Download or read book Great Journeys across the Pamir Mountains written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A group of leading scholars examine numerous manuscripts from China and Central Asia to understand sophisticated multi-cultural communities along the Silk Road in the medieval period.
Download or read book Trekking in Tajikistan written by Jan Bakker and published by Cicerone Press Limited. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This guide describes twenty high-altitude treks of 2-9 days in the mountains of Tajikistan, covering the Fann Mountains, Pamirs and northern ranges, plus five day hikes near the capital, Dushanbe, and a 10-day trek in the Afghan Wakhan Corridor. As well as detailed route description and 1:100,000 mapping for each trek, there is a wealth of practical advice on transport and visas, trekking support, equipment, cultural awareness, safety and security, as well as background notes on history, flora and fauna and a Tajik-Russian-Pamiri-English glossary. The guide can be used either to plan an independent trek or to select, prepare for and enhance an organised expedition. Known as 'the Roof of the World', Tajikistan is one of the most mountainous countries on Earth, with 93% of its landmass considered mountainous territory. This is where the mighty Himalaya meet the Tian Shan, Karakoram and Hindu Kush, and a centuries-old network of trails criss-crosses the remote terrain, linking isolated villages and shepherds' camps. Although infrastructure is fragile and tourism in its infancy, this Central Asian nation presents some outstanding opportunities for the adventurous trekker. The hand-picked routes showcase Tajikistan's breathtaking landscapes of lofty snow-capped peaks, turquoise lakes and sweeping high-altitude plateaus. Trekking here is also a rich cultural experience: in addition to wild camping, many of the treks include the opportunity to experience the fascinating local culture and warm hospitality in a traditional homestay, meeting those who call this remote wilderness home. This guide will be your companion to discovering Tajikistan, a country with so much to offer and one of Central Asia's best kept secrets.
Download or read book Northern Wei 386 534 written by Scott Pearce and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is a study of an Inner Asian people called the *Taghbach (Ch. Tuoba), who half a century after collapse of the Han state (206 BCE-220 CE) began the process of building a new kind of empire in East Asia. Though addressing larger historiographical issues, the book's main purpose is, within the limits of our sources, to see this people in and of themselves, in a detailed narrative that follows them from the emergence of the khan Liwei in the mid-third century, in the highland frontier between Inner Asia and the Chinese world, and ends almost three hundred years later, with the drowning of the dynasty's last matriarch in the Yellow River. Across the centuries, they repeatedly changed their name, nature and location. What remained relatively consistent, however, was their reliance on cavalry armies, filled with loyal men of Inner Asian origin. When that ended, the dynasty ended as well. Underlying the narrative are two main issues. One is that Northern Wei was the first major example of a kind of empire seen often in East Asian histories, the "conquest dynasties," regimes of Inner Asian origin which would over the centuries repeatedly seize control of territories inhabited for the most part by Chinese to create cultural and ethnically complex state systems. The second is historiographical: that this dynasty was renamed and reimagined to fit into the textual tradition of its Chinese subjects. Being our only primary written sources for the dynasty, these texts are here used with care"--
Download or read book Buddhism in Central Asia I written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-01-13 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ERC-funded research project BuddhistRoad aims to create a new framework to enable understanding of the complexities in the dynamics of cultural encounter and religious transfer in pre-modern Eastern Central Asia. Buddhism was one major factor in this exchange: for the first time the multi-layered relationships between the trans-regional Buddhist traditions (Chinese, Indian, Tibetan) and those based on local Buddhist cultures (Khotanese, Uyghur, Tangut, Khitan) will be explored in a systematic way. The first volume Buddhism in Central Asia (Part I): Patronage, Legitimation, Sacred Space, and Pilgrimage is based on the start-up conference held on May 23rd–25th, 2018, at CERES, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany) and focuses on the first two of altogether six thematic topics to be dealt with in the project, namely on “patronage and legitimation strategy” as well as "sacred space and pilgrimage."
Download or read book The King s Road written by Xin Wen and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-24 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exciting and richly detailed new history of the Silk Road that tells how it became more important as a route for diplomacy than for trade The King’s Road offers a new interpretation of the history of the Silk Road, emphasizing its importance as a diplomatic route, rather than a commercial one. Tracing the arduous journeys of diplomatic envoys, Xin Wen presents a rich social history of long-distance travel that played out in deserts, post stations, palaces, and polo fields. The book tells the story of the everyday lives of diplomatic travelers on the Silk Road—what they ate and drank, the gifts they carried, and the animals that accompanied them—and how they navigated a complex web of geographic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. It also describes the risks and dangers envoys faced along the way—from financial catastrophe to robbery and murder. Using documents unearthed from the famous Dunhuang “library cave” in Western China, The King’s Road paints a detailed picture of the intricate network of trans-Eurasian transportation and communication routes that was established between 850 and 1000 CE. By exploring the motivations of the kings who dispatched envoys along the Silk Road and describing the transformative social and economic effects of their journeys, the book reveals the inner workings of an interstate network distinct from the Sino-centric “tributary” system. In shifting the narrative of the Silk Road from the transport of commodities to the exchange of diplomatic gifts and personnel, The King’s Road puts the history of Eastern Eurasia in a new light.
Download or read book The Syntax of Colophons written by Nalini Balbir and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-12-31 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the first to attempt a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary analysis of the manuscript cultures implementing the pothi manuscript form (a loosely bound stack of oblong folios). It is the indigenous form by which manuscripts have been crafted in South Asia and the cultural areas most influenced by it, that is to say Central and South East Asia. The volume focuses particularly on the colophons featured in such manuscripts presenting a series of essays enabling the reader to engage in a historical and comparative investigation of the links connecting the several manuscript cultures examined here. Colophons as paratexts are situated at the intersection between texts and the artefacts that contain them and offer a unique vantage point to attain global appreciation of their manuscript cultures and literary traditions. Colophons are also the product of scribal activities that have moved across regions and epochs alongside the pothi form, providing a common thread binding together the many millions of pothis still today found in libraries in Asia and the world over. These contributions provide a systematic approach to the internal structure of colophons, i.e. their ‘syntax’, and facilitate a vital, comparative approach.
Download or read book Conservation of Books written by Abigail Bainbridge and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-03-27 with total page 735 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conservation of Books is the highly anticipated reference work on global book structures and their conservation, offering the first modern, comprehensive overview on this subject. The volume takes an international approach to its subject. Written by over 70 specialists in conservation and conservation science based in 19 countries, its 26 chapters cover traditional book structures from around the world, the materials from which they are made and how they degrade, and how to preserve and conserve them. It also examines the theoretical underpinnings of conservation: what and how to treat, and the ethical, cultural, and economic implications of treatment. Technical drawings and photographs illustrate the structures and treatments examined throughout the book. Ultimately, readers gain an in-depth understanding of the materiality of books in numerous global contexts and reflect on the practical considerations involved in their analysis and treatment. Conservation of Books is a quintessential reference work for book conservators and anyone working with books, such as collection managers, librarians, curators, dealers, collectors, historians, and related professionals. It is also an indispensable text for students to complement hands-on training in this field.
Download or read book Animals and Human Society in Asia written by Rotem Kowner and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-11-06 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection offers a comprehensive overview of the different aspects of human-animal interactions in Asia throughout history. With twelve thematically-arranged chapters, this book examines the diverse roles that beasts, livestock, and fish — real and metaphorical– have played in Asian history, society, and culture. Ranging from prehistory to the present day, the authors address a wealth of topics including the domestication of animals, dietary practices and sacrifice, hunting, the use of animals in war, and the representation of animals in literature and art. Providing a unique perspective on human interaction with the environment, the volume is cross-disciplinary in its reach, offering enriching insights to the fields of animal ethics, Asian studies, world history and more.
Download or read book Handbook of Ancient Afro Eurasian Economies written by Sitta von Reden and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-10-24 with total page 950 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Handbook of Ancient Afro-Eurasian Economies offers in three volumes the first comprehensive discussion of economic development in the empires of the Afro-Eurasian world region to elucidate the conditions under which large quantities of goods and people moved across continents and between empires. Volume 3: Frontier-Zone Processes and Transimperial Exchange analyzes frontier zones as particular landscapes of encounter, economic development, and transimperial network formation. The chapters offer problematizing approaches to frontier zone processes as part of and in between empires, with the goal of better understanding how and why goods and resources moved across the Afro-Eurasian region. Key frontiers in mountains and steppes, along coasts, rivers, and deserts are investigated in depth, demonstrating how local landscapes, politics, and pathways explain network practices and participation in long-distance trade. The chapters seek to retrieve local knowledge ignored in popular Silk Road models and to show the potential of frontier-zone research for understanding the Afro-Eurasian region as a connected space.
Download or read book Hunnic Peoples in Central and South Asia written by Dániel Balogh and published by Barkhuis. This book was released on 2020-03-12 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a comprehensive compilation of primary textual sources pertaining to the history of Hunnic peoples in the vast area encompassing Central and South Asia. Sources in nearly a dozen languages have been carefully selected by scholars with a specialisation in the particular language and relevant research experience. Each excerpt in the chrestomathy is presented in the original language, accompanied by an authoritative translation into a modern European language to make it accessible to specialists of other fields. Many texts are, moreover, accompanied by a commentary highlighting crucial points of interest, problematic issues and connections to the information revealed in other sources. The Sourcebook is the outcome of an interdisciplinary workshop held at Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest, Hungary) in August 2017, organised by the project Beyond Boundaries and funded by the European Research Council. The initial compilation of source texts was selectively presented, analysed and discussed at this workshop, culminating in the present volume, whose publication has also been supported by the ERC. The authors and the editor present the book to the community of scholars and enthusiasts in hopes that, by making pertinent primary sources accessible, it will serve as a solid foundation on which to base future research. The included commentaries are thus not intended to be exhaustive, but to instigate further enquiry. For in-depth discussion of many issues raised here, a Companion series is planned to follow the Sourcebook. The first companion volume, a study of the Alkhan by Hans Bakker, is released simultaneously by Barkhuis, Groningen.
Download or read book Bogowie A Study of Eastern Europe s Ancient Gods written by T.D. Kokoszka and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2023-08-25 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: T.D. Kokoszka grew up in Texas with a Jewish mother and a Polish-American father. While he was aware of roots going back to Eastern Europe from both families, he found it hard to learn very much about them. He knew that Polish people would whack one another with palm leaves around Easter, and he knew that his great-grandmother purportedly believed in forest spirits known as borowy. However, it wasn't until he was in his teens that he became vaguely aware of an ancient people known as the Slavs who gave rise to the Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Slovakian, Slovene, and Czech languages. It quickly became clear to him that this was a family of cultures currently under-represented in popular culture, and even in western scholarship. Not simply a regurgitation of scholarship from the Soviet period - and presenting new analyses by using previously neglected resources - Bogowie: A Study of Eastern Europe's Ancient Gods offers one of the most painstaking scholarly reconstructions of Slavic paganism. These new resources include not only an overview of folklore from many different Slavic countries but also comparisons with Ossetian culture and Mordvin culture, as well as a series of Slavic folktales that Kokoszka analyzes in depth, often making the case that the narratives involved are mythological and shockingly ancient. Readers will recognize many European folktale types and possibly learn to look at these folktales differently after reading this book.
Download or read book Dunhuang Manuscript Culture written by Imre Galambos and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Dunhuang Manuscript Culture” explores the world of Chinese manuscripts from ninth-tenth century Dunhuang, an oasis city along the network of pre-modern routes known today collectively as the Silk Roads. The manuscripts have been discovered in 1900 in a sealed-off side-chamber of a Buddhist cave temple, where they had lain undisturbed for for almost nine hundred years. The discovery comprised tens of thousands of texts, written in over twenty different languages and scripts, including Chinese, Tibetan, Old Uighur, Khotanese, Sogdian and Sanskrit. This study centres around four groups of manuscripts from the mid-ninth to the late tenth centuries, a period when the region was an independent kingdom ruled by local families. The central argument is that the manuscripts attest to the unique cultural diversity of the region during this period, exhibiting—alongside obvious Chinese elements—the heavy influence of Central Asian cultures. As a result, it was much less ‘Chinese’ than commonly portrayed in modern scholarship. The book makes a contribution to the study of cultural and linguistic interaction along the Silk Roads.
Download or read book Studies on the History and Culture Along the Continental Silk Road written by Xiao Li and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-09-10 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents outstanding articles addressing various aspects related to the ancient Silk Road, in particular the cultural, political, and economic interactions that took place among the civilizations and cultures on the Eurasian continent. In addition, the articles help to reveal the hallmark features of cultural communication in Inner Asia in different historical periods. The book develops a new approach to studying the civilizations of the Silk Road, promotes interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional research, sets a new direction for Chinese ancient classics and western sinology, and presents the latest discoveries, including both archaeological finds and historical documents.
Download or read book Atlas of Exploration written by Shona Grimbly and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-26 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Download or read book Winds of the Steppe written by Bernard Ollivier and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bernard Ollivier pushes onward in his attempt to become the first person to walk the entire length of the Great Silk Road. “A gripping account. More than just a travel story—this is a quest for the Other.”—Alexis Liebaert, L’Événement Picking up where Walking to Samarkand left off, Winds of the Steppe continues the astonishing tale of journalist Bernard Ollivier’s 7,200-mile walk from Turkey to China along the Silk Road, the longest and most mythical trade route of all time. Taking readers from the snows of the Pamir Mountains to the backstreets of Kashgar—a Central Asian city that could be the setting for One Thousand and One Nights—to the Tian Shan Mountains to the endless Taklamakan and Gobi Deserts of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Bernard Ollivier continues his epic foot journey along the Great Silk Road hoping to make his way to Han China and reach, at long last, the legendary city of Xi’an. After traveling through a region dotted with former Buddhist shrines, Ollivier finds himself craving the warm welcome of Islamic lands, where, regardless of their culture or nationality, travelers are often treated as esteemed guests. Beyond the occasional vestige of the old Silk Road, Ollivier comes face to face with sites of religious significance, China’s Great Wall, and of course thousands of everyday people along the way. As Ollivier tries to make sense of his journey and find connections between these people’s daily lives and the so-called “modern” world, he does so with a sense of humility that transforms his personal journey into a universal quest.
Download or read book Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography written by Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain) and published by . This book was released on 1888 with total page 892 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and monthly record of geography written by and published by . This book was released on 1888 with total page 912 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
