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Like religion, music readily spreads beyond its land of origin because people bring their music with them when they travel, just as they bring with them their own faith and rituals. Familiar chants, songs, and instruments sustained pilgrims and traders who, at the same time, absorbed musical influences they encountered in their travels. Religion has been one of the most important cultural forces to promote the dissemination of music along the Silk Road. Members of …

…stubbornly take root in the lands where they were born. One of the most powerfully surviving features of the old Silk Road today is the variety of music performed, on instruments old and new, indigenous and imported, everywhere from the shores of the Mediterranean to the shores of the Pacific. This living musical heritage allows us to feel a link to thousands of years of trade and exchange among the peoples of the Silk Road.