Tearing Up the Silk Road A Modern Journey from China to Istanbul, Through Central Asia, Iran and the Caucasus

by Coote, Tom

• ISBN13: 9781859643006
• ISBN10: 1859643000
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-09-01
• Publisher: Garnet Publishing

Summary

Tearing up the Silk Roadis an irreverent travelogue that details a journey along the ancient trade routes from China to Istanbul, through Central Asia, Iran and the Caucasus. As Tom Coote struggles through the often-arbitrary borders and bureaucracies of China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey, it becomes apparent that the next generation will see themselves in a very different light to their predecessors. New forms of identity are emerging, founded more upon shared cultural preferences and aspirations that on the remnants of tribal allegiance. While rushing through from East to West, Tom Coote meets, befriends and argues with an epic range of characters; from soldiers and monks, to pilgrims, travellers and modern-day Silk Road traders. All are striving for something more and most dream of being somewhere else. By bus, train and battered car through deserts, open plains and mountain ranges Tom finds himself again and again at the front line of a desperate war for hearts and minds. The author effectively juxtaposes personal and historical anecdotes to bring the Silk Road alive for the reader. Through rapidly expanding megacities, to ancient ruins, and far more recently created wastelands, it is the West that is winning the souls while the East grows ever stronger. The real clash of civilizations, however, seems set to be not between the East and the West but between the few who have so much, and the masses now uniting to demand so much more.

Author Biography

Tom Coote is currently working on his second book 'Voodoo, Slaves and White Man's Graves: West Africa and the End of Days'. He has traveled independently in well over a hundred countries and regularly updates his web site at tomcoote.net.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
Endings and Beginnings	p. 1
China
Jinghong	p. 9
Kunming	p. 19
Chengdu	p. 29
Lanzhou	p. 43
Dunhuang	p. 51
Urumqi	p. 61
Kazakhstan
Almaty	p. 79
Shymkent and Turkistan	p. 113
Uzbekistan
Tashkent	p. 123
Bukhara	p. 141
Samarkand	p. 149
Tashkent (again)	p. 161
Khiva	p. 173
Turkmenistan
Dashogus and Konye-Urgench	p. 185
Ashgabat	p. 195
Iran
Mashhad	p. 217
Yazd	p. 235
Esfahan	p. 239
Tabriz	p. 253
Armenia
Yerevan and Lake Sevan	p. 265
Georgia
Tbilisi	p. 281
Batumi	p. 289
Turkey
Trabzon	p. 293
Safranbolu	p. 299
Istanbul	p. 303
Selected Bibliography	p. 307
Index	p. 309
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