Cultural , Political, and Religious Interactions in Ancient Asia Essay

Since Asian countries came in contact with each other, Cultural, Political, and Religious interactions between them, began. The Ancient Asian countries interactions with each other sour a big role in affecting how the Asian countries are today.Political contacts and interaction were most often made because a country valued to become allies to gain military security, or to join their forces to fight a mutual enemy that they couldnt fight alone but sometimes situations didnt go the way they were planned. One example is Zhang Qians mission as an envoy. He was sent as an envoy from Wu Di, the Han emperor, to make contact and bond paper with the nomadic tribes just west of them. The western tribes and the Han conglomerate had a mutual enemy, the Xiongnu, who roamed the lands just north of the Great Wall. Zhang Qian started off to the west, but when he came back to the Han Empire he was with a Xiongnu wife. His report was that he was captured by the Xiongnu and this woman helped him es cape. He traveled to the western tribes to make an alliance but they refused.Missionaries usually made ghostlike contacts. The missionaries main goal was to spread their religion so more people convert. Examples of religious contact by missionaries are buddhist missionaries. They traveled all throughout Southeast Asia, settled there for a while, and successfully converted a lot of people into Buddhism.The Asian countries burnishs influenced each other. They influenced each others culture through trade. Foreign artifacts, ideas and craft skills were adapted into the local culture if they seemed useful. Indian influence spread all throughout Southeast Asia, largely because of Brahmins who had royal courts across Southeast Asia. They brought new government ideas, artistic ideas, and a written phraseology called Sanskrit. The main Chinese cultural influence, aside from religion, was language and laws. They spread the Chinese language and laws along mainland Southeast Asia, especiall y Vietnam, when they tried to take it over. However, even though the Asian countries cultures influenced each other, they each had a strong local culture to set out with.