Here they are:
1. In the documents of the men; what motivated them to travel so far?
2. What similarities or differences did they see compared to their own and the ones they visited?
3. What can we take from these documents about the men (travelers) who wrote them?
4. Looking at the visual sources what can you identify that was most prominent during the Silk Road Trading?
The first document is written by Huili, who wrote about Xuanzang. Xuanzang traveled to seek out answers and tried to stop the division of Buddhism. One place that was important to him that he visited was the famous Bodhi tree where Buddha (supposedly) reached enlightenment. the documents speaks about other monks he had met and how dedicated they are to their studies and practice. What we can take from this is how virtuous and innocent these people are. They have a strong sense of righteousness do work extremely hard to reach their goal of enlightenment and try to completely get rid of all of their bad karma.
Marco Polo traveled by sea since the the age of seventeen with his father. I am not too sure why they traveled, it may be because they enjoyed travel or it may be because of trade. I personally think they traveled to explore the distant lands because they were able to and nothing was going to stop them. This document is rather long and go on talking about make things that Marco Polo had witnessed on his journey.
Ibn Battuta was an Arab scholar who traveled as a pilgrim. The reason why he traveled was so he could learn about other religious ideas, cultural ways, and to learn more about the world. In his writing he speaks about his interesting journey from place to place and speaks with excellent descriptions. You can truly tell he was well educated and made plenty of friends, and met plenty of different people along his way.
by Andrew Murillo
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