A top-class academic conference of the Centre for the Study of the Christian East (ZECO) of the Paris Lodron University Salzburg (PLUS) will took place in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) in Uzbekistan in September 2023 in cooperation with the International Institute of Central Asian Studies (IICAS) of the UNESCO Silk Road Programme.

Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Dietmar W. Winkler (ZECO) and Dr. Dimitriy Voyakin (IICAS), the “7th Salzburg International Conference on Syriac Christianity in Central Asia and China” took place in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) from 21 to 27 September 2023. In a unique interdisciplinary synopsis of theology, religious studies and history, archaeology, philology, manuscript studies and epigraphy (Syriac, Uyghur, Sogdian, Old Iranian, Arabic, Chinese), the latest research results on the “Church of the East” are exchanged.

This so-called East Syrian Christianity spread via the Silk Roads to Central Asia, India and China, reaching the Chinese imperial court of the Tang dynasty as early as the 7th century. By the time of the Mongols, the Church of the East (formerly improperly called “Nestorian”) was the geographically largest church of Christendom, spanning a variety of languages and cultures across Asia.

The 20th anniversary of the “Salzburg International Conferences on Syriac Christianity in Central Asia and China” was celebrated in Samarkand. At ZECO, Prof. Dietmar W. Winkler and Dr. Li Tang have established this most important interdisciplinary conference series on Christianity on the Silk Road, which regularly brings together leading international scholars and young researchers from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA. By going to Central Asia, the latest research results from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Mongolia could also be integrated.

See the programme: Christianity on the Silk Road | Conference 2023