Research · 4 min · EN
Spinning Gold from Straw
I have yet to fully immerse myself in the subject, but there is a fascinating case here of entrepreneurial grit, reconstructed myth, and the rebranding of a tea once considered among China’s worst.
Writing
Essays and field notes
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 · 6 min · EN
The Way of the Three Treasures: A History of the Eunuch
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
Scent and Splendor: The Way of the Citron
“And she’ll feed you tea and oranges that brought all the way from China”
Research · 6 min · EN
The Cloud Binders
“One day, the Khan of Kokand set out to do what Khans of his sort usually do.”
Research · 3 min · EN
Fragments of Iranian Buddhism
Centuries of a living Buddhist tradition among the Iranian peoples of Central Asia, and their role in planting the Dharma in China.
Research · 3 min · EN
Rebels of the Black Tent
Five days of searching, ridge by ridge and town by town, as the silence of the grasslands closes in.
Research · 3 min · EN
Qurut: The Salty Soul of Central Asia
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
Exiles #3: The Black Khitans
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 · 5 min · EN
The Light-Bearing Melons of Samarkand
“Why do you look upon the melon as a divine treasury?”
Research · 9 min · EN
Heaven in the Rock: The Lapis Road
One mine in the Hindu Kush supplied the blue of Ur and of Tutankhamun's mask. What that tells us about the first world trade network.
Research · 15 min · EN
The Lotus in the Sands
How Buddhism travelled the trade routes into China — and how a Daoist caretaker at Dunhuang found the record of it behind a cracked mural.