Noam Backner
עברית

Writing

An archive, not a blog

Essays, field notes, research pieces, conversations and reading lists. Long-form, sourced, and revised when the ground contradicts them.

Language
AllEnglishעברית中文
Form
AllEssayField NoteResearchTravel JournalConversationReading ListPhoto Essay
Theme
AllChinaTibetInner AsiaSilk RoadsBuddhism & ReligionLandscape & PlaceFood & AgricultureHistory & CivilizationTravel & EducationHuman Development
  • Camellia sinensis var. assamica growing on a mist-covered slope in Yunnan.

    Essay · 8 December 2014 · 15 min · EN

    Out of the Mist: The Old Tea Horse Road

    Chinese soil lacks selenium, and Tibet had horses. A conversation with a former caravan leader about what that trade actually was.

    Yunnan · Sichuan · Lijiang · Litang · Lhasa

  • Jewish children with their teacher in Samarkand, photographed in colour by Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky in the early twentieth century.

    Essay · 4 September 2014 · 16 min · EN

    Wandering: Jews of the Silk Road

    Radanite merchants, a Jewish steppe empire, and a Mandarin in Kaifeng who mistook four apostles for four sons of Jacob.

    Kaifeng · Khazaria · Samarkand · Ghur, Afghanistan · Merv