Fascinated by the Orient An exhibition of the letters, photographs and maps bequeathed to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences by the great
explorer, archaeologist, geographer and
Sanskritist Sir
Marc Aurel Stein. Journeyer
in the footsteps of Alexander,
explorer of
Central Asia and
West China, surveyor of the
antiquities of India and
Iran; after a long life of journeying through and studying central Asia, Aurel Stein found
his final rest in Kabul. He is also remembered for rediscovering the oldest dated printed book still in existence, a copy of the
Diamond Sutra in
the caves at Mogao. That the latter and many thousands of other manuscripts collected by Stein now reside in the
British Library is of course, like his other
'treasure hunting', not without
controversy.
posted by Abiezer
on Jan 4, 2010 -
4 comments
China’s wild west Considered journalism on the historical and political background to the recent inter-ethnic violence in Xinjiang.
posted by Abiezer
on Aug 12, 2009 -
9 comments
"On the evening of July 5th, several hundred Uighur youths went on a bloody rampage [in Urumqi, Xinjiang] following a peaceful demonstration over a separate incident of ethnic violence at a Guangdong toy factory. . . . In the days that followed, bands of roving Han vigilantes armed with kitchen knives, hammers, metal pipes and other improvised weapons sought to mete out revenge in the Uighur suburbs of the city. . . . Caught in-between these increasingly polarized and agitated ethnic communities is the Chinese state, which, rather than orchestrating the brutal oppression of the non-Han minorities, finds itself increasingly powerless to stop the spiralling circle of ethnic hatred which its policies helped to foster in the first place."
[more inside]
posted by Kirth Gerson
on Jul 18, 2009 -
45 comments
In the 1860’s, while the US was busy crushing its agrarian revolution, the Russians were busy expanding their empire towards Afghanistan and
cleansing the Caucuses of those pesky Circassians, Chechens, and Tartars (to name a few) in a little known places like Abkhazia, the British were busy expanding their empire towards Afghanistan and extinguishing the last outposts of “mutineers,” and the Qing Dynasty of China was losing its grip on its Empire due to a cult of longhaired Christians lead by Jesus’s Chinese little
brother. Alimkul, the de facto Khan of
Khotan took advantage of the chaos by sending his greatest general, Yakub Beg, to Kashgar...
[more inside]
posted by Pollomacho
on Mar 24, 2009 -
31 comments
Documentary about
China's Wild West: an area on the west frontier of China's Gobi Desert named Xinjiang (New Land) by the Chinese, but populated by a Muslim minority known as Uighurs who believe they should be an independent Uighur nation.
posted by Surfin' Bird
on Aug 27, 2008 -
7 comments
