Journeys On The Silk Road Through Ages Romance Legend Reality

Journeys on the Silk Road Through Ages—Romance, Legend, Reality is a compelling narrative about the legendary Silk Road, down the ages. It takes us back to the nearly forgotten times when the dusty, long road was discovered by herders and nomads in search of pastures and oases. It was a long trek into the unknown. This gradually turned into the fabled ‘Silk Road’ spanning from China and across Central Asia, with its numerous trade routes, staging posts, caravanserais on the one hand, and the rugged landscape through steppes, across mountains, deserts and nations on the other. The Silk Road stood out like a great artery, that sustained for centuries. The Road with its routes conveyed not only commerce but also ideas and philosophy of the far-east China to the far-flung Roman Empire in the west, drawing from and contributing to other regions and countries that fell along the way – Turkestan, Afghanistan, India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Phoenicia and Anatolia, thus, linking the ancient and the medieval worlds. It was an enterprise of gigantic proportions; the great highway witnessed trade in almost all products, with silk, precious stones, porcelain, metals, and horses as chief commodities. Of these, silk was the foremost merchandise that merchants transported on camel caravans and upon mules from the Land of Serica. Slaves too were traded. Monks and warriors also walked along the trodden path. Merchants exchanged goods which made trade possible bringing in a flow of wealth, while monks and warriors exchanged philosophy, ideas, and statecraft, despite conflicts and wars. The narrative travels back to the times when the road started making history by joining imperial Xi’an with imperial Rome – a distance of more than 8,000kms – during the period of China’s Han Dynasty, sometime around 200 BC. This strangely endured till the present days of Communist China and OBOR, deliberating the Chinese Puzzle. The book is an adventurous amalgamation of history, travel and the unanticipated, and not merely a clichéd travel account. It presents a fascinating story of realms, rulers, travellers and merchants, both ancient and modern, with captivating collection of anecdotes, lores and current realities, from far and wide. Its brilliant web makes the book immensely readable.

In Revisiting the Silk Road , experienced author and traveller Julie Hill takes us on a spellbinding journey into the heart of a little known but volatile region, stretching from Western China to the shores of the oil-rich Caspian Sea and beyond to the Black Sea. Hers is not only a series of journeys overland or a march through ancient history, but an informed and contemporary view of life in both the liveliest cities and the farthest-flung outposts of what once was the worlds stoutest and longest economic artery. Julie Hills journey focuses on bazaars as a recurrent motifbazaars being the economic, social, and cultural centers of the Silk Roadand radiates from these bazaars to the life around them. Because she speaks their languageliterally and culturallyJulie is often welcomed by her hosts not as a customer or a trader but as a confessor and a friend, and she vindicates their trust by bringing their stories to life. In Iran, the author hears the predicament of women crying for freedom, frustrated by the deteriorating economy and the conservatives stranglehold on power. While inescapably exotic in its subjects and imagery, the book is also a penetrating report on the effects of the recent geopolitical upheavals that have coursed through the regionseen not from the distance of spy satellites or high government places but on the ground, often literally on the street or in the homes of ordinary folk. The realities of todays Silk Road are far more complex than often understood, and this book provides an absorbing and authoritative guide to any reader in search of both a magical adventure and a hard-nosed investigation into one of the worlds most important and dynamic regions.

Learn About The Silk Road And The Introduction Of Buddhism To The Western World In A Fraction Of The Time It Takes To Read The Actual Book!!!Today only, get this 1# Amazon bestseller for just $2.99. Regularly priced at $9.99. Read on your PC, Mac, smart phone, tablet or Kindle device In Journeys on the Silk Road, Joyce Morgan and Conrad Walters use historical records to create an entertaining narrative that brings the past to life. Rather than making a dry history book or a simple account of what happens, the authors color the story with vivid descriptions and minor details that allow readers to gain not just a sense of what happened but how it happened.Even as the authors take some creative liberty (adding specific dialogue where it is definitely not possible to have known exactly what was said), they remain as objective as possible and tell a story that conveys the facts as accurately as possible. This objectivity comes through clearly in the portions of the book in which the authors describe alternative perspectives on the historical events which occurred. For example, readers are given opposing viewpoints in the form of the letter from the angry Chinese scholars who denounce Aurel Stein, the novel's protagonist, as a looter and thief. Later on, the authors discuss the controversy surrounding the British explorer's legacy in light of recent scholarly concerns. This extends to a broader discussion of who owns cultural heritage materials. While the Chinese claim cultural ownership over the scrolls and other artifacts removed from the caves by Aurel Stein, many of the scrolls were written in languages other than Chinese (such as Tibetan) and languages that are now long dead. The authors bring up the problem of who can claim ownership over material representing cultures which no longer exist?Here Is A Preview Of What You'll Learn When You Download Your Copy Today• General Overview and Summary of "The Silk Road: A Desert Explorer, Buddha's Secret Library, and the Unearthing of the World's Oldest Printed Book• How The Silk Road Impacted Humanity • The Reason Why Cultural Artifacts Are Difficult To Study• Learn How Buddhism Spread To The West Download Your Copy Today! The contents of this book are easily worth over $9.99, but for a limited time you can download "Summary of "Journeys on the Silk Road: A Desert Explorer, Buddha's Secret Library, and the Unearthing of the World's Oldest Printed Book"" for a special discounted price of only $2.99

Examines the history of the Silk Road, the name given to a series of three major trade routes and hundreds of smaller side roads by which goods were transported from China to countries and empires around the Mediterranean Sea, and discusses the importance of the Silk Road in the exchange of information and ideas.

Acclaimed journalist Bernard Ollivier continues his epic journey across Persia and Central Asia as he walks the length of the Great Silk Road. Walking to Samarkand is journalist Bernard Ollivier’s stunning account of the second leg of his 7,200-mile walk from Istanbul, Turkey, to Xi’an, China, along the Silk Road--the longest and perhaps most mythical trade route of all time. Picking up where Out of Istanbul left off, Ollivier heads out of the Middle East and into Central Asia, grappling not only with his own will to continue but with new, unforeseen dangers. After crossing the final mountain passes of Turkish Kurdistan, Ollivier sets foot in Iran, keen on locating vestiges of the silk trade as he passes through Persia’s modern cities and traditional villages, including Tabriz, Tehran, Nishapur, and the holy city of Mashhad. Beyond urban areas lie deserts: first Iran’s Great Salt Desert, then Turkmenistan’s forbidding Karakum, whose relentless sun, snakes, and scorpions pose continuous challenges to Ollivier’s goal of reaching Uzbekistan. Setting his own fears aside, he travels on, wonderstruck at every turn, borne by a childhood dream: to see for himself the golden domes and turquoise skies of Samarkand, one of Central Asia’s most ancient cities. But what Ollivier enjoys most are the people along the way: Askar, the hospitable gardener; the pilgrims of Mashhad; and his knights in shining armor, Mehdi and Monir. For, despite setting out alone, he comes to find that walking itself—through a kind of alchemy—surrounds him with friends and fosters fellowship. From the authoritarian mullahs of revolutionary Iran to the warm welcome of everyday Iranians—custodians of age-old, cordial Persian culture; from the stark realities of former Soviet republics to the region’s legendary bazaars—veritable feasts for the senses—readers discover, through the eyes of a veteran journalist, the rich history and contemporary culture of these amazing lands.

A journey along the greatest land route on earth, from the master of travel writing Colin Thubron On buses, donkey carts, trains, jeeps and camels, Colin Thubron traces the drifts of the first great trade route out of the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey. Covering over 7000 miles in eight months Thubron recounts extraordinary adventures - a near-miss with a drunk-driver, incarceration in a Chinese cell during the SARS epidemic, undergoing root canal treatment without anaesthetic in Iran - in inimitable prose. Shadow of the Silk Road is about Asia today; a magnificent account of an ancient world in modern ferment. 'It is hard to think of a better travel book written this century' Times 'Thubron is the pre-eminent travel writer of his generation' Sunday Telegraph

Join the caravan for an exciting year-long trek along China's ancient Silk Road. Following the rhyming, treasure-filled story are informational endnotes about the history of the Silk Road, the story of silk, important cities of China, and a full-spread map. Ages: 4-10 Colour illustrations

A food writer travels the Silk Road, immersing herself in a moveable feast of foods and cultures and discovering some surprising truths about commitment, independence, and love. As a newlywed traveling in Italy, Jen Lin-Liu was struck by culinary echoes of the delicacies she ate and cooked back in China, where she’d lived for more than a decade. Who really invented the noodle? she wondered, like many before her. But also: How had food and culture moved along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route linking Asia to Europe—and what could still be felt of those long-ago migrations? With her new husband’s blessing, she set out to discover the connections, both historical and personal, eating a path through western China and on into Central Asia, Iran, Turkey, and across the Mediterranean. The journey takes Lin-Liu into the private kitchens where the headscarves come off and women not only knead and simmer but also confess and confide. The thin rounds of dough stuffed with meat that are dumplings in Beijing evolve into manti in Turkey—their tiny size the measure of a bride’s worth—and end as tortellini in Italy. And as she stirs and samples, listening to the women talk about their lives and longings, Lin-Liu gains a new appreciation of her own marriage, learning to savor the sweetness of love freely chosen.