Book Review: Foreign Devils on the Silk Road by Peter Hopkirk

A very interesting book written about the Silk Road with particular emphasis on Central Asia, the author pays particular attention to the region of Chinese Turkestan. The first chapter traces the origin of the ancient Silk Road. The main arteries of the road are discussed and the nature of goods on the caravans.

Along the Silk Road travelled silk, gold, ivory and ideas. One of such ideas was Buddhism. It travelled from now what we call India to China. Oasis towns developed which served as center of art and learning. When the decline of such towns started the rich towns got swallowed by desert sand. Due to this legends were formed regarding lost cities filled with treasures. Expeditions through such deserts by travellers/treasure hunters were often fatal adventures. One of such deserts is the notorious Taklamakan desert which is frequently mentioned and discussed by Hopkirk.

In the early twentieth century a race began for hunting the buried treasures of Silk Road. This race was an international race. There developed a race for searching and digging adventures. Among the famous racers was Sven Hedin- a Swedish searcher, Aurel Stein- of Hungarian origin and Von Le Coq of German origin.

These gentlemen dug Chinese treasures which included paintings, manuscripts, and artifacts from temples, sculptors and frescos. All these precious objects were shifted to different countries and later to their respective museums.

Chapter fifteen’s title has been mentioned as ‘Spies along the Silk Road’. Throughout the chapter Japanese team has been discussed. The author provides links of the Japanese being spies, but the Europeans are considered travellers/treasure searchers. Further in the book the author believes that the Chinese view the treasure searchers as those who looted a very rich part of their ancient history. For such reasons the Chinese slammed the door on foreigners and Stein also had to discontinue his last expedition in Turkestan.