The sculptors of the second century verify our hypothesis not only in what they reproduce and in what they imitate of the works of the past: we may maintain that they do this, also, indirectly, in what they innovate.
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 This week the expedition, which has been traveling along the southern trade routes, doubles back and explores the area along the northern route. Read More: The Silk Road 11/12: Where Horses Fly Like the Wind  This is a first and certainly very important, but purely material, verification of our hypothesis. There are proofs more subtle than the proof of statistics, which open up deeper views of the development of the ancient Buddhist school. Read More: The Beginnings of Buddhist Art by A. Foucher – IV  The pipa (Chinese: 琵琶) is a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the Chinese lute, the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12–26. Read More: Liu Fang playing the Pipa (Chinese Lute)  The theme that runs throughout this week’s episode is music and dance. It includes some of the most interesting ethnographic photography of the Uighars in Kucha along the southern route passing through the Tian Shan mountains. Read More: The Silk Road 10/12: Journey Into Music, South Through the Tian Shan Mountains  The whole subsequent development of Buddhist art flows logically from these premises; and henceforth there are none of the still surviving documents which do not successively corroborate the various stages of its evolution. Read More: The Beginnings of Buddhist Art by A. Foucher – III  Although there is little of archeological interest in this episode, it remains one of the most memorable as the team take a trip along the newly constructed Turfan to Korla railway, which must be one of the really great railway journeys in the world. Read More: The Silk Road 9/12: Through the Tian Shan Mountains by Rail  To begin, we have the best reasons for thinking that the habit of adoring human images, and even the art of fabricating them, were still less general in the India of the Brahmans before Alexander than in the Gaul of the Druids before the time of Caesar. Read More: The Beginnings of Buddhist Art by A. Foucher – II  The expedition continues its journey westwards through Turfan, The Land of Fire, visiting a dried-up lake 150 metres below sea level, and the Fire Mountains on the way.  The following essay discusses the important aniconic phase of Buddhist art, giving a reasonable thesis for its production and development.  Thomas Berry was one of the most profound Catholic philosophers of the last century who dared to take a new look at the world that science was bringing to light and found inspiration in it. Read More: Thomas Berry and the Earth Community  There is very little archeology or art in this episode. The expedition flies over the desert in search of the ruins at Dan-dan Oilik, which was visited by Aurel Stein, but fails to find it as it had been covered by the desert at the time. Read More: The Silk Road 7/12: Khotan-Oasis of Silk and Jade  In July 2007, archeologists discovered intricately woven and dyed silk textiles in a tomb in Jiang-xi province, dated to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty roughly 2,500 years ago. Read More: The History and Production of Silk  This episode sees the expedition crossing the southern route of the Taklamakan desert, which in the Uighar language means the place from which no living thing returns.  This is an hour-long programme made for the PBS Nova Series about the European looking mummies discovered in the Taklamakan Desert. The mummies are unusual in that they simply survived because of the extreme dryness of their burial ground in the desert. Read More: Mysterious Mummies of China  The Kingdom of Lou-lan was an ancient Buddhistic kingdom which used to house 4,000 monks, a quarter of the population, but the remains are sparse indeed, as it disappeared into the desert it arose in, long ago. Read More: The Silk Road 5/12: In Search of the Kingdom of Lou-lan  The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to China started in the 3rd century BCE during the reign of the first emperor of China, Qin Shihuang. Read More: The Silk Road Transmission of Buddhism  The Dark Castle of the title refers to the fortress at Khara-khoto, which was a main center of the Tangut state. The Castle has legendary status amongst the local people, who fear to go there, but the crew find some guides and trek across the desert on camels. Read More: The Silk Road 4/12: The Dark Castle  Xuan-zang was fully ordained as a monk in 622, at the age of twenty. The myriad contradictions and discrepancies in the texts at that time prompted Xuan-zang to decide to go to India and study in the cradle of Buddhism. Read More: The Travels and Work of Xuan-zang  I follow up yesterday’s post on the Buddhist art of Thangka painting with a small collection of photographs from Wikimedia. The highest-definition files I could find are linked to by the small reproductions shown here. Read More: Thangkas 2: Some Examples |
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