The Silk Road, which linked imperial Rome and distant China, was once the greatest thoroughfare on earth. Along it travelled precious cargoes of silk, gold, and ivory, as well as revolutionary new ideas. Its oasis towns blossomed into thriving centres of Buddhist art and learning. In time it began to decline. The traffic slowed, the merchants left, and finally its towns vanished beneath the desert sands to be forgotten for a thousand years. But legends grew up of lost cities filled with treasurees and guarded by demons. In the early years of the 20th century, foreign explorers began to investigate these legends, and very soon an international race began for the art treasures of the Silk Road. Huge wall paintings, sculptures, and priceless manuscripts were carried away, literally by the ton, and are today scattered through the museums of a dozen countries. Peter Hopkirk tells the story of the intrepid men who, at great personal risk, led these long-range archaeological raids, incurring the undying wrath of the Chinese.

The Silk Road, which linked imperial Rome and distant China, was once the greatest thoroughfare on earth. Along it travelled precious cargoes of silk, gold and ivory, as well as revolutionary new ideas. Its oasis towns blossomed into thriving centres of Buddhist art and learning. In time it began to decline. The traffic slowed, the merchants left and finally its towns vanished beneath the desert sands to be forgotten for a thousand years. But legends grew up of lost cities filled with treasures and guarded by demons. In the early years of the last century foreign explorers began to investigate these legends, and very soon an international race began for the art treasures of the Silk Road. Huge wall paintings, sculptures and priceless manuscripts were carried away, literally by the ton, and are today scattered through the museums of a dozen countries. Peter Hopkirk tells the story of the intrepid men who, at great personal risk, led these long-range archaeological raids, incurring the undying wrath of the Chinese.

The Silk Road, which linked imperial Rome and distant China, was once the greatest thoroughfare on earth. Along it travelled precious cargoes of silk, gold and ivory, as well as revolutionary new ideas. Its oasis towns blossomed into thriving centres of Buddhist art and learning. In time it began to decline. The traffic slowed, the merchants left and finally its towns vanished beneath the desert sands to be forgotten for a thousand years. But legends grew up of lost cities filled with treasures and guarded by demons. In the early years of the last century foreign explorers began to investigate these legends, and very soon an international race began for the art treasures of the Silk Road. Huge wall paintings, sculptures and priceless manuscripts were carried away, literally by the ton, and are today scattered through the museums of a dozen countries. Peter Hopkirk tells the story of the intrepid men who, at great personal risk, led these long-range archaeological raids, incurring the undying wrath of the Chinese.

"Evocative and enigmatic, the Silk Road occupies a unique place in contemporary culture and international affairs. Across the world, it has captured the imagination as a story of camel caravans crossing desert and mountain, of precious goods moving between East and West, and of ideas, religions and technologies migrating across land and sea. As China seeks to "revive" the Silk Roads for the twenty-first century, this compelling, yet poorly understood, narrative of history now serves as a platform for building trade, diplomatic, infrastructure and geopolitical connections. "The Silk Road: Connecting Histories and Futures" is the first book to critically investigate the merits and problems of this fabled geocultural narrative of history, and map out the role it plays in international affairs. Four thematic sections trace its rise to global fame as a domain of scholarship and foreign policy, a celebration of peace and internationalism, and how it created dreams of exploration and grand adventure. China's Health Silk Road and civilizational politics are among the themes discussed that open up the Silk Roads as a space for critical enquiry"--

The romance of the journey along the Silk Road with its exotic locales and luxury goods still excites the popular imagination. The trade route between China and Central Asia that flourished from about 200 BCE to the 1500s, the Silk Road can provide great insight for contemporary higher education curricula. Indeed, with people, plants, animals, ideas, and beliefs traversing it, the Silk Road is now considered both a metaphor of globalization and an early example of it. Teaching the Silk Road highlights the reasons to incorporate this material into courses and shares resources to facilitate that process. It is intended for those who are not Silk Road or Asian specialists but who wish to embrace a global history and civilizations perspective in teaching, as opposed to the more traditional "world history" view that shows impacts of other societies on Europe. The work explores both classroom and experiential learning and is intentionally interdisciplinary. Each essay focuses on pedagogical strategies or themes that teachers can use to bring the Silk Road into the classroom.

"Partly a characterization of the Chinese temperament and culture, partly an outline of China's difficult task in fitting herself to the industrial life of western machinery."--Preface.

This gorgeously illustrated oversized book brings the history and cultures of the Silk Road alive -- from its beginnings to the present day -- covering more than 5000 years.

Realms of the Silk Roads Part 1: New Sources on Inner Asian History N. Sims-Williams, Some Reflections on Zoroastrianism in Sogdiana and Bactria; G. Mikkelsen, Traite/Sermon on the Light-Nous in Chinese and its Parallels in the Parthian, Sogdian and Old Turkish; A.V.G. Betts & V.N. Yagodin, Hunting Traps on the Ustiurt Plateau, Uzbekistan. Part 2: Long Distance Contacts S. Lieu, Byzantium, Persia and China: Interstate Relations on the Eve of the Islamic Conquest; D. Christian, Silk Roads or Steppe Roads ? The Silk Roads in World History; M. Underdown, The Northern Silk Road: Ties between Turfan and Korea. Part 3: Political Life C. Benjamin, The Yuezhi and their Neighbours: Evidence for the Yuezhi in the Chinese Sources c. 220 - c. 25 BCE; K. Nourzhanov, Politics of National Reconciliation in Tajikistan: From Peace Talks to (Partial) Political Settlements; S. Akbarzadeh, Islam and Regional Stability in Central Asia; C. Mackerras, Relations Between the Uygur State and China's Tang Dynasty, 744-840. Part 4: Perspectives G. Watson, Prestigious Peregrinations : British Travellers in Central Asia c. 1830-1914; F. Patrikeeff, The Geopolitics of Myth: Interwar Northeast Asia and Images of an Inner Asian Empire; D. Thwaites, The Road to Urumqui: Zunun Kadir's Lost World; F. Patrikeeff & J. Perkins, National and Imperial Identity: A Triptych of Baltic Germans in Inner Asia. Part 5: Teaching Inner Asian History R. Fletcher & E. Hetherington, The China TimeMap Project: China and the Silk Roads; M. With, Creating Responsible Educational Images of Judaic / Christian / Islamic Relations.