I don’t remember when I first heard of Silk route but my
extended fascination began with it when I was doing my research about Xuanzang
while helping out with the words for a brochure for the Nalanda Area TouristGuides as a part of the Explore Rural India project and then again while I wrote the booklet
for the Xuanzang Memorial Museum. The Life Story Chapter and the travel Maps
took significant research along with the debate for the exact duration that
Xuanzang stayed/traveled in India during the 7th Century.
It was interesting since we were trying to reconstruct
history based on two different translations of his original account that he
wrote for Emperor Taizong in Chinese. And while reconstructing the story, we
were counter checking the details for facts as interpreted in both versions of
the translations and also with other historic and Tibetan accounts that were
available from the time. All in all, an interesting experience and it consumed
me with the desire to see this route that he wrote about so insistently and its
hardship made his resolution to travel to India, the land of Buddha equally
fervent.
Books are the next best things to actually traveling and
till the time that I actually feel the journey in my soul, I am living it
through the rustle of the pages in the glowing warmth of my bedside table lamp
via the book: ‘The Silk Road’ by Mark Norell, Denise Patry Leidy with Laura
Ross along with American Museum of Natural History
The book covered in detail the entire route along with the
Map and geological features, identifying the old city that must have existed
along with the place and culture that survives today. The cultural and archeological
references were particularly intriguing for me since my previous research
didn’t focus on these aspects of the silk route. This book is all facts and
information but written with language and nuances that make it a very
interesting read if you’d like a virtual tour of the area and I’d totally
recommend it.
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