Podcasts about Pamir

J'ai le plaisir de recevoir dans ce nouvel épisode d'Aventure Épique, Léa Vigier, qui a fait de la montagne bien plus qu'un terrain de jeu : un territoire de reconquête de soi.En juillet 2024, Léa s'est lancée un défi aussi physique que symbolique : gravir le Pic Lénine, l'un des plus hauts sommets du Pamir, à la frontière du Kirghizistan et du Tadjikistan, qui culmine à 7 134 mètres d'altitude. Une aventure hors norme, réalisée malgré les mises en garde de son médecin. Car Léa est bipolaire. Et l'on ne conseille généralement pas la haute altitude, le froid extrême et l'imprévisibilité des expéditions aux personnes atteintes de ce trouble.Et pourtant.Dans cet épisode, Léa revient sur les 21 jours d'une ascension qui a tout changé, sur les maux de l'altitude, les crevasses, le froid mordant… mais aussi sur la beauté pure, les levers de soleil à 6 000 mètres, et la fierté d'avoir fait du sommet un espace de transformation.Elle nous parle aussi de ses années d'errance médicale, de son diagnostic à 30 ans, de son besoin de ralentir après une vie à 1 000 à l'heure, et du rôle salvateur que joue aujourd'hui l'aventure dans sa reconstruction.Avec une parole libre, forte, parfois bouleversante, Léa déconstruit les tabous autour des troubles bipolaires, et démontre qu'on peut être en déséquilibre émotionnel et en pleine maîtrise de soi.“Ma bipolarité est devenue ma force, mon guide dans les moments les plus extrêmes.”Un épisode fort, inspirant, à écouter sans modération. Bonne écoute !Cet épisode d'Aventure Epique été réalisé en collaboration avec Škoda.***Aventure Epique c'est le podcast qui vous fait vivre dans chaque épisode une aventure en pleine nature hors du commun.Explorateur illustre, sportif renommé ou encore simple amateur, aventurier du quotidien, Aventure Epique est une plongée en apnée le temps d'une aventure qui va vous tenir en haleine, vous émouvoir et vous inspirer.Les disciplines que vous pourrez retrouver dans Aventure Épique : l'alpinisme, l'exploration, l'escalade, le parapente, le vélo, la natation, la voile, le ski et bien d'autres encore…Aventure Épique c'est un nouvel épisode un jeudi sur 2, et le mardi qui précède un extrait de l'épisode à venir, pour bien démarrer la semaine ensemble. Si vous souhaitez suivre notre actualité au jour le jour, et découvrir les coulisses du podcast, rendez-vous dès maintenant sur notre compte Instagram @aventureepique.podcastAventure Epique, des aventures en plein air, à couper le souffle.Un podcast imaginé et animé par Guillaume Lalu et produit par Sportcast Studios Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

J'ai le plaisir de recevoir dans ce nouvel épisode d'Aventure Épique, Léa Vigier, qui a fait de la montagne bien plus qu'un terrain de jeu : un territoire de reconquête de soi.En juillet 2024, Léa s'est lancée un défi aussi physique que symbolique : gravir le Pic Lénine, l'un des plus hauts sommets du Pamir, à la frontière du Kirghizistan et du Tadjikistan, qui culmine à 7 134 mètres d'altitude. Une aventure hors norme, réalisée malgré les mises en garde de son médecin. Car Léa est bipolaire. Et l'on ne conseille généralement pas la haute altitude, le froid extrême et l'imprévisibilité des expéditions aux personnes atteintes de ce trouble.Et pourtant.Dans cet épisode, Léa revient sur les 21 jours d'une ascension qui a tout changé, sur les maux de l'altitude, les crevasses, le froid mordant… mais aussi sur la beauté pure, les levers de soleil à 6 000 mètres, et la fierté d'avoir fait du sommet un espace de transformation.Elle nous parle aussi de ses années d'errance médicale, de son diagnostic à 30 ans, de son besoin de ralentir après une vie à 1 000 à l'heure, et du rôle salvateur que joue aujourd'hui l'aventure dans sa reconstruction.Avec une parole libre, forte, parfois bouleversante, Léa déconstruit les tabous autour des troubles bipolaires, et démontre qu'on peut être en déséquilibre émotionnel et en pleine maîtrise de soi.“Ma bipolarité est devenue ma force, mon guide dans les moments les plus extrêmes.”Un épisode fort, inspirant, à écouter sans modération. Episode intégral disponible jeudi 27 mars.Cet épisode d'Aventure Epique été réalisé en collaboration avec Škoda.***Aventure Epique c'est le podcast qui vous fait vivre dans chaque épisode une aventure en pleine nature hors du commun.Explorateur illustre, sportif renommé ou encore simple amateur, aventurier du quotidien, Aventure Epique est une plongée en apnée le temps d'une aventure qui va vous tenir en haleine, vous émouvoir et vous inspirer.Les disciplines que vous pourrez retrouver dans Aventure Épique : l'alpinisme, l'exploration, l'escalade, le parapente, le vélo, la natation, la voile, le ski et bien d'autres encore…Aventure Épique c'est un nouvel épisode un jeudi sur 2, et le mardi qui précède un extrait de l'épisode à venir, pour bien démarrer la semaine ensemble. Si vous souhaitez suivre notre actualité au jour le jour, et découvrir les coulisses du podcast, rendez-vous dès maintenant sur notre compte Instagram @aventureepique.podcastAventure Epique, des aventures en plein air, à couper le souffle.Un podcast imaginé et animé par Guillaume Lalu et produit par Sportcast Studios Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

This episode we will finish up the travels of Xuanzang, who circumnavigated the Indian subcontinent while he was there, spending over a decade and a half travelings, visiting important Buddhist pilgrimage sites, and studying at the feet of learned monks of India, and in particular at Nalanda monastery--a true center of learning from this period. For more, check out our blogpost page:  https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-122 Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 122:  Journey to the West, Part 3 The courtyard at Nalanda was quiet.  Although hundreds of people were crowded in, trying to hear what was being said, they were all doing their best to be silent and still.  Only the wind or an errant bird dared speak up.  The master's voice may not have been what it once was—he was definitely getting on in years—but Silabhadra's mind was as sharp as ever. At the front of the crowd was a relatively young face from a far off land.  Xuanzang had made it to the greatest center of learning in the world, and he had been accepted as a student of perhaps the greatest sage of his era.  Here he was, receiving lessons on some of the deepest teachings of the Mahayana Buddhist sect, the very thing he had come to learn and bring home. As he watched and listened with rapt attention, the ancient teacher began to speak….   For the last two episodes, and continuing with this one, we have been covering the travels of the monk Xuanzang in the early 7th century, starting around 629 and concluding in 645.  Born during the Sui dynasty, Xuanzang felt that the translations of the Buddhist sutras available in China were insufficient—many of them had been made long ago, and often were translations of translations.  Xuanzang decided to travel to India in the hopes of getting copies in the original language to provide more accurate translations of the sutras, particularly the Mahayana sutras.  His own accounts of his journeys, even if drawn from his memory years afterwards, provide some of our most detailed contemporary evidence of the Silk Road and the people and places along the way.  After he returned, he got to work on his translations, and became quite famous.  Several of the Japanese students of Buddhism who traveled to the Tang dynasty in the 650s studied under him directly and brought his teachings back to Japan with them.  His school of “Faxiang” Buddhism became known in Japan as the Hosso sect, and was quite popular during the 7th and 8th centuries.  Xuanzang himself, known as Genjou in Japan, would continue to be venerated as an important monk in the history of Buddhism, and his travels would eventually be popularized in fantastic ways across East Asia. Over the last couple of episodes we talked about Xuanzang's illegal and harrowing departure from the Tang empire, where he had to sneak across the border into the deserts of the Western Regions.  We then covered his time traveling from Gaochang, to Suyab, and down to Balkh, in modern Afghanistan.  This was all territory under the at least nominal control of the Gokturk empire.  From Balkh he traveled to Bamyan, and then on to Kapisa, north of modern Kabul, Afghanistan.  However, after Kapisa, Xuanzang was finally entering into the northern territories of what he knew as “India”, or “Tianzhu”. Here I would note that I'm using “India” to refer not to a single country, but to the entirety of the Indian subcontinent, and all of the various kingdoms there -- including areas now part of the modern countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.  The Sinitic characters used to denote this region are pronounced, today, as “Tianzhu”, with a rough meaning of “Center of Heaven”, but it is likely that these characters were originally pronounced in such a way that the name likely came from terms like “Sindhu” or “Induka”.  This is related to the name of the Sindh or Indus river, from which India gets its name.  Xuanzang's “Record of the Western Regions” notes that the proper pronunciation of the land should be “Indu”.  In Japan, this term was transmitted through the Sinitic characters, or kanji, and pronounced as “Tenjiku”.  Since it featured so prominently in the stories of the life of the Buddha and many of the Buddhist sutras, Tenjiku was known to the people of the Japanese archipelago as a far off place that was both real and fantastical. In the 12th century, over a thousand stories were captured for the “Konjaku Monogatarishu”, or the “Collection of Tales Old and New”, which is divided up into tales from Japan, China, and India.  In the famous 9th or 10th century story, “Taketori Monogatari”, or the “Bamboo-Cutter's Tale”, about princess Kaguya hime, one of the tasks the princess sets to her suitors is to go to India to find the begging bowl of the Buddha.  Records like those produced by Xuanzang and his fellow monks, along with the stories in the sutras, likely provided the majority of what people in the Japanese archipelago knew about India, at least to begin with. Xuanzang talks about the land of India as being divided into five distinct parts—roughly the north, south, east, west, and center.  He notes that three sides face the sea and that the Snow Mountains—aka the Himalayas—are in the north.  It is, he says, “Wide in the north and narrow in the south, in the shape of a crescent moon”.  Certainly the “Wide in the north and narrow in the south” fit the subcontinent accurately enough, and it is largely surrounded by the waters of what we know as the Indian Ocean to the west, the east, and the south.  The note about the Crescent Moon might be driven by Xuanzang's understanding of a false etymology for the term “Indus”, which he claims comes from the word for “moon”.  Rather, this term appears to refer to the Indus River, also known as the Sindh or Sindhus, which comes from an ancient word meaning something like “River” or “Stream”. Xuanzang also notes that the people of the land were divided into castes, with the Brahman caste at the top of the social hierarchy.    The land was further divided into approximately 70 different countries, according to his accounts.  This is known broadly as the Early Medieval period, in India, in which the region was divided into different kingdoms and empires that rose and fell across the subcontinent, with a total size roughly equivalent to that covered by the countries of the modern European Union.  Just like Europe, there were many different polities and different languages spoken across the land – but just as Latin was the common language in Europe, due to its use in Christianity, Sanskrit was the scholarly and religious language in much of India, and could also be used as a bridge language.  Presumably, Xuanzang understood Sanskrit to some extent as a Buddhist monk.  And, just a quick note, all of this was before the introduction of Islam, though there were other religions also practiced throughout the subcontinent, but Xuanzang was primarily focused on his Buddhist studies. Xuanzang describes India as having three distinct seasons—The hot season, the rainy season, and the cold season, in that order.  Each of these were four month long periods.  Even today, the cycle of the monsoon rains is a major impact on the life of people in South Asia.  During the rainy season, the monks themselves would retreat back to their monasteries and cease their wanderings about the countryside. This tradition, called “Vassa”, is still a central practice in many Theravada Buddhist societies such as Thailand and Laos today, where they likewise experience this kind of intensely wet monsoon season. Xuanzang goes on to give an in depth analysis of the people and customs of the Indian subcontinent, as he traveled from country to country. So, as we've done before, we'll follow his lead in describing the different locations he visited. The first country of India that Xuanzang came to was the country of Lampa, or Lamapaka, thought to be modern Laghman province in Afghanistan.  At the time it was a dependency of Kapisa.  The Snow Mountains, likely meaning the Hindu Kush, the western edge of the Himalayas, lay at its north, while the “Black Mountains” surrounded it on the other three sides.  Xuanzang mentions how the people of Lampa grow non-glutinous rice—likely something similar to basmati rice, which is more prevalent in South Asian cuisine, as compared to glutinous rice like more often used in East Asia. From Lampa he headed to Nagarahara, likely referring to a site near the Kabul River associated with the ruins of a stupa called Nagara Gundi, about 4 kilometers west of modern Jalalabad, Afghanistan.  This was another vassal city-state of Kapisa.  They were still Mahayana Buddhists, but there were other religions as well, which Xuanzang refers to as “heretical”, though I'm not entirely sure how that is meant in this context.  He does say that many of the stupas were dilapidated and in poor condition. Xuanzang was now entering areas where he likely believed the historical Buddha had once walked.  In fact, Lampa was perhaps the extent of historical Buddha's travels, according to the stories and the sutras, though this seems unlikely to have been true.  The most plausible locations for the Historical Buddha's pilgrimages were along the Ganges river, which was on the other side of the subcontinent, flowing east towards modern Kolkatta and the Bengal Bay.  However, as Buddhism spread, so, too, did stories of the Buddha's travels.  And so, as far as Xuanzang was concerned, he was following in the footsteps of the Buddha. Speaking of which, at Nagarahara, Xuanzang mentions “footprints” of the Buddha.  This is a Buddhist tradition found in many places.  Xuanzang claims that the Tathagatha, the Englightened One, or the Buddha, would fly, because when he walked the land itself shook.  Footprint shapes in rock could be said to be evidence of the Buddha's travels.  Today, in many Buddhist areas you can find footprints carved into rock conforming to stories about the Buddha, such as all the toes being of the same length, or other various signs.  These may have started out as natural depressions in the rock, or pieces of artwork, but they were believed by many to be the actual point at which the Buddha himself touched down.  There are famous examples of these footprints in Sri Lanka, Thailand, and China.  Of course there are also traditions of creating images of the footprint as an object of worship.  Images of footprints, similar to images of the Great Wheel of the Law, may have been some of the earliest images for veneration, as images of the Buddha himself did not appear until much later in the tradition.  One of the oldest such footprints in Japan is at Yakushiji temple, and dated to 753.  It was created based on a rubbing brought back by an envoy to the Tang court, while they were in Chang'an. Like Buddha footprints, there are many other images and stories that show up multiple times in different places, even in Xuanzang's own narrative.  For example, in Nagarahara Xuanzang also shares a story of a cave, where an image of the Buddha could be just barely made out on the wall – maybe maybe an old carving that had just worn away, or maybe an image that was deliberately placed in the darkness as a metaphor for finding the Buddha—finding enlightenment.  This is not an uncommon theme in Buddhism as a whole.  In any case, the story around this image was that it had been placed there to subdue a naga. Now a naga is a mythical snake-like being, and  we are told that this particular naga was the reincarnation of a man who had invoked a curse on the nearby kingdom, then threw himself from a cliff in order to become a naga and sow destruction.  As the story went, the man was indeed reborn, but before he could bring destruction, the Buddha showed up and subdued him, convincing him that this was not right.  And so the naga agreed to stay in the cave, where the Buddha left an image—a shadow—to remind the naga any time that its thoughts might turn to destruction. Later in his travels, at a place name Kausambi, Xuanzang mentions another cave where the Buddha had subdued a venomous dragon and left his shadow on the cave wall.  Allowing for the possibility that the Buddha just had a particular M.O. when dealing with destructive beings, we should also consider the possibility that the story developed in one region—probably closer to the early center of Buddhism, and then traveled outward, such that it was later adopted and adapted to local traditions.  From Nagarahara, Xuanzang continued to the country of Gandhara and its capital city of Purushapura, aka modern Peshwar.  This kingdom was also under vassalage to the Kapisan king.  Here and elsewhere in the journey, Xuanzang notes not only evidence of the historical Buddha, but also monasteries and stupas purported to have been built by King Kanishka and King Asoka.  These were important figures who were held in high regard for spreading Buddhism during their reign.  Continuing through the region of Gandhara, he also passed through Udakhand and the city of Salatura, known as the birthplace of the ancient Sanskrit grammarian, Daksiputra Panini, author of the Astadhyayi [Aestudjayi].  This work is the oldest surviving description of classical Sanskrit, and used grammatical and other concepts that wouldn't be introduced into Western linguistics for eons.  Daksiputra Panini thrived around the 5th or 4th century BCE, but was likely one of the reasons that Sanskrit continued to be used as a language of scholarship and learning even as it died out of usage as the day to day language of the common people.  His works and legacy would have been invaluable to translators like Xuanzang in understanding and translating from Sanskrit. Xuanzang continued on his journey to Kashmira, situated in the Kashmir Valley.  This valley sits between the modern states of Pakistan and India, and its ownership is actively disputed by each.  It is the namesake of the famous cashmere wool—wool from the winter coats of a type of goat that was bred in the mountainous regions.  The winter coat would be made of soft, downy fibers and would naturally fall out in the spring, which the goatherds harvested and made into an extremely fine wool.  In the 7th century and earlier, however, the region was known not as much for its wool, but as a center for Hindu and Buddhist studies.  Xuanzang ended up spending two years in Kashmira studying with teachers there.  Eventually, though, he continued on, passing through the country of Rajpura, and continuing on to Takka and the city of Sakala—modern day Sialkot in the Punjab region of modern Pakistan.  Leaving Sakala, he was traveling with a group when suddenly disaster struck and they were accosted by a group of bandits.  They took the clothes and money of Xuanzang and those with him and then they drove the group into a dry pond in an attempt to corral them while they figured out what they would do—presumably meaning kill them all.  Fortunately for the group, there was a water drain at the southern edge of the pond large enough for one man to pass through.  Xuanzang and one other went through the gap and they were able to escape to a nearby village.  Once they got there, they told the people what had happened, and the villagers quickly gathered weapons and ran out to confront the brigands, who saw a large group coming and ran away.  Thus they were able to rescue the rest of Xuanzang's traveling companions.  Xuanzang's companions were devastated, having lost all of their possessions.  However, Xuanzang comforted them.  After all, they still had their lives.  By this time, Xuanzang had certainly seen his fair share of life and death problems along the road.  They continued on, still in the country of Takka, to the next great city.  There they met a Brahman, and once they told him what had happened, he started marshalling the forces of the city on their behalf.  During Xuanzang's stay in Kashmira, he had built a reputation, and people knew of the quote-unquote “Chinese monk”.  And even though the people in this region were not necessarily Buddhist—many were “heretics” likely referring to those of Hindu faith—the people responded to this pre-Internet “GoFundMe” request with incredible generosity.  They brought Xuanzang food and cloth to make into suits of clothes.  Xuanzang distributed this to his travel companions, and ended up still having enough cloth for 50 suits of clothes himself.  He then stayed at that city a month. It is odd that they don't seem to mention the name of this location.  Perhaps there is something unspeakable about it?  Still, it seems that they were quite generous, even if they were “heretics” according to Xuanzang. From the country of Takka, he next proceeded to the kingdom of Cinabhukti, where he spent 14 months—just over a year—studying with the monks there.  Once he had learned what he could, he proceeded onwards, passing through several countries in northern India until he came to the headwaters of the sacred Ganges rivers.  The Indus and the Ganges rivers are in many ways similar to the Yellow River and Yangzi, at least in regards to their importance to the people of India.  However, whereas the Yellow River and Yangzi both flow east towards the Pacific Ocean, the Indus and Ganges flow in opposite directions.  The Indus flows southwest, from the Himalayas down through modern India into modern Pakistan, emptying into the western Indian Ocean.  The Ganges flows east along the base of the Himalayas and enters the eastern Indian Ocean at Kolkatta.   At the headwaters of the Ganges, Xuanzang found a Buddhist monk named Jayagupta and chose to spend the winter and half of the following spring listening to his sermons and learning at his feet. From there he continued his travels, and ended up being summoned by King Harshavardhana of Kanyakubja, known today as the modern city of Kannauj.  Harshavardhana ruled an immense state that covered much of the territory around the sacred Ganges river.  As word of this strange monk from a far off land reached him, the King wanted to see him for himself.  Xuanzang stayed in Kannauj for three months, completing his studies of the Vibhasha Shastra, aka the Abhidarmma Mahavibhasha Shastra, known in Japanese as the Abidatsuma Daibibasharon, or just as the Daibibasharon or the Basharon, with the latter two terms referring to the translations that Xuanzang performed.   This work is not a sutra, per se, but rather an encyclopedic work that attempted to speak on all of the various doctrinal issues of its day.  It is thought to have been authored around 150 CE, and was influential in the Buddhist teachings of Kashmira, when that was a center of Orthodoxy at the time.  This is what Xuanzang had started studying, and it seems that in Kannauj he was finally able to grasp everything he felt he needed to know about it in order to effectively translate it and teach it when he returned.  That said, his quest was not over.  And after his time in Kannauj, he decided to continue on. His next stop was at the city of Ayodhya.  This was—and is—a city of particular importance in Hindu traditions.  It is said to be the city mentioned in the epic tale known as the Ramayana, though many argue that it was simply named that later in honor of that ancient city.  It does appear to be a city that the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, visited and where he preached.  It was also the home of a famous monk from Gandhara who authored a number of Buddhist tomes and was considered, at least by Xuanzang, a proper Boddhisatva.  And so Xuanzang spent some time paying homage to the places where the Buddha and other holy figures had once walked. “Ayodhya” appears in many forms across Asia.  It is a major pilgrimage center, and the city of “Ayutthaya” in Thailand was named for it, evoking the Ramayana—known in Thai as the Ramakien—which they would adopt as their own national story.  In Silla, there is a story that queen Boju, aka Heo Hwang-ok, wife to the 2nd century King Suro of Geumgwan Gaya, traveled to the peninsula all the way from the foreign country of “Ayuta”, thought to mean Ayodhya.  Her story was written down in the Gaya histories and survives as a fragment found in the Samguk Yusa.  Members of the Gimhae Kim, Gimhae Heo, and Incheon Yi clans all trace their lineage back to her and King Suro. From Ayodhya, Xuanzang took a trip down the Ganges river.  The boat was packed to bursting with some 80 other travelers, and as they traveled towards a particularly heavily forested area, they were set upon by bandits, who rowed their ships out from hiding in the trees and forced the travelers to the shore.  There the bandits made all the travelers strip down and take off their clothing so that the bandits could search for gold or valuables.  According to Xuanzang's biography, these bandits were followers of Durga, a Hindu warrior-goddess, and it is said that each year they would look for someone of particularly handsome features to sacrifice to her.  With Xuanzang's foreign features, they chose him.  And so they took him to be killed.  Xuanzang mentioned that he was on a pilgrimage, and that by interrupting him before they finished he was worried it might be inauspicious for them, but he didn't put up a fight and merely asked to be given time to meditate and calm his mind and that they perform the execution quickly so that he wouldn't even notice. From there, according to the story, a series of miracles occurred that ended up with Xuanzang being released and the bandits worshipping at his feet.  It is times like this we must remember that this biography was being written by Xuanzang's students based on stories he told them about his travels.  While being accosted by bandits on the river strikes me as perfectly plausible, we don't necessarily have the most reliable narrators, so I'm going to have to wonder about the rest.  Speaking of unreliable narration, the exact route that Xuanzang traveled from here on is unclear to me, based on his stated goals and where he was going.  It is possible that he was wandering as opportunities presented themselves —I don't know that he had any kind of map or GPS, like we've said in the past.  And it may be that the routes from one place to another were not always straightforward.  Regardless, he seems to wander southeast for a period before turning again to the north and eventually reaching the city of Shravasti. Shravasti appeared in our discussion of the men of Tukhara in Episode 119.  With the men of Tukhara there was also mentioned a woman from Shravasti.  While it is unlikely that was actually the case—the names were probably about individuals from the Ryukyuan island chain rather than from India—it is probably worth nothing that Shravasti was a thriving place in ancient times.  It was at one time the capital city of the kingdom of Kosala, sharing that distinction with the city of Ayodhya, back in the 7th to 5th centuries BCE.  It is also where the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was said to have spend many years of his life.  This latter fact would have no doubt made it a place of particular importance to Xuanzang on his journeys. From there he traveled east, ending up following the foothills of the Himalayas, and finally came to some of the most central pilgrimages sites for followers of the historical Buddha.  First, he reached Lumbini wood, in modern Nepal, said to have been the birthplace of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.  And then he visited Kushinagara, the site where the Buddha ascended to nirvana—in other words, the place where he passed away.  From there, he traveled to Varanasi, and the deer park monastery, at the place where the Buddha is said to have given one of his most famous sermons.  He even visited the Bodhi tree, the tree under which Siddhartha Gautama is said to have attained enlightenment.  He spent eight or nine days there at Bodhgaya, and word must have spread about his arrival, because several monks from the eminent Nalanda Monastery called upon him and asked him to come to the monastery with them. Nalanda Monastery was about 80 km from Bodhgaya.  This was a grand monastery and center of learning—some say that it was, for a time, the greatest in the world.  It had been founded in the 5th century by the Gupta dynasty, and many of the Gupta rulers and others donated to support the monastery, which also acted as a university.  After the fall of the Gupta dynasty, the monastery was supported by King Harsha of Kannauj, whom Xuanzang had visited earlier.  It ultimately thrived for some 750 years, and is considered by some to be the oldest residential university—meaning that students would come to the temple complex and stay in residence for years at a time to study.  According to Xuanzang, Nalanda hosted some 10,000 monks. Including hosts and guests.  They didn't only study Buddhist teachings, but also logic, grammar, medicine, and divination.  Lectures were given at more than 100 separate places—or classrooms—every day.  It was at Nalanda, that Xuanzang would meet the teacher Silabhadra, who was known as the Right Dharma Store.  Xuanzang requested that he be allowed to study the Yogacharabhumi Shastra—the Yugashijiron, in Japanese.  This is the work that Xuanzang is said to have been most interested in, and one of the works that he is credited with bringing back in one of the first full translations to the Tang dynasty and then to others in East Asia.  It is an encyclopedic work dedicated to the various forms of Yogacara practice, which focuses on the mental disciplines, and includes yoga and meditation practices.  It has a huge influence on nearly all Mahayana schools, including things like the famous Zen and Pure Land schools of Buddhism.  The Yogacharabhumi Shastra is the earliest such encyclopedic work, compiled between the 3rd and 5th centuries—so even if the monk Faxian had brought portions of it back, it was probably not in the final form that Xuanzang was able to access. Silabhadra, for his part, was an ancient teacher—some put his age at 106 years, and his son was in his 70s.  He was one of the few at Nalandra who supposedly knew all of the various texts that they had at the monastery, including the Yogacarabhumi Shastra.  Xuanzang seems to have been quite pleased to study under him.  Xuanzang stayed at the house of Silabhadra's son, Buddhabhadra, and they welcomed him with entertainment that lasted seven days.  We are told that he was then given his own lodgings, a stipend of spices, incense, rice, oil, butter, and milk, along with a servant and a Brahman.  As a visiting monk, he was not responsible for the normal monastic duties, instead being expected to spend the time in study.  Going out, he was carried around by an elephant.   This was certainly the royal treatment. Xuanzang's life at Nalandra wasn't all books: south of the monastery was the city of Rajagrha, the old capital of the kingdom of Magadha, where the ancient Gupta kings had once lived, and on occasional breaks from his studies, Xuanzang would venture out to see the various holy sites.  This included the famous Mt. Grdhrakuta, or Vulture Peak, a location said to be favored by the historical Buddha and central to the Lotus Sutra, arguably the founding document of Mahayana Buddhist tradition. After all, “Mahayana” means “Greater Vehicle” and it is in the Lotus Sutra that we see the metaphor of using different vehicles to escape a burning house.   We've already talked a bit about how the image of Vulture Peak had already become important in Japanese Buddhism: In Episode 112 we talked about how in 648, Abe no Oho-omi had drums piled up at Shitennoji in the shape of Vulture Peak. But although the sightseeing definitely enhanced his experience, Xuanzang was first and foremost there to study.  He spent 15 months just listening to his teacher expound on the Yogacarabhumi Shastra, but he also heard expositions on various other teachings as well.  He ended up studying at Nalandra Monastery for 5 years, gaining a much better understanding of Sanskrit and the various texts, which would be critically important when it came to translating them, later. But, Xuanzang was not one to stay in any one place forever, and so after 5 years—some 8 years or more into his journey, he continued on, following the Ganges east, to modern Bangladesh.  Here he heard about various other lands, such as Dvarapati—possibly referring to Dvaravati, in modern Thailand, as well as Kamalanka and Isanapura.  The latter was in modern Cambodia, the capital of the ancient Chenla kingdom.  Then Mahacampa—possibly referring to the Champa region of Vietnam—and the country of Yamanadvipa.  But there was still more of India for Xuanzang to discover, and more teachings to uncover, and so Xuanzang decided instead to head southwest, following the coast.  He heard of the country of Sinhala, referring to the island of Sri Lanka, but he was urged not to go by ship, as the long journey was perilous.  Instead he could stay on relatively dry land and head down to the southern tip of the subcontinent and then make a quick hop from there across to the island.  He traveled a long distance, all the way down to Kancipuram, the seat of the Pallava dynasty, near modern day Chennai.  From the seaport near Kancipuram, it was only three days to Sinhala—that is to say Sri Lanka—but before he could set out, he met a group of monks who had just arrived.  They told him that the king of Sinhala had died , and there was a great famine and civil disturbances.  So they had fled with some 300 other monks. Xuanzang eventually decided not to make the journey, but he did talk with the monks and gathered information on the lands to the south, on Sri Lanka, and on the islands south of that, by which I suspect he may have meant the Maldives.  While Sri Lanka is an area important to Buddhist scholarship, particularly to the Theravada schools, this likely did not impress Xuanzang, and indeed he seemed to feel that his studies in Nalanda had more than provided him what he needed.  Sri Lanka, however, is the source of the Pali canon, one of the most complete early canons of Buddhism, which had a huge influence on Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. So Xuanzang took plenty of notes but decided to forego the ocean voyage and headed northwest, instead.  He traveled across the breadth of India to Gujarat, and then turned back east, returning to pay respects once more to his teacher in Nalanda.  While there he heard of another virtuous monk named Prajnabhadra at a nearby monastery.  And so he went to spend several months with him, as well.  He also studied with a layman, Sastrin Jayasena, at Stickwood Hill.  Jayasena was a ksatriya, or nobleman, by birth, and studied both Buddhist and non-Buddhist texts.  He was courted by kings, but had left to continue his studies.  Xuanzang studied with him for another couple of years. Xuanzang remained at Nalanda, learning and teaching, expounding on what he had learned and gathering many copies of the various documents that he wished to take back with him, though he wondered how he might do it.  In the meantime, he also acquired quite the reputation.  We are told that King Siladitya had asked Nalanda for monks who could refute Theravada teachings, and Xuanzang agreed to go.  It isn't clear, but it seems that “Siladitya” was a title, and likely referred to King Harsha of Kannauj, whom we mentioned earlier.  Since he was a foreigner, then there could be no trouble that was brought on Nalanda and the other monks if he did poorly.  While he was waiting to hear back from Siladitya's court, which was apparently taking time to arrange things, the king of Kamarupta reached out to Nalanda with a request that Xuanzang come visit them.  While Xuanzang was reluctant to be gone too long, he was eventually encouraged to go and assuage the king. Kamarupta was a kingdom around the modern Assam region, ruled by King Bhaskaravarman, also known as King Kumara, a royal title.  This kingdom included parts of Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.  Bhaskaravarman, like so many other regents, seems to have been intrigued by the presence of this foreign monk, who had traveled all this way and who had studied at the famous Nalanda Monastery in Magadha. He invited Xuanzang to come to him.  Xuanzang's teacher, Silabhadra, had exhorted him to spread the right Dharma, and to even go to those non-Buddhists in hopes that they might be converted, or at least partially swayed. King Bhaskaravarman was quite taken with Xuanzang, wining and dining him while listening to him preach.  While there, Xuanzang learned about the country of Kamarupta.  He also learned about a path north, by which it was said it was a two month journey to arrive at the land of Shu, in the Sichuan Basin, on the upper reaches of the Yangzi – a kind of shortcut back to the Tang court.  However, the journey was treacherous—possibly even more treacherous than the journey to India had been. Eventually word reached the ears of King Siladitya that Xuanzang was at the court of King Bhaskaravarman, and Siladitya got quite upset.  Xuanzang had not yet come to *his* court, so Siladitya demanded that Bhaskaravarman send the monk to him immediately.  Bhaskaravarman refused, saying he'd rather give Siladitya his own head, which Siladitya said he would gladly accept.  Bhaskaravarman realized he may have miscalculated, and so he sailed up the Ganges with a host of men and Xuanzang to meet with Siladitya.  After a bit of posturing, Siladitya met with Xuanzang, who went with him, and eventually confronted the members of the Theravada sect in debate.  Apparently it almost got ugly, but for the King's intervention.  After a particularly devastating critique of the Theravada position, the Theravada monks are blamed for trying to use violence against Xuanzang and his fellow Mahayana monks from Nalanda, who were prepared to defend themselves.  The King had to step in and break it up before it went too far. Ultimately, Xuanzang was a celebrity at this point and both kings seem to have supported him, especially as he was realizing it was about time to head back to his own country.  Both kings was offered ships, should Xuanzang wish to sail south and then up the coast.  However, Xuanzang elected to take the northern route, hoping to go back through Gaochang, and see that city and its ruler again.  And so the Kings gave him money and valuables , along with wagons for all of the texts.  They also sent an army to protect all of the treasures, and even an elephant and more – sending him back in style with a huge send-off. So Xuanzang retraced his earlier steps, this time on an elephant.  He traveled back to Taxila, to Kashmir, and beyond.  He was invited to stay in Kashmira, but because of his retinue, he wasn't quite at leisure to just go where he wanted.  At one point, near Kapisa—modern Bagram, north of Kabul—they had to cross a river, and about 50 of the almost 700 documents were lost.  The King of Kapisa heard of this and had his own monks make copies to replace them based on their own schools.  The King of Kasmira, hearing that he was in Kapisa, also came to pay his respects. Xuanzang traveled with the King of Kapisa northwest for over a month and reached Lampaka, where he did take some time to visit the various holy sites before continuing northwest.  They had to cross the Snow Mountains—the outskirts of the Himalayas, and even though it wasn't the highest part of the range it was still challenging.  He had to dismount his elephant and travel on foot.  Finally, after going over the high mountains and coming down, he arrived back in the region of Tukhara, in the country of Khowst.  He then came to Kunduz, and paid his respects to the grandson of Yehu Khan.  He was given more guards to escort him eastward, traveling with some merchants.  This was back in Gokturk controlled lands, over a decade later than when he had last visited.  He continued east to Badakshan, stopping there for a month because of the cold weather and snow.  He eventually traveled through the regions of Tukhara and over the Pamir range.  He came down on the side of the Tarim Basin, and noted how the rivers on one side flowed west, while on the other side they flowed east.  The goings were treacherous, and at one point they were beset by bandits.  Though he and the documents were safe, his elephant panicked and fled into the river and drowned.  He eventually ended up in the country of Kashgar, in modern Xinjiang province, at the western edge of the Taklamakan desert. From there he had two options.  He could go north and hug the southern edge of the Tianshan mountains, or he could stay to the south, along the northern edge of the Himalayan range and the Tibetan plateau.  He chose to go south.  He traveled through Khotan, a land of wool and carpets.  This was a major trade kingdom, and they also grew mulberry trees for silkworms, and were known for their jade.  The king himself heard of Xuanzang and welcomed him, as many others had done.  While he was staying at the Khotanese capital, Xuanzang penned a letter to the Tang court, letting them know of his journey, and that he was returning.  He sent it with some merchants and a man of Gaochang to deliver it to the court. Remember, Xuanzang had left the Tang empire illegally.  Unless he wanted to sneak back in his best hope was that the court was willing to forgive and forget all of that, given everything that he was bringing back with him.  The wait was no doubt agonizing, but he did get a letter back.  It assured him that he was welcome back, and that all of the kingdoms from Khotan back to the governor of Dunhuang had been made aware and were ready to receive him. With such assurances, Xuanzang packed up and headed out.  The king of Khotan granted him more gifts to help see him on his way.  Nonetheless, there was still a perilous journey ahead.  Even knowing the way, the road went through miles and miles of desert, such that in some places you could only tell the trail by the bleached bones of horses and travelers who had not been so fortunate.  Eventually, however, Xuanzang made it to the Jumo River and then on to Dunhuang, from whence he was eventually escorted back to the capital city. It was now the year 645, the year of the Isshi Incident in Yamato and the death of Soga.  Xuanzang had been gone for approximately 16 years.  In that time, the Tang had defeated the Gokturks and taken Gaochang, expanding their control over the trade routes in the desert.  Xuanzang, for his part, was bringing back 657 scriptures, bound in 520 bundles carried by a train of some 20 horses.  He was given a hero's welcome, and eventually he would be set up in a monastery where he could begin the next part of his journey:  Translating all of these books. This was the work of a lifetime, but it is one that would have a profound impact on Buddhism across East Asia.  Xuanzang's translations would revolutionize the understanding of Mahayana Buddhist teachings, and students would come from as far away as the Yamato court to study under him and learn from the teacher who studied and taught at none other than Nalanda monastery itself.  His school would become popular in the Yamato capital, and the main school of several temples, at least for a time.  In addition, his accounts and his biography would introduce many people to the wider world of central and south Asia.  While I could go on, this has already been a story in three parts, and this is, after all, the Chronicles of Japan, so we should probably tune back into what is going on with Yamato.  Next episode, we'll look at one of the most detailed accounts we have of a mission to Chang'an. Until then, I hope that this has been enjoyable.  Xuanzang's story is one of those that isn't just about him, but about the interconnected nature of the entire world at the time.  While his journey is quite epic, there were many people traveling the roads, though most of them didn't write about it afterwards.  People, artifacts, and ideas traveled much greater distances than we often consider at this time, well before any kind of modern travel.  It was dangerous, but often lucrative, and it meant that various regions could have influence well beyond what one might expect. And so, thank you once again for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan

Parti le long du fleuve Amou Daria, aux sources de la mer d'Aral désormais asséchée, l'écrivain et voyageur français nous alerte de sa plume éclairée sur la pénurie d'eau qui menace l'Asie Centrale. La première fois que l'on avait reçu l'écrivain géographe Cédric Gras, en 2015, ce dernier courait après l'automne en Extrême-Orient russe, dans une déglingue post-soviétique et une désolation géographique propre à ces confins… Un prix Albert Londres et cinq livres plus tard, le voici remontant le fleuve Amou Daria, véritable Nil de l'Asie Centrale aujourd'hui surexploité, sur des terres arides où la désolation est également de mise, en particulier en aval du fleuve, aux abords d'une mer d'Aral condamnée. La désolation c'est un terme qui évoque la peine, le sentiment de tristesse profonde mais aussi l'état d'un lieu rendu inhabitable, ravagé, désert… Tout au long de son récit, c'est justement cette désolation qu'interroge Cédric Gras, croisant des pêcheurs karakalpaks qui n'ont plus de mer pour pêcher, filant à travers des champs de coton ou des rizières en plein désert qui essorent le fleuve, interrogeant la provenance du moindre filet d'eau dans des cités légendaires de la route de la soie qui ne cessent d'enfler, retraçant l'histoire du canal Karakoum au Turkménistan, qui avec ses 1 300 km de long, représente le plus long canal d'irrigation au monde et achève de saigner le fleuve.Chemin faisant, ce spécialiste des mondes russes, n'oublie pas, comme il sait si bien le faire, de convoquer les rêves prométhéens des Soviets. Ce temps où Staline entendait « transformer la nature » et faire de l'Asie Centrale un pays de cocagne, quitte à détourner les cours d'eau et quadriller la région de canaux, aujourd'hui en piteux état. Plus tard, d'autres ont même rêvé de détourner les fleuves sibériens vers l'Asie Centrale. Aujourd'hui, ce sont les Talibans qui prévoient un canal pour prélever, eux aussi, leur part de l'Amou Daria.À l'issue de ce périple sinueux, sur près de 2 500 km, de l'Ouzbékistan au Tadjikistan en passant par le Turkménistan, Cédric Gras se hisse sur les hauteurs du Pamir jusqu'au glacier Fedtchenko, le château d'eau de l'Asie Centrale. Sans sombrer dans la solastagie, l'auteur nous alerte surtout, portant la plume dans la plaie, la trempant dans l'eau d'un fleuve nourricier mais en danger.À lire :- Les routes de la soif : voyage aux sources de la mer d'Aral. Cédric Gras. Éditions Stock. 2025- Alpinistes de Mao. Cédric Gras. Éditions Stock. 2023- Alpinistes de Staline. Cédric Gras. Éditions Stock. 2020- La mer des cosmonautes. Cédric Gras. Éditions Paulsen. 2017- L'hiver aux trousses. Cédric Gras. Éditions Stock. 2015.À voir :- La série documentaire « Aux sources de la mer d'Aral » de Christophe Raylat, avec Cédric Gras pour Arte. En deux épisodes, le premier sur le fleuve Amou Daria, le second sur le fleuve Syr Daria.

Parti le long du fleuve Amou Daria, aux sources de la mer d'Aral désormais asséchée, l'écrivain et voyageur français nous alerte de sa plume éclairée sur la pénurie d'eau qui menace l'Asie Centrale. La première fois que l'on avait reçu l'écrivain géographe Cédric Gras, en 2015, ce dernier courait après l'automne en Extrême-Orient russe, dans une déglingue post-soviétique et une désolation géographique propre à ces confins… Un prix Albert Londres et cinq livres plus tard, le voici remontant le fleuve Amou Daria, véritable Nil de l'Asie Centrale aujourd'hui surexploité, sur des terres arides où la désolation est également de mise, en particulier en aval du fleuve, aux abords d'une mer d'Aral condamnée. La désolation c'est un terme qui évoque la peine, le sentiment de tristesse profonde mais aussi l'état d'un lieu rendu inhabitable, ravagé, désert… Tout au long de son récit, c'est justement cette désolation qu'interroge Cédric Gras, croisant des pêcheurs karakalpaks qui n'ont plus de mer pour pêcher, filant à travers des champs de coton ou des rizières en plein désert qui essorent le fleuve, interrogeant la provenance du moindre filet d'eau dans des cités légendaires de la route de la soie qui ne cessent d'enfler, retraçant l'histoire du canal Karakoum au Turkménistan, qui avec ses 1 300 km de long, représente le plus long canal d'irrigation au monde et achève de saigner le fleuve.Chemin faisant, ce spécialiste des mondes russes, n'oublie pas, comme il sait si bien le faire, de convoquer les rêves prométhéens des Soviets. Ce temps où Staline entendait « transformer la nature » et faire de l'Asie Centrale un pays de cocagne, quitte à détourner les cours d'eau et quadriller la région de canaux, aujourd'hui en piteux état. Plus tard, d'autres ont même rêvé de détourner les fleuves sibériens vers l'Asie Centrale. Aujourd'hui, ce sont les Talibans qui prévoient un canal pour prélever, eux aussi, leur part de l'Amou Daria.À l'issue de ce périple sinueux, sur près de 2 500 km, de l'Ouzbékistan au Tadjikistan en passant par le Turkménistan, Cédric Gras se hisse sur les hauteurs du Pamir jusqu'au glacier Fedtchenko, le château d'eau de l'Asie Centrale. Sans sombrer dans la solastagie, l'auteur nous alerte surtout, portant la plume dans la plaie, la trempant dans l'eau d'un fleuve nourricier mais en danger.À lire :- Les routes de la soif : voyage aux sources de la mer d'Aral. Cédric Gras. Éditions Stock. 2025- Alpinistes de Mao. Cédric Gras. Éditions Stock. 2023- Alpinistes de Staline. Cédric Gras. Éditions Stock. 2020- La mer des cosmonautes. Cédric Gras. Éditions Paulsen. 2017- L'hiver aux trousses. Cédric Gras. Éditions Stock. 2015.À voir :- La série documentaire « Aux sources de la mer d'Aral » de Christophe Raylat, avec Cédric Gras pour Arte. En deux épisodes, le premier sur le fleuve Amou Daria, le second sur le fleuve Syr Daria.

This episode we continue to follow the monk Xuanzang on his path along the silk road.  From Gaochang, he traveled through the Tarim Basin, up over the Tianshan Mountains, to the heart of the Western Gokturk Qaghanate.  From there, he traveled south, through the region of Transoxania to Bactria and the land of Tukhara.  He pushed on into the Hindu Kush, witnessing the stone Buddha statues of Bamiyan, and eventually made his way to the land of Kapisa, near modern Kabul, Afghanistan.  From there he would prepare to enter the Indian subcontinent: the home of the historical Buddha. For more discussion and some photos of the areas along this journey, check out our podcast blog at https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-121   Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 121: Journey to the West, Part 2   The cold winds blew through the travelers' doubled up clothing and thick furs.  Cold, wet ground meant that even two sets of boots were not necessarily enough after several days.  The frozen mist would often obscure everything except for the path immediately in front, hiding the peaks and making the sky a uniform white. In many places, the path would be blocked by rock, ice, or snow—the remnants of an avalanche, which could easily take an unsuspecting traveler.  And there was the elevation.  Hiking through the mountains, it was easy enough to reach heights of a mile or higher, and for those not accustomed to that elevation the thin air could take a surprising toll, especially if you were pushing yourself.  And the road was no less kind to the animals that would be hauling said travelers and their gear. And yet, this was the path that Xuanzang had agreed to.  He would continue to push through, despite the various deprivations that he would be subjected to.  No doubt he often wondered if it was worth it.  Then again, returning was just as dangerous a trip, so why not push on?   Last episode we introduced the monk Xuanzang, who traveled the Silk Road to India in the 7th century and returned to China.  He brought back numerous sutras to translate, and ended up founding a new school, known as the Faxian school—or the Hossou school in Japan.   As we mentioned last time, Xuanzang during his lifetime met with students from the archipelago when they visited the continent.  The records of his travels—including his biography and travelogue—are some of the best information we have on what life was like on the silk road around this time. In the last episode, we talked about Xuanzang: how he set out on his travels, his illegal departure from the Tang empire, and his perilous journey across the desert, ending up in Gaochang.  There, King Qu Wentai had tried to get him to stay, but he was determined to head out.  This episode we are going to cover his trip to Agni, Kucha, and Baluka—modern Aksu—and up to the Western Gokturk Qaghanate's capital of Suyab.  From there, we'll follow his footsteps through the Turkic controlled regions of Transoxania and into Tukhara, in modern Afghanistan.  Finally, we'll cover the last parts of his journey before he reached the start of his goal:  India. From Gaochang, Xuanzang continued on, through the towns he names as Wuban and Dujin, and into the country of Agni—known today as the area of Yanqi—which may also have been known as Wuqi.  The route was well-enough known, but it wasn't necessarily safe.  At one point, Xuanzang's caravan met with bandits, whom they were fortunately able to pay off.  The following night they encamped on a river bank with some merchants who also happened to be traveling the road.  The merchants, though, got up at midnight and headed out, hoping to get to the city early so that they could be the first ones to the market.  They only made it a few miles down the road, however, before they encountered more bandits, who slaughtered them and took their goods.  The following day, Xuanzang and his retinue came upon the merchants' remains lying in the road and saw the aftermath of the massacre. This was an unforgiving land, and the road was truly dangerous, even for those who traveled it regularly.  And yet Xuanzang was planning to travel its entire length until he reached India. So with little alternative, they carried on to the royal city of Agni. Agni, or Yanqi, sits on the southwestern edge of the basin, west of Bositeng lake, on the border between the Turfan basin and the larger Tarim Basin.  The name is thought to be a Tocharian—or Turfanian—name for the city, which is also known as Karashr. According to the biography by Huili, Xuanzang and his party didn't stay long in Agni.  Apparently Agni and Gaochang were not exactly on friendly terms, and even though the King of Agni and his ministers reportedly came out to greet Xuanzang and welcome him to their city, they refused to provide any horses.  They spent a single night and moved on. That said, Agni still made an impression on Xuanzang.  He noted how the capital was surrounded by hills on four sides, making it naturally defensible.  As for the people, he praises them as honest and straightforward.  They wore clothing of felt and hemp cloth, and cut their hair short, without hats or any kind of headwear.  Even the climate was pleasant, at least for the short time he was there.  He also notes that they used a script based on India—likely referring to the Brahmic script, which we find in the Tarim basin. However, as for the local lord, the King of Agni, he is a little less charitable.  Xuanzang claimed he was brave but “lacked resourcefulness” and he was a bit of a braggart.  Furthermore, the country had “no guiding principles or discipline and government orders are imperfect and not seriously implemented.”  He also mentioned the state of Buddhism in the country, noting that they were followers of Sarvastivada school, a Theravada sect popular along the Silk Road at the time.  Xuanzang was apparently not too pleased with the fact that they were not strict vegetarians, including the “three kinds of pure meat”.  From Agni, Xuanzang continued southwest, heading for the kingdom of Kucha.  He seems to have bypassed the nearby kingdom of Korla, south of Agni, and headed some 60 or 70 miles, climbing over a ridge and crossing two large rivers, and then proceeding another 200 miles or so to the land of Kucha. Kucha was a kingdom with over one hundred monasteries and five thousand monks following a form of Theravada Buddhism.  Here, Xuanzang was welcomed in by the king, Suvarnadeva, described as having red hair and blue eyes.  While Xuanzang was staying in Kucha, it is suspected that he probably visited the nearby Kizil grotto and the Buddhist caves, there, which include a painting of King Suvarnadeva's father, King Suvarnapuspa, and his three sons. You can still visit Kucha and the Kizil grottos today, although getting there is quite a trek, to be sure.  The ancient Kuchean capital is mostly ruins, but in the Kizil caves, protected from the outside elements, you can find vivid paintings ranging from roughly the 4th to the 8th century, when the site was abandoned.  Hundreds of caves were painted, and many still demonstrate vibrant colors.  The arid conditions protect them from mold and mildew, while the cave itself reduces the natural bleaching effect of sunlight.  The paintings are in numerous styles, and were commissioned by various individuals and groups over the years.  They also give us some inkling of how vibrant the city and similar structures must have been, back when the Kuchean kingdom was in its heyday. The people of Kucha are still something of a mystery.  We know that at least some of them spoke an Indo-European language, related to a language found in Agni, and both of these languages are often called Tocharian, which we discussed last episode.  Xuanzang himself noted that they used Indian writing, possibly referring to the Brahmi script, or perhaps the fact that they seem to have used Sanskrit for official purposes, such as the inscription on the cave painting at Kizil giving the name of King Suvarnapuspa.  The Kucheans also were clothed in ornamental garments of silk and embroidery.  They kept their hair cut, wearing a flowing covering over their heads—and we see some of that in the paintings. Xuanzang also notes that though we may think of this area as a desert, it was a place where rice and grains, as well as fruit like grapes, pomegranates, plums, pears, peaches, and almonds were grown.  Even today, modern Xinjiang grows some absolutely fantastic fruit, including grapes, which are often dried into raisins. Another point of interest for Xuanzang may have been that Kucha is known as the hometown of none other than Kumarajiva.  We first mentioned Kumarajiva back in episode 84.  Kumarajiva was one of the first people we know of who translated many of the sutras from India that were then more widely disseminated throughout the Yellow River and Yangzi river basins.  His father was from India and his mother was a Kuchean princess.  In the middle of the 4th century, when he was still quite young, he traveled to India and back with his mother on a Buddhist pilgrimage.  Later he would start a massive translation project in Chang'an.  His translations are credited with revolutionizing Chinese Buddhism. Xuanzang was initially welcomed by the king, his ministers, and the revered monk, Moksagupta.  They were accompanied by several thousand monks who set up tents outside the eastern gate, with portable Buddha images, which they worshipped, and then Xuanzang was taken to monastery after monastery until sunset.  At one of the monasteries, in the southeast of the city, there were several tens of monks who originally came from Gaochang, and since Xuanzang had come from there, they invited him to stay with them. The next day he met and feasted with the King, politely declining any meat, and then went to the monastery in the northwest to meet with the famous monk: Moksagupta.  Moksagupta himself had made the journey to India, and had spent 20 years there himself.  It seems like this would have been the perfect person for Xuanzang to talk to about his plans, but instead, the two butted heads.  Moksagupta seems to have seen Xuanzang's Mahayana faith as heretical.  He saw no reason for Xuanzang to travel all the way to India when he had all the sutras that anyone needed there in Kucha, along with Moksagupta himself.   Xuanzang's response seems to have been the Tang dynasty Buddhist version of “Okay, Boomer”, and then he went ahead and tore apart Moksagupta's understanding of his own sutras—or so Xuanzang relayed to his biographers.  We don't exactly have Moksagupta's side, and, let's face it, Xuanzang and his biographers are not necessarily reliable narrators.  After all, they followed Mahayana teachings, which they considered the “Greater Vehicle”, and they referred to the Theravada teachings as the “Hinayana” or “Lesser Vehicle”.  Meanwhile, Theravada Buddhists likely saw many of the Mahayana texts as extraneous, even heretical, not believing them to actually be the teachings of the Buddha. It must have been winter time, as the passes through the mountains on the road ahead were still closed, and so Xuanzang stayed in Kucha, spending his time sightseeing and meeting with various people.  He even went back to see Moksagupta, but the older monk shunned him, and would get up and exit the room rather than engaging with him, so they had no more conversations. Eventually, Xuanzang continued on his way west, following along the northern rim of the Tarim basin.  Two days out from Kucha, disaster struck.  Some two thousand or so Turkish bandits suddenly appeared—I doubt Xuanzang was counting, so it may have been more or less.  I imagine that memories of what had happened to the merchants near Agni must have gone through Xuanzang's mind.   Fortunately, for him, they were fighting over loot that they had pillaged from various travelers, and since they couldn't share it equally, they fell to fighting each other and eventually dispersed. He travelled for almost 200 miles after that, stopping only for a night at the Kingdom of Baluka, aka Gumo—the modern city of Aksu.  This was another Theravada Buddhist kingdom.  Xuanzang noted tens of Buddhist temples, and over 1000 Buddhist monks.  The country was not large—about 200 miles east to west and 100 miles north to south.  For reference that means it was probably comparable in size with Kyushu, in terms of overall area, or maybe the size of Denmark—excluding Greenland—or maybe the US state of Maryland.  Xuanzang described the country as similar to Kucha in just about every way, including the written language and law, but the spoken language was different, though we don't get many more details. From Baluka, he crossed northward through the Tianshan mountains, which are classified as an extension of the Pamirs known as the Ice Mountains.  Had he continued southwest, he would have hit Kashgar and crossed over between the Pamir and Tian Shan ranges into the Ferghana valley, but instead he turned north. We don't know exactly why he took this perilous option, but the route that may have been popular at the time as it was one of the most direct routes to the seat of the Western Gokturk Empire, which he was currently traveling through. The Tian Shan mountains were a dangerous journey.  Avalanches could block the road—or worse.  Xuanzang describes the permanent ice fields—indeed, it is the ice fields and glaciers of the Tian Shan that melt in the summer and provide the oasis towns of the Tarim Basin with water, even to this day.  In Xuanzang's day, those glaciers were likely even more prevalent than today, especially as they have been recorded as rapidly disappearing since 1961.  And where you weren't on snow and ice, the ground was probably wet and damp from the melt.  To keep warm, you would wear shoes over your shoes, along with heavy fur coats, all designed to reduce exposure. Xuanzang claims that 3 or 4 of every 10 people didn't survive the crossing—and that horses and oxen fared even worse.  Even if these numbers are an exaggeration, the message is clear:  This was a dangerous journey. After about seven days, Xuanzang came out of the mountains to the “Great Pure Lake”, the “Da Qing Hai”, also known as the Hot Sea or the Salt Sea, which likely refers to Issyk Kul.  The salt content, along with the great volume of water it possesses, means that the lake rarely freezes over, which is likely why it is seen as “hot” since it doesn't freeze when the fresh water nearby does.  This lake is the second largest mountain lake in the world, and the second deepest saltwater lake.  Traveling past the lake, he continued to Suyab, near modern Tokmok, in Kyrgyzstan, just west of the modern capital of Bishkek.  This was an old Sogdian settlement, and had since become the capital of the Western Gokturks.  Sogdians—like Xuanzang's guide, Vandak—were integral to the Gokturk kingdom. Their language was the lingua franca of the Silk Road, and at the time of the Gokturk Khaganate, it was also the official court language, and so when Xuanzang appeared at the court of the Great Khagan of the Western Gokturks, it was likely the language of diplomacy. When we think of Turkic people, many in the English speaking world think of Turkiye, and perhaps of the mighty Ottoman empire.  Some may think of Turkmenistan, Kazhakstan, Kyrgyzstan, or Uzbekistan, among others.  And of course, there are the Uyghur people in Xinjiang.  All of these people claim roots in the ancestral Turkic homeland in the Altai mountains, which sit largely in western Mongolia, north of China's Xinjiang region.  Much like the Xiongnu and the Mongols, they were pastoral nomads, moving their herds across the steppes, often covering great distances.  They would regularly move through different regions, perhaps returning each season, though sometimes not returning for years at a time.  They were often seen as barbarians by settled people living in cities, and yet their goods and horses were highly prized. Nomad and sedentary lifestyles would often collide.  Farmers would turn pastureland into fields, and when the nomadic people returned on their circuits, they would find walls and fences where there was once open land, and the people there would claim to “own” the land, a concept often foreign to people who were always on the move.  Nomadic people, such as the Gokturks, were not necessarily keeping vast libraries of records about themselves and their histories, and so much of what we get comes from external sources, which do not always have incredibly reliable narrators.  To many of the settled agriculturalists, groups like the Turks were marauders who raided their villages and farms.  They were a great bogeyman of the steppes, which required the firm hand of strong defenses to keep out—or so their opponents would want people to think. While they were known for their warfare, which incorporated their mobility, but they were keenly interested in trade, as well.  They understood the value of the trade routes and the various cities and states that they included in their empire.  Thus, the Sogdians and the Gokturks seem a natural fit: the Sogdians were more settled, but not entirely so, as demonstrated by their vast trade networks.  And the Sogdians also were part of the greater central Eurasian steppe culture, so the two cultures understood each other, to a degree.  They are even depicted similarly in art, with slight differences, such as long hair that was often associated with Turks over the Sogdians.  In some areas of the Gokturk empire, Sogdians would run the cities, while the Gokturks provided military aid and protection. Xuanzang's description of the people of Suyab, or the “City of Suye River”, doesn't pick out anyone in particular, and he even says that it was a place where traders of the Hu, or foreign, tribes from different countries mingle their abodes.  He mentions the people here as being called Suli, which is also the name given to the language—this may refer to “Sogdian” in general.  They write with an alphabet that is written vertically rather than horizontally—this may refer to a few scripts that were written this way, possibly based off Syriac or Aramaic alphabets that were adapted to Sogdian and other Iranian languages, but it isn't clear. We are told that the people dressed in felt and hemp clothing, with fur and “cotton” garments.  Their clothes fit tightly, and they kept their hair cut short, exposing the top of their heads—though sometimes they shaved it completely, tying a colored silk band around the forehead. He goes on to describe these people as greedy liars, possibly a reference to the mercantile nature of many of the people at the time. Something to note: The Turks of this time had not yet encountered Islam, which was just now starting to rise up in the Middle East.  The Prophet Muhammad is said to have been born around the end of the 6th century CE and was preaching in the early 7th century, though his teachings would begin to spread outward soon enough.  But that means that the Gokturks were not an Islamic empire.  Rather, their own traditions seem to have focused on the worship of Tengri, an Altaic personification of the universe, often simplified as a “sky god”.  Tengrism can be found amongst the Xiongnu, Mongols, and others, and it was the national religion of the Gokturks themselves, but there were many who also adopted other religions that they encountered, including Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Buddhism.  In fact, Xuanzang notes that the Turks he met in Suyab would not sleep or sit on beds made of wood because wood was thought to contain the spirit of fire, which he says they worshipped.  That sounds similar to Zoroastrian beliefs, where fire is associated with Ahura Mazda, who is also worshipped as a sky god.  These may have been beliefs inherited from their Eastern Iranian Sogdian partners. In Xuanzang's biography, we are given more details about his visit to Suyab.  Apparently, as he was headed to the city, he met a hunting party, which we are told was the retinue of Yehu Khan.  Hunting was an important part of life on the steppes, and it continued to be a favorite sport of the Gokturk nobility. Yehu Khan—possibly Yagbhu Khan, though that is up for some debate—is described as being dressed in a green silk robe, with his hair exposed, and wearing  a turban of white silk about ten feet long that wrapped his forehead and hung behind his back.  His “hunting” expedition wasn't just a couple of the guys.  It included about 200 officials, all with plaited hair and dressed in brocade robes—they weren't exactly out there roughing it.  He also had his soldiers, dressed in furs, felt, or fine woolen clothes, and there were so many cavalry that they stretched out of sight.  The Khan seemed pleased to meet Xuanzang, but his hunt was expected to last another couple of days, at least, so he sent an attendant named Dharmaja to take Xuanzang back to wait for the Khan to return. Three days later, Xuanzang was given an audience.  The khan was seated in a large yurt.  Xuanzang noted the seeming incongruity between the khan, sitting there in the tent, decorated with golden flowers, with the officials dressed in magnificent brocade garments sitting in two long rows in front of him and the armed guards behind him, compared to the simple felt walls of the tent. A ”yurt” is a common feature of nomadic life on the steppes.  It wasn't exactly a single person operation to haul them around, but they can be taken down and put up with relative ease.  And while yurts could be relatively simple, there are examples of much more elaborate structures.  There is little reason they couldn't be made larger, perhaps with some extra support.  In later centuries, there are examples of giant yurts that seem like real construction projects.  Use of tents, even in a city, where they had permanent palace buildings, was likely a means of retaining the nomadic steppe traditions, even while enjoying the benefits of city life. Whom exactly Xuanzang met with is a matter of debate.  His records seem to indicate that it was Tong Yabghu Qaghan of the Western Gokturk Khaganate, but other sources say that Tong Yabghu Qaghan died in 628, and the earliest Xuanzang could have been meeting with him was 630, two years later, so if that is the case, he must have met with Tong Yabghu's son, Si Yabghu Qaghan.  It is likely that Xuanzang, who was dictating his accounts years after, mentioned the Qaghan and then, when they looked up who it was, they simply made a mistake.  Remember, Xuanzang would have had everything translated through one or two languages.  He did know what he saw, however, and he recounted what he remembered. Tong Yabghu Qaghan oversaw the height of the Gokturk Qaghanate, and appears to have favored the Buddhist religion, though there were many different religions active in their territories at the time.  They oversaw an extremely cosmopolitan empire covering huge swaths of central Eurasia, including the lucrative silk road.  Xuanzang notes that at the court there were individuals from Gaochang and even a messenger from the Han—which is to say the Tang Empire.  One wonders if Xuanzang—or anyone at that time—realized just how tenuous the Khan'sposition was.  After Tong Yabghu's death, the Qaghanate would decline, and less than a decade later it would fall to the Tang dynasty, who took Suyab and made it their western outpost.  In fact, Suyab is thought to have been the birthplace, over a century later, of a young boy who would find a love of poetry.  That boy's name was Li Bai, or Ri Haku, in Japanese. He would become one of the most famous poets in Chinese history, and his poems were even known and studied in Japan.  And it was largely through Japanese study of Li Bai's poems that his works came to the English speaking world: first through Ernest Fenollosa, who had studied in Japan, and then by the celebrated Ezra Pound, who had used Ernest's notes to help with his own translations of the poems. This was, though, as I said, over a century after Xuanzang's journey.  At the time of our story, the Qaghan was throwing a feast, including Xuanzang and all of the foreign envoys.  Xuanzang comments on the food and drink—his hosts provided grape juice in lieu of wine, and cooked a special vegetarian feast just for him, while the other guests ate a feast of meat, such as veal, lamb, fish, and the like.  There was also the music of various regions along the Silk Road, which Xuanzang found to be catchy, but of course not as refined as the music he was used to, of course.  After dinner Xuanzang was asked to expound upon the Darma, largely about the basic principle that you should be kind to one another—I doubt he was getting into the deep mysteries of Buddhist philosophy. Xuanzang stuck around the court for three more days, during which time the Qaghan tried to get him to stay, but Xuanzang insisted that he had to make it to India.  And so the Qaghan relented.  He found men in his army who could translate for Xuanzang along his journey, and had letters of introduction written to at least as far as the state of Kapisa, in modern Afghanistan. And so, armed with the Qaghan's blessing and a fresh translator, Xuanzang struck out again.  They headed westward for over one hundred miles, eventually reaching Bingyul, aka the Thousand Springs.  This is the area where the Qaghan and his court would spend his summers, and the deer in the area were protected under his orders, so that they were not afraid of humans—which sounds similar to the situation with the deer in Nara.  Continuing on another fifty miles or so—the distances are approximate as Xuanzang's primary duty was not exactly to map all of this out—Xuanzang arrived at the city of Taras, in modern Kazakhstan, another place where the cultures of the Silk Road mixed and mingled.  Xuanzang didn't have much to say about Taraz, apparently, though it is one of the oldest cities in Transoxania, founded near the beginning of the Common Era.  A few miles south of there, Xuanzang reportedly found a village of re-settled ethnic Han that had been captured by the Gokturks and settled here.  They had adopted the dress and customs of the Turkic people, but continued to speak a version of Chinese. Southwest of that he reached the City of White Water, likely referring to Aksukent.  This is the same “Aksu” as the city in Xinjiang, both of which mean “White Water” in Turkic, but this one is in the south of Kazakhstan.  Xuanzang found the climate and products an improvement over what he had experienced in Taras.  Beyond that, he next arrived at the city of Gongyu, and then south again to Nujkend, and then traveling westward to the country of Chach, aka Tashkent.  Both Nujkend and Chach were large cities in nations of smaller, mostly autonomous city-states, which made up a lot of the political geography of Transoxania. I would note that Xuanzang's notes here are much more sparse than previously.  This may be because these were outside of the Tarim basin and therefore of less interest to individuals in the Tang empire.  Or perhaps he was just making his way more quickly and not stopping at every kingdom along the way. From Tashkent, he continued southeast to the Ferghana valley—the country of Feihan.  Oddly, this country doesn't appear in Xuanzang's biography, even though the Ferghana Valley seems to have been fairly well known back in the Tang Empire—it was known as the home of some of the best horses, which were one of its first major exports.  In fact, the Han dynasty even mounted a military expedition to travel to Ferghana just to obtain horses.  Xuanzang is oddly silent on this; however, he does talk about the fertile nature of the land.  He mentions that their language here is different from the lands he had been traveling through up to this point, and also points out that the people of the Ferghana valley were also visibly different from others in the area. From the Ferghana valley, Xuanzang headed west for about 300 miles or more to the land of Sutrushana—perhaps referring to the area of Ushrusana, with its capital of Bunjikat.  This country was also largely Sogdian, and described as similar to Tashkent.  From there, he traveled west through a great desert, passing skeletons, which were the only marker of the trail other than a view of the far off mountains.  Finally, they reached Samarkand, known as the country of “Kang” in Chinese, which was also the term used to mark Sogdians who claimed descent from the people of Samarkand. Samarkand is another of the ancient cities of Central Asia, and even today is the third largest city in modern Uzbekistan.  Human activity in the region goes back to the paleolithic era, and the city was probably founded between the 8th and 7th centuries BCE.  Samarkand was conquered by Alexander the Great, and during the Achaemenid Empire it was the capital of Sogdiana.  During Xuanzang's visit, Samarkand was described as an impenetrable fortress with a large population. For all of his travel, Samarkand was the first place Xuanzang notes as specifically not a Buddhist land.  In fact, there were two monasteries, suggesting that there had been Buddhists, but if any monks tried to stay there then the locals would chase them out with fire.  Instead, they worshipped fire—likely meaning Ahura Mazda and Zoroastrianism.  This leads to a story that I have to wonder about, given the reliability of our narrators. It is said that Xuanzang was met by the King with arrogance, but after staying the night Xuanzang was able to tell the King about Buddhism and its merits.  The king was intrigued, and asked to observe the Precepts, and treated Xuanzang with hospitality and respect.  So when two of Xuanzang's attendants went to the monasteries to worship, they were chased out with fire.  When the king heard about this, he had the people arrested and ordered their hands to be cut off.  Xuanzang could not bear to witness such suffering, however, and he intervened to have them spared.  So instead the king had them flogged and banished from the city.  Ever since then, all the people believed in Buddhism. Some parts of this strike true.  It was likely that the king would entertain this strange wanderer who had arrived with letters from the great Qaghan—that may have even explained why Xuanzang had been encouraged to make the dangerous journey to Suyab in the first place, so that he could obtain such permission.  And it would not be strange for the king to listen to his teachings.  If Xuanzang's attendants were attacked, that would have been a huge breach of hospitality, and however the King felt about it, he no doubt had to do something about it.  And so all of that sounds somewhat believable.  Does that mean everyone suddenly converted to Buddhism?  I don't know that I'm quite willing to go that far.  It is also likely that there were Buddhists there already, even if the majority religion was Zoroastrianism. From Samarkand, Xuanzang traveled farther southwest, to the country of Kasanna, which seems to have been the edge of what we might call Sogdiana.   According to his biographers, however, there was a little more to all of this.  Rather, he headed west to Kusanika.  Then he traveled to  Khargan, and further on to the country of Bukhara, and then to Vadi.  All of these were “An” in Chinese, which was the name element used for Sogdians from this region.  He then continued west to the country of Horismika, on the other side of the Amu Darya, aka the Oxus River of Transoxanian fame. From there he traveled further southwest, entering into the mountains.  The path here was often such that they had to travel single-file, and there was no food or water other than what you brought with you.  Eventually they came to a set of doors, known as the Iron Gate.  This was a Turkic fortress.  It was no doubt fortuitous that he had come from his meeting with the Qaghan, and likely had permission to pass through.  From there, they entered the country of Tukhara. As we noted in Episode 119, Tukhara was in the region of Bactria.  It was bordered by the Pamir range in the east, and the Persian empire in the west.  There were also the Great Snow Mountains in the south, likely referencing the Hindu Kush. Tukhara had been conquered by the Gokturks just within the past couple of decades, and Xuanzang notes that the country had been split into largely autonomous city-states as the local royalty had died without an heir many years before.  With the Gokturk conquest, it was now administered by Tardu Shad, the son of Tong Yabghu Qaghan.  “Shad” in this case was a local title. Here, Xuanzang's narrative gets a little dicey, especially between his biography and his records.  The records of the Western Regions denotes various countries in this area.  It is unclear if he traveled to all of them or is just recounting them from records he obtained.  He does give us at least an overview of the people and the region.  I would also note that this is one of the regions he visited, again, on his return trip, and so may have been more familiar with the region than those areas he had passed through from Suyab on down. For one thing, he notes that the language of the region was different from that of the “Suli”, which appears to refer to the Sogdians.  This was the old territory of the Kushan empire, and they largely spoke Bactrian.  Like Sogdian, it was another Eastern Iranian language, and they used an alphabet based largely on Greek, and written horizontally rather than vertically.  They also had their own coins. This region had plenty of Buddhist communities, and Xuanzang describes the cities and how many monasteries they had, though, again, it isn't clear if he actually visited all of them or not.  These are countries that Li Rongji translates as “Tirmidh”, “Sahaaniyan”, “Kharuun”, “Shuumaan”, etc. It does seem that Xuanzang made it to the capital city, the modern city Kunduz, Afghanistan. Xuanzang actually had something specific for the local Gokturk ruler, Tardu Shad.  Tardu Shad's wife was the younger sister of King Qu Wentai of Gaochang, whom we met last episode.  Qu Wentai had provided Xuanzang a letter for his younger sister and her husband.  Unfortunately, Xuanzang arrived to learn that the princess of Gaochang had passed away, and Tardu Shad's health was failing.  It does seem that Tardu Shad was aware of Xuanzang, however—a letter had already come from Qu Wentai to let them know that Xuanzang was on his way.  As I mentioned last episode, letters were an important part of how communities stayed tied together.  Of course, given the perils of the road, one assumes that multiple letters likely had to be sent just in case they didn't make it.  The US Postal Service this was not. Tardu Shad, though not feeling well, granted an interview with Xuanzang.  He suggested that Xuanzang should stick around.  Then, once the Shad had recovered from his illness, he would accompany Xuanzang personally on his trip to India.  Unfortunately, that was not to be.  While Xuanzang was staying there, he was witness to deadly drama.  Tardu Shad was recovering, which was attributed to the recitations by an Indian monk who was also there.  This outcome was not exactly what some in the court had wanted.  One of the Shad's own sons, known as the Tagin prince, plotted with the Shad's current wife, the young Khatun, and she poisoned her husband.  With the Shad dead, the throne might have gone to the son of the Gaochang princess, but he was still too young.  As such, the Tagin Prince was able to usurp the throne himself, and he married his stepmother, the young Khatun.  The funeral services for the late Tardu Shad meant that Xuanzang was obliged to stay at Ghor for over a month. During that time, Xuanzang had a seemingly pleasant interaction with an Indian monk.  And when he finally got ready to go, he asked the new Shad for a guide and horses.  He agreed, but also made the suggestion that Xuanzang should then head to Balkh.  This may have meant a bit of backtracking, but the Shad suggested that it would be worth it, as Balkh had a flourishing Buddhist community. Fortunately, there was a group of Buddhist monks from Balkh who happened to be in Kunduz to express their condolences at the passing of Tardu Shad, and they agreed to accompany Xuanzang back to their hometown, lest he end up getting lost and taking the long way there. The city of Balkh is also known as “Baktra”, as in “Bactria”, another name of this region.  A settlement has been there since at least 500 BCE , and it was already an important city when it was captured by Alexander the Great.  It sits at the confluence of several major trade routes, which no doubt were a big part of its success.  Xuanzang's biography notes that it was a massive city, though it was relatively sparsely populated—probably due to the relatively recent conquest by the Gokturks, which had occurred in the last couple of decades.  That said, there were still thousands of monks residing at a hundred monasteries in and around the city.  They are all characterized as monks of Theravada schools.  Southwest of the city was a monastery known as Navasamgharama, aka Nava Vihara, or “New Monastery”.  Despite its name, the monastery may have actually been much older, going back to the Kushan emperor Kaniska, in the 2nd century CE.  Ruins identified as this “New Monastery” are still visible south of Balkh, today. The monastery is described as being beautifully decorated, and it seems that it had a relic—one of the Buddha's teeth.  There are also various utensils that the Buddha is said to have used, as well.  The objects would be displayed on festival days.  North of the monastery there was a stupa more than 200 feet in height.  South of the monastery was a hermitage.  Each monk who studied there and passed away would have a stupa erected for them, as well.  Xuanzang notes that there were at around 700 memorial stupas, such that they had to be crammed together, base to base. It was here that Xuanzang met a young monk named Prajnaakara, who was already somewhat famous in India, and well-studied.  When questioned about certain aspects of Buddhism, Xuanzang was impressed by the monk's answers, and so stayed there a month studying with the young monk. Eventually, Xuanzang was ready to continue on his journey.  He departed Balkh towards the south, accompanying the teacher Prajnakara, and together they entered the Great Snow Mountains, aka the Hindu Kush.  This path was even more dangerous than the trip through the Tian Shan mountains to Suyab.   They eventually left the territory of Tukhara and arrived at Bamiyan.  Bamiyan was a kingdom in the Hindu Kush, themselves an extension of the Himalayan Mountain range.  It Is largely based around valley, home to the modern city of Bamyan, Afghanistan, which sits along the divide between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.  Today it is a major center for individuals of the Hazara ethnic group, one of the main ethnic groups in Afghanistan, which is a multi-ethnic state that includes, today, the Pashtun, Hazara, Tajik, and Uzbek people, along with a number of smaller ethnic groups.  Today they largely reside in the mountainous areas of the Hindu Kush. Bamiyan made an impact on our protagonist.   Their language was slightly different from that in Tukhara, but using the same—or similar enough—writing system.  Buddhism was thriving in the capital, and we are told of a rock statue of the standing Buddha, over a hundred feet in height, along with a copper statue of the standing Buddha nearby.    There was also another reclining Buddha a mile or two down the road.  There were multiple monasteries with thousands of monks, and the ruler of that kingdom received Xuanzang well. Xuanzang wasn't the first monk to travel to Bamiyan from the Middle Kingdom—in this he was, perhaps unwittingly, on the trail of the monk Faxian.  Faxian likely did not see these statues, though, as we believe they were built in the 6th and early 7th century—at least the stone Buddha statues.  They were a famous worship site until February 2001, when the Taliban gave an order to destroy all of the statues in Afghanistan.  Despite this, they were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. Fortunately, we have images from before their destruction.  These statues were a blend of Greco-Buddhist and Gandharan art styles—appropriate as it stands between the Hellenistic area of Tukhara and the ancient region of Gandhara—including the modern city of Kandahar and into the Indus Valley region of Pakistan. Continuing east through the mountains, Xuanzang eventually came out at the kingdom of Kapisa.  This may have had its capital around modern-day Bagram, north of modern Kabul, but the country seems to have been quite large.  Kapisa over saw some tens of other countries, and it is thought that at one time its influence extended from Bamyan and Kandahar to the area of modern Jalalabad.  Their language was even more different than that of Tukhara, but they were still using the same writing system.  The king of Kapisa is said to have been of Suli ethnicity—which would seem to indicate that he was Sogdian, or at least descended from people of the Transoxanian region.    Xuanzang notes that the ruler, as rough and fiery as he is described—as a true warlord or similar—he nonetheless made a silver image of the Buddha, eighteen feet in height, every year.  He also gave charity to the poor and needy in an assembly that was called every five years.  There were over one hundred monasteries and some 6000 monks, per Xuanzang's recollection, and notably, they were largely following Mahayana teachings. For the most part the monks that Xuanzang had encountered on this journey were Theravada—Xuanzang refers to them as “Hinayana”, referring to the “Lesser Vehicle” in contrast to Xuanzang's own “Mahayana”, or “Greater Vehicle”.  “Theravada” refers to the “way of the elders” and while Mahayana Buddhism largely accepts the sutras of Theravada Buddhism, there are many Mahayana texts that Theravada Buddhists do not believe are canonical.  We discussed this back in Episode 84. There was apparently a story of another individual from the Yellow River being sent as a hostage to Kapisa when it was part of the Kushan Empire, under Kanishka or similar.  Xuanzang recounts various places that the hostage, described as a prince, lived or visited while in the region.  Xuanzang's arrival likely stirred the imagination of people who likely knew that the Tang were out there, but it was such a seemingly impossible distance for most people.  And yet here was someone who had traveled across all of that distance.  One of the monasteries that claimed to have been founded because of that ancient Han prince invited Xuanzang to stay with them.  Although it was a Theravada monastery, Xuanzang took them up on the offer, both because of the connection to someone who may have been his countryman, but also because of his traveling companion, Prajnakara, who was also a Theravada monk, and may not be comfortable staying at a Mahayana monastery. Xuanzang spends a good deal of ink on the stories of how various monasteries and other sites were founded in Kapisa and the surrounding areas.  He must have spent some time there to accumulate all of this information.  It is also one of the places where he seems to have hit at least twice—once on the way to India, and once during his return journey. The King of Kapisa is said to have been a devotee of Mahayana Buddhism.  He invited Xuanzang and Prajnakara to come to a Mahayana monastery to hold a Dharma gathering.  There they met with several leading figures in the monastery, and they discussed different theories.  This gathering lasted five days, and at the end, the king offered Xuanzang and the other monks five bolts of pure brocade and various other gifts.  Soon thereafter, the monk Prajnakara was invited back to Tukhara, and so he and Xuanzang parted ways. And it was about time for Xuanzang to continue onwards as well.  From Kapisa, he would travel across the “Black Range” and into Lampaka.  This may refer to the area of Laghman or Jalalabad.  Today, this is in modern Afghanistan, but for Xuanzang, this would have been the northwestern edge of India.  He was almost there. And so are we, but we'll save his trip into India for next episode. Until then thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

Le Pamir, cette région reculée du Tadjikistan en Asie Centrale, abrite certaines des montagnes les plus isolées du monde. Malgré des conditions climatiques extrêmes, l'altitude et une économie inexistante, l'homme y vit depuis des millénaires. Mais aujourd'hui, la jeunesse locale quitte ces vallées à la recherche d'un avenir ailleurs, menaçant de faire disparaître une culture d'une richesse inestimable.Dans cet épisode, nous partons aux côtés de Cédric Tassan, explorateur et réalisateur, qui s'est lancé à vélo dans une aventure hors norme à travers le Pamir. Son objectif : documenter ces terres oubliées, mettre en lumière leur beauté brute et contribuer à un projet de tourisme responsable pour soutenir les populations locales. À travers des cols vertigineux, des bivouacs en haute altitude et des rencontres marquantes, il partage son expérience et sa vision d'une aventure qui va bien au-delà du défi physique.Entre pousser son vélo pendant dix heures, croiser les traces d'une panthère des neiges et rencontrer des habitants qui luttent pour préserver leurs traditions, Cédric nous embarque dans une exploration immersive, authentique et engagée.Un récit qui donne à réfléchir sur la fragilité des écosystèmes humains et l'importance du voyage comme un vecteur de rencontres et de transmission.Plongez dans cette aventure épique dès à présent ! ***Aventure Epique c'est le podcast qui vous fait vivre dans chaque épisode une aventure en pleine nature hors du commun.Explorateur illustre, sportif renommé ou encore simple amateur, aventurier du quotidien, Aventure Epique est une plongée en apnée le temps d'une aventure qui va vous tenir en haleine, vous émouvoir et vous inspirer.Les disciplines que vous pourrez retrouver dans Aventure Épique : l'alpinisme, l'exploration, l'escalade, le parapente, le vélo, la natation, la voile, le ski et bien d'autres encore…Aventure Épique c'est un nouvel épisode un jeudi sur 2, et le mardi qui précède un extrait de l'épisode à venir, pour bien démarrer la semaine ensemble. Si vous souhaitez suivre notre actualité au jour le jour, et découvrir les coulisses du podcast, rendez-vous dès maintenant sur notre compte Instagram @aventureepique.podcastAventure Epique, des aventures en plein air, à couper le souffle.Un podcast imaginé et animé par Guillaume Lalu et produit par Sportcast Studios Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! "Programa exclusivo para mecenas que recoge la charla que Pablo Strubell hizo en El Almacen de viajes el 1 de febrero de 2025. Una charla sobre el viaje que hizo por Tayikistán y Kirguistán en bicicleta, en solitario, con todo el material de acampada, para poder llegar a alguna de las zonas más remotas del Pamir y del Tien Shan. Para más información sobre las actividades de El almacen de viajes: https://elalmacendeviajes.com/" "❤️ ¿Te gusta este podcast? APOYA ESTE PROGRAMA y conviértete en mecenas en iVoox o Patreon. Más info en: https://www.ungranviaje.org/podcast-de-viajes/apoya-podcast-un-gran-viaje/ Si sueñas con hacer un gran viaje como este te recomendamos NUESTROS LIBROS: ▪︎ 'Cómo preparar un gran viaje' (2ª ed.): https://www.laeditorialviajera.es/tienda/como-preparar-un-gran-viaje-2 ▪︎ 'El libro de los grandes viajes': https://www.laeditorialviajera.es/tienda/el-libro-de-los-grandes-viajes Si quieres conocer historias en primera persona de otros viajeros, NUESTRO EVENTO las 'Jornadas de los grandes viajes' te gustará: https://www.jornadasgrandesviajes.es ️GRABA TU COMENTARIO, pregunta o mensaje en 'Graba aquí tu mensaje de voz' que encontrarás en: https://www.ungranviaje.org/podcast-de-viajes/ Esperamos que te guste ¡Gracias por tu escucha!"Escucha este episodio completo y accede a todo el contenido exclusivo de Un gran viaje. Descubre antes que nadie los nuevos episodios, y participa en la comunidad exclusiva de oyentes en https://go.ivoox.com/sq/54794

Le Pamir, cette région reculée du Tadjikistan en Asie Centrale, abrite certaines des montagnes les plus isolées du monde. Malgré des conditions climatiques extrêmes, l'altitude et une économie inexistante, l'homme y vit depuis des millénaires. Mais aujourd'hui, la jeunesse locale quitte ces vallées à la recherche d'un avenir ailleurs, menaçant de faire disparaître une culture d'une richesse inestimable.Dans cet épisode, nous partons aux côtés de Cédric Tassan, explorateur et réalisateur, qui s'est lancé à vélo dans une aventure hors norme à travers le Pamir. Son objectif : documenter ces terres oubliées, mettre en lumière leur beauté brute et contribuer à un projet de tourisme responsable pour soutenir les populations locales. À travers des cols vertigineux, des bivouacs en haute altitude et des rencontres marquantes, il partage son expérience et sa vision d'une aventure qui va bien au-delà du défi physique.Entre pousser son vélo pendant dix heures, croiser les traces d'une panthère des neiges et rencontrer des habitants qui luttent pour préserver leurs traditions, Cédric nous embarque dans une exploration immersive, authentique et engagée.Un récit qui donne à réfléchir sur la fragilité des écosystèmes humains et l'importance du voyage comme un vecteur de rencontres et de transmission.Plongez dans cette aventure épique dès à présent ! Episode intégral disponible le jeudi 6 février.***Aventure Epique c'est le podcast qui vous fait vivre dans chaque épisode une aventure en pleine nature hors du commun.Explorateur illustre, sportif renommé ou encore simple amateur, aventurier du quotidien, Aventure Epique est une plongée en apnée le temps d'une aventure qui va vous tenir en haleine, vous émouvoir et vous inspirer.Les disciplines que vous pourrez retrouver dans Aventure Épique : l'alpinisme, l'exploration, l'escalade, le parapente, le vélo, la natation, la voile, le ski et bien d'autres encore…Aventure Épique c'est un nouvel épisode un jeudi sur 2, et le mardi qui précède un extrait de l'épisode à venir, pour bien démarrer la semaine ensemble. Si vous souhaitez suivre notre actualité au jour le jour, et découvrir les coulisses du podcast, rendez-vous dès maintenant sur notre compte Instagram @aventureepique.podcastAventure Epique, des aventures en plein air, à couper le souffle.Un podcast imaginé et animé par Guillaume Lalu et produit par Sportcast Studios Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Režisierius Audrius Juzėnas pristato dokumentinį filmą „Menininkas“ apie dailininką, fotomenininką Rimantą Dichavičių.Kultūros ministro Šarūno Biručio spaudos konferencija dėl Keistuolių teatro situacijos.Skulptorius, dailininkas, medalininkas Juozas Kalinauskas švenčia 90-ies metų jubiliejų. Pokalbis su Juozu Kalinausku ir jo dukra, skulptore, medalininke Lina Kalinauskaite.,,Šokanti karalienė: Rameau sutinka Abbą”, – toks neseniai pasirodęs albumas, derinantis iš pirmo žvilgsnio nesuderinamus dalykus: senąjį baroko skambesį ir žymiosios švedų popmuzikos grupės ABBA dainas. Plačiau apie naująjį albumą ir jį kūrusius menininkus pasakoja Ignas Gudelevičius.Rubrikoje „Be kaukių“ svečiuojasi restauratorius, menininkas, Žeimių dvaro savininkas Domas Noreika.Ved. Donatas Šukelis

Apie pokyčius gamtoje ir šios žiemos ypatumus radijo stoties FM99 eteryje kalbėjome su Žuvinto biosferos rezervato ekologu Arūnu Pranaičiu.

Pastebimas didesnis gyventojų nepakantumas apleistiems ir  nebenaudojamiems automobiliams, užimantiems vietą daugiabučių kiemuose ir kitose viešosiose  erdvėse. 

The Himalaya are just one, albeit the longest and highest, of several mountain ranges between India and Central Asia. By world standards, these are massive ranges with some of the highest peaks on the planet.  The Karakoram boasts four of the world's fourteen 8,000-meter peaks, and the Hindu Kush, the Pamir, the Kunlun Shan, and the Tien Shan each have many peaks above 7,000 meters.  No mountain ranges outside this region have such high mountains.  Yet we seldom hear much about these ranges.  In the podcast, Mike Searle describes the origin and geology of six central Asian ranges and how they relate to the Himalaya and the collision of India with Asia. India continues to plow into Asia to this day. How is this movement accommodated? Searle explains the extrusion and crustal shortening models that have been proposed and describes the detailed mapping he and his colleagues conducted in the field in northern India that showed that both mechanisms are operating. Searle is Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford.

The race across the world for the mysterious and elusive Rose of Pamir reaches the Pamir Mountains and facilitates a family reunion.Chapter Five: At The Roof of The WorldMountain-top scuffles as loyalties are tested and all is finally revealed.Clara Page - Phoebe Fox Aldrich Kemp – Ferdinand Kingsley Mrs Boone – Nicola Walker Sebastian Harcourt – Kyle Soller Nakesha Kemp – Karla Crome Aunt Lily – Susan Jameson The Underwood Sisters – Jana Carpenter Lionel – Steven Mackintosh Selina – Catherine Kanter Hazlitt – Ben Crowe Sabine Seah – Bec BoeyWritten and directed by Julian Simpson Music composed by Tim Elsenburg.Sound Design: David Thomas Producer: Sarah Tombling Production Assistant: Ethan Elsenburg Executive Producer: Karen RoseNew episodes available on Fridays. Listen first on BBC SoundsA Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4

Den store opdagelsesrejsende Ole Olufsens oldebarn Nikolai Brun har indleveret et mystisk skrin,  som han aldrig har kunnet åbne. Men nu har skrinet været i hænderne på Nationalmuseets låsesmed, som har lavet en nøgle. Nikolai Brun åbner skrinet i selskab med Bjørn Harvig og Nationalmuseets Ole Olufsen-ekspert Jesper Kurt Nielsen, mens de fortæller om Olufsens store rejse til verdens tag, Pamir. Hvad gemmer sig i skrinet? Hvad siger det om Olufsen? Og er der et nyt eventyr, der venter derude ...

Aldrich Kemp and the gang are back with some new faces as the race for the mysterious and elusive Rose of Pamir moves from London to Paris, New York to Amsterdam and the Maldives to Tajikistan.Chapter Four: The Missing ChildFamily challenges are coming from all directions as Clara races to a Manhattan rooftop and Mrs Bartholomew visits Themis House.Clara Page - Phoebe Fox Aldrich Kemp – Ferdinand Kingsley Mrs Boone – Nicola Walker Nakesha – Karla Crome Sebastian Harcourt & the Dutch waiter – Kyle Soller Aunt Lily – Susan Jameson The Underwood Sisters & Forsaken McTeague – Jana Carpenter Mrs Bartholomew – Kate Isitt Lionel – Steven Mackintosh Selina – Catherine Kanter Hazlitt - Ben CroweWritten and directed by Julian Simpson Music composed by Tim Elsenburg.Sound Design: David Thomas Producer: Sarah Tombling Production Assistant: Ethan Elsenburg Executive Producer: Karen RoseNew episodes available on Fridays. Listen first on BBC SoundsA Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4

Aldrich Kemp and the gang are back with some new faces as the race for the mysterious and elusive Rose of Pamir moves from London to Paris, New York to Amsterdam and the Maldives to Tajikistan.Chapter Three: American CryptographyClara Page and Aldrich Kemp travel to New York and call in a favour, but who else is lurking in Manhattan? Meanwhile, Mrs Bartholomew and Mrs Boone are facing challenges of their own back in Blighty.Clara Page - Phoebe Fox Aldrich Kemp – Ferdinand Kingsley Mrs Boone – Nicola Walker Nakesha – Karla Crome Sebastian Harcourt – Kyle Soller Aunt Lily – Susan Jameson The Underwood Sisters & Forsaken McTeague – Jana Carpenter Mrs Bartholomew – Kate Isitt Lionel – Steven Mackintosh Selina – Catherine Kanter Vartan - Ben CroweWritten and directed by Julian Simpson Music composed by Tim Elsenburg.Sound Design: David Thomas Producer: Sarah Tombling Production Assistant: Ethan Elsenburg Executive Producer: Karen RoseNew episodes available on Fridays. Listen first on BBC SoundsA Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4

Aldrich Kemp and the gang are back with some new faces as the race for the mysterious and elusive Rose of Pamir moves from London to Paris, New York to Amsterdam and the Maldives to Tajikistan.Chapter Two: The Music BoxClara Page's investigation of the Linnean Society break-in provided the first clues in the search and now Clara and Aldrich are heading south-west in a bid to beat the other side. Whoever they are...Clara Page - Phoebe Fox Aldrich Kemp – Ferdinand Kingsley Mrs Boone – Nicola Walker Sebastian Harcourt & Dutch Interviewer – Kyle Soller Aunt Lily – Susan Jameson The Underwood Sisters – Jana Carpenter Mrs Bartholomew – Kate Isitt Lionel – Steven Mackintosh Selina & Miss Evesham – Catherine Kanter Mister Dalton – Karl DaviesWritten and directed by Julian Simpson Music composed by Tim Elsenburg.Sound Design: David Thomas Producer: Sarah Tombling Production Assistant: Ethan Elsenburg Executive Producer: Karen RoseNew episodes available on Fridays. Listen first on BBC SoundsA Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4

A break-in at the Linnean Society triggers a race for the mysterious and elusive Rose of Pamir. Clara Page and the Themis Group are on one side, but who is on the other? Aldrich Kemp and the gang are back with some new faces as the race moves from London to Paris, New York to Amsterdam and the Maldives to Tajikistan.Chapter One: Mothers... and daughters take centre stage.Clara Page - Phoebe Fox Aldrich Kemp – Ferdinand Kingsley Mrs Boone – Nicola Walker Nakesha Kemp – Karla Crome Aunt Lily – Susan Jameson The Underwood Sisters – Jana Carpenter Mrs Bartholomew – Kate Isitt Lionel – Steven Mackintosh Selina – Catherine Kanter Hazlitt & Sir Peregrine – Ben Crowe Recruitment Consultant – Bec BoeyWritten and directed by Julian Simpson Music composed by Tim Elsenburg.Sound Design: David Thomas Producer: Sarah Tombling Production Assistant: Ethan Elsenburg Executive Producer: Karen RoseNew episodes available on Fridays. Listen first on BBC SoundsA Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4

Stan Hugill was known in his lifetime as the ‘Last Working Shantyman' and became a guardian of the tradition of maritime music. Stan had a colourful and eventful life. He spent 23 years at sea including a stint as the official shantyman on board the steel four-masted barque Garthpool, the last British commercial sailing ship. In the Second World War he worked as the helmsman on the ss Automedon which was sunk by a German auxiliary cruiser and led to Stan being held as a prisoner of war for four years. In later life he taught sailing skills in Wales and aboard the sail-training vessel Pamir. In these years Stan began to write down the shanties he had learned, authoring several books, recording several albums and regularly performing in public. He became something of a star in the British folk scene anchoring a BBC show Dance and Skylark in the 1960s ‘featuring The Spinners with Bosun Stan Hugill who welcomes friends and visitors aboard his old Sailing Barque.' To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Mollie Carlyle, a historian of maritime music with an encyclopaedic knowledge of her own and an expert on Stan's life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Family; friends and foe - a richer mix than ever for Clara Page, Aldrich Kemp and the Themis Gang as they embark on a global race against time.CAST:Clara Page - Phoebe Fox Aldrich Kemp – Ferdinand Kingsley Mrs Boone – Nicola Walker Nakesha Kemp – Karla Crome Sebastian Harcourt - Kyle Soller Aunt Lily – Susan Jameson Forsaken McTeague & The Underwood Sisters – Jana Carpenter Mrs Bartholomew – Kate Isitt Lionel – Steven Mackintosh Hazlitt & Sir Peregrine – Ben CroweWritten and directed by Julian Simpson Music composed by Tim ElsenburgSound Design: David Thomas Producer: Sarah Tombling Production Assistant: Ethan Elsenburg Executive Producer: Karen RoseNew episodes available on Fridays. Listen first on BBC SoundsA Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4

Zažily sesuvy půdy, vřelý kontakt s místními lidmi i nádherné hvězdné noci. Hikerky Martina Merisi a Michaela Hrdá přešly jako vůbec první lidé na světě novou stezku Pamir Trail, více než 1330 km dlouhou trasu horami Tádžikistánu. Trvalo jim to 69 dní.Všechny díly podcastu Casablanca můžete pohodlně poslouchat v mobilní aplikaci mujRozhlas pro Android a iOS nebo na webu mujRozhlas.cz.

Zažily sesuvy půdy, vřelý kontakt s místními lidmi i nádherné hvězdné noci. Hikerky Martina Merisi a Michaela Hrdá přešly jako vůbec první lidé na světě novou stezku Pamir Trail, více než 1330 km dlouhou trasu horami Tádžikistánu. Trvalo jim to 69 dní.

Kultūros publikacijų spaudoje apžvalga.Kaip turime vartoti negaliai jautrią kalbą?Paskelbtas penktasis anotacijų konkursas „Pasaulis mano knygų lentynoje“.Kuo įdomios Jonnio Greenwoodo muzikinės kompozicijos?Ąžuolyno bibliotekoje Kaune atrasta 1639 metais išleista poeto, pamokslininko Motiejaus Kazimiero Sarbievijaus knyga „Odė palaimintajam Stanislovui Kostkai“.Kokias savo ateities strategijas dėlioja anglakalbiai leidiniai?Kelmės kultūros centre pristatyta dailininko Ričardo Garbačiausko darbų paroda „Šaknys“.Šiuo metu atnaujinamas Sugiharos namų muziejus Kaune sulaukė gerų žinių – įsteigtas neliečiamojo kapitalo fondas, kuris sieks sukurti nepriklausomą pasyvių pajamų srautą.Atliekų kultūros apdovanojimuose „Metų kūrėjo '23“ apdovanojimas, visuomenės ir komisijos sprendimu skirtas Milda Paukštei.Ved. Marius Eidukonis

Antisemtizmas vėl kelia galvą. Baisiausią XX a. tragediją prisimenant – pamiršti ir tik pastaraisiais metais atrandami nuo nacių pabėgę žydai kompozitoriai. Skirtingos Szymono Lakso, Paulio Ben-Haimo, Jerzy Fitelbergo, Walterio Kaufmanno, Hanso Gálo, Alberto Hemsi ir Roberto Müller-Hartmanno istorijos ir jų muzikinės iliustracijos.Ved. Domantas Razauskas

Jess Thomas is an Australian adventurer whose first bike tour was from Athens to Barcelona.  She hasn't  looked back since, and has now shaped her lifestyle into one which maximises her bike travelling opportunities. I spoke to her not long after she'd traversed across the Pamir highway, and made her way to Vienna in Europe.Her adventures have taken her around the world, and when she isn't on a bike adventure, she's working, guiding people on their own travel adventures.  Bike touring in India has been especially energising for Jess - so much so she now organises custom tours to introduce people to this little known area.Follow Jess on instagram - @Jess_RevolveYourself and you can also check out her tours in India here:Support the showEnjoying Seek Travel Ride? Buy me a coffee and help support the show!Thank you to RedShift Sports for supporting the show! - Check them out here Sign up to the Seek Travel Ride NewsletterLeave me a voicemail messageJoin the Seek Travel Ride Facebook group - Seek Travel Ride Music Playlist available now on both Spotify or Apple Music Follow us on Social Media!Instagram - @SeekTravelRideTwitter - @BellaCyclingWebsite: Seek Travel Ride Facebook - Seek Travel Ride

Trumpa informacinė RADIOCENTRO laida apie mokslo naujienas ir naujausius pasiekimus.Klausyk šiokiadieniais 13.30 val. per RADIOCENTRĄ arba mūsų podkaste „Mokslas šiandien“.

Tayikistán, en el corazón de Asia Central, es un destino ideal para los amantes de la naturaleza y la aventura. Con sus imponentes montañas Pamir y una rica herencia cultural, el país ofrece impresionantes paisajes, valles remotos y una historia milenaria ligada a la Ruta de la Seda. Aunque poco conocido, Tayikistán es un paraíso para explorar montañas, lagos cristalinos y la hospitalidad de su gente.

Dans cet épisode de "Raconte-moi une OPEX", Céline, infirmière militaire, partage son parcours et son expérience, notamment sur son déploiement en Afghanistan en 2010. Engagée à 21 ans au sein du régiment médical en tant que brancardier secouriste, Céline a ensuite évolué vers la carrière d'infirmière diplômée d'État, tout en restant au service de l'armée, une vocation qui est née d'un désir de servir son pays après l'obtention de son baccalauréat.Lors de son déploiement en Afghanistan, Céline a été affectée à Kaboul, où elle s'est occupée des blessés militaires et civils, qu'ils soient français, afghans ou d'autres nationalités. Elle évoque les défis d'un hôpital militaire en période d'intenses attaques terroristes et décrit son adaptation à une culture totalement différente de celle de la France. Sur le terrain, elle a été confrontée à de nombreuses situations d'urgence, où elle a pris en charge des victimes de guerre, une expérience qui l'a profondément marquée.L'infirmière militaire revient aussi sur la gestion du stress post-traumatique (SPT), un syndrome qui l'a touché plusieurs années après son retour d'Afghanistan. Ce n'est que 10 ans après avoir quitté l'Afghanistan, lors de la prise de Kaboul par les talibans qu'elle regarde aux informations, que ses symptômes se sont intensifiés, révélant un stress post-traumatique non traité pendant des années. Ce retard dans la reconnaissance de sa blessure est un exemple de la difficulté qu'ont certains militaires à exprimer leurs souffrances psychologiques.Grâce à l'aide de l'ONaC-VG et d'associations comme les Gueules Cassées, Céline a pu obtenir une reconnaissance officielle de sa blessure de guerre et un accompagnement administratif essentiel. Elle insiste sur l'importance de ces structures pour aider les soldats blessés, notamment dans leurs démarches pour la pension d'invalidité militaire ou l'aide sociale. Grâce à eux, Céline a également pu faire reconnaître sa fille comme Pupille de la Nation, un symbole fort de reconnaissance pour les sacrifices réalisés par les militaires blessés.Aujourd'hui, Céline continue de bénéficier d'un suivi régulier, tant pour son stress post-traumatique que pour ses démarches administratives. Elle reste également en contact avec des associations de militaires, soulignant l'importance de la solidarité entre blessés. Cet épisode est aussi l'occasion d'insister sur l'importance de la prise en charge de la blessure post-traumatique, notamment en intégrant davantage de psychiatres dans les structures de soin des armées.Pour en savoir plus sur Office national des combattants et des victimes de guerre rendez-vous sur :La page FaceBook de l'ONaCVGLe compte Instagram de l'ONaCVGLe compte Linkedin de l'ONaCVGPour en savoir plus sur le service de santé des Armées, suivez ce lienUn résumé de l'opération Pamir en Afghanistan (2001-2014)Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Šiaurės šalių folkloras lietuviškame festivalyje; rubrika „Gera, bet pamiršta“, arba roko grupė „Non Stop“; Lietuvos muzikos informacijos centro išleista šių metų džiazo ir improvizacinės muzikos rinktinė, kuri atstovaus Lietuvai tarptautinėse mugėse; MTV mirtis: ar beturi ši televizija ką nors bendra su muzika? Visa tai naujausios „Pakartot“ temos.Ved. Domantas Razauskas

Pietruszka, Porzeczka, Pamir i Zuzia przyszły na świat w stołecznym ogrodzie zoologicznym w tym roku. O nowych mieszkańcach zoo rozmawiamy z Agatą Borucką z Działu edukacji warszawskiego ZOO.

Nükhet Işıkoğlu'nun hazırlayıp sunduğu programa Artı ve Artı Teknoloji Hizmetleri San. ve Tic. A.Ş AI ve RPA Group Manager Pamir Aydınoğlu konuk oluyor.

Nükhet Işıkoğlu'nun hazırlayıp sunduğu programa Artı ve Artı Teknoloji Hizmetleri San. ve Tic. A.Ş AI ve RPA Group Manager Pamir Aydınoğlu konuk oluyor.

Vilniuje prasideda Tarptautinė antikorupcijos konferencija - didžiausias ir svarbiausias skaidrumo forumas pasaulyje. Apie korupcijos keliamus iššūkius ir ateities perspektyvas diskutuos valstybių lyderiai, politikos formuotojai, kovos su korupcija ekspertai, akademinė bendruomenė iš viso pasaulio. Konferenciją lydi dokumentinių filmų programa „Films4Transparency“, sudaryta pagal svarbiausias renginio temas.„Čia eksponuojami automobiliai, su kuriais žmonės važinėjo prieš 20, 30 ar 50 metų. Vyresni lankytojai gali prisiminti savo pirmąjį automobilį, o jaunesni – pažinti, ką vairavo jų tėvai ar seneliai“, – sako Molėtų technikos muziejaus gidas Ričardas Žičkus. Čia saugoma apie tris šimtus skirtingų transporto priemonių ir pasakojama penkiasdešimties metų Lietuvos technikos istorija.Naujausioje poetės Jurgitos Jasponytės eilėraščių knygoje „Visata atsisėda netinkamoje vietoje“ persipina miesto poezija, folkloras ir lyrika. Apie daugialypę būties ir poezijos prigimtį su rašytoja kalbasi literatūrologė Dovilė Kuzminskaitė.Režisierius Davidas Lynchas 1997-aisiais sukurtą filmą „Pamirštas greitkelis“ traktuoja kaip siaubo fugą – terminą apibūdinantį vieną sudėtingiausių polifoninės muzikos žanrų ir sudėtingą psichinę būseną, kuriai būdingas tapatybės suvokimo praradimas ir klajonių bei kelionių būtinybė.„Aš net savo atostogas planuoju pagal kino festivalius!“, - juokiasi žurnalistė, kino kritikė Lolita Bytautaitė. Rubrikoje „Be kaukių“ prodiuserė atviraus apie savo meilę kinui, Prancūzijai, knygoms ir kokybiškoms atostogoms. Jūsų dėmesiui - ir pritrenkiantys Kanų kino festivalio užkulisiai.Ved. Odeta Vasiliauskaitė

Pietų Afrikos hileris džiazo pianistas; škotė, apdainuojanti ryškiausius savo šalies dailės kūrinius; olandė Janine Jansen, pristatanti Sibelijaus smuiko koncertą; Modestas Pitrėnas, Sankt Galeno simfoninis, pianistas Simonas Callaghanas ir pamiršti XIX a. romantikai. Visa tai – leidybinės naujienos „Kitame laike“!Ved. Domantas Razauskas

Saludos comunidad, vengo para proponerles una ruta fascinante por un rincón de Asia Central. Lo conté en la segunda temporada de la serie y merecía la pena recordarlo. Sabes, este podcast es gratis porque creo que compartir es vivir. Pero esto no sería posible sin ti, así que gracias por escuchar. Pero además puedes dejarme un nota de audio de hasta un minuto haciendo clic en este link. https://anchor.fm/cesar-sar/message Otra manera de hacerlo es enviarme una nota de voz de hasta 1 minuto por mi cuenta de Instagram o Facebook.  Y ya lo más de lo más sería que me dieras 5 estrellas y dejases una reseña, 30 segundos para tí, una gran ayuda para mí.  Si quieres contarme algo puedes escribirme a viajes@cesarsar.com  Si quieres contratar mis servicios como viajero consultor es el mismo email, pongo a tu servicio mi experiencia por 135 países en todos los continentes, y es que 3 vueltas al mundo dan para mucho. Puedo ayudarte a organizar tu próximo viajazo, para que aciertes, para que disfrutes, para que vivas, para que sueñes, porque pocas cosas dan tanta satisfacción como un buen viaje. Además podemos compartir redes: https://www.facebook.com/CesarSar/ https://www.instagram.com/sarworldpress/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC55ZMnqfOlSc7uWbIEM4bDw Y si te gusta la serie y quieres ayudar más, puedes dejar otro comentario en esta publicación de BuenViaje en IG https://www.instagram.com/p/CrKqoyzubKZ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Un abrazo, compartir es vivir.  #Viajes #ViajesBarartos #Viajes #Viajessostenibles #Consejosdeviajes #Viajesfelices #Podcastdeviajes #Vueltaalmundo #Tayikistan #RutaPamir #Pamir

Dagens gjester er to nordmenn som har blitt plukket opp av et av verdens største mediehus, Forbes. Pamir Ehsas og Ronald Griffin blir beskrevet som innflytelsesrike i hver sin kategori. Hvordan havnet de der de er i dag? Hva er deres historie?

Dans ce 106ème épisode, Christophe raconte le Tadjikistan

Depuis plus de 20 ans, l'écrivain et documentariste français arpente les montagnes d'Orient. Il vient de publier un recueil de nouvelles tel une ode chorale et sensible à ces montagnes et tous ceux qui les peuplent. « Si haute soit la montagne, on y trouve toujours un sentier », dit le proverbe afghan. Au gré de ses multiples voyages sur les sentes escarpées des montagnes d'Asie Centrale, des replis de l'Hindou Kouch jusqu'au Pamir en passant par le Ladakh ou les monts Zagros, entre Iran et Irak, Louis Meunier a emprunté d'innombrables sentiers, en quête d'histoires et d'une certaine vérité du monde. Ces chemins vont l'amener à suivre des nomades d'Iran en transhumance, des cavaliers afghans dans une partie fiévreuse de Bouzkachi, ce polo des hauts plateaux, ou des alpinistes, afghans toujours, partis à l'assaut du Mont Noshaq. « Si haute soit la montagne », c'est d'ailleurs le titre de son dernier livre, un recueil de nouvelles inspirées de ses multiples voyages, où Louis Meunier nous entraîne à la découverte d'hommes et de femmes libres et fiers, ivres d'espoirs et d'immensités, des montagnards au cœur pur, enfants des hauteurs et du grand air. Tandis qu'en contrebas, depuis des siècles, se joue le grand désordre des Empires et de l'Histoire. Sur les cartes, les montagnes font souvent office de frontières ou de lisières. Mais sous les mots de Louis Meunier, elles deviennent aussi traits d'union, tout en demeurant sanctuaires ou refuges à ciel ouvert. Parce que ces montagnes d'Orient sont finalement le centre de sa vie et de sa propre quête de liberté, de ses récits, mieux, du monde !Une rencontre initialement diffusée le 20/03/2022.À lire :- « Si haute soit la montagne », de Louis Meunier. Éditions Calmann-Lévy, 2022- « Voyage en France buissonnière », de Louis Meunier. Éditions Kero, 2018- « Les Cavaliers afghans », de Louis Meunier. Éditions Kero, 2014. À voir :- « Nomades d'Iran, l'instituteur des Monts Zagros», ZED & Taimani Films Productions, 2020- « Kabullywood »,Taimani Films Production, 2017- « Les Cavaliers afghans, sur les traces de Joseph Kessel en Afghanistan », Zycopolis Productions, 2016- « Prisonniers de l'Himalaya », Taimani Films Production, 2012- « 7 000 mètres au-dessus de la guerre », Taimani Films et Memento Productions, 2011. En savoir plus :- Sur l'épopée équestre de Louis Meunier et son livre « Les cavaliers Afghans ». Si loin, si proche, 29/08/2014. - Sur l'espace d'expression pour les Afghans sur le site en persan de RFI : « Écho d'Afghanistan ». En images

Gaja Guna Eklė. „Žmogus, pamiršęs, kur jo namai“ iš knygos „Keistuoliai“. Skaito Vaidotas Žitkus. Išleido leidykla „Nieko rimto“.

This week we have Jan Bakker, author of Cicerone's Trekking in Tajikistan guidedbook, and founder of the Pamir Trail. Jan shares why Tajikistan is such an incredible trekking destination, and some of his favourite places to trek, from those who are new to the country to some of the more challenging and remote treks. Jan also shares how he ended up writing a guidebook for trekking in Tajikistan, and why he is now working to create the 1,000km Pamir Trail, a thru-hike that takes trekkers through some of the most beautiful parts of Tajikistan.  

In this episode I interview Ed Hawes to talk about his current cycle tour from his home in London all the way to New Zealand.  By the  end of this tour he will have cycled 25,000km. His route would take him through Western Europe, the Balkans, Turkey, and then through the deserts and high mountains of Central Asia.  Bicycle touring on the famous Silk Road, Pamir Highway and the Karakoram Highway before making his way through Pakistan, India and South East Asia and onwards to Australia and NZ.  I caught up with Ed while he was in Adelaide Australia - very close to his end goal.  Ed set himself the challenge of completing the bicycle tour in just one year - a monumental achievement in itself. We spoke about how the dream to cycle the world turned into reality and Ed shares his experiences of his tour so far.  We chat about what it is like to experience cycling through so many different countries, as he makes his way to the other side of the world and whether it's possible to cycle the Pamir highway on 32mm tyres! Spoiler alert - yes it is possible but perhaps not ideal!You can read more about Ed's trip via the following:Ed's Website: Cycle UK to NZEd's Instagram: @ed_hawes1If you have your own adventure on a bicycle you'd like to share with our listeners than be sure to get in touch via Seek Travel Ride Podcast and request to be interviewed as a guest of the show. Have you joined the Seek Travel Ride Podcast Reddit Community yet?  It's a great place where you can  discuss this episode in more detail and also chat about the podcast in general with other fans of the show. NEW! - Leave a Voice Message! Have something you'd like to tell me? Want to chat about this episode more or tell me about your own bicycle adventures? Well now You can now get in touch and leave a voice message! Just click here and record a voicemail message - I may even include it in future episodes! Join the Seek Travel Ride Facebook group - a place where you can discuss episodes in more detail, learn more about our guests and also where you can share more about your own adventures on a bike! Enjoying listening to Seek Travel Ride? Then please give the show some love and leave a rating and review on your podcast player.Also be sure to follow us on your favourite Podcast Player so you get notified when new episodes are released. You can also follow us via:Instagram - @SeekTravelRideTwitter - @BellaCyclingWebsite: Seek Travel Ride Facebook - Seek Travel Ride

Nepaisant kandidatų prašymų naikinti rezultatus, Vyriausioji rinkimų komisija patvirtino merų rinkimų rezultatus Anykščiuose ir Visagine.Nuolat akcentuodama kolektyvinę gynybą, Vokietijos brigados dislokavimo klausimą, Lietuva pamiršta trečiąjį NATO straipsnį. Jis numato, kad kiekviena NATO šalis pirmiausia pati turi pasirūpinti savo saugumu. Tokią kritiką išsako buvęs JAV kariuomenės Europoje vadas Benas Hodžesas. Vilniuje vyksta aštuntasis saugumo forumas, kuriame nagrinėjama ateities atgrasymo strategija Baltijos regione, akcentuojamas regiono saugumo jautrumas bei NATO ir ES svarba naujų iššūkių akivaizdoje.Miškuose prie Vandžiogalos, Valstybinės saugomų teritorijų tarnybos specialistai stebi didžiulę klajojančių stumbrų bandą. Ūkininkai baiminasi dėl laukų, kuri auga žieminiai kviečiai, gamtininkai sako, kad banda turėtų judėti giliau į miškus.Į LRT girdi kreipėsi keli klausytojai besipiktinantys nauja Vilniaus viešojo transporto e-bilieto sistema – turimo bilieto neužteks tik aktyvuoti kaip iki šiol, bet kaskart reikės ir pažymėti.Ved. Agnė Skamarakaitė

"Ei!, vosaltres sou the walkers?", els va preguntar un ciclista a la Jenn i en Llu

TJ Talks Convention, SuperTen, "My 10", and being prepared for the unexpected with Executive Director Jason Price

This episode we look at some of the physical evidence from this period.  In particular, since we are talking about the sovereign known as Ankan Tenno, we will look at a glass bowl, said to have come from his tomb, which appears to have made its way all the way from Sassanid Persia to Japan between the 5th and 6th centuries CE.  Along the way we'll take a brief look at the route that such an item may have taken to travel across the Eurasian continent all the way to Japan. For more on this episode, check out https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-79 Rough Transcript: Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 79:  Ankan's Glass Bowl. We are currently in the early part of the 6th century.  Last episode was our New Year's wrapup, but just before that we talked about the reign of Magari no Ōye, aka Ohine, aka Ankan Tennō.   According to the Chronicles, he was the eldest son of Wohodo, aka Keitai Tennō, coming to the throne in 534.  For all of the various Miyake, or Royal Grannaries, that he granted, his reign only lasted about two years, coming to an unfortunate end in the 12th month of 535.  The Chronicles claim that Ohine was 70 years old when he died, which would seem to indicate he was born when his father, Wohodo, was only 13 years of age.  That seems rather young, but not impossibly so. It is said that Ankan Tennō was buried on the hill of Takaya, in the area of Furuichi.  And that is where my personal interest in him and his short reign might end, if not for a glass bowl that caught my eye in the Tokyo National Museum. Specifically, it was the Heiseikan, which is where the Tokyo National Museum hosts special exhibitions, but it also hosts a regular exhibition on Japanese archaeology.  In fact, if you ever get the chance, I highly recommend checking it out.  I mean, let's be honest, the Tokyo National Museum is one of my favorite places to visit when I'm in Tokyo.  I think there is always something new—or at least something old that I find I'm taking a second look at. The Japanese archaeology section of the Heiseikan covers from the earliest stone tools through the Jomon, Yayoi, Kofun, and up to about the Nara period.  They have originals or replicas of many items that we've talked about on the podcast, including the gold seal of King Na of Wa, the Suda Hachiman mirror, and the swords from Eta Funayama and Inariyama kofun, which mention Wakatakiru no Ōkimi, generally thought to be the sovereign known as Yuuryaku Tennō.  They also have one of the large iron tate, or shields, on loan from Isonokami Shrine, and lots of bronze mirrors and various types of haniwa. Amongst this treasure trove of archaeological artifacts, one thing caught my eye from early on.  It is a small, glass bowl, round in shape, impressed throughout with a series of round indentations, almost like a giant golf ball.  Dark brown streaks crisscross the bowl, where it has been broken and put back together at some point in the past.  According to the placard, this Juuyo Bunkazai, or Important Cultural Property, is dated to about the 6th century, was produced somewhere in West Asia, and it is said to have come from the tomb of none other than Ankan Tennō himself. This has always intrigued me.  First and foremost there is the question of provenance—while there are plenty of tombs that have been opened over the years, generally speaking the tombs of the imperial family, especially those identified as belonging to reigning sovereigns, have been off limits to most archaeological investigations.  So how is it that we have artifacts identified with the tomb of Ankan Tennō, if that is the case? The second question, which almost trumps the first, is just how did a glass bowl from west Asia make it all the way to Japan in the 6th century?  Of course, Japan and northeast Asia in general were not strangers to glassmaking—glass beads have a long history both on the Korean peninsula and in the archipelago, including the molds used to make them.  However, it is one thing to melt glass and pour it into molds, similar to working with cast bronze.  These bowls, however, appear to be something different.  They were definitely foreign, and, as we shall see, they had made quite the journey. So let's take a look and see if we can't answer both of these questions, and maybe learn a little bit more about the world of 6th century Japan along the way. To start with, let's look at the provenance of this glass bowl.  Provenance is important—there are numerous stories of famous “finds” that turned out to be fakes, or else items planted by someone who wanted to get their name out there.  Archaeology—and its close cousin, paleontology—can get extremely competitive, and if you don't believe me just look up the Bone Wars of the late 19th century.  Other names that come to mind:  The infamous Piltdown man, the Cardiff Giant, and someone we mentioned in one of our first episodes, Fujimura Shin'ichi, who was accused of salting digs to try to claim human habitation in Japan going back hundreds of thousands of years. This is further complicated by the fact that, in many cases, the situation behind a given find is not necessarily well documented.  There are Edo period examples of Jomon pottery, or haniwa, that were found, but whose actual origins have been lost to time.  Then there are things like the seal of King Na of Wa, which is said to have been discovered by a farmer, devoid of the context that would help to otherwise clear the questions that continue to surround such an object.  On top of this, there are plenty of tombs that have been worn down over the ages—where wind and water have eroded the soil, leaving only the giant stone bones, or perhaps washing burial goods into nearby fields or otherwise displacing them. So what is the story with the tomb of Ankan Tennō, and this glass bowl? To answer this, let's first look at the tomb attributed to Ankan Tennō.  The Nihon Shoki tells us in the 8th century that this tomb was located at Takaya, in the area of Furuichi.  This claim is later repeated by the Engi Shiki in the 10th century.  Theoretically, the compilers of both of these works had some idea of where this was, but in the hundreds of years since then, a lot has happened.  Japan has seen numerous governments, as well as war, famine, natural disaster, and more.  At one point, members of the royal household were selling off calligraphy just to pay for the upkeep of the court, and while the giant kofun no doubt continued to be prominent features for locals in the surrounding areas, the civilian and military governments of the intervening centuries had little to no budget to spare for their upkeep.  Records were lost, as were many details. Towards the end of the Edo period, and into the early Meiji, a resurgence in interest in the royal, or Imperial, family and their ancient mausoleums caused people to investigate the texts and attempt to identify mausoleums for each of the sovereigns, as well as other notable figures, in the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki.  Given that many of those figures are likely fictional or legendary individuals, one can see how this may be problematic.  And yet, the list that eventually emerged has become the current list of kofun protected by the Imperial Household Agency as imperial mausolea. Based on what we know, today, some of these official associations seem obviously questionable.  Some of them, for instance, are not even keyhole shaped tombs—for instance, some are circular, or round tombs, where the claim is often made that the other parts of the tomb were eroded or washed away.  Still others engender their own controversy, such as who, exactly, is buried in Daisen-ryō, the largest kofun, claimed to be the resting place of Ōsazaki no Mikoto, aka Nintoku Tennō.  Some people, however, claim that it is actually the sovereign Woasatsuma Wakugo, aka Ingyō Tennō, who is buried there, instead.  What is the truth?  Well, without opening up the main tomb, who is to say, and even then it is possible that any evidence may have already been lost to the acidic soils of the archipelago, which are hardly kind to organic matter. By the way, quick divergence, here—if you look up information on Daisen-ryō, aka Daisen Kofun, you may notice that there are drawings of a grave, including a coffin, associated with it.  That might get you thinking, as I did at one point, that Daisen kofun had already been opened, but it turns out that was a grave on the slopes of the square end of the kofun, and not from the main, circular burial mound.  Theoretically this may have been an important consort, or perhaps offspring or close relative of the main individual interred in the kofun, but most likely it is not for the person for whom the giant mound was actually erected.  So, yes, Daisen kofun remains unopened, at least as far as we know. As for the kofun identified for Ankan Tennō, today that is the tomb known as Furuichi Tsukiyama Kofun, aka Takaya Tsukiyama Kofun.  While the connection to Ankan Tennō may be somewhat unclear, the kofun has had its own colorful history, in a way.  Now most of the reports I could find, from about '92 up to 2022, place this kofun, which is a keyhole shaped kofun, in the correct time period—about the early to mid-6th century, matching up nicely with a 534 to 535 date for the reign given to Ankan Tennō.  But what is fascinating is the history around the 15th to 16th centuries.  It was just after the Ounin War, in 1479, when Hatakeyama Yoshihiro decided to build a castle here, placing the honmaru, the main enclosure, around the kofun, apparently incorporating the kofun and its moats into the castle design.  The castle, known as Takaya Castle, would eventually fall to Oda Nobunaga's forces in 1575, and most of the surrounding area was burned down in the fighting, bringing the kofun's life as a castle to an end. Some of the old earthworks still exist, however, and excavations in the area have helped determine the shape of the old castle, though there still have not been any fulsome excavations of the mound that I have found.  This makes sense as the kofun is designated as belonging to a member of the imperial lineage. There are, however, other keyhole shaped kofun from around the early 6th century that are also found in the same area, which also could be considered royal mausolea, and would seem to fit the bill just as well as this particular tomb.  In addition, there are details in the Chronicles, such as the fact that Magari no Ohine, aka Ankan Tennō, was supposedly buried with his wife and his younger sister.  This is, however, contradicted by records like the 10th century Engi Shiki, where two tombs are identified, one for Ankan Tennō and one for his wife, Kasuga no Yamada, so either the Chronicles got it wrong, or there were already problems with tomb identification just two centuries later.  So we still aren't entirely sure that this is Ankan Tennō's tomb. But at least we know that the glass bowl came from a 6th century kingly tomb, even if that tomb was only later identified as belonging to Ankan Tennō, right? Well, not so fast. The provenance on the bowl is a bit more tricky than that.  You see, the bowl itself came to light in 1950, when a private individual in Fuse, Ōsaka invited visiting scholar Ishida Mosaku to take a look.  According to his report at the time, the bowl was in a black lacquered box and wrapped in a special cloth, with a written inscription that indicated that the bowl had been donated to a temple in Furuichi named Sairin-ji. There are documents from the late Edo period indicating that various items were donated to Sairin-ji temple between the 16th to the 18th centuries, including quote-unquote “utensils” said to have been washed out of the tomb believed to be that of Ankan Tennō.  Ishida Mosaku and other scholars immediately connected this glass bowl with one or more of those accounts.  They were encouraged by the fact that there is a similar bowl found in the Shōsōin, an 8th century repository at Tōdai-ji temple, in Nara, which houses numerous artifacts donated on behalf of Shōmu Tennō.  Despite the gulf of time between them—two hundred years between the 6th and 8th centuries—this was explained away in the same way that Han dynasty mirrors, made in about the 3rd century, continued to show up in burials for many hundreds of years afterwards, likewise passed down as familial heirlooms. Still, the method of its discovery, the paucity of direct evidence, and the lack of any direct connection with where it came from leaves us wondering—did this bowl really come from the tomb of Ankan Tennō?  Even moreso, did it come from a 6th century tomb at all?  Could it not have come from some other tomb? We could tie ourselves up in knots around this question, and I would note that if you look carefully at the Tokyo National Museum's own accounting of the object they do mention that it is quote-unquote “possibly” from the tomb of Ankan Tennō. What does seem clear, however, is that its manufacture was not in Japan.  Indeed, however it came to our small group of islands on the northeastern edge of the Eurasian continent, it had quite the journey, because it does appear to be genuinely from the Middle East—specifically from around the time of the Sassanian or Sassanid empire, the first Iranian empire, centered on the area of modern Iran. And it isn't the only one.  First off, of course, there is the 8th century bowl in the Shousoin I just mentioned, but there are also examples of broken glass found on Okinoshima, an island deep in the middle of the strait between Kyushu and the Korean peninsula, which has a long history as a sacred site, mentioned in the Nihon Shoki, and attached to the Munakata shrine in modern Fukuoka.  Both Okinoshima and the Shōsōin—at least as part of the larger Nara cultural area—are on the UNESCO register of World Heritage sites, along with the Mozu-Furuichi kofun group, of which the Takaya Tsukiyama kofun is one.. Okinoshima is a literal treasure trove for archaeologists. However, its location and status have made it difficult to fully explore.  The island is still an active sacred site, and so investigations are balanced with respect for local tradition.  The lone occupant of the island is a Shinto priest, one of about two dozen who rotate spending 10 days out at the island, tending the sacred site.  Women are still not allowed, and for centuries, one day a year they allowed up to 200 men on the island after they had purified themselves in the ocean around the island.  Since then, they have also opened up to researchers, as well as military and media, at least in some instances. The island is apparently littered with offerings.  Investigations have demonstrated that this island has been in use since at least the 4th century.  As a sacred site, guarding the strait between Kyushu and the Korean peninsula, fishermen and sailors of all kinds would make journeys to the island and leave offerings of one kind or another, and many of them are still there: clay vessels, swords, iron ingots, bronze mirrors, and more.  The island's location, which really is in the middle of the straits, and not truly convenient to any of the regular trading routes, means that it has never really been much of a strategic site, just a religious one, and one that had various religious taboos, so it hasn't undergone the centuries of farming and building that have occurred elsewhere. Offerings are scattered in various places, often scattered around or under boulders and large rocks that were perhaps seen as particularly worthy of devotion.  Since researchers have been allowed in, over 80,000 treasures have been found and catalogued.  Among those artifacts that have been brought back is glass, including glass from Sassanid Persia.  Pieces of broken glass bowls, like the one said to have come from Ankan's tomb, as well as what appear to be beads made from broken glass pieces, have been recovered over the years, once more indicating their presence in the trade routes to the mainland, although when, exactly, they came over can be a little more difficult to place. That might be helped by two other glass artifacts, also found in the archaeological exhibit of the Heiseikan in the Tokyo National Museum: a glass bowl and dish discovered at Niizawa Senzuka kofun Number 126, in Kashihara city, in Nara. This burial is believed to date to the latter half of the 5th century, and included an iron sword, numerous gold fittings and jewelry, and even an ancient clothes iron, which at the time looked like a small frying pan, where you could put hot coals or similar items in the pan and use the flat bottom to help iron out wrinkles in cloth.  Alongside all of this were also discovered two glass vessels.  One was a dark, cobalt-blue plate, with a stand and very shallow conical shape.  The other was a round glass bowl with an outwardly flared lip.  Around the smooth sides, the glass has been marked with three rows of circular dots that go all the way around, not dissimilar from the indentations in the Ankan and Shōsōin glass bowls. All of these, again, are believed to have come from Sassanid Persia, modern Iran, and regardless of the provenance of the Ankan bowl, it seems that we have clear evidence that Sassanian glassworks were making their way to Japan.  But how?  How did something like glass—hardly known for being the most robust of materials—make it all the way from Sassanid Persia to Yamato between the 5th and 8th centuries? To start with, let's look at Sassanid Persia and its glass. Sassanid Persia—aka Sassanid or Sassanian Iran—is the name given to the empire that replaced the Parthian empire, and is generally agreed to have been founded sometime in the early 3rd century.  The name “Sassanid” refers to the legendary dynastic founder, Sassan, though the first historical sovereign appears to be Ardeshir I, who helped put the empire on the map. Ardeshir I called his empire “Eran sahr”, and it is often known as an Iranian or Persian empire, based on their ties to Pars and the use of the Middle Persian, or Farsi, language.   For those not already well aware, Farsi is one of several Iranian languages, though over the years many of the various Iranian speaking peoples would often be classified as “Persian” in English literature.  That said, there is quite a diversity of Iranian languages and people who speak them, including Farsi, Pashto, Dari, Tajik, and the ancient Sogdian language, which I'm sure we'll touch on more given their importance in the ancient silk road trade.  Because of the ease with which historical “Iranian” ethnic groups can be conflated with the modern state, I am going to largely stick with the term Persian, here, but just be aware that the two words are often, though not always, interchangeable. The Sassanid dynasty claimed a link to the older Achaemenid dynasty, and over the subsequent five centuries of their rule they extended their borders, dominating the area between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, eastward to much of modern Afghanistan and Pakistan, running right up to the Hindu Kush and the Pamir mountains.  They held sway over much of Central Asia, including the area of Transoxiana.  With that they had access to both the sea routes, south of India and the overland routes through the Tianshan mountains and the northern and southern routes around the great Taklamakan desert – so, basically, any trade passing between Central and East Asia would pass through Sassanid territory. The Persian empire of the Sassanids was pre-Islamic—Islamic Arab armies would not arrive until about the 7th century, eventually bringing an end to the Sassanid dynasty.  Until that point, the Persian empire was largely Zoroastrian, an Iranian religion based around fire temples, restored after the defeat of the Parthians, where eternal flames were kept burning day and night as part of their ritual practice.  The Sassanids inherited a Persian culture in an area that had been dominated by the Parthians, and before that the Hellenistic Seleucids, and their western edge bordered with the Roman empire.  Rome's establishment in the first century BCE coincided with the invention of glassblowing techniques, and by the time of the Sassanid Empire these techniques seem to have been well established in the region. Sassanid glass decorated with patterns of ground, cut, and polished hollow facets—much like what we see in the examples known in the Japanese islands—comes from about the 5th century onward.  Prior to that, the Sassanian taste seems to have been for slightly less extravagant vessels, with straight or slightly rounded walls. Sassanid glass was dispersed in many different directions along their many trade routes across the Eurasian continent, and archaeologists have been able to identify glass from this region not just by its shape, but by the various physical properties based on the formulas and various raw materials used to make the glass. As for the trip to Japan, this was most likely through the overland routes.  And so the glass would have been sold to merchants who would take it up through Transoxiana, through passes between the Pamirs and the Tianshan mountains, and then through a series of oasis towns and city-states until it reached Dunhuang, on the edge of the ethnic Han sphere of influence. For a majority of this route, the glass was likely carried by Sogdians, another Iranian speaking people from the region of Transoxiana.  Often simply lumped in with the rest of the Iranian speaking world as “Persians”, Sogdians had their own cultural identity, and the area of Sogdia is known to have existed since at least the ancient Achaemenid dynasty.  From the 4th to the 8th century, Sogdian traders plied the sands of Central Eurasia, setting up a network of communities along what would come to be known as the Silk Road. It is along this route that the glassware, likely packed in straw or some other protective material, was carried on the backs of horses, camels, and people along a journey of several thousand kilometers, eventually coming to the fractious edge of the ethnic Han sphere.  Whether it was these same Sogdian traders that then made their way to the ocean and upon boats out to the Japanese islands is unknown, but it is not hard imagining crates being transferred from merchant to merchant, east, to the Korean Peninsula, and eventually across the sea. The overland route from Sogdia is one of the more well-known—and well-worn—routes on what we modernly know as the Silk Road, and it's very much worth taking the time here to give a brief history of how this conduit between Western Asia/Europe and Eastern Asia developed over the centuries.  One of the main crossroads of this area is the Tarim Basin, the area that, today, forms much of Western China, with the Tianshan mountains in the north and the Kunlun Mountains, on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, to the south.  In between is a large desert, the Taklamakan desert, which may have once been a vast inland sea.  Even by the Han dynasty, a vast saltwater body known as the Puchang Sea existed in its easternmost regions.  Comparable to some of the largest of the Great Lakes, and fed by glacial run-off, the lake eventually dwindled to become the salt-marshes around Lop Nur.  And yet, researchers still find prominent boat burials out in what otherwise seems to be the middle of the desert. Around the Tarim basin were various cultures, often centered on oases at the base of the mountains.  Runoff from melting ice and snow in the mountains meant a regular supply of water, and by following the mountains one could navigate from watering hole to watering hole, creating a natural roadway through the arid lands.  In the middle of the Basin, however, is the great Taklamakan desert, and even during the Han dynasty it was a formidable and almost unpassable wasteland.  One could wander the sands for days or weeks with no water and no indication of direction other than the punishing sun overhead.  It is hardly a nice place and remains largely unpopulated, even today. While there were various cultures and city-states around the oasis towns, the first major power that we know held sway, at least over the northern route, were the Xiongnu.  Based in the area of modern Mongolia, the Xiongnu swept down during the Qin and early Han dynasties, displacing or conquering various people. An early exploration of the Tarim basin and its surroundings was conducted by the Han dynasty diplomat, Zhang Qian.  Zhang Qian secretly entered Xiongnu territory with the goal of reaching the Yuezhi—a nomadic group that had been one of those displaced by the Xiongnu.  The Yuezhi had been kicked out of their lands in the Gansu region and moved all the way to the Ferghana valley, in modern Tajikistan, a part of the region known as Transoxiana.  Although Zhang Qian was captured and spent 10 years in service to the Xiongnu, he never forgot his mission and eventually made his way to the Yuezhi.  By that time, however, the Yuezhi had settled in to their new life, and they weren't looking for revenge. While Zhang Qian's news may have been somewhat disappointing for the Han court, what was perhaps more important was the intelligence he brought back concerning the routes through the Tarim basin, and the various people there, as well as lands beyond.  The Han dynasty continued to assert itself in the area they called the “Western Regions”, and General Ban Chao would eventually be sent to defeat the Xiongnu and loosen their hold in the region, opening up the area all the way to modern Kashgar.  Ban Chao would even send an emissary, Gan Ying, to try to make the journey all the way to the Roman empire, known to the Han court as “Daqin”, using the name of the former Qin dynasty as a sign of respect for what they had heard.  However, Gan Ying only made it as far as the land of Anxi—the name given to Parthia—where he was told that to make it to Rome, or Daqin, would require crossing the ocean on a voyage that could take months or even years.  Hearing this, Gan Ying decided to turn back and report on what he knew. Of course if he actually made it to the Persian Gulf—or even to the Black Sea, as some claim—Gan Ying would have been much closer to Rome than the accounts lead us to believe. It is generally thought that he was being deliberately mislead by Parthian merchants who felt they might be cut out if Rome and the Han Dynasty formed more direct relations.  Silks from East Asia, along with other products, were already a lucrative opportunity for middlemen across the trade routes, and nobody wanted to be cut out of that position if they could help it. That said, the Parthians and, following them the Sassanid Persians, continued to maintain relationships with dynasties at the other end of what we know as the Silk Road, at least when they could.  The Sassanid Persians, when they came to power, were known to the various northern and southern dynasties as Bosi—possibly pronounced something like Puasie, at the time, no doubt their attempt to render the term “Parsi”.  We know of numerous missions in both directions between various dynasties, and Sassanian coins are regularly found the south of modern China. And so we can see that even in the first and second centuries, Eurasia was much more connected than one might otherwise believe.  Goods would travel from oasis town to oasis town, and be sold in markets, where they might just be picked up by another merchant.  Starting in the fourth century, the Sogdian merchants began to really make their own presence known along these trade routes.  They would set up enclaves in various towns, and merchants would travel from Sogdian enclave to Sogdian enclave with letters of recommendation, as well as personal letters for members of the community, setting up their own early postal service.  This allowed the Sogdian traders to coordinate activities and kept them abreast of the latest news.     I'm not sure we have a clear indication how long this trip would take.  Theoretically, one could travel from Kashgar to Xi'an and back in well under a year, if one were properly motivated and provisioned—it is roughly 4,000 kilometers, and travel would have likely been broken up with long stays to rest and refresh at the various towns along the way. I've personally had the opportunity to travel from Kashgar to Turpan, though granted it was in the comfort of an air conditioned bus.  Still, having seen the modern conditions, the trip would be grueling, but not impossible back in the day, and if the profits were lucrative enough, then why not do it—it is not dissimilar to the adventurers from Europe in the 16th century who went out to sea to find their own fortunes.  And so the glass bowl likely made its way through the markets of the Tarim basin, to the markets of various capitals in the Yellow River or Yangzi regions—depending on who was in charge in any given year—and eventually made its way to the Korean peninsula and from there to a ship across the Korean strait. Of course, those ships weren't simply holding a single glass vessel.  Likely they were laden with a wide variety of goods.  Some things, such as fabric, incense, and other more biodegradable products would not be as likely to remain, and even glass breaks and oxidizes, and metal rusts away.  Furthermore, many of the goods had likely been picked over by the time any shipments arrived in the islands, making things such as these glass bowls even more rare and scarce. Still, this bowl, whether it belonged to Ankan or not, tells us a story.  It is the story of a much larger world, well beyond the Japanese archipelago, and one that will be encroaching more and more as we continue to explore this period.  Because it wasn't just physical goods that were being transported along the Silk Road.  The travelers also carried with them news and new ideas.  One of these ideas was a series of teachings that came out of India and arrived in China during the Han dynasty, known as Buddhism.  It would take until the 6th century, but Buddhism would eventually make its way to Japan, the end of the Silk Road. But that is for another episode.  For now, I think we'll close out our story of Ankan and his glass bowl.  I hope you've enjoyed this little diversion, and from here we'll continue on with our narrative as we edge closer and closer to the formal introduction of Buddhism and the era known as the Asuka Period. Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support.  If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.      

Der Münchner Hermann Huber entwickelte bereits in der Kindheit eine lebenslange Begeisterung für die Berge. Erstbegehungen, Expeditionen und seine berufliche Tätigkeit für Salewa führten ihn auf alle Kontinente - natürlich immer dorthin, wo der Fels besonders reizvoll ist. Unter anderem nach Neu-Guinea, Nordindien, Nordost-Grönland und in den Pamir. Nun ist die Bergsteiger-Legende im Alter von 92 Jahren gestorben.

Heute macht GEOlino-Moderatorin Ivy sich auf nach hoch oben in die eisigen Zonen der zentralasiatischen Hochgebirge. Zieht euch warm an, denn dort im Himalaya-, im Pamir- und im Tien-Shan-Gebirge, fegt ein bis zu minus 40 Grad kalter Wind über die Hänge. Schützende Bäume oder Sträucher wachsen in dieser Höhe nicht mehr. Es gibt nur Gletscher, Berghänge, Geröll, tiiiiefe Schluchten … und … Schneeleoparden!+++Ihr habt einen guten Witz auf Lager? Schickt ihn uns per Sprachnachricht an 0160-3519068 und lasst uns gemeinsam lachen!+++GEOlino Spezial - Der Wissenspodcast für junge Entdeckerinnen und EntdeckerModeration: Ivy HaaseSprecher: Tim PommerenkeRedaktion & Skript: Bernadette SchmidtProduktion: Aleksandra Zebisch+++Noch mehr GEOlino für zu Hause? Schaut einfach unter www.geolino.de/spezial+++Unsere allgemeinen Datenschutzrichtlinien finden Sie unter https://datenschutz.ad-alliance.de/podcast.htmlUnsere allgemeinen Datenschutzrichtlinien finden Sie unter https://art19.com/privacy. Die Datenschutzrichtlinien für Kalifornien sind unter https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info abrufbar.

The music of the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan offers opportunities to explore the importance of poetry, rhythmic flexibility, and sacred space within wellness and healing. Dr. Benjamin Koen is a leader in medical ethnomusicology who has written texts and articles exploring Maddâh or Maddoh and the practice of this sung poetry as an expression that promotes psychological flexibility for new perspectives of healing. This episode explores Rumi's Masnavi and spirituality with musical excerpts.