The Silk Route
The route rediscovered
Interest in the Silk Route was renewed among Western scholars towards the end of the 19th century, after various countries started to explore the region and engage in territorial expansion.
In the power struggle known as the ‘Great Game’, between the British and Russian empires, British agents, travelling as merchants, crossed the Himalayas from India to Kashgar, gathering information and surveying the route. At the same time, the Russians, entering from the north, were the first to chance upon the ruined cities in the Turpan basin.
Explorers and excavation
The study of the Silk Route took off in 1895 with an expedition by the Swedish cartographer, linguist, explorer (and later fan of the Nazis) Sven Hedin. He crossed the Pamirs to Kashgar, and then set out to explore the more desolate parts of the region, even succeeding in crossing the centre of the Taklamakan desert. In his later travels, he discovered several ruined cities on the south side of the desert, and removed a large number of ancient manuscripts from the city of Loulan.
With Hedin, the archaeological race started. Sir Aurel Stein of Britain and Albert von Le Coq of Germany were the principal players, though the Russians, French and, later, the Japanese quickly followed. Despite the arid climate and exceedingly hot summers and cold winters, they dug frenziedly around the edges of the Taklamakan, to discover as much as possible about the old Buddhist culture that had once existed there. Their excavation techniques were far from scientific, and they removed whatever they could for transport to their home countries.
Archaeological free-for-all
The crowning discovery was of a walled-up library within the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang. This contained thousands of manuscripts, Buddhist paintings and silk temple banners, including what is believed to be the world's oldest printed book. This hoard had been discovered at the beginning of the 20th century by a Taoist monk, who had appointed himself its protector. On hearing of it, Sir Aurel Stein came to see it for himself, and persuaded the monk to part with a few of the best items in exchange for a small donation towards the rebuilding of a temple there. Stein later removed a great many other manuscripts.
The archaeological free-for-all came to a close in 1925, following a wave of anti-foreigner hostility throughout China. The Chinese authorities now took a much harsher view of the foreign intervention and, by making archaeological expeditions much more difficult to carry out and insisting that all finds be turned over to the relevant Chinese agency, effectively brought an end to foreign exploration of the region.
Serious work
Today the treasures of the ancient Silk Route are scattered among museums in a dozen countries. The biggest collections are in the British Museum and in Delhi (thanks to Stein) and in Berlin (thanks to von Le Coq). A large proportion of the Berlin treasures were destroyed by bombing during World War II.
The Chinese authorities at the time seem to have known about the art treasures of places such as Dunhuang but weren’t prepared to save them. The serious work of protection and restoration was left until the formation of the People's Republic in 1949.
