creating a distinctive mix of complex flavours.
3: The Diverse Food Culture in India as elsewhere, is shaped by climate, land, and access to natural resources. The food system emphasizes eating agricultural and natural produce “in season,” such as mangoes and local greens during the summer, pumpkins during the rainy monsoon months, and root vegetables during the winter months. The Indian culinary repertoire reflects the cultural diversity of the country, and the term “Indian food” denotes a mélange of flavours from different parts of the country and showcases centuries of cultural exchange with the far corners of the world.
Aryan invaders who came from Central Asia to India in about 1500 BCE left in their Sanskrit language a number of clues to the origins of various foods. Foods native to India such as the eggplant, for instance, often have names derived from pre-Aryan languages. Imports are given prefixes that indicate their origins, and the names of later imports are often versions of the names from their home countries. For example, the stuffed pastries known as samosa in India are called (like Arab sanbusaq, Turkish samsa, and Central Asian sambusai varaqi) after their medieval Persian originals, sanbosag.
As in China, a broad division exists between rice eaters in the south and wheat eaters in the north. Northern cuisine centres on a variety of breads; because of the north's long communication with central Asia, the cooking fat is usually ghee, and yogurt plays a greater part in the cuisine. Northern fruits are those such as peaches, which thrive in temperate to cold climates; dried fruits and vegetables flavour many dishes.
This appreciation and negation of gastronomic pleasure is made more complex by caste- and religion-based purity as well as pollution taboos. With some exceptions, since the early twelfth century, upper-caste Hindus, Jains, and some regional groups are largely vegetarian and espouse ahimsa (nonviolence). Often upper castes will not eat onions, garlic, or processed food, believing them to violate principles of purity. Some lower-caste Hindus are meat eaters, but beef is forbidden as the cow is deemed sacred, and this purity barrier encompasses the entire caste and religious system.
Aryan invaders who came from Central Asia to India in about 1500 BCE left in their Sanskrit language a number of clues to the origins of various foods. Foods native to India such as the eggplant, for instance, often have names derived from pre-Aryan languages. Imports are given prefixes that indicate their origins, and the names of later imports are often versions of the names from their home countries. For example, the stuffed pastries known as samosa in India are called (like Arab sanbusaq, Turkish samsa, and Central Asian sambusai varaqi) after their medieval Persian originals, sanbosag.
As in China, a broad division exists between rice eaters in the south and wheat eaters in the north. Northern cuisine centres on a variety of breads; because of the north's long communication with central Asia, the cooking fat is usually ghee, and yogurt plays a greater part in the cuisine. Northern fruits are those such as peaches, which thrive in temperate to cold climates; dried fruits and vegetables flavour many dishes.
This appreciation and negation of gastronomic pleasure is made more complex by caste- and religion-based purity as well as pollution taboos. With some exceptions, since the early twelfth century, upper-caste Hindus, Jains, and some regional groups are largely vegetarian and espouse ahimsa (nonviolence). Often upper castes will not eat onions, garlic, or processed food, believing them to violate principles of purity. Some lower-caste Hindus are meat eaters, but beef is forbidden as the cow is deemed sacred, and this purity barrier encompasses the entire caste and religious system.
4: Spice Culture in Iran
The Persians had inherited a millennia-old tradition of Mesopotamian cookery from the empires of Sumeria, Babylon, Assyria, and Akkad, to name a few. Sumerian tablets record about 20 kinds of cheese, 100 soups, 300 breads. Their cooks dried grains, beans, dates, grapes, and figs; they preserved fruits in honey; they flavoured their various stews with garlic, onions, leeks, and possibly mint, mustard, cumin, and coriander. The various Mesopotamian kingdoms borrowed dishes from one another, as recorded in their names.
According to Roman historians, the Parthians, who ruled an empire that at its height in the 1st century BCE stretched from the Euphrates to the Indus rivers and from the Oxus (Amu Darya) to the Indian Ocean, were very fond of palm wine and ate lightly of grains, vegetables, a little fish and game. Originally nomadic horsemen, later Parthians ate such dairy products as clarified butter (ghee, which keeps well in hot climates) and yogurt (often fermented with cracked wheat and still common in Kurdistan, where it is called tarkhineh).
As the prime middlemen controlling the Silk Road, they taxed, and no doubt enjoyed exotica arriving from east and west.
Such classic Persian preparations spread throughout western Asia and into Europe with the Silk Road diaspora; combining nomadic traditions from all along the way with those of the Persian court and exported the new cuisine.
The Persians had inherited a millennia-old tradition of Mesopotamian cookery from the empires of Sumeria, Babylon, Assyria, and Akkad, to name a few. Sumerian tablets record about 20 kinds of cheese, 100 soups, 300 breads. Their cooks dried grains, beans, dates, grapes, and figs; they preserved fruits in honey; they flavoured their various stews with garlic, onions, leeks, and possibly mint, mustard, cumin, and coriander. The various Mesopotamian kingdoms borrowed dishes from one another, as recorded in their names.
According to Roman historians, the Parthians, who ruled an empire that at its height in the 1st century BCE stretched from the Euphrates to the Indus rivers and from the Oxus (Amu Darya) to the Indian Ocean, were very fond of palm wine and ate lightly of grains, vegetables, a little fish and game. Originally nomadic horsemen, later Parthians ate such dairy products as clarified butter (ghee, which keeps well in hot climates) and yogurt (often fermented with cracked wheat and still common in Kurdistan, where it is called tarkhineh).
As the prime middlemen controlling the Silk Road, they taxed, and no doubt enjoyed exotica arriving from east and west.
Such classic Persian preparations spread throughout western Asia and into Europe with the Silk Road diaspora; combining nomadic traditions from all along the way with those of the Persian court and exported the new cuisine.
5. Dolma in Azerbaijan
Throughout its history, Azerbaijan has played an important role in the development of the Silk Roads, especially in the Caucusus through connecting Central Asia with Anatolia, the Black Sea and the west. Situated on the west coast of the Caspian Sea and at the feet of the Caucasus Mountains, the country has been a pivotal point in the connection of civilisations since ancient times, welcoming merchants from across land and sea, and thus becoming a vital centre for the exchange not only of goods and merchandise, but of ideas, customs, religions and cultures.
Azerbaijan remained a vital hub of trade along the Silk Roads throughout the Middle Ages, a period of rich and diverse cultural development in the region. These Silk Road merchants stopped to buy as well as to sell, and as such, Azerbaijani goods were also woven into the Silk Road network.
Azerbaijani cuisine as we know today evolved gradually over the centuries as new ingredients and techniques were introduced as a result of cultural exchange between East and West.
Dolma is one of the most popular menu items that you’ll find at restaurants in Baku and the rest of Azerbaijan, with its roots deep in Silk Road history. Delicious dolma is a pre-cooked grape leaf stuffed with minced meat, rice, onion, and sometimes other ingredients such as peas. The word ‘dolma’ is of Turkic origin and technically is a shortened version of doldurma, which translates to ‘stuffed’. Recipes and methods of dolma-making are passed down from generation to generation.
One of the greatest things about dolma is that the food is used as a way to celebrate guests and mark special occasions. There are so many places you can find dolma in Azerbaijan, and the best will almost always be in the homes of Azerbaijani people.
6: Oshi Palav in Tajikistan
Tajikistan’s oshi palav is closely related to Uzbekistan’s plov – in fact, both rice-based dishes were inscribed by UNESCO in the same year. In Tajikistan, oshi palav is known as a ‘dish of peace’ for the role it plays in bringing people from different backgrounds together as a result of Silk Road trade.
As the traditional dish of communities in Tajikistan, it’s recognised as a part of their cultural heritage. The 'King of meals' is based on a recipe made with lamb, rice, onions, carrots and spices simmered in a broth, but up to 200 varieties are said to exist.
Showing a further connection to the cultural development from the Silk Road, Tajik oshi palav and Uzbek plov share common attributes with Indian pilau, Persian polow, and even Spanish paella.
Looking beyond family and close community, the food influence on those cities and towns and even outposts that formed the Silk Road southern route is an integral part of ethnic and national culture. Traditional recipes, passed down through the generations, help to preserve the history and habits of the people who brought them and the people who cooked them.
Throughout its history, Azerbaijan has played an important role in the development of the Silk Roads, especially in the Caucusus through connecting Central Asia with Anatolia, the Black Sea and the west. Situated on the west coast of the Caspian Sea and at the feet of the Caucasus Mountains, the country has been a pivotal point in the connection of civilisations since ancient times, welcoming merchants from across land and sea, and thus becoming a vital centre for the exchange not only of goods and merchandise, but of ideas, customs, religions and cultures.
Azerbaijan remained a vital hub of trade along the Silk Roads throughout the Middle Ages, a period of rich and diverse cultural development in the region. These Silk Road merchants stopped to buy as well as to sell, and as such, Azerbaijani goods were also woven into the Silk Road network.
Azerbaijani cuisine as we know today evolved gradually over the centuries as new ingredients and techniques were introduced as a result of cultural exchange between East and West.
Dolma is one of the most popular menu items that you’ll find at restaurants in Baku and the rest of Azerbaijan, with its roots deep in Silk Road history. Delicious dolma is a pre-cooked grape leaf stuffed with minced meat, rice, onion, and sometimes other ingredients such as peas. The word ‘dolma’ is of Turkic origin and technically is a shortened version of doldurma, which translates to ‘stuffed’. Recipes and methods of dolma-making are passed down from generation to generation.
One of the greatest things about dolma is that the food is used as a way to celebrate guests and mark special occasions. There are so many places you can find dolma in Azerbaijan, and the best will almost always be in the homes of Azerbaijani people.
6: Oshi Palav in Tajikistan
Tajikistan’s oshi palav is closely related to Uzbekistan’s plov – in fact, both rice-based dishes were inscribed by UNESCO in the same year. In Tajikistan, oshi palav is known as a ‘dish of peace’ for the role it plays in bringing people from different backgrounds together as a result of Silk Road trade.
As the traditional dish of communities in Tajikistan, it’s recognised as a part of their cultural heritage. The 'King of meals' is based on a recipe made with lamb, rice, onions, carrots and spices simmered in a broth, but up to 200 varieties are said to exist.
Showing a further connection to the cultural development from the Silk Road, Tajik oshi palav and Uzbek plov share common attributes with Indian pilau, Persian polow, and even Spanish paella.
Looking beyond family and close community, the food influence on those cities and towns and even outposts that formed the Silk Road southern route is an integral part of ethnic and national culture. Traditional recipes, passed down through the generations, help to preserve the history and habits of the people who brought them and the people who cooked them.
