Random Intimacy For Nomads Traveling The Silk Road (10 items)

(#1) Hosts Along The Road Let Travelers Sleep With Their Wives

According to Marco Polo, when travelers stayed at the house of a stranger, the host was often willing to let the visitor sleep with his wife.

Polo wrote that when a traveler arrived:

the host is delighted, and desires his wife to put herself entirely at the guest's disposal, whilst he himself gets out of the way, and comes back no more until the stranger shall have taken his departure. The guest may stay and enjoy the wife's society as long as he lists, whilst the husband has no shame in the matter, but indeed considers it an honour. And all the men of this province are made wittols of by their wives in this way. The women themselves are fair and wanton.

Marco Polo indicated that the Mongols were not particularly thrilled about this activity, but they left the men to their shame and their "naughty custom."
(#9) Intimacy Could Be Medicinal

In Ancient China, intimacy was natural, valuable, and believed to have a therapeutic, medicinal value. Medical texts include descriptions of proper and improper intercourse, practices that continued during the ebbs and flows of the period within which the Silk Road was used. The Tang Dynasty manual known as The Classic of the White Girl offers advice to men about lovemaking.

It also stresses the importance of the act for health and nature. Huangdi asks: “What will happen if one abstains from [intimacy]?”

Sunu replies: “That is absolutely out of the question. Yin and yang have their alternations as does everything in nature. Human beings should follow the rhythms of yin and yang just as they follow the rhythms of the seasons..."
(#6) Women Were Kidnapped And Exchanged

The Silk Road served as a conduit for moving women around Asia – by both force and diplomacy. The story of Wenji highlights the role of women along the Silk Road. In the 2nd century, Wenji was captured and transported along the Road, forced to marry a nomad warlord before being rescued. Wenji had two children by the man, and after her rescue, she mourned the loss of her nomad family.

For each step is a step away from them.
My soul is overwhelmed.
As their figures vanish in the distance
Only my love remains.

In the 7th century, Wencheng faired a bit better when she was escorted from China to Tibet as the bride-to-be for for a Tibetan ruler. The event was celebrated in China and Tibet alike.
(#7) Buddhist Tantra Influenced Relations In Practice And Spirit

Tantric Buddhism, a variation of Buddhism that emphasizes the path to Enlightenment through achieving ecstasy, is based on the idea that a person embraces the Divine. As Tantric Buddhism spread along the Silk Road – out of Tibet, where it was based, and into China and India – these depictions influenced carnal attitudes and practices.
(#3) Same-Sex Relationships Were Common

During the early days of the Silk Road, Roman influences were heavy, particularly on the western end. As a result, Roman ideas about same-sex relationships were extended along some of its length. The history of male companionship in the Mediterranean is long and storied, but historians find that the Mongols engaged in homosexuality in China as well as in the Russian khanates. There are accounts of Ghenghis Khan, whose given name was Temujin, sleeping under blankets with other men, and while this doesn't mean they were in an intimate relationship, it's impossible to know either way.

That said, in the Mongol world, there was a heavy Islamic influence, which tended to perceive homosexuality as an improper subject in polite society, but also tended to accept encounters between two people of the same gender as part of one's private life.
(#10) Inns Along The Road May Have Offered Women To Travelers Too

Turfan, an area in China through which merchants passed, entered into contracts with locals and officials for services like interpretation and travel passes. Official documents from Turfan reveal that women were at the market, as well, and may have been offered to men staying along the Road as part of a contractual agreement.

Merchants could also buy female slaves, and "the new owner can beat his slave, maltreat her, tie her up, sell her, hold her hostage, give her as a gift, or do whatever he likes with her." Copulation isn't specifically mentioned, but it is mentioned that the buyer can do "whatever he wants with her."