Writing
Essays, field notes and research by Noam Backner on China, Inner Asia, Buddhism, the Silk Roads, food, agriculture and the lived experience of place.
Research · 4 min · EN
Shah Ismail, the first Safavid King of Iran, dragged Persia by its dusty neck across the threshold of the Shiite faith. He was also a man of elegant taste and, evidently, a wicked sense of humor.
Research · 6 min · EN
The second time Sun Yaoting lost his three most precious treasures, it was forever. Until his dying day, his heart ached for their destruction at the hands of family members seized by the terror of the Red Guards.
Research · 5 min · EN
“And she’ll feed you tea and oranges that brought all the way from China”
Research · 6 min · EN
“One day, the Khan of Kokand set out to do what Khans of his sort usually do.”
Research · 3 min · EN
To many, Soviet art is a gray dinosaur dragging a tail of obsolete symbols—superficial propaganda masking a regime's horrors. Yet perhaps we should judge its language no differently than we do the religious art of a Mayan temple or a Gothic cathedral.
Research · 3 min · EN
In our age of digital noise and constant documentation, it is easy to forget the transformative power photography wielded during its first century, and how profoundly it shaped the modern world.
Research · 2 min · EN
The "Tocharian" mummies are Bronze Age human remains found across the Tarim Basin, sparking a long-standing debate over Indo-European origins and modern ethnic identity.
Research · 3 min · EN
With the Asiatic lion and Caspian tiger long gone, and the Persian leopard clinging to the margins, the snow leopard now reigns as the undisputed, if elusive, king of the Central Asian mountains.
Research · 2 min · EN
Originally published: March 17, 2018.
Research · 3 min · EN
Centuries of a living Buddhist tradition among the Iranian peoples of Central Asia, and their role in planting the Dharma in China.
Research · 2 min · EN
For a millennium, the art of mounted archery was the defining military discipline of the Islamic world, especially across its eastern frontiers.
Research · 3 min · EN
Kashgar is quiet this year.
Research · 3 min · EN
Five days of searching, ridge by ridge and town by town, as the silence of the grasslands closes in.
Research · 3 min · EN
In the high pastures of the East, preserving the summer milk surplus isn't just a tradition—it's a matter of survival.
Research · 4 min · EN
In recent years, a remote nation across the sea chose a leader who would guide it toward a cultural wasteland. History offers a counterpoint in Yelü Dashi.
Research · 3 min · EN
Anyone who has seen the Disney classic Aladdin—a tale likely grafted onto the Arabian Nights by the French orientalist Antoine Galland—surely remembers Princess Jasmine’s oversized feline companion.
Research · 3 min · EN
Wander through the markets of Tashkent, Dushanbe, Khujand, or Bishkek, and you will inevitably stumble upon vibrant piles of “Korean pickles”: tiny marinated shiitakes, white-vinegar carrot salads, and, most strikingly, glowing mounds of red kimchi.
Research · 4 min · EN
In a year long lost to memory, a lone Turkic tribe set out from the outskirts of Samarkand to find a new home.
Research · 5 min · EN
“Why do you look upon the melon as a divine treasury?”
Research · 3 min · EN
He Long lives near the Great Mosque of Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province, but spends his days running a small food stall on the city's southern edge.
Research · 15 min · EN
How Buddhism travelled the trade routes into China — and how a Daoist caretaker at Dunhuang found the record of it behind a cracked mural.