Silkroad Centre – Connecting Cultures for Development

“As a source of exchange, innovation and creativity, cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature.”
(UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity)

SILK ROAD CENTRE

Connecting cultures, Promoting development

Taking the historical Silk Road as an inspiring symbol of cultural exchange, the Silk Road Centre provides a forum for promoting greater understanding of cultural diversity and cross-cultural connections for peace and progress. The Centre’s programs support development through intellectual and cultural exchanges in the Silk Road region.

Our vision is to connect cultures to facilitate the development and exchange of knowledge, research, policies and practices contributing to peace and progress in Pakistan and the Silk Road region.

OUR ONGOING PROJECTS

International Conference on Buddhism in Pakistan 2024

Reviving Pakistan’s Dying Dawoodi Language

Heritage At Risk Program

OUR KEY AREAS OF WORK

THE SILK ROAD REGION

Scholars use the term Silk Road to denote a network of trails and trading posts, oases and emporia connecting East Asia to the Mediterranean. The Silk Road network is generally thought of as stretching from an eastern terminus at the ancient Chinese capital city of Chang’an (now Xian) to westward end-points at Byzantium, Antioch, Damascus, and other Middle Eastern cities. Beyond these end-points, other trade networks distributed Silk Road goods throughout the Mediterranean world and Europe, and throughout eastern Asia (Major et al, 2001).

WORLD HERITAGE SITES ALONG THE SILK ROAD

Declaring a heritage property as a World Heritage gives it immense universal value. After being inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO, the property ascends to the status of common heritage of the entire world and humanity. To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value and meet at least one out of ten selection criteria established by UNESCO. The criteria are regularly revised by the Committee to reflect the evolution of the World Heritage concept itself. For the current selection criteria, please visit: https://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria/

This section presents World Heritage sites located in key countries of the historic Silk Road (Source: World Heritage Centre, https://whc.unesco.org/)