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- The Painting Left Behind
- Central Asian Collections in Munich
- Early Exhibitions of the Collections of Aurel Stein, Part 5: 1922: Indian and Persian Paintings, British Museum.
- Nara to Norwich: Online Exhibition
- Early Exhibitions of the Collections of Aurel Stein, Part 4: 1918, Royal Geographical Society, London
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Author Archives: Susan Whitfield
The Painting Left Behind
Silk painting from Dunhuang, mistaken as a copy and sent by letter post to India. Continue reading
Central Asian Collections in Munich
Francke and Körber: 1914 expedition to Central Asia: Kashgar, Yarkhand, Khotan and Ladakh. Continue reading
Early Exhibitions of the Collections of Aurel Stein, Part 5: 1922: Indian and Persian Paintings, British Museum.
After 1919, parts of the newly acquisitioned Stein collection in the British Museum started to be exhibited in permanent and temporary exhibitions. This series concentrates on the latter, but we have a few hints of the former in this period … Continue reading
Posted in Exhibitions, Uncategorized
Tagged art, British Museum, Buddhism, Exhibitions, India, Laurence Binyon, Marc Aurel Stein, Nepal, painting, Tibet
3 Comments
Nara to Norwich: Online Exhibition
Great to work with colleagues on this online exhibition, exploring arts and beliefs at the ends of the Silk Roads: Nara to Norwich. Continue reading
Early Exhibitions of the Collections of Aurel Stein, Part 4: 1918, Royal Geographical Society, London
@RGS_IBG 1918 exhibition of Aurel Stein’s 3rd expedition #SilkRoad #photographs. Continue reading
Countless Moments of Mourning: a personal statement
I no longer visit the People’s Republic of China (PRC). As an established scholar with long-standing connections to institutions there, I feel that visiting the PRC could be seen as an endorsement of the current regime and their actions. Not … Continue reading
Posted in cultural heritage, Uyghurs
Tagged classical Chinese, language, Liu Zongyuan, mazar, Silk Road, Tarim Basin, Turkic, Uyghurs
2 Comments
Selenium and Horses in China: A Missing Link
‘In climbing up and down mountains and crossing ravines and mountain torrents, the horses of China cannot compare with those of the Xiongnu.’1 This observation by Chao Cuo 晁錯 (ca. 200–154 BC), a minister in the Han empire ruling China … Continue reading
Posted in horses, military, selenium, Silk Road art and history, trade
Tagged cavalry, horse breeding, horse-trade, horses
2 Comments
Aurel Stein at Dunhuang
A snippet from the forthcoming paper concerning Stein’s acquisitions from the Library cave at Dunhuang Mogao. Continue reading
UNESCO and the Silk Road: The Role of Japan
‘Silk Roads’ is now a concept embraced by UNESCO, with the first transnational serial site as inscribed in 2014. Japan had played a vital role in the early discussion of Eurasian links which led to the adoption of the ‘Silk … Continue reading
Posted in cultural heritage, Japan, Silk Road archaeology, Silk Road art and history
Tagged BRI, Central Asia, Herrmann, Hirayama, Japan, Korea, Nara to Norwich, UNESCO
2 Comments
A Trio of Mismatched Camels
A stone relief carving by a leading sculptor in 19th century Britain shows three camels—and the bones of a fourth—laden with goods being led by a man dressed in Bedouin robes. The frieze has been noted in several books and recent blog posts but few have mentioned a striking feature: the central camel is clearly a Bactrian, a two-humped camel from central Asia. How do we explain this anatopistic beast? Continue reading
Silk Road Digressions 