Area of inquiry 04
Silk Roads
Trade, migration and civilizational contact — routes read through logistics and water rather than romance.
- Caravan economies
- Water and fodder
- Ports of the interior
- Exchange of ideas
Writing
Field Note · EN
The Ginger Garden
Essay · EN
The Humid South: Miasma, Body, and Space in Southern China
Travel Journal · EN
The Trade Cities of Western Yunnan
Essay · EN
Iranian Jews and the Baha'i Option
Essay · EN
Asia’s Mink Blankets
Essay · EN
The Yarkand Sarai and the Kashmir Route
Essay · EN
The Foundation of the Chinese Home
Essay · EN
The Chinese Hamburger
Essay · EN
Sand and Tears: The Central Asian Slave Route
Essay · EN
The Coal Camels of Old Beijing
Essay · EN
Guanyin of the Dali Valley
Essay · EN
The Lychee, the Messengers, and the Scholar
Essay · EN
Goiters on the Inner Asian Trails
Essay · EN
The Book of Swindles
Essay · EN
The Long Road to Spice: How the Chili Pepper Conquered China
Essay · EN
Matsutake: From the Forest Floor to the Global Market
Essay · EN
Of Saffron and Strangers
Essay · EN
The Other Incense Road
Essay · EN
Harmony, at Times, Comes Down to a Plate
Essay · EN
The Bone Shaker
Essay · EN
Horses, Selenium, and the Frontiers of China
Essay · EN
Beyond the Five Pungent Roots
Travel Journal · EN
The Afghan Walk
Essay · EN
From a Bowl of Porridge to a Plate of Spaghetti
Essay · EN
The Lost Legion of Liqian
Essay · EN
A Tangut Blessing for the Road
Essay · EN
Kingdom of the Wheat Line
Essay · EN
The Soul of the Chinese Street
Essay · EN
A Memory Map of the Beijing Metro
Essay · EN
The Double Skies of Chinese Islam
Essay · EN
The Myth of the Authentic Tribe
Essay · EN
Between Shawarma and Doner
Essay · EN
Today’s Bandits, Tomorrow’s Rebels
Research · EN
Spinning Gold from Straw
Essay · EN
Spies and the Twilight of Empire
Essay · EN
Of Tobacco, Bottles, and Birds
Essay · EN
Feathers and Ice: The Gyrfalcon Road
Essay · EN
Light and Blood
Essay · EN
Sea Breeze: The Odyssey of the Kashkul
Research · EN
Scent and Splendor: The Way of the Citron
Research · EN
The Way of the Three Treasures: A History of the Eunuch
Essay · EN
From Egypt to Susa: The Flight of the Falcon of Shiraz
Essay · EN
Khoja Nasreddin: The Art of the Border Crossing
Essay · EN
The Tea Porters of Sichuan
Essay · EN
The Day of the Kyrgyz Kalpak
Essay · EN
“Wakhan, where the people worship Mahomet and speak a strange tongue”
Research · EN
The Cloud Binders
Essay · EN
The Hashish Eaters: Cannabis on the Silk Road
Essay · EN
The Blacksmiths of the Bonan Frontier
Essay · EN
Between Tavern and Mosque: The Path of Coffee
Essay · EN
The Noodle Kingdom
Essay · EN
The Long Shadows of the Poppy
Essay · EN
Empires and Teacups
Essay · EN
Silk, Strings, and Sacred Wood
Essay · EN
The Fate of the Copper Monastery
Essay · EN
Nomads: The Jews of the Silk Road
Essay · EN
Back to the Steppe: The Geography of Central Asia
Essay · EN
Architecture: Fortresses of the Soul
Essay · EN
Lotus from the West: The Iranian Roots of Buddhism
Essay · EN
Seeking Figs, Even in China
Essay · EN
To the Valley of Unity: The Sufi Path
Essay · EN
To the Sufis of China
Essay · EN
The Last Refuge of the Silk Road Kings
Essay · EN
The Teahouses and Sufis of Kashgar
Essay · EN
Camels, Turks, and Climate Change
Essay · EN
Dumplings on the Silk Road
Essay · EN
Frontier Poetry
Essay · EN
Song of the Mad Lark
Research · EN
The Light-Bearing Melons of Samarkand
Essay · EN
Of Rebels and Black Pots
Research · EN
Exiles #3: The Black Khitans
Research · EN
Qurut: The Salty Soul of Central Asia
Research · EN
Rebels of the Black Tent
Research · EN
Fragments of Iranian Buddhism
Essay · EN
A Mouthless Crow and Crazy Clouds
Essay · EN
China in Central Asia: Nomads, Greeks, and Blood-Sweating Horses
Essay · EN
China and the Steppe: The Rise of the Xiongnu
Essay · EN
The Scent of Tibet: Along the Musk Road
Essay · EN
The Rose of Heresy: The Life and Death of Sarmad Kashani
Essay · EN
Visions of Central Asia: Part I
Essay · EN
Horses for Tea
Essay · EN
Iranians, Turanians, and the Art of the Raid
Essay · EN
Leaves of Grass
Essay · EN
Jewish Traders on the Silk Roads
Essay · EN
Demons, Saints and Black Pens
Travel Journal · EN
The Jewels of Badakhshan
Essay · EN
Caravanserais: The Strongholds of the Soul
Research · EN
The Lotus in the Sands
Essay · EN
Wandering: Jews of the Silk Road
Essay · EN
Out of the Mist: The Old Tea Horse Road
Research · EN
Heaven in the Rock: The Lapis Road
Fieldwork
Study Journey · Beijing to Dunhuang · West China · Spring 2026 · Completed
Buddhist Roads — West China 2026A traveling seminar between text and place in the making of Mahayana Buddhism
Study Journey · Gansu corridor · Northwest China · Spring 2025 · Completed
Silk Road Tour 2025Lanzhou to Dunhuang along the Gansu corridor, in the company of caves, deserts and kitchens
Study Journey · Yunnan · Southwest China · 2025 · Completed
Tea Roads — Yunnan 2025Leaf, kettle and market along the old tea routes of Yunnan
Expedition · Pamir · Tajikistan · Badakhshan · Summer 2022 · Completed
Pamir Highway 2022The high road through Badakhshan: fortresses, Wakhani villages and the roof of the world
Other areas