and fi nd new trading opportunities, the Arabs, as well as the
Egyptians, were the people they chose for their crews.
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY MICHAEL ALLEN HOLMES
Much of the exploration that took place in Asia and the Pa-
cifi c in ancient times was motivated by desires for military
conquest, enhanced trade, and religious enlightenment. On
the Indian Subcontinent the early infl ux of Aryans, who ar-
rived in waves from the north sometime between 1500 and
1300 b.c.e. (in what historians alternately describe as “inva-
sions” and “migrations”), accounted for the importation of
much of the foundations of future Indian culture, such as the
language of Sanskrit. Th e Aryans themselves in time fully in-
tegrated with the darker resident populations of the valleys
of the Indus and Ganges rivers. Much later, Buddhist mis-
sionaries proved responsible for much of the Indian peoples’
exploration of outlying lands. Siddhārtha Gautama (563–483
b.c.e.), the Buddha himself, essentially wandered throughout,
rather than explored, portions of the Indian Subcontinent,
especially into the northeastern region now known as Bihar.
Th at region was named aft er the forest in which the Buddha
reached enlightenment, as its hillsides grew dotted with the
ascetic stone dwellings of the many monks who were inspired
by and followed the Buddha’s teachings.
Later, in 250 b.c.e., the Mauryan emperor Asoka, who
made sweeping eff orts to spread the Buddhist aff ection for
love and peace throughout India, held the Th ird Great Coun-
cil of Buddhism in Pataliputra (now known as Patna), in the
northeast. Aft erward devout Buddhists began traveling well
beyond the Indian Subcontinent, fi rst to what are now Myan-
mar and Sri Lanka and later throughout Southeast Asia. By
the fi rst century c.e. Buddhism had spread along the central
Asian silk trade route into China; similarly, Buddhist notions,
if not the nominal faith and philosophy themselves, traveled
northwest through Gandhara toward the Middle East, pos-
sibly inspiring the mythology surrounding the life of Jesus
Christ. Overall, Indian rulers’ and peoples’ relative disinter-
est in exploration can largely be explained by the widely es-
tablished ideal of a life of simplicity.
In China among the fi rst frontiers breached in the name
of exploratory interests were those in the north and north-
west. In 139 b.c.e. the Han emperor Wu Ti (r. 141–87 b.c.e.)
appointed a courtier named Chang Ch’ien both to subdue
the nomadic peoples to the north and to secure the trade
route into central Asia. In particular, Chang Ch’ien sought to
ally the northwestern Yueh-chih tribe with the Han Empire
against the feared Hsiung-nu of the north. However, in tra-
versing the northwestern deserts and grasslands in attempt-
ing to make contact with the Yueh-chih, Chang Ch’ien was
captured by the Hsiung-nu. Adapting to the circumstances,
he lived with the Hsiung-nu for 10 years, marrying and even
raising a family, before fi nally escaping and resuming his
mission.
Chang Ch’ien thence traveled farther than any Chinese
emissary had before, reaching Fergana, then Bactria, located
in modern Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, where he discovered
the Yueh-chih living peacefully. Aft er fi nally traveling as far as
Sogdiana, also in modern Uzbekistan, Chang Ch’ien returned
home to report on what he had seen, bringing back various
theretofore unknown seeds and plants. Th e Han then essen-
tially took control of the trade routes and extended their em-
pire as far as Chang Ch’ien had traveled, securing a means of
exporting their widely coveted silk, among other goods. Chang
Ch’ien is as renowned in Eastern history as are such explorers
as Marco Polo and Ferdinand Magellan in Western history.
Much of ancient Chinese exploration was, in fact, car-
ried out during the reign of the Han Dynasty, from 202 b.c.e.
to 220 c.e., when territorial expansion was a priority. To
the northeast, military colonies, termed t’un-t’ien, were set
up in Manchuria and Korea. Oft en, where Han exploration
led to encounters with hostile peoples, the dynasty at once
made peace and increased commerce by presenting gift s; silk,
in particular, proved an invaluable commodity. Mongoloid
peoples fi rst crossed the Korea Strait to the islands of Japan
in the second and fi rst centuries b.c.e., when they found such
tribal peoples as the Ainu, who may have been primitiveStucco head of a monk, said to be from Hadda, Gandhara, fourth to
fi ft h centuries c.e.; Buddhist missionaries were responsible for much
of the exploration of outlying lands performed by Indian peoples in
ancient times. (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)440 exploration: Asia and the Pacific