700-799 (Abrittus)

Still writing on this one...

World powers remodel Türkestan
The new Persian Republic reaches out to all sides, attempting to establish good neighbourship relations.

One of these initiatives brings Rome, Persia and China together in talks about securing safe trade on the Silk route. The talks last several years; they are the world´s first semi-institutionalised co-operation of the two major world powers (plus Persia).

Chinese ambassadors surprise their dialogue partners with plans circulating among the Tang dynasty`s higher officials, which would transform China´s yeomen army into a professional army led by district commanders. Tang China announces it is going to strengthen its control over its borders, including its Göktürk-inhabited end of the Silk route, by this measure.

Representatives from Persia`s new republic strongly advise against these plans, giving vivid illustrations from their own recent history of the infights, instability and oppressive potential of professional armies. Rome´s ambassadors concur.

But what else could be done? ask the Chinese. Our task of securing both our northern border and the trade route to the West cannot be tackled by our yeomen army anymore.

Persia and Rome know they must provide relief, but neither want to overstretch their powers by permanently stationing tens or even hundreds of thousands of soldiers to control the entire steppe. If only the nomads from the steppe would see the opportunities that the trade route through their territory provide! If only they decided to work together with the world powers instead of raiding them! But nobody has any idea how to convince them...

But then, the Persians propose to invite the kingdom of Tibet into the talks, too. What, by Jove, is Tibet? the Roman ambassador silently ask themselves, while Tang China´s representatives heatedly discuss the idea. Intitial reluctance is overcome and king Tride Tsugten is contacted.

He sends a delegation. And the Tibetan ambassadors have a great idea. They describe how Buddhism, which is currently all the rage in Tibet, brought political unity, stability and cultural exchange with advanced empires like India's to Tibet. The Chinese and Persian ambassadors sigh: Buddhism had been tried twice already with the steppe people, first in the Kushana, then in the Göktürk Empire; it just doesn't stick with the nomads! But the Tibetans don't give up: Buddhism is so adaptive! We must only find a connection to their current religion, then it will take roots and the nomads will see its truth!

But what do these barbarians believe? The Chinese know a little about Tengrism. The worst part, in their view, is how the veneration of their leaders is part of that religion; that is why Buddhist monks have never become truly influential and honored.

And how exactly is this incompatible with Buddhism? ask the Tibetans. It turns out, to the surprise of the Chinese, that in Tibet, there is a variety of Buddhism which believes in one chosen spiritual leader, the lama.

After a short diplomatic crisis, where Chinese and Tibetan ambassadors call each other infidels and unenlightened, all sides come to the see the potential of the idea. A Tengrism-compatible buddhism could take deeper roots and succeed in creating an erudite culture with strong ties to China and India, and the leaders would still be venerated, but only if they mutated from warrior leaders to spiritual leaders. That seemed useful. Now, the only open question was how to sell the idea to the barbarians? Surely one couldn't be open about one's plans...

And again, the Tibetans have an idea. How about a marriage between a Tibetan princess and a Khagan's promising heir? They had a particular young lady in mind: Chime Kalzang, who was as beautiful as she was educated and smart; many of her buddhist monk teachers considered it a pity anyway that she would in all likelihood not be involved in the kingdom's next leadership.

Chime Kalzang and her father, king Tride Tsugten, embrace the plan. Leaders of the Ashina, who have dominated the Göktürk confederacy under Tang China`s influence for almost a century, are invited. It turns out the Ashina have already been looking for ways to install Bilge Kutluk-Tengri as new Khagan, although at 13, he was clearly too young. A marriage between Bilge`s uncle, Ozmysh Khan, and Chime Kalzang is negotiated, under the condition that the next Kuriltai would accept the package deal of making Ozmysh Khan the confederacy`s Bek (executive leader), inviting Tibetan Buddhist monks to found monasteries, and trusting them to choose Bilge Kutluk-Tengri as the Göktürk`s first lama-khagan.

The Kuriltai goes exactly according to plan, which some historians attribute to the impressive dowry the Tibetan princess brings into the marriage and which was provided mostly from Tang China´s and Rome´s treasuries. Bilge is declared the new Khagan and Ozmysh his Bek.

Ozmysh co-operates with the empires and is rewarded with an expiration date on the Göktürk vassalage: If the next ten years would pass peacefully and the Göktürks would then agree to the stationing of a joint Göktürk-Persian Silk route guard throughout their territory, tribute payments to Tang China would stop.

And they do. Ozmysh (or rather his influential, determined wife) founds a dozen monasteries over the next decades, at first exclusively staffed with Tibetan monks hand-picked by Chime Kalzang, but later including the first generation of their Göktürk disciples. The monks (who could never have risen to prominent positions so fast back home in Tibet) do as they`re advised and announce with feigned surprise how it was revealed to them that Khagan Bilge is in fact a lama.

Bilge, who likes his new aunt a lot (some say, more than that), readily accepts his new role, which includes extensive buddhist studies for a couple of years.

He emerges a true spiritual leader, whose reinterpretations of Tengrist shaman practices in the light of Tantric buddhism subtly but irreversibly change the religious practices of his fellow countrymen across the whole wide steppe and include a very important social group into the new social system. In political matters, lama-khagan Bilge translates cosmic harmony / unity with the sky with a respect for justified rules and laws within the confederacy and a fair and balanced order with all foreign powers.

His uncle, Bek Ozmysh, translates this into pragmatic policies of codifying traditional Göktürk rules into written laws. These he submits to Kuriltai, which in this period become institutionalised as annual gatherings of representatives from all tribes, hosted by a different tribe each year, but always on the grounds of a monastery (which further contributes to the spreading of monasteries and Buddhism across the land). Ozmysh`s foreign policies are characterised by strengthening the ties with China and Tibet, institutionalising the co-operation with Persia and establishing friendly contacts with the Roman Empire. Trade on the Silk route multiplies in these years, and customs payments to the Göktürks and Persians stabilise and enrich both countries. Medical breakthroughs, glass and petrochemical products from Europe reach Göktürkestan just like high-quality steel products and the letter press from China does. Göktürkestan`s favourable geographical position does not require them to export much in exchange; renowned horse breeds and increasingly also cotton cultivated by sedentary Göktürks make up most of the exports.

When Bilge dies an old man at the end of the century, the funeral ceremonies take several weeks, and among the tens of thousands of attending guests are high-ranking officials from Rome, Saba, Persia, Pala, Gupta India, Tibet, Tang China and Silla. He leaves behind a calm, self-confident, open and rapidly developing Göktürkestan in the middle of a process of redefining its identity, uniting nomadic, agrarian and urban Göktürks behind the idea that together, they form the centre of the Earth and must fulfill this role responsibly.

Centennial developments and trends
Co-operation between Rome, Persia and China to keep the Silk route open has far-reaching implications, first for the central Asian steppe and later due to intensified contacts between Europe and China.

Economy
Exchange through the Silk route brings advanced glass products and chemical and medical innovations to China - and advanced steel products and gunpowder to Europe. Only towards the end of the century are Chinese furnaces rebuilt in Europe and allow Romans and especially Celts an advanced steel production of their own.

Military
The Academia Martiana immediately perceive the potentials of gunpowder that Tang China had not thought of. First primitive firearms are used towards the end of the century in a punitive campaign against the Chasars, who had violated the Don-Volga-Caucasus dictate and attacked Slavic settlements in the Borysthenes region.

Religion

 * Imported from Tibet, Lamaist / Tantrist Buddhism takes deep roots in Göktürkestan. This is perhaps the last major step in Buddhism`s ascent to world`s no. 1 religion.

Nations of Europe

 * Celtic explorers discover Nova Hibernia (Newfoundland). Here and in Polaris, first contacts between Europeans and Northern American indigenous people occur. So far, Celtic (and generally European) interest remains marginal.
 * Roman Empire: Anarchist terrorists and revolts increase, but only cast a slight shadow on a thriving world power.
 * The Slavic confederacy signs a treaty of cooperation and free trade with Rome.
 * Ostrogothic sea merchants explore ever new parts of the world, including an island far away across the Atlantic Ocean inhabited by Taino people.

Nations of Asia

 * Chola breaks away from Pallava.
 * Sri Vijaya expands across Java.
 * Persia and Saba agree on a joint control of the Strait of Hormuz and sharing customs revenues equally (after the Gibraltar model).
 * After Saba-Aksum relations brighten up again, the same agreement is replicated for the Bab-el-Mandeb.

Nations of North America
Salvador79 (talk) 12:49, March 12, 2014 (UTC)

Abrittus