Bibliography

My publications are listed below with links where available. I have not listed book reviews or the many pieces I wrote for the International Dunhuang Project (IDP) newsletter and website.

Articles and Essays

‘Routes from the Swat: Reconstructing the Buddhist Landscape of Khotan.’ Forthcoming.

‘The Horse: a Symbol of Imperial Power.’ Forthcoming.

‘Stein’s Female Friends: “higher as an honour than membership of Academies.”‘ Forthcoming.

‘Political Persecution and Exile: The Other Story of Exploration of the Tarim Basin.’
Forthcoming.

‘The Laternendecke Ceiling: Transmissions Across Afro-Eurasia?.’ Acta Via Serica, 10, 1, (2025), 103-134. DOI: 10.22679/avs.2025.10.1.005.

‘Buddhist architecture in the Tarim Basin. In: Buddhist Architecture.’ Studies in Asian Art and Culture, edited by David Efurd and Susan Huntingdon. Bonn University Press. forthcoming

‘The Silk Road: The Use and Abuse of a Historical Concept’. The Historian 161 https://www.history.org.uk/publications/resource/10924/the-silk-roads-the-use-and-abuse-of-a-historica

‘Architectural Transmissions Across Central Asia: Contextualizing the Miran Squinch-Supported Dome.’ Acta Via Serica, 9.2 (2024): 59-84. DOI: 10.22679/avs.2024.9.2.003.

‘Towers and Domes on the Silk Roads.’ In Architecture, Monuments and Urbanism, edited by Mehrdad Shebahang. Paris: UNESCO 2024.

with Paschalia Terzi‚ ‘Reconstructing a Medieval Library? The Contents of the Manuscript Bundles in the Dunhuang Library Cave’‚ Silk Roads Archaeology and Heritage 1.1 (2023). https://silkroadsarchaeoheritage.org/articles/10.5334/srah.8

‘Silk Road Narratives in East Asia: Cultural Heritage, Cultural Propaganda and Cultural Erasure.’ In Asia’s Heritage Trend: Examining Asia’s Present through its Past, edited by Jong-Il Kim and Minjae Zoh. London: Routledge 2023.

‘Fashion Across the Silk Roads, 500-1300.’ In The Cambridge Global History of Fashion, edited by Chris Breward, Beverly Lemire and Giorgio Riello. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2023.

‘Alfalfa, Pasture and the Horse in China: A Review.’ Quaderni di Studi Indo-Mediterranei (Bologna) 12 (2019 [2020]) Sino-Iranica’s Centennial. Between East and West, Exchanges of Material and Ideational Culture.

‘Buddhism and Silk: Reassessing a Painted Banner from Medieval Central Asia in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.’ (co-author with with Michelle Wang and Xin Wen), Metropolitan Museum Journal 55 (2020).

‘The Silk Roads.’ In Geraldine Heng and Susan Noakes (eds.). The Global Middle Ages. 2020.

‘The Expanding Silk Road: UNESCO and BRI.’  In Eva Myrdal (ed.) Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities. 81 (2018, pub. 2020).

 ‘On the Silk Road: Trade in the Tarim.’ In Kristian Kristiansen, Thomas Lindkvist and Janken Myrdal (eds.). Trade and Civilization: Economic Networks and Cultural Ties, from Prehistory to the Early Modern Era. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2018.

 ‘China’, ‘Buddhism in the Persian Empire and Central Asia’, ‘Faxian’, ‘Sogdian Tombs in China’, Entries for Oliver Nicholson, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2018.

‘Inscribing and Expanding the Silk Roads: From UNESCO to OBOR.’ In Lev Andersen at al. (eds.). ‘One Belt One Road’ and China’s Westward Pivot. Copenhagen: Danish Institute for International Studies 2018. http://dro.dur.ac.uk/23758/. Podcast at https://www.dur.ac.uk/alsabah/obor/

‘Dunhuang and Its Network of Patronage and Trade.’ In Neville Agnew et al. (eds.). Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on the Silk Road. Los Angeles: Getty Publications 2016.

‘A Scholar of ‘Wide Attainments and Indefatigable Keenness’: Aurel Stein on Oldenburg.’ In Popova, Irina (ed). Сергей Федорович Ольденбург : ученый и организатор науки

(Sergey F. Oldenburg: Scientist and Organizer of Science). Nauka: Moscow 2016: 56-65.

‘Creating a Codicology of Central Asian Manuscripts.’ In Justin McDaniel and Lynn Ransom (eds.) From Mulberry Leaves to Silk Scrolls: New Approaches to the Study of Asian Manuscript Traditions, The Lawrence J. Schoenberg Studies in Manuscript Culture, Vol. 1. Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Libraries 2015.

‘International Dunhuang Project.’ Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition, 2015, available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/international-dunhuang-project (accessed on 15 March 2016).

 ‘IDP — Preservation of and Access to Manuscripts and Artefacts from Dunhuang and Chinese Central Asia.’ Dunhuang yanjiu, 3.2014:51-55. (Abstract in Chinese).

‘Western Visitors to Dunhuang, 1920-1960.’ Dunhuang Tulufan Yanjiu 2014: 2013-111. (in Chinese).

‘Buddhist Wall Paintings in Context: The Foundation for Future Scholarship.’ In David Park (ed.). Acts of Merit: Papers from the Buddhist Art Forum. London: Archetype Publications 2014.

‘Stein, Aurel.’ Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, Extreme Environments, 2014.

‘IDP: Working on Stein’s Archaeological Legacy’ (co-author with John Falconer) in Helen Wang (ed.) Aurel Stein (British Museum Research Papers), 2012, online publication. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/research_publications_series/research_publications_online/sir_aurel_stein.aspx (accessed 15 April 2012).

 ‘A Place of Safekeeping? The Vicissitudes of the Bezeklik Murals’. In Neville Agnew (ed.), Conservation of Ancient Sites in the Silk Road: Proceedings from the Second International Conference on the Conservation of Grotto Sites, August 25-30 2004, Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2010 and online on http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/2nd_silkroad.html (accessed 15 April 2012).

‘The Dunhuang Chinese Sky: A Comprehensive Study of the Oldest Known Star Map’, co-authored with J-M Bonnet-Bidaud and F. Praderie, The Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 12.1 (March 2009): 39-59.

‘Stein Revisited: Silk Road Archaeology and Exploration a Century On’, Journal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, June 2009.

‘The International Dunhuang Project’, AMARC 2008.

‘Scholarly Respect in an Age of Political Rivalry’, in Irina Popova (ed.), Caves of a Thousand Buddhas. Russian Expeditions to Central Asia at the end of XIX – Beginning of XX centuries (Catalogue of an exhibition at the Hermitage to mark the 190th anniversary of the Asiatic Museum, Institute of Oriental Manuscripts). St. Petersburg: 2008.

‘Stein and Archaeology on the Eastern Silk Road’, in Charlotte Trümpler (ed.), The Great Game: Archaeology and Politics at the Time of Colonialism (1860-1940), Essen 2008 (In German).

‘Aurel Stein’, biographical entry for the Encyclopedia Iranica, Columbia University 2005 (http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/stein-marc-aurel).

‘Was There a Silk Road?’, Asian Medicine – Tradition and Modernity 4 (2008): 201–213.

‘Breaking Barriers: Creating a New Historical Narrative’, in Anupa Pande (ed.), Cultural Interactions on the Silk Road (Papers from a conference held at the National Museum Institute, New Delhi, September 2007), New Delhi: Aryan Books International 2008.

‘The Perils of Dichotomous Thinking: Ebb and Flow rather than East and West’ in Suzanne Akbari and Amilcare A. Iannucci (eds.), Marco Polo and the Encounter of East and West (Papers from a conference held at University of Toronto Humanities Centre, May 2002), Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008.

‘The Dunhuang Manuscripts: From Cave to Computer’ in Books in Numbers (paper from a conference at Harvard Yenching Library), Harvard University Press, 2007.

‘Monkeys and Merchants: Silk Road Travellers” in Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 68 (2003-4): 61-5.

‘China and the Silk Road: A Tangled Web of Influence’, Bulletin of the Oriental Ceramic Society, Hong Kong, 2006.

‘From Plov to Paella’, Index on Censorship, 2005.

‘The Dunhuang Manuscripts’, Introduction to Dunhuang Medical Manuscripts, Curzon Press, London 2005.

The Silk Road. Calliope 12.6 (Feb. 2002).

Several articles for various publications for the 2004 exhibition, The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith.

2000-2005 to ADD – including exhibition articles

‘Enjoy It While it Lasts: A Brief Golden Age of Freedom of Scholarly Information?’, Rzeczpospolita (The Republic, Polish Newspaper), October 2000.

‘From Paper to Data’, The Times Higher Educational Supplement, June 23, 2000.

‘Horses and Princess, the Price for Peace”, The Independent 15 November 1999.

‘Libraries in Ancient China’, Index on Censorship, March 1999.

‘In Praise of the Plagarist.’ Index on Censorship 1999

‘Under the Censor’s Eye: Printed Almanacs and Censorship in Ninth-Century China’, British Library Journal, 24.1 (Spring 1998), pp. 4-22.

‘Reuniting the Dunhuang Library: A Description of the International Database Being Developed by the International Dunhuang Project’ in Monique Cohen (ed.), Conservation des manuscrits de Dunhuang et d’Asie Centrale, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris 1998.

‘Dunhuang’, China Review 10 (Summer 1998), pp.30-35.

‘The International Dunhuang Project: A Challenge for Digitization’, Microfilm and Imaging Review, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Winter 1997), pp. 15-21.

‘The International Dunhuang Project (IDP): Creating a Scholarly Partnership. Early Medieval China. 1997.

‘The Future of the Stein Collection in the British Library’ in Katsumi Tanabe, Joe Cribb and Helen Wang (eds.), Studies in  Silk Road Coins and Culture: Papers in Honour of Professor Ikuo Hirayama on his 65th Birthday, The Institute of Silk Road Studies, Kamakura 1997.

‘IDP News’, Newsletters of Asia in Europe (Supplement to IIAS News 11, (1996)), pp.5-6.

‘Human Rights: Has Anything Changed?’, Britain–China  52 (Spring 1993)

‘The Chinese Gulag, a view from the inside’, Britain-China  49 (Spring 1992)

Various short articles for Britain-China 1987–1994.

‘Chinese Political Prisoners’ in China Support,  June 1992

The Earthsongs, BBC Radio 3, 27.2.91, translations of three of Liu Zongyuan’s prose works.

‘China’s Centuries of Censorship’ The Times Literary Supplement  September 1989

Reviews for The Financial Times, Journal of Asiatic Studies, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Asian Affairs, Times Higher Educational Supplement, BSOAS, Revue Bibliographique de Sinologie, Britain–China, The Independent, History, The China Quarterly and others

Books

L’édition de la correspondance francophone d’Aurel Stein : le dossier des sinologues. with Annick Fenet andHelen Wang. Labex TransferS; Archéologie et Philologie d’Orient et d’Occident, Mar 2019, Paris, France. ⟨hal-02072797⟩ .

The Silk Roads: Peoples, Cultures, Landscapes. (editor and contributor). London: Thames and Hudson 2019.

Silk, Slaves and Stupas: Material Culture of the Silk Road. Oakland: University of California Press 2018.

Life Along the Silk Road, John Murray and University of California Press, London and Berkeley 1999 & 2000. rpt. Rev. ed., Oakland: University of California Press 2015.

La Route de la soie: Un voyage à travers la Vie et la Mort (also in Dutch), (catalogue of an exhibition held at the Musées royaux d’Art et d’Histoire, October 2009 to February 2010). Brussels: Mercator 2009.

Philosophy and Writing (Inside Ancient China). Armonk NY; Sharpe Focus, 2009.

Afghanistan. Washington DC: National Geographic 2008.

The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith, (catalogue of an exhibition held at the British Library, May – September 2004), London: The British Library and Serindia, 2004.

Aurel Stein and the Silk Road, London: The British Museum, 2004.

Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries (editor), (British Library Studies in Conservation Science: 3), The British Library, London 2002.

Cave Temples of Mogao/Dunhuang: Art and History on the Silk Road,  (co-author), Getty Publications and The British Library, Los Angeles and London, 2000. Revised edition Getty Publications 2015.

The Animals of the Chinese Zodiac, with Phillipa-Alys Browne. Bath: Barefoot. 1998.

Silk Road Directory. London: IDP, The British Library. 1997.

Dunhuang and Turfan: Contents and Conservation of Ancient Documents from Central Asia  (co-editor), (British Library Studies in Conservation Science; 1), The British Library, London 1996.

A Literary Companion to China, co-author, John Murray, London 1994.

Religious Persecution in China, June 4th China Support and Jubilee Campaign, London 1994.

After the Event: Human Rights and their Future in China (editor and co-translator of two articles), Wellsweep Press, London 1993.

June Fourth Briefing Papers on China, (editor), London 1993.

Translations (from Chinese)

National Museum of China. London Editions 2011.

Fan Jinshi, The Caves of Dunhuang, Scala Publishers, 2010.

Shanghai Museum, London Editions 2007.

The Treasures of the Nanjing Museum. London Editions 2001.

Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Shanghai Museum.  Scala Books 1996.

The Qin Terracotta Army: Treasures of Lintong. Scala Books 1996.

The Land Within the Passes: A History of Xian. Viking, London and New York, 1991 [Zou Zongxu, Qiannian gud Xian, Hong Kong 1987].

Chinese Textile Designs  (co-translator with R. Scott). Viking, London and New York 1992 [Gao Hanyu, Zhongguo lidai zhi ran xiu tulu, Hong Kong 1986].