The Silk Road Journey

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Labrang Monastery, novice monks (trapa), practice blowing the dungchen, traditional 13-foot horns, that will be used in Buddh...
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In the chill of the early morning, monks gather on the steps of Labrang Monastery, awaiting prayers and their only meal of th...
A steaming cauldron of the Tibetan staple yak butter tea will serve 800 monks at Shechen Monastery. Tea, yaks and horses wer...
Buddhist faithful at the Segyagu Meditation Center perform the Kora, circumambulating the temple, turning huge prayer wheels ...
Dawn breaks over the Tibetan Plateau, the Roof of the World, where the three great rivers of Asia — the Salween, Mekong and Y...
Though Marco Polo made special note of this impressive lake — “… in which are found great quantities of the best fish in the ...
A herdsman leads his cattle across a bridge suspended high above a chiseled gorge carved by the Mekong River — the Mother of ...
Yao women in Yunnan still proudly sport gold-sheathed teeth, just as Marco Polo described in the 13th century. Yunnan, China
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Ahead of the times, at least by Western standards of Marco Polo’s day, Hangzhou’s aquaculture has been practiced here since t...
A view of a pavilion on West Lake in Yangzhou. Home throughout its history to great merchant families, poets, artists and sch...
Sunset illuminates the waters of the Grand Canal, the world’s longest manmade waterway. “You must know that the vessels on t...
Hangzhou is the southern terminus of the Grand Canal and was known in Marco Polo’s day as the “city of 12,000 bridges”. Hang...
The Jianshanling portion of the Great Wall, built during the Ming Dynasty, was intended to keep marauding Mongols from invadi...
Marco Polo neglected to mention the Great Wall of China in his accounts, leading many to doubt his veracity. But the majesti...
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A reclining Buddha sleeps peacefully at the Mogao Caves, near Dunhuang. Also known as the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, the...
This windswept dune was known as the Sands That Sing to travellers like Marco Polo: “… when one of them chances to lag behind...
Noodles, especially those that are hand-pulled, are popular all over China, leaving one to wonder if it was Marco Polo and hi...
Hotan, on the southwestern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, was a strategic station on the southern Silk Road. An ethnic meltin...
A young Uygur mother gets an assist from her industrious son, as they spin silk fibers on a wheel, just as their ancestors di...
page 246-247
Even in Marco Polo’s day, this oasis city’s streets thronged with merchants and traders. “There are a good number of town an...
A single red umbrella stands out during a sudden rare snowstorm on the road to Kashgar, the westernmost city in China and one...
In this small village [Tiznot] near Taxkorgan, where all boys wear blue and girls wear red, these young students prepare for ...
Tajik schoolchildren help each other with their lessons before class. They are Mountain Tajiks, an ethnic minority originally...
This lake, floating at the junction of the Pamir, Tian Shan and Kunlun mountains, is the highest lake of the Pamir plateau. “...
Horses graze freely in the lush meadows in this valley, unaware of the snow-capped Pamir mountains brushing the sky at the bo...
Ovis polii, better known as the Marco Polo sheep, in honor of the traveler who first wrote about it for a western audience, i...
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Time seems to have stopped in many parts of Afghanistan, where often the best mode of transportation is donkey-back, just as ...
Taloqan is a land of shepherds and warriors, even today. Marco Polo described its inhabitants as “a people [who] worship Moh...
Taloqan sits at the edge of a lush plain, with mountains looming behind. Describing the scene from a mountain vantage point,...
Marco Polo wrote about the “black-skinned people” of the western coastal region of Iran along the Persian Gulf. Because the r...
Along the road from Kerman to Hormuz, which was a bustling port, Marco Polo was impressed by the “many natural hot baths … [w...
The ancient citadel here was the largest monument made of clay bricks in the world, until it was reduced to rubble in a 2003 ...
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Sunset illuminates the 12th century Jame (Friday) Mosque, known for its striking blue Persian tile work. Yzad, Iran
Ingenious windcatchers (badgirs) on the roofs of Yazd, which lies in the midst of the desert of the central Iranian plateau, ...
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Dervishes, who ascribe to Sufism, a form of Islamic mysticism, incorporate trancelike dances into their rituals performed at ...
The Malwiya Minaret seems to have been inspired by Mesopotamian ziggurats like the Biblical Tower of Babel, where multiple la...
Baghdad is still a “city of domes” and not all adorn mosques. The giant turquoise double domes of the Al Shaheed monument, wa...
Marco Polo called Baghdad the “city of domes” and it’s easy to see why: here the golden domes and minarets of Khadimain Mosqu...
War is never far from the mind of any Kurd, male or female. Dressed in wedding finery, these guests are armed with their AK-4...
The Kurdish tribespeople that Marco Polo encountered during his travels were known as a warrior tribe. Merchants feared them,...
St. Mark’s Square, known as La Piazza, has been the center of Venetian life since Marco Polo’s day, and it is from here in 12...