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.

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AllChinaTibetInner AsiaSilk RoadsBuddhism & ReligionLandscape & PlaceFood & AgricultureHistory & CivilizationTravel & EducationHuman Development
  • A jailoo — summer pasture — beside Lake Song Kul in central Kyrgyzstan, with yurts on open grassland.

    Travel Journal · 27 July 2014 · 9 min · EN

    A Thousand Celestial Meadows: Kyrgyzstan

    A nation of Siberian nomads on a trans-civilisational frontier, and the summer pastures that still hold its identity.

    Eastern Pamir · Tian Shan · Song Kul · Osh · Fergana valley

  • Tash Rabat, a stone caravanserai of the fifteenth century set in a high valley in Kyrgyzstan.

    Essay · 19 July 2014 · 8 min · EN

    Caravanserais: The Strongholds of the Soul

    From frontier ribat forts to Safavid road inns — the architecture that made long-distance trade possible, and the metaphor it became.

    Anatolia · Transoxiana · Iran · Tash Rabat, Kyrgyzstan

  • A high valley in the Pamirs, with green irrigated fields below bare mountain slopes.

    Travel Journal · 5 July 2014 · 17 min · EN

    The Jewels of Badakhshan

    Ismaili Islam, four-layered ceilings and dying luthiers in the river valleys of the Pamirs.

    Badakhshan · Khorog · Wakhan valley · Yamg · Andorov

  • Open grassland running up to bare mountains on the edge of the Central Asian steppe.

    Essay · 18 June 2014 · 6 min · EN

    In the Gates of Turan

    Why the Shahnameh's oldest quarrel is an ecological one: the sown land against the sea of grass.

    Iranian plateau · Transoxiana · The Eurasian steppe