E ARL Y C H RI S TIA N IT Y I N I N N E R A S IA : T H E AR C H A E OLO G I C AL A N D ART H I S TORI C AL E V ID E N C E – TAASA Review December 2013
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This article was originally found in the December 2013 edition of TAASA Review (Volume 22, Issue 4, Page 16).
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Ken Parry M ost of us do not associate Christianity with Inner Asia, especially not early Christianity, and yet Eastern-rite Christian communities were established in the region by the 5th century CE.
There was a Christian bishop at Merv (Turkmenistan) and a Metropolitan at Samarkand (Uzbekistan) by the 6th century, and there were communities at Kashgar and Turfan in Chinese Inner Asia (Xinjiang) by the 7th-8th centuries.
Most remarkably we have evidence for Christians in China at the Tang capital of Chang’an (Xi’an) by 635...