The Silk Road, the great trans-Asian highway linking Imperial Rome to China, reached the height of its importance during the T'ang Dynasty. Along it travelled precious cargoes as well as new ideas, art and knowledge. Its oasis towns blossomed into thriving centres of trade. However, as the Chinese lost control of the region, it began to decline to the point where the towns disappeared beneath desert sands. Local legends grew of buried treasure guarded by demons. This is the story of the intrepid adventurers who, at great personal risk, led long-range archaeological raids to the region in the early years of the 20th century. Profiles of such archaeologists as Sir Aurel Stein, who carried off large quantities of priceless wall paintings, sculptures, silks and early manuscripts, augment a narrative which also traces the fate of the works of art that were removed.
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Foreign Devils on the Silk Road
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'Recounted with great skill ... opens a window onto a fascinating world' -- Financial Times 'Highly readable and elegant' -- Times Literary Supplement
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First Sentence
In Central Asia's back of beyond, where China tests her nuclear weapons and keeps a wary eye on her Russian neighbours, lies a vast ocean of sand in which entire caravans have been known to vanish without trace. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
In Central Asia's back of beyond, where China tests her nuclear weapons and keeps a wary eye on her Russian neighbours, lies a vast ocean of sand in which entire caravans have been known to vanish without trace. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mr. Hopkirk in all of his works is accurate, profound and should be mandatory reading for all Foreign Service personnel. Having done Central Asia, the book was the "bible" in knowing the intimate details needed to not only do business in the post-Soviet era, but just in being able to discuss and move within the people where many thousands could not even bring voice to such concepts in the old days, which today are only "chatted" about in remote areas. Hopkirk rips at the fabric of humanity in what the west thinks is proper and what is reality in an eastern environment with its many passionate, intelligent, warm, and emotionally infectious people. I have read all of Peter's works several times and I continue to do so. You just have to be there to know that Hopkirk hits the nerve. It's just too much!!
G. Jannotta
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
A fascinating account of the plundering of art objects from the Silk Road. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the fascinating tale of the intrigue and scheming as well as the hazards of the laborious expeditions. However, as another reviewer has written, I think Hopkirk has missed the point in that removing these art objects has saved them for posterity. The stolen artifacts are China's patrimony, much like the Magna Carta for Britain, Russian Icons, Martin Luther's writings for Germany, The Bordeaux tapestry for France and the manuscript of the Genji Monogatari for Japan, they are the essence of a nation' cultural heritage and should not be plundered and stashed away in foreign museums! The time has come for these to be returned to their rightful owners so they can be studied and documented and kept for posterity. I commend the book otherwise.
By Adoumri
Format:Paperback
It's easy to become enraptured by Hopkirk's romantic storytelling, but it's important not to forget that the "discoveries" of Sir Aurel Stein and others is tantamount to the theft of historical and cultural artifacts that do not belong to the European people. Like the plunder of religious objects of the Pacific Northwest Coast Indians and displaying them in museums like the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, European and Euro-American cultures have too long felt entitled to co-opt the "goods" of non-European cultures and do with them what they will. So-called "bartering" and "exchange" were often laced with half-hidden threats and intimidation.
The era of European domination is over, and it's time to return to those people what rightly belongs to them.
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Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Burglary in the back of beyond
What can you say about Peter Hopkirk that really sums up why he's the guru of the Great Game and derring-do in Central Asia. Read more
Published on Jan 20 2002 by M. Mcfarland
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
An excellent survey of the explorers of the Silk Road. In response to the New England reviewer, the bulk of the material in fact DID survive WWII; the majority of the texts were... Read more
Published on Aug 14 2001
5.0 out of 5 stars
So where was Indiana Jones?
A mesmerising book, Hopkirk writes with a flair and passion that is infectious. The stories told by Hopkirk in 'Foreign Devils on the Silk Road' read like they belong in an... Read more
Published on May 6 2000 by Tig Pocock
2.0 out of 5 stars
Patronizing
An interesting account, but Hopkirk's endorsement of the plundering of national treasures as "preservation" is a little disingenuous, given that the contents of the... Read more
Published on April 15 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fulfills the promise of its title. Recommended.
Excellent coverage of the first outside researchers to visit Chinese Turkestan (Xinkiang) in hundreds of years. Read more
Published on Aug 12 1998 by Eric Balkan
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