Foreign Devils on the silk road

Peter Hopkirk

Published by Oxford University Press, softcover, illustrated

The Silk Road, the great trans-Asian highway linking Imperial Rome and distant China, reached the height of its importance during the T'ang dynasty. Along it travelled precious cargoes of silk, gold, ivory, exotic plants and animals, as well as new ideas, art and knowledge. Its oasis towns blossomed into thriving eentres of trade and Buddhist art.

But then, as the Chinese lost control of the region, it began to decline, and finally the towns disappeared beneath the desert sands. Local legends grew up of buried treasure guarded by demons.

Almost a thousand years later the Swede Sven Hedin stumbled on one of these lost towns and the international race for the treasures of the Silk Road began.
Archaeologists from all over the world, including Sir Aurel Stein from British India, carried off huge quantities of wall-paintings, sculptures, silks and important early manuscripts, which are to day scattered through the museums of a dozen countries - to the chagrin of the Chinese.

In piecing together this little-known, contentious chapter of China's history, Peter Hopkirk tells of the intrepid and determined men who, at great personal risk, led these long-range archaeologocal raids, and traces the fate of the works of art they removed.