Book 83: Journeys on the Silk Road

I had read a book about the Silk Road earlier this year (China Road), so when I heard about this book, I wanted to read it.



This book focuses on Aurel Stein and the scrolls and other items he bought from the Mogao caves in Dunhuang, China. The most famous and remarkable of his finds was the Diamond Sutra, a woodblock print book printed in 868.

Stein himself was a remarkable person with a lot of admirable attributes; I can only hope to be as energetic as he was to the very end of his life. The question of whether China's treasures should have been removed from China and taken to England and India is complicated. The good news is that you can view the Diamond Sutra and many of the other scrolls online, and you'll get a better view that way than you would through a glass case in a museum: http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/sutra/sutra_broadband.htm?middle