Read online ebook Kizil on the Silk Road : Crossroads of Commerce and Meeting of Minds (2008, Hardcover) by in DJV
9788185026855 English 8185026858 "With the current focus on globalization has come a revival of interest in the Silk Road, that fabled artery of globalization of the 1st millennium, which linked the great civilizations of China and India, through the vast terrains of Central Asia, and then meandered along to Persia, parts of the Roman Empire, and thence to Europe. This book focuses on the startlingly beautiful Buddhist Cave complex of Kizil, an important conduit in the transmission of Buddhist art and thought along the Silk Road from India to China."--BOOK JACKET., Recently, the academic world celebrated 100 years of the opening of Cave 17 or the Library Cave, a veritable treasure house of Silk Road artifacts, in Dunhuang, the eastern terminus of the silk routes. Celebrations recording a hundred years of Tocharian Studies soon followed. The complexity of documenting the cultural artifacts of the so-called Silk Road becomes clear when it is remembered that between 1900 - 1925 just six men made what have been called archaeological raids into this remote corner of Central Asia. Between them until the 1940s they removed wall paintings, manuscripts, sculptures and other treasures literally by tons from the lost cities of the Silk Road. Today this great Central Asian collection, apart from what is in situ, is scattered through museums and institutions of at least 12 different countries. To even see some of this treasure one has to travel to Great Britain, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United States, and have to visit over 30 institutions. The German expedition alone collected manuscripts in more than 20 languages and 25 scripts on silk, leather, birch, bark, wood paper, and more. Little wonder then that the articles on Kizil and generally on the Silk Road lie buried in obscure publications in different languages, Chinese, German and Russian being the most frequently used, apart from English.
9788185026855 English 8185026858 "With the current focus on globalization has come a revival of interest in the Silk Road, that fabled artery of globalization of the 1st millennium, which linked the great civilizations of China and India, through the vast terrains of Central Asia, and then meandered along to Persia, parts of the Roman Empire, and thence to Europe. This book focuses on the startlingly beautiful Buddhist Cave complex of Kizil, an important conduit in the transmission of Buddhist art and thought along the Silk Road from India to China."--BOOK JACKET., Recently, the academic world celebrated 100 years of the opening of Cave 17 or the Library Cave, a veritable treasure house of Silk Road artifacts, in Dunhuang, the eastern terminus of the silk routes. Celebrations recording a hundred years of Tocharian Studies soon followed. The complexity of documenting the cultural artifacts of the so-called Silk Road becomes clear when it is remembered that between 1900 - 1925 just six men made what have been called archaeological raids into this remote corner of Central Asia. Between them until the 1940s they removed wall paintings, manuscripts, sculptures and other treasures literally by tons from the lost cities of the Silk Road. Today this great Central Asian collection, apart from what is in situ, is scattered through museums and institutions of at least 12 different countries. To even see some of this treasure one has to travel to Great Britain, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United States, and have to visit over 30 institutions. The German expedition alone collected manuscripts in more than 20 languages and 25 scripts on silk, leather, birch, bark, wood paper, and more. Little wonder then that the articles on Kizil and generally on the Silk Road lie buried in obscure publications in different languages, Chinese, German and Russian being the most frequently used, apart from English.