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The Silk Roads: China and the West with Charles Higham

The Silk Roads: China and the West with Charles Higham


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

There were two Silk Roads. One linked east and west by land, the other by sea. Both saw the movement of people, ideas, and innovations. Knowledge of Buddhism, bronze, and the wheel traveled to the east, while paper and ceramics went west. This seminar will explore the importance of the Silk Roads and how they fertilized the world's first globalization.

Following in the footsteps of Aurel Stein, we will explore how the Silk Roads changed the world. We will encounter the expansion east of early farmers who spoke Indo-European languages and whose bodies lie perfectly preserved in the dry sand of the Taklimakan Desert and visit Mogao caves, where some of the most precious Buddhist documents have survived. How did knowledge of bronze, wheeled chariots reach the innovative farmers of the Chinese Central Plains, and that most vital invention, paper, travel west?

We’ll discuss how the maritime route to the south brought southern China into contact with the Roman Empire. We’ll learn how Chinese ceramics and ideas reached India and Africa, while Indian religions, arts, and language spread across Southeast Asia.

Led by an expert on Eastern civilizations, this interactive seminar will illuminate the fabulous Silk Roads. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased insight into the rise of the first globalization and its impact on world history.

Charles Higham is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is an archaeologist with a particular interest in the origins of Southeast Asian civilizations. His excavations in Thailand and Cambodia have greatly increased our understanding of how the great Kingdom of Angkor began, how God-Kings were revered, and with a climatic deterioration, how it came to an end.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 24 reviews
75%
(18)
17%
(4)
4%
(1)
4%
(1)
0%
(0)
J
J.h. (Oakland, US)
"One, if by land and two, if by sea"

Dr. Higham enchanted us with an elegant presentation of the complex history of the silk roads...trade routes enduring more than a thousand of years from the Han dynasty to the Ottoman empire.

S
S.S. (Oxford, US)
The Silk Roads: China and the West

Dr. Charles Higham is the most knowledgeable man when it comes to talking about ancient times and the movement of humans over the thousands of years since man moved ut of Africa. This was a wonderful talk about the people who moved along the Silk Roads to trade with China even in the bronze age.and later.

G
G. (Brantford, CA)
The Silk Road with Charles Higham

This was an absolutely fascinating talk by an expert on the subject. Highly recommend!

L
L.H. (Santa Cruz, US)
The Silk Road(s) explained

This was a wonderful talk on the Silk Roads and incredibly informative.

L
L. (Wichita, US)
Another intellectually fabulous conversation

Well organized and filled with wonderful information.

Customer Reviews

Based on 24 reviews
75%
(18)
17%
(4)
4%
(1)
4%
(1)
0%
(0)
J
J.h. (Oakland, US)
"One, if by land and two, if by sea"

Dr. Higham enchanted us with an elegant presentation of the complex history of the silk roads...trade routes enduring more than a thousand of years from the Han dynasty to the Ottoman empire.

S
S.S. (Oxford, US)
The Silk Roads: China and the West

Dr. Charles Higham is the most knowledgeable man when it comes to talking about ancient times and the movement of humans over the thousands of years since man moved ut of Africa. This was a wonderful talk about the people who moved along the Silk Roads to trade with China even in the bronze age.and later.

G
G. (Brantford, CA)
The Silk Road with Charles Higham

This was an absolutely fascinating talk by an expert on the subject. Highly recommend!

L
L.H. (Santa Cruz, US)
The Silk Road(s) explained

This was a wonderful talk on the Silk Roads and incredibly informative.

L
L. (Wichita, US)
Another intellectually fabulous conversation

Well organized and filled with wonderful information.