Catalog

Secret of the Silk Road
ADB Review [ October 2005 ]

By Ian Gill, (igill@adb.org)
Principal External Relations Specialist

The product that gave the Silk Road its name was discovered by the Chinese many centuries before the road opened around the second century BC.

The Chinese closely guarded the secrets of silk-making—to reveal the technique or smuggle silkworm eggs or cocoons outside the country was punishable by death.

As a result, the trade in silk—the beautiful and lightweight fabric, warm in cool weather and cool in hot weather, and highly prized in Europe—helped many cities along the Silk routes prosper.

In time, however, the secret spread across the Taklamakan Desert to reach Byzantium and eventually Europe. Today, silk production also takes place in Central Asia—from the feeding of silkworms with mulberry leaves, to the production of cocoons, and the unraveling, spinning, weaving, dyeing, and embroidering of silk

TRANSFORMATION Tending silkworms in Tajikistan (above); dyeing, weaving, and spinning in Samarkand (below, above right, right)		NIMBLE HANDS Carpet making is a painstaking task (above and below)

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