Shadow of the Silk Road

Shadow of the Silk Road (P.S.)

Shadow of the Silk Road

"In the Footsteps of Marco Polo"

"For hours I tramped along a mountain road forty miles south of Zhangye, toward the cliff temples of Matisi, before the headlights of a van swung bleakly into view through the falling snow. Its driver shouted that the road ahead was closed: panic over the SARS virus was bringing everything to a standstill. All the same, he said, he would get me through. We clattered unquestioned past a police post. Then, as the snow cleared and weak sun came out, we entered an Alpine beauty of dark, unflowering trees under the Quilian mountains. In the village beneath the temples nothing moved. Someone had built a line of wooden villas, for pilgrims or mountain lovers, but they were deserted. Against one slope a solitary farmer drove a yak at a plow."

Colin Thubron has a gift for language and a sense of place. In "Shadow of the Silk Road,' he traces the ancient trade route 7,000 miles from China to the Mediterranean. Traveling by rail, local bus, horse, camel, goat cart and foot, he encounters the people who live in these lands, so distant geographically and spiritually from our own. Since he speaks both Mandarin Chinese and Russian, he is able to talk to these people and extract from their collective memory a history of the place. The Silk Road was more than goods and property: it was also a two-way street for ideas. For the most part, the political and geographic boundaries of these lands are artificial: "So the Tsarists, and the Bolsheviks after them, entered a land without nations, where a state was only the outreach of a ruler... Its frontiers were blurred opinions." (P. 201)

El Sr. Thubron es un viajero de antiguo cuño. No usa máquinas fotográficas. Si es que toma algunos apuntes, me imagino que lo hace sobre una Moleskine. Allí,tal vez, también dibuja. Educado en Eton y Oxford, su prosa es elegante y maravillosa. Hipnotiza al lector. Calla para dejar que los propios personajes hablen. Ha gastado su vida en Asia. Su conocimento llega al grado de la erudición, aunque nunca intimida con ello.
Lo veo en la línea de un Patrick Leigh Fermor o de R. Kapukzinski.
Se lo recomiendo, fervientemente.

Colin Thubron's vivid and very well written descriptions make us think about the complexity of Asia. His book is not just the report of a long journey, but also a valuable contribution for us to understand better the humankind. A perfect combination of realistic reports, history and culture. Thubron meets real people, talks about the past and also about the present, sometimes painful, of their vanishing way of life.

Thubron undertakes a spiritual and physical quest along the once commercial highway of the Silk Road from China across Central Asia and Iran to Turkey. Along this three-part journey, he plunges the reader into history, archeology, mythology, religions, and peoples whose genetic and cultural blending do not conform with political boundaries. Through artifacts like beautifully glinting faience or tile, the,often glorious, past is rediscovered through seeking out clues. In this trip of discovery, Thubron determinedly scales sheer cliffs with his fingernails, treads through villages and across rivulets to recover evidence of past civilizations in murals, tiles, minarets, chiseled-out caves, and more. He risks life and limb brushing against the SARS epidemic in China and passing through the territory ruled by thieves and unscrupulous guards in Afghanistan and in the Oxus. His good fortune is bolstered by his experience with local languages and with the region from a trip made twelve years ago during Soviet control and by his historical, political, religious, and mythological knowledge. The reader is given many facts and surprises, such as the longest epic's being the MANAS rather than the ODYSSEY. As he traverses the road, he tells the reader about the cities then and now and about conversations with their residents. An interesting story is his visit to a Moslem shrine during a crowded holiday. Such a proscribed visit by a non-Moslem requires escaping detection as the crowds press him forward; unexpectedly he is tugged gently along as a guest (pp 264-67, 270-72). Another good story is set in Tehran where he interviews an artsy youth with a film (pp. 284-93). Another is in Maragheh, where the draining of an inflamed abscess is a four-hour doubtful ordeal with dentists who do not speak his languages. Not least is the story of his surpise visit to an English language college in Tabriz where its female students ask questions of him and practice English. Not only does the author bring the Silk Road to light for the reader, a busy network bearing silk, printing, goods and ideas between the Pacific and the Mediterranean, he is also relating life along the Silk Road today, as these places might not receive many tourists. So, this travel memoir is both memorable and necessary.

Another great travel adventure By Colin Thurbon. I felt transported along with Thurbon as he tranversed the Silk Road. His references to past trips as well as history, provoked a need to research more about this part of this world. An excellent book. A must for those interested in China, Central Asia and World History.