2026-06-26 –, Room 208 (Seats 40)
This paper examines the Ancient Maritime Silk Route as a historical model of long-distance interconnection that functioned without the ideological framework of modern globalization. Focusing on exchanges between China and Sri Lanka across the Indian Ocean, it draws on Chinese dynastic histories such as the Book of Han and Sri Lankan chronicles, including the Mahavamsa, to reconstruct patterns of trade, diplomacy, and Buddhist mobility. Contrary to narratives that link global integration primarily to modern economic systems, pre-modern maritime networks reveal durable forms of interdependence grounded in tribute relations, commercial reciprocity, and religious exchange. Port cities operated as cosmopolitan contact zones where merchants, monks, and envoys moved across political boundaries even as states maintained distinct sovereignties and regulated mobility, demonstrating that connectivity could coexist with fragmentation, hierarchy, and episodic conflict. By foregrounding Asian maritime experiences, this study argues that interregional connection does not require universalist ideology or institutionalized globalization; rather, the Maritime Silk Route sustained negotiated interaction among culturally diverse polities while preserving local autonomy. Reconsidering these networks offers a valuable historical framework for understanding the contemporary world, where intense interdependence persists alongside resurgent border regimes, and contributes to broader debates in world history about how to conceptualize connection in periods when globalization as a political project is contested or in retreat.
Ancient Maritime Silk Route; Indian Ocean World; China–Sri Lanka Relations; Pre-Modern Connectivity; Maritime Trade; Buddhist Exchange
Nimesha Ekanayake is an emerging scholar in World History whose research reexamines the historical foundations of transregional connectivity across the Indian Ocean world. Specializing in maritime history, cross-cultural exchange, and inter-Asian diplomatic networks, her work explores how pre-modern societies constructed systems of interaction, coexistence, and mobility long before the rise of modern globalization. She holds a Master’s degree in World History from Southwest University, China, and a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Rajarata, Sri Lanka. Her scholarship focuses particularly on the Ancient Maritime Silk Route and the multifaceted historical relationships between China and Sri Lanka, emphasizing the movement of ideas, religions, commodities, and political thought across maritime Asia.
Nimesha’s research employs a comparative, interdisciplinary methodology that integrates historical texts, archaeological evidence, cultural analysis, and global historical perspectives. Her published and ongoing work examines themes such as diaspora identity formation, diplomatic imagination, religious interaction, and historical governance within Asian and Indian Ocean contexts. Through this approach, she seeks to challenge nation-centered historical narratives and illuminate the interconnected nature of pre-modern societies. Her research has been presented at several international academic forums, and she has also published peer-reviewed articles in indexed journals on maritime exchange, transnational identities, and Asian historical encounters.
At the WHA 2026 Conference, Nimesha will present her paper, “Connected Seas, Closed States: The Ancient Maritime Silk Route and Pre-Global Interdependence,” which investigates how historical maritime networks enabled sustained interregional exchange while simultaneously preserving political autonomy and localized identities. Her broader scholarly vision aims to rethink global connectivity through the lens of cultural interaction and non-Western experiences of world historical change.