Sogdians

By Kim Jin-heon

This writer has been interested in the life of ancient Sogdians for many years. They accumulated many riches through trade with Rome and Tang, and they built marvelous buildings in Samarkand, Uzbekistan that still exist today. They were especially prosperous from the 4th to the 8th century A.D.

Most Sogdians lived near Samarkand, a small-sized city, as descendants of Iranians. The area was a transportation hub as well as a strategic foothold, linking the East and West, between India and the Steppes region.

These geopolitical traits enticed powerful surrounding countries to conquer the region and have hegemony over it. This kind of history caused the tribe to always be subject to colonization. As a way to survive the situation, Sogdians learned various languages and acquired the traits of many cultures. They were known as outgoing and ambitious.

With the desert and the Silk Road as their main “natural” resources, Sogdians were raised at a young age to be merchants. For example, when boys became five, they began to learn foreign languages with the aim to engage in business.

During the 7th century AD, Tang began to control Samarkand and had hegemony over the area. The prosperous Buddhist culture and powerful nation, whose capital, Xian of over 1 million people, was crowded with foreign deputies and merchants thanks to its various engagements and open-door policy with foreign countries.

Sogdians also succeeded in trading with larger nations and introduced Buddhist culture to them. They had quick mobility and up-to-date information as a result of interacting with various cultures and benefiting from their geographical position. This led them to become skilled traders who delivered a variety of thought between East and West.

The Sogdians were very sociable and lived in residential groups in Tang. They also traded with Shilla, selling various kinds of goods imported from Rome, or other countries. While living with citizens in Kyeongju, they were so well liked that their activities were recorded in a literary work called Cheoyongga (a kind of poem).

Within the Buddhist culture among kings and noblemen of United Shilla, the Sogdian guardian stone statue with its hawk nose and deep-set eyes was erected in front of many kings' tombs as they held the belief that the Sogdian tribe's character would be able to defeat all demons of the underworld and guide the dead to the new world.

Meanwhile, Samarkand, where most Sogdians lived, was the only route for travelers, merchants, or monks when they traveled to India, Rome and Tang. A famous monk named Hyecho visited India by going through Samarkand and wrote a book titled “The Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India.”

In those days, close exchanges with foreigners, including Sogdians, encouraged the conservative country to adapt to international culture. Such an open-minded attitude led architects in Shilla to build world class cultural icons such as the Seokguram Grotto, the Bulguk Temple, and Cheomseongdae(observatory).

The writer is an English teacher at Chung-mu High School in South Jeolla Province.