Book Review On Life Along The Silk Road History Essay

Book Review On Life Along The Silk Road History Essay The book that I had been given for review is† LIFE ALONG THE SILK ROAD†. The book offers a glimpse into the character and characters of the Eastern Silk road between AD 750 and 1000. The author of the book Susan Whitfield is the director of the British Library sponsored Dunhuang project, which makes a remarkable collection of Ancient Silk Road manuscripts including those acquired by legendary explorer Sir Auel Stein, available on the internet. Her knowledge of this treasure trove of primary material shows throughout the book. She has written extensively about china and therefore is in a good position to give an account of the all the details regarding the network of roads and paths crossing central Asia and concentrates on the 8th to 10th centuries A.D. The author has an extensive research on the Mongolian Empire and middle kingdom. She has travelled to central Asia several times and has written this novel as reflection of the stories of the Silk Road. She has dedicated the book to prof.Edward Schafer whom she credits for literary excavation of this historic trade route. This book Life along the Silk Road gives a rich account of the varied history of the Silk Road. It is a good read for people with special interest in history. The book recounts the stories, the lives of ten individuals who lived along the Silk Road in different era. The tale of ten different individuals a merchant, a soldier, a horseman, a monk, a nun among others, all form a different walk of life. The author has tried to reconstruct the history of the route through the personal experiences of these characters. The region covered in the book corresponds to modern day eastern Uzbekistan, western China, Mongolia, south to the Himalayas and including Tibet. Today that region is largely occupied by Turkic peoples, mainly the Uighur, as well as Chinese colonists and is more Islamic than not. In the time period covered by the book it was more Indo-European in character, mainly Buddhist, and a great deal more cosmopolitan, with many towns and cities home to Turks, Indians, Chinese, Tibetans, and Mongolians as well as followers of Manicheism, Zoroastrianism, Nestorian Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and shamanism. Many Silk Road towns, once some of the most populous cities in the world, now have largely been reclaimed by the desert sands due to a decline in population and a drop in the water table, a land now rich in archaeology but vulnerable to thieves looking for artifacts to sell on the black market. The major source of information for this book and indeed much of the scholarship done on this region and era comes from the over forty thousand documents uncovered in a Buddhist cave complex outside Dunhuang, now in Gansu province, China. Sealed up in the eleventh century, it was uncovered by accident in 1900. Though many of these precious scrolls, paintings, and sculptures have been lost since then for various reasons (and others tainted by the existence of forgeries ), more than enough remained; the importance of the Dunhuang documents cannot be overstated. A whole field of study, Dunhuangology, grew up around the study of the documents. Not only were there many Buddhist texts, but as paper was rare and often recycled (and once Buddhist scripture was written on paper it was considered nearly blasphemous to destroy at that point), many non-Buddhist writings were preserved, unique in providing glimpses into the lives of everyday people.

Women Liberation Is Still a Fiction Research Paper

Women Liberation Is Still a Fiction - Research Paper Example Women are considered more responsible and hence even the domestic front has to be looked after by women of the houses. The paper argues on the fact that women liberation is still a fiction. The indicators which give the impression of women liberation are in fact illusions. Most of the offices in the world today give the statistics of women employees. The figure is encouraging. Ii indicates that so many women have come out from the domestic front and are engaging themselves in the economic activities. In reality, the picture is completely different. It is true that women participate in economic activities but how much they are a part of the economy remains a big question. In most cases, women work as hard as men rather more than men but her contribution is not seen as a worthy one in society. The belief is such that her income is mainly for satisfying unimportant desires and hence do not have an importance that is equal to that of a man. Women today put on bold attire. This is because they are liberated from the clutches of conservatism. Through their dress, they try to show the world that they can express their desires in modern society. Unfortunately, it does not remain so easy for women. A study has proved that men were of the opinion that women should pay attention to the kind of dresses that they wear. They should not put on something which will catch the attention of men because that may cause rape and other sexual offences. (Campbell and Norris, 39). â€Å"Only through eradication of outward ornament can women atone for the vices of their sex†. (Coon, 32). Through this, it can be understood that the existing belief was that female sexuality was a vice and it can only be controlled if women control their appearances. It was expected that the proper norm for women was to put on drab dresses in order to prevent sexual exploitation.  

Teligius Reformation, Europe and Martin Luther Essay

Teligius Reformation, Europe and Martin Luther - Essay Example Luther’s main contention was that Christians need to be saved through faith and not their actions or repentance. He subsequently initiated a series of reforms in the Church through his prolific writings across Europe. His famous words, ‘only blood turns the wheels of history’ was uttered when he believed that bloodshed in war has become important part of history and reforms within the Church are needed for peace. These words become highly pertinent because the 100 years of war between France and England were highlighted by total disregard for the welfare of the common man and focused on establishing the supremacy of English Monarchy over France. The unnecessary bloodshed must have been the major reason for Luther to say those words in anguish and his beliefs that individual greed for power often ‘turns the wheels of history’. Indeed, the Church’s support to the Crown and exoneration of their sins through repentance and confession was seen as wr ong by Luther. He strongly believed that faith alone should have been the major objective of man’s actions and one should therefore be reaping the results of his/her actions as such. Martin Luther’s writings were the basis for Protestant reformation in Europe during sixteenth century. He was born on 10 November, 1483 in Eisleben, Germany to a miner’s family. ... ‘Only blood turns the wheels of history’ could have another interpretation: Luther, probably saw that personal sacrifices and reforms within the Church could also become vital inputs for making history rather than bloodshed based on vested interests of some human-beings. Martin Luther’s interpretation of Bible was more radical than the traditional papal’s version. It started the most important religious revolution that offered the common man to choose between the traditional Catholic Christianity or Protestant Christianity that was inspired by the reforms suggested by Luther. Luther was aghast at the seemingly corrupt practices of Catholics clergy who use to ‘sell’ indulgences. He believed that good actions of people would have no relevance until they believed in the goodness of the Lord. Thus according to him, faith superseded any actions. On the other hand, Catholic beliefs that actions can be repented and fate of believers could be revered i f they followed rituals etc. Indulgences were primarily Catholic doctrines that sought forgiveness of one’s sins through buying indulgences from church through donation etc. which were subsequently used by Church to meet its expenses. Luther compared them to common trade practices and said that indulgences could only reduce time in purgatory as sinners could have some stored merits. His 95 Theses is a comprehensive discourse on the corruption of indulgence system and how it defiles the basic doctrine of religion which fundamentally relies on faith and supremacy of God. He believed that Christian Clergy, including Pope has no authority to redeem the sins of individuals and exempt him/her from purgatory. Path to purgatory could have been one of the reasons for Luther to say that