Jonathan Tucker is a former associate director of the Indian and Southeast Asian department at Spink and Son and has operated a gallery in St Jamess, London, with his wife Antonia Tozer since 2000. He is also a consultant for Bonhams and is a recognised authority in the field of Indian and Southeast Asian art, particularly in sculpture. He lived in Asia for eleven years and spent many years exploring the ancient trade routes between China and Europe, travelling the entire length of the Silk Road with the exception of Iraq. He is the author of The Silk Road: Art and History (Philip Wilson Publishers), an illustrated and annotated map of the Silk Road for Odyssey Travel Guides; The Silk Road: Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran (I.B. Tauris); and The Troublesome Priest: Harold Davidson, Rector of Stiffkey.
Praise for Jonathan Tuckers The Silk Road: Art and History.
An enormous and beautiful book [...], the most informative work on the subject I have yet seen.
Literary Review
Jonathan Tuckers handsome and informative new volume fills an important niche [] [It] conveys a palpable sense of place without losing the monumentality of scale and panoramic sweep.
Annette L. Juliano, Orientations
This book is a Silk Road bible, a well-constructed and beautiful collation of a mass of information and knowledge on a truly fascinating corner of the world. But be warned: read The Silk Road and youll want to experience it for yourself [] a feat worthy of accolades and to top it all off, the book is filled with excellent, and at times breathtaking, photography.
Geographical Magazine
A most handsome volume, admirable in scope and reliable in detail [] it will serve as a treasured compendium.
John Keay, The THES
This is a book to fascinate [] not only those interested in the past, but also those keen to understand the present.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
This is a beautifully designed and produced work [] undoubtedly one of the fullest and clearest and certainly the best illustrated introductions to this vast and bewildering subject.
Asian Affairs
An exquisitely produced major achievement [] very highly recommended.
Minerva
The SILK
ROAD
China and the Karakorum Highway
A TRAVEL COMPANION
Jonathan Tucker
First published in 2015 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
London New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright 2015 Jonathan Tucker
Copyright Foreword 2015 Paul Theroux
The right of Jonathan Tucker to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.
References to websites were correct at the time of writing.
ISBN: 978 1 78076 356 9
eISBN: 978 0 85773 933 9
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
For Antonia
Illustrations
Figures
Marble head of Alexander the Great (Archeological Museum, Istanbul) |
Bronze figure of a flying horse, one leg resting upon a swallow (Gansu Provincial Museum, Lanzhou) |
Rock-cut image of a seated Buddha, Yungang, Shanxi (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Vairocana Buddha with a bodhisattva and a disciple, Fengxian temple, Longmen, Henan province (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
A group of terracotta warriors, Xian, Shaanxi province (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
The Great Wall (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
A gold necklace set with gems (National Museum of Chinese History, Beijing) |
The Dayan (Great Goose) Pagoda, Xian, Shaanxi province (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Mural depicting visiting ambassadors at the royal court at Samarkand (Museum of Afrasiab, Samarkand, Uzbekistan) |
Detail of a mural depicting Tokharian donors offering bags of money (formerly in the Museum fr Indische Kunst, Berlin, but disappeared after 1945) |
Tri-colour (sancai) glazed figure of a camel carrying a party of musicians (Shaanxi History Museum, Xian) |
Mural depicting a group of foreign envoys to the Tang court (authors collection) |
Plectrum guard, part of an Indian five-stringed lute (biwa) (Shosoin repository, Nara, Japan) |
The Maijishan Grottoes, Gansu province (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Jiayuguan fortress, Gansu province (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Exterior of the Dunhuang caves (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Painted ceiling with a lotus within a square depicting joined rabbits and flying apsaras (authors collection) |
Wall painting of merchants confronted by brigands (authors collection) |
Remains of the fort at Yumenguan (Jade Gate Pass) (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Silk fragment with hunting motif (Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Regional Museum) |
Fragment from a mural depicting musicians from a parinirvana scene (Tokyo National Museum) |
The Kizil Grottoes, Xinjiang province (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Stone balbals, or tomb markers, Balasagun, Kyrgyzstan (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Local merchants at the Kashgar Sunday market, Xinjiang province (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Artists impression of the Beauty of Loulan (authors collection) |
Mural (no longer extant) depicting a youth in combat with a griffin above a winged angel |
Structure N 3. The remains of a large timber-framed building. Niya, north of Minfeng, Xinjiang province (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Wooden tablet written in Kharosthi (Spink and Son Ltd) |
The Shanpula cemetery, Luopu county, near Khotan, Xinjiang province (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Remains of a pair of trousers with design of a centaur and a warrior (Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Regional Museum) |
Photograph of painted stucco sculptures of standing and seated Buddhas. From the south corner of the Rawak stupa-court, Xinjiang province (Stein, 1907) |
The Passu Glacier, northern Pakistan (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Shangri La (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
A man of Hunza (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Petroglyph depicting an ithyphallic figure assaulting a second figure (Jettmar et al., 198994) |
Fa Xians Crossing (photograph by Antonia Tozer) |
Bronze figure of Harpocrates (formerly in the Taxila Museum, now in the Karachi Museum) |
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