Barbaren langs de Zijderoute: Op zoek naar de verloren steden en schatten van Chinees Centraal-Azië

by Peter Hopkirk, Yolande Ligterink (translator), Peter van Zonneveld (contributor)

Verguisd in China, maar vereerd in het Westen. Dat is het lot van de ontdekkingsreizigers die in het begin van deze eeuw de verdwenen steden langs de zijdewegen terugvonden en de daar aanwezige kunstschatten weghaalden. In dit boek wordt voor het eerst het verhaal verteld van deze vreemde en omstreden episode in de geschiedenis van Centraal-Azie.
De Zijderoute, de grote transaziatische handelsweg die de verbinding vormde tussen de twee grote mogendheden van die tijd - het Romeinse Keizerrijk en het verre China - beleefde zijn bloeitijd gedurende de T'ang-dynastie. Over deze weg trokken kostbare ladingen zijde, goud, ivoor, uitheemse dieren en zeldzame planten - maar ook revolutionaire, nieuwe denkbeelden, kunst en kennis. De oase-steden groeiden uit tot welvarende handelscentra, verzamelpunten van boeddhistische kunst en wetenschap, en uitwijkplaatsen voor nestorianisme en manicheisme.
In plaatselijke legenden werd beweerd, dat er 300 steden begraven lagen onder het zand van de Taklamakan-woestijn. Maar in 1896 ontdekte Sven Hedin bij toeval een van deze eens zo welvarende steden en werd de internationale wedloop om de boeddhistische en andere rijkdommen van de Zijderoute ontketend.
Peter Hopkirk reconstrueert dit weinig bekende hoofdstuk in de Chinese geschiedenis, vertelt ons over de onverschrokken en vastberaden mannen die met groot persoonlijk risico deze verre archeologische tochten ondernamen en volgt het spoor van de kunstwerken die zij weghaalden.

Genres: History, China, Nonfiction, Travel, Asia, Archaeology, Adventure

272 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 1980

About the author

Peter Hopkirk was born in Nottingham, the son of Frank Stewart Hopkirk, a prison chaplain, and Mary Perkins. He grew up at Danbury, Essex, notable for the historic palace of the Bishop of Rochester. Hopkirk was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford. The family hailed originally from the borders of Scotland in Roxburghshire where there was a rich history of barbaric raids and reivers hanging justice. It must have resonated with his writings in the history of the lawless frontiers of the British Empire. From an early age he was interested in spy novels carrying around Buchan's Greenmantle and Kipling's Kim stories about India. At the Dragon he played rugby, and shot at Bisley.

Before turning full-time author, he was an ITN reporter and newscaster for two years, the New York City correspondent of Lord Beaverbrook's The Sunday Express, and then worked for nearly twenty years on The Times; five as its chief reporter, and latterly as a Middle East and Far East specialist. In the 1950s, he edited the West African news magazine Drum, sister paper to the South African Drum. Before entering Fleet Street, he served as a subaltern in the King's African Rifles in 1949 – in the same battalion as Lance-Corporal Idi Amin, later to emerge as a Ugandan tyrant.

Hopkirk travelled widely over many years in the regions where his six books are set – Russia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, and eastern Turkey.

He sought a life in dangerous situations as a journalist, being sent to Algeria to cover the revolutionary crisis in the French colonial administration. Inspired by Maclean's Eastern Approaches he began to think about the Far East. During the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961 he was based in New York covering the events for the Express. No stranger to misadventure, Hopkirk was twice arrested and held in secret police cells, once in Cuba, where he was accused of spying for the US Government. His contacts in Mexico obtained his release. In the Middle East, he was hijacked by Arab terrorists in Beirut, which led to his expulsion. The PLO hijacked his plane, a KLM jet bound for Amsterdam at the height of the economic oil crises in 1974. Hopkirk confronted them and persuaded the armed gang to surrender their weapons.

His works have been officially translated into fourteen languages, and unofficial versions in local languages are apt to appear in the bazaars of Central Asia. In 1999, he was awarded the Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal for his writing and travels by the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.[3] much of his research came from the India Office archives, British Library, St Pancras.

Hopkirk's wife Kathleen Partridge wrote A Traveller's Companion to Central Asia, published by John Murray in 1994 (ISBN 0-7195-5016-5).

Hopkirk died on 22 August 2014 at the age of 83.

Reviews

[Dmitri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good short work on the history of archaeology around the vast desert in far western China. It inspired me to travel in Xinjiang, Gansu and Tibet, areas I will never regret visiting. The main links in the region were intercontinental trade, Han dynasty military outposts and the Buddhist pilgrimage routes to India. The author Peter Hopkirk was a journalist and popular historian of the British and Russian empires, and the 19th century exploration of Central Asia. This round of the Great Game wasn't played for political influence, but in competition to procure or steal ancient artifacts for display in the museums of Europe.

Hopkirk begins with a description of the remote geography and punishing climate of the Taklamakan desert, ringed by the Tianshan, Hindu Kush and Pamir mountains. Chinese monks Faxian and Xuanzang went to India in 400 and 600 AD returning with texts and establishing temples. Early western explorers include Sven Hedin, famous Swedish geographer and later Nazi sympathizer. British archaeologist Aurel Stein excavated abandoned oasis cities along the silk road routes and bought (or bribed) art and manuscripts from temple monasteries. French, Germans and Japanese joined the hunt, with similar discovery and theft.

Hopkirk does a reasonable job criticizing the nascent archaeological techniques of the era, and the morality of carting off cultural heritage to distant lands. He also notes other threats that damaged or destroyed cave temples and ancient sites, such as iconoclasm, earthquakes, war and politics, weather and even agriculture. The Buddhist manuscripts of Mogao, including the world's oldest printed book, now reside in the British Museum in London. Priceless frescoes chiselled from the walls of Bezeklik were destroyed in the Allied bombing of Berlin. The book is concise but offers a great deal of information in a readable style.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr Hopkirk does know how to keep a girl's attention. Truth be known, I'm becoming a bit of fan. More rivalry and trickery across the unknown lands. Pickpocketing along the way.

More brave, tough men. Doing what they can, they say, for country. Adventurers hooked on adrenaline, more like.

A fantastic read. Again, I'm all a fluster.

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1980, this is the first of Hopkirk's Central Asia books - albeit more focused on Chinese Turkestan, or what is now China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region. From what I understand this one is probably the one least involved in the Great Game, but more the precursor to it.

Here Hopkirk chronicles the Europeans (archeologists and explorers) who unearthed the ancient cities of the Silk Road, removing the artifacts and manuscripts, much to the later chagrin of the Chinese. It is a contentious topic, hard to be on the right side of - the removal of these to Europe. It is a central theme in the book, addressed again below.

This book concentrates on the six men who primarily led these expeditions - most of whom are well known to the world of explorers - Sven Hedin, of Sweden; Sir Aurel Stein, for Britain (I say for, because he is Hungarian born); Albert von Le Coq, of Germany; Paul Pelliot, of France; Count Otani, or Japan; and Langdon Warner, of the USA. Each made at least one foray, most of them more than one, in to the Taklamakan Desert to brave the heat and cold and excavate the Silk Road ruins.

For the benefit of European museums (as well as Japan), until the Chinese finally put an end to their expeditions, removed manuscripts, wall paintings, statues and sculptures literally by the ton. Perhaps the worst part, is that these treasures are largely not on display, and are spread among some thirty different institutions. Much as also been lost - such as the largest of the wall paintings which could not be removed from the German museum to safe storage before the war, and was destroyed as the result of Allied bombing.

The Chinese bristle and demand the return of these relics, but at the time this book was written few had been returned - there are regularly articles about this, I found a couple while browsing:
Global Times
Post Magazine
The counter argument is that the wall paintings not removed by these explorers were subsequently "shamelessly defaced by the local Mohammedans." and especially the Buddhist treasures were surely "saved from Turki fanaticism". The cultural ruination wrought by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution is infinitely greater than that resulting from removal of artifacts by these explorers. Religious fanaticism was not the only threat to the survival of these relics - farmers found the old earth valuable for enriching their fields and would excavate the ruins, or damage them irreparably with irrigation of their adjacent fields. Other arguments suggest that the relics are not all of Chinese origin, but many are Indian and all of 'High Asia' and therefore not exclusively the history of China.

To the people living near these lost cities the relics were of no value - paper scraps held no interest, and they were paid for their labour, and transport - and often, as in the the case of Abbot Wang at the Caves of the Thousands Buddha's, sold the relics directly to these explorers.

Hopkirk's book is well written, logically arranged, and easy to read. The explanations and situations are described in an even-handed way, and while there is an element of repetition in each story it is not laboured or unnecessary. The book is relatively short, yet packs in a great deal of detail. There are of course whole books dedicated to each expedition, but there is need for an introductory or overview of these expeditions - this is a very good place to start.

4.5 stars, rounded down to 4.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chronicle of the 35-year period beginning in 1889 to shortly after WWI in which freebooter, archeologists plundered the remnant, cultural treasures of several dead and forgotten civilizations for their respective countries. The artifacts were located in ruins found along the track of the ancient Silk Road in remote, desert regions of the Mongolian Plateau.

”Archaeology is not a science, it’s a vendetta.” -- — Sir Mortimer Wheeler (Scottish archeologist)

Topographic map of the Mongolian Plateau during the Chinese Qing dynasty (1903)

My dead tree copy was a slender 240-pages. The original UK copy write was 1980. The book included: maps, photographs, a bibliography, and an index.

Peter Hopkirk was a British journalist, author and historian. He is the author of six books on the British Empire, The Great Game and Central Asia. He passed in 2014. I’ve read almost all of his books. The most recent being On Secret Service East of Constantinople: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire (my review).

Note while labeled a General History, I recommend having some background in the Belle Époque and Interwar periods in Europe and Asia to better appreciate the story.

Hopkirk was an accomplished writer like most Oxford educated Britons. The book was well organized. His prose was clean and easily understandable British English. There was some small repetition. His early career as a journalist taught him how to convey the maximum amount of information with the fewest words to be, easily readable to the newspaper audience. As a result, his histories can be more akin to journalistic stories than historical non-fiction. There are lots of anecdotes. In addition, his original John Murray publisher produced a very well edited and proofread book. I only found only one error.

This was very much a British history. The majority of the narrative for six featured archeologists being from British sources with western European coming next. The Bibliography was compact, although now somewhat dated. Anecdotes and excerpts from correspondence, diaries, and biographies were British. However, some German, French, Swedish and Japanese historical sources have also been incorporated into the book. The author neglected Russian sources, despite the implied espionage related to the Great Game that occurred under the guise of “geographical survey” and “archeological discovery” by that nation. Also notably missing were Chinese, sources.

It should be noted that this book was published in 1980 during the Cold War, which was to last for another 10-years. This may be responsible for the lack of both Chinese and Russian sources?

The book was mixed in its use of pictures and maps. The included pictures were good. They were mostly of the major personalities. I would have liked to have seen some current photographs of existing locations. The use of maps was poor. There were a total of two (2) large scale maps. There were a lot of place names in the narrative. Period place names were used in the maps. The borders and place names have changed (or been modernized) in the past 100 years. Even the topography has changed. I found it difficult to use a modern atlas to follow the story. As Hopkirk points out, the Chinese have been busy “making the desert bloom” and developing it. More and better maps would have been helpful.

Hopkirk tells the “dig” adventures of six archeologists from different pre-WW1 Great Powers. These early archeologists traveled to the deserts of the Mongolian Plateau to recover artifacts of past cultures that developed along the ancient Silk Road.

The Plateau was remote from European civilization. The landscape was near-desolate, and trackless except for some oasis towns and the Silk Road. The human condition there was medieval, albeit nominally under absent Chinese control. The climate was horrific in the waterless deserts, with extreme temperatures in all seasons.

However, whole cities, some of them a 1000 years old, lay out in the desert. Their remoteness and being buried under the sand, preserved them nearly intact till the modern era, in the condition in which they were abandoned due to climate change or war.

The archeologists had vaguely Indiana Jones-like experiences. Several of them as described by Hopkirk became famous. Although, many of them and scores of their native help died or were maimed from: thirst, exposure, brigandry, disease and accident.

The adventurer archeologists that made-up the majority of the narrative were:

1. Sven Hedin (Sweden)
2. Sir Aurel Stein (England)
3. Albert von LeCoq (Germany)
4. Paul Pelliot (France)
5. Langdon Warner (United States)
6. Count Ōtani Kōzui (Japan)

All of them were well fleshed-out. However, Count Ōtani never ventured into the desert. He was the private sponsor, of Japanese archeological expeditions. It was also possible, he was working with the Japanese government and involved in espionage.

Missing from the narrative is Nikolai Petrovsky the Russian consul-general in Kashgar from 1882 until 1902. He financed and supported Imperial Russian “archeologists” in the region. The Russian expeditions also received short shrift.


Taklamakan Desert (1917)

It took months to reach the richest source of artifacts in the the high-altitude, Taklamakan desert. Europeans entered the region through British India by sea and then rail, or Russia via the Trans-Siberian Railway. Entering through Russia included lengthy negotiations and bribery with the Chinese. Once there, expeditions typically lasted one to several years traveling thousands of kilometers by: foot, horse, mule, or camel. Expeditions to the Taklamakan typically were timed to avoid the extreme summer temperatures when no work could be performed.

The archeologists with their primitive techniques, ransacked the abandoned cities of every object of historical significance. Significant movable (by camel or mule) artifacts, such as art and manuscripts, were hauled away to their faraway home countries for: analysis, translation and display. Many artifacts were inadvertently destroyed in the process. Preservation of the excavation sites was rarely performed. Many sites were left exposed to the elements and looters, and as a result were destroyed. By contemporary standards, the "archeology" performed was little different from looting, except it was more methodical and was performed over days or weeks.

As a result of their work, a vast amount of: Greco-Roman, Middle-eastern, Indian, and Chinese cultural artifacts became available in Europe, albeit in several different countries. The known historical record was greatly extended. Intellectual, including religious beliefs, and artistic achievements of known and some unknown cultures were discovered and published.

European, and late comer American access to archeological sites was shutdown in the early 1920’s during the Warlord Era . That continued after WWII.

There is a great deal of modern Chinese animosity over the excavated artifacts in Western museums that have survived into contemporary times. Also, in the complete or partial destruction of valuable parts of the Chinese cultural heritage that occurred in obtaining them. It’s akin to the controversy over the Elgin Marbles .

This book was a blend of archeological and diplomatic history, including the clandestine activities of the powers involved. It was also, almost, but not quite the adventure stories of six larger-than-life characters. In places it was very detailed.

I was already rather fond of Hopkirk, before I started reading this. His narrative histories add a lot of context to events during a period of time in which I have a keen interest. His early training as a journalist, livens the historical narrative, albeit sometimes at the expense of details. This was his first book published. This is also one of his minor works, and not the best of those. Still, its better than most on the subject.

For the best example of his work, I recommend starting with The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia .

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder! That was the diagnosis of Albert Von Le Coq, famed German archaeologist, upon discovering the remains of a Buddhist monk wrapped in blood-stained robes. And this unfortunate monk wasn't alone, as a nearby room housed over a hundred of his friends; stacked like cord-wood and bearing horrifying wounds. The ancient west-Chinese site of Karakhoja had played host to a slaughter... but who were the killers and why did they do it? Was it a government power-play? Religious persecution? Perhaps a barbarian raid?

A consistent theme in archaeology is uncertainty; even the experts will never know the whole story. Whatever drama we turn up beneath centuries of sand is certain to tell an incomplete tale. Who were these monks and why were they murdered? We have no narrator to fill in the gaps.

And so Foreign Devils on the Silk Road, an account of several archaeological expeditions to central Asia and China, tells not one timeless story but bits and pieces of a hundred. We learn of a fortress' defenders desperate final charge, trade-towns lost to the vagaries of economics, persecuted religions on the run, and centuries of artwork plastered one fresco on top of another.

And layered like a patina on top of these ancient stories are the stories of the archaeologists. So we also learn about an explorer's perilous trek across a desert, of the ultimate German archaeological odd-couple, of a cavalier Frenchman with a brilliant linguistic mind, of an adventurous pair of sister-nuns, and of an enterprising local con-man who scammed one educated archaeologist after another.

Foreign Devils on the Silk Road kept me turning pages with its clean, easy style and consistent revelations. But more than that it opened up two new worlds; the world that was lost to history and the world of those that did the finding.

Edited 8-27-2020

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I promised John, I would write a review about every book I read. And, "Good book. I just loved it," was not going to pass muster.
How do you review a book of this magnitude: everything about it has already been said.
This is the history of a bunch of rascals, who packed their saddlebags, rode thousands of miles across the most inhospitable terrain in an effort to pilfer a slack handful of treasure. Some never made it back. Some did.
As I did point out in my review of 'The Great Game' Mr Hopkirk does it explain this with the use of a far more entertaining pen.
This now sits in my favourite, bestest ever, cupboard.
If you like reading what makes your heart race along, read this. How can this not be a film? I'm gonná give Netflix a call.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hopkirk conducts a grand old exploration of ancient West China and the Silk Road. He gives a dramatic history of the old kingdoms and the slow decline of their environment, along with tales of the first modern Western explorers there. At present, he explains, the old Silk Road from Hami to Kashgar is dotted with abandoned towns. During the 600s CE the kingdom of Kucha reportedly stretched nearly 400 miles down this northern arm of the Silk Road, skirting the growing Taklamakan Desert. The oases there grew rice, grapes, pomegranates and plums. They mined various metals, and considered themselves rich. Then the water supply slowly and “naturally” diminished. On mountains ringing the Xinjiang basin, the Ice Age glaciers gradually melted. Each century the melt water flowing into the basin decreased. The Taklamakan Desert began in the center of the basin and slowly grew outward. The farmlands of Xinjiang shrank to narrow belts near the mountain ranges. Then they shriveled into island-like oases. Some villages channeled mountain streams to themselves through hand-dug tunnels. So they survived, as if attached to umbilical cords from the hills.

On the southern arm of the Silk Road, the residents of old Niya abandoned their town to the desert in the third century CE. They traveled southward, and built a new Niya closer to the Tibetan plateau, where water from the highlands still flowed. Around 1900, Aurel Stein led a team of explorers back to old Niya. There, as the team uncovered sand from several ruined houses, Stein realized he was standing in an ancient garden. The trunks of poplar trees stood arranged in avenues or squares. With an overwhelming sense of obliterated time, Stein walked down the lanes between rush fences. Beside the houses he recognized remains of apple, peach and apricot trees. According to Yugur tradition, the name of the Taklamakan Desert means “homeland of the past.”

By around 350 CE, the old Konche River dried up before reaching Lou-lan (near Lop Nur), and the Lop lake dried to a vast plain of salt. The nearby town of Katak was likely deserted near that time. But the 16th century Moslem historian Mirza Haiden set a tale of Katak’s destruction in the Islamic era. In this story, God passed judgement the town dwellers’ sins. The mullah and muezzin were aloft in the mosque’s tower calling the people to prayer, when a fine rain of sand began to fall. As the holy men watched, it piled up in the streets, rising over windows and doorways. Soon the very housetops disappeared. When the level of sand rose near the top of the tower, the mullah and muezzin jumped down. Finding no other survivors, they fled the God-forsaken place.

[Patryx · Rating 4 out of 5]

E' il resoconto delle spedizioni archeologiche dei primi anni del '900 lungo la parte cinese della via della seta. E' molto interessante (a volte più interessante che avvincente) ma ho apprezzato la ricerca delle fonti storiche unita allo stile divulgativo che non diventa mai superficiale o banale. E' un libro che è riuscito anche a emozionarmi: ho provato grande tristezza ogni volta che inestimabili capolavori venivano sottratti ai loro luoghi di origine e/o venivano distrutti. Cercherò di leggere altro di questo autore.

[Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Hopkirk does another fine job.

It's a great tale, full of intrigue and derring-do, made all the more enjoyable by the author.

[Poppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not capable of judging, but I do think Mr Hopkirk has a way with words. This all comes across as nail-biting stuff. These folk lived off their wits and certainly lived life. I wonder if the same opportunities are out there nowadays. I wonder if folk today would be as bold and daring.

I really enjoyed this.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one hell of a book. The adventures described herein are mind-bogglingly awe-inspiring, while the savagery is heart-breaking.

The beginning of the book gives a very odd perspective which is not duplicated in the body of the text; that is, I was expecting a mildly moralistic tale against the deprivations and thievery of the "foreign devils" - the Europeans and, in the case of Langdon Warner, American - who saved the archaeological heritage of the Silk Road. The Chinese consider these people - Aurel Stein, Albert von le Coq, Albert Grünwedel, Pelliot, etc. - to be treacherous thieves, robbing them of their heritage. However, as the rest of the book makes perfectly clear, these archaeologists actually saved this heritage. As a single example, on one of his expeditions, I believe it was Aurel Stein (so many different people described back and forth between chapters) who found something like 92 large Buddha statues under the sands of one of the lost towns, far too large to bring back. When he returned seven years later, they were each of them smashed to pieces! This was a typical scenario.

From locals who thought that the frescoes came to life at night and so the faces had to be scratched out, to military personnel lodged in the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas and causing all sorts of carnage, were it not for these brave and indomitable archaeologists, nothing would be known about the artistic heritage of the Silk Road, dating back in some cases to the 300s AD! They are heroes of archaeology, yet China considers them the most villainous of Occidentals.

Perhaps the most awe-inspiring of the stories - for myself at least, being as I am so fanatically enamored of words, scripts, and languages - is the discovery of the library of Tun-Huang. I first learnt about this maybe a decade ago, in my early teens; indeed, I was so amazed by the online digitized library that I made up my mind to learn Khotanese or Sanskrit or any of the other languages in which they were written so that I might contribute (two months of Sanskrit taught me that that was too much work than a 15 year old was willing to devote, but I did manage to irk the kids in my class by writing my notes in English though in the Devanagari script, so whenever they asked to copy I'd hand it over and say, "if you can").

This book is a favorite, and I am so saddened to see it end. I shall desperately search out any more by Peter Hopkirk or on this topic in the future.

[Claire Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am left opened mouthed by this.
Since reading, The Great Game, I have looked at Peter Hopkirk and so believe this all to be true. If you and sat me down and told me this, I would never have believed it to be.
The book raises the question: were these foreign devils robbers or saviours?
Were they gung-ho adventurers and the thought of finding buried treasure was just the excuse they needed? Returning home with a bag full of priceless artefacts was definitely going to earn you bragging rights, get you in the papers and make you famous.
The risks taken and the hardship suffered put these plunderers on a pedestal; and yes, without them it might have been another hundred years before the rightful owners of this lost art started digging. However, it is difficult to accept that this history would have remained buried for all that time; as it is just as difficult to accept that these foreign devils were simply thieves, out to earn some easy cash.
Sincere apologies must be offered and every last item hunted down and returned. However, with that said, without those foreign devils venturing to such distant parts we would not have this story in hand and it is a great story; an adventure, a thriller, and totally absorbing.
I must now find books that talk of the adventurers who travelled the Silk Roads.

[Sicofonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foreign Devils on the Silk Road tells the story of several archaeologists (Aurel Stein, Paul Pelliot, Klementz, von Le Coq and Langdon Warner to name a few) who travelled across the barren lands of the Taklamakan desert in the early 20th Century, on a quest to search for remains of Asian ancient civilizations.
To say "search for remains" might be a bit of a euphemism; because what these people did was plain pillaging. They took away whatever stuccos, paintings, figurines, scrolls and other stuff they managed to find.
In typical Peter Hopkirk fashion, the book is written in a easy-to-follow and straightforward manner. Yet it's the way Hopkirk devises a storyline that reads like a spies novel which makes each one of his books so compelling. To me, this one is no exception. But readers beware!, this is only a 250 pages book. It does not intent to be a authoritative work on the subject, hence some chapters are not all the meaty what one would like/expect them to be. However, this is solved by a selected bibliography related to each "devil" so that the reader can delve on those books to find out more.
As a conclusion, Peter Hopkirk points out how all these men are now long forgotten. In contrast to how other men of science have been treated by the general public, these men seem to have fallen in a pit of oblivion (in historical terms). General public fail to recognize the names of Aurel Stein, Sven Hedin or Paul Pelliot and what they achieved. Maybe it is because all of them believed that the end justifies the means and in doing so, after sacking archaeological treasures from other countries, they became outcasts of a sort in the scientific community.

Highly recommended book at any rate.

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spent the best part of a foggy San Francisco Sunday in the lost cities of the Taklamakan desert, one hundred years ago in the company of foreign devils – European explorers and archeologists who robbed (or rescued, depending on your point of view) the art of ancient Silk Road. Hopkirk's book was published in 1980, so undoubtedly the history is a bit out of date, but it was a great adventure. I'm looking forward to his other books.

[Colin Falconer · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite historians. A fascinating story about how the west looted Chinese antiquities in the early 20th century. Very readable.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great adventure, told so well.

Enjoyable.

[Gerald Sinstadt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Hopkirk's books on central Asia have two virtues that are not often found together: they are learned, thoroughly researched works that wrap their scholarship in anecdote and conflict. Foreign Devils takes the author in the steps of a handful of sturdy explorers and antiquarians who, between about 1890 and 1940, ventured into the Taklamakan, Lop Nor and Gobi deserts in search of evidence of the civilisations which once flourished there and are now buried beneath the sand.

Literally thousands of artefacts were discovered by these intrepid individuals and mostly removed to museums in the west, notably but not exclusively to London, St Petersburg and Berlin. The stories of the extreme hardships that accompanied these expeditions are gripping, often awe-inducing. But Hopkirk doesn't neglect the moral issues: the vast majority of the items removed belong - spiritually at least - to China. The question is: had China been left to its own devices would these items have been recovered for the pleasure and education of later generations, or were the explorers saving them from degenerating to dust, never to be seen? In short, were the Foreign Devils saviours or criminals? Even if the reader comes down, as Hopkirk seems to himself, on the side of the former, there remain other serious issues; the British Museum, which displays a mere fragment of its huge collection, comes in for particular opprobrium.

This is more than just a vicarious adventure story; with the romance of the Silk Road that drew Marco Polo and so many questing travellers at an end, the reader will be left with much food for thought.

[Mosco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Per una non archeologa un po' meno appassionante, forse, de "il grande gioco" ma sempre estremamente interessante.

[Laura]

TR Foreign Devils on the Sil Road
TR The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia
TR Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Secret Exploration of Tibet

[Bob Shank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thorough. Most people have no idea what went on in this "backwater" of Asia, or how it shaped so many things...and destroyed so much history.

[Bianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of this is a whole new world for me: so interesting and informative. Again, the writing is simply wonderful.

[Frank Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Hopkirk was an enthralling writer and historian whose histories of the Middle East - ancient and new - have fired the imaginations of readers for decades. This book is a perfect example: the story of various intrepid adventurers/explorers/archeologists who dedicated their lives to exploring the Old Silk Road routes. But it was not simply the exploration but the controversial finding of and taking of literally tons of ancient art and artifacts back to the great museums of Great Britain, Germany, and France. It was controversial then and remains so today - who gave them the right to do this? No one. But in their defense, they also so saw the cites being plundered and ruined, not just for money but for agricultural development, fuel for home fires, etc. They felt that if they did not save these ancient works, no one would. Putting all this aside, the stories of their dangerous trips, amazing finds, and resulting knowledge we have today of the Silk Road is thrilling. A wonderful read.

[K.N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hopkirk's book focuses primarily on the men who travelled the Silk Road in search of ancient treasures. Clearly I was born the wrong sex, in the wrong time; while a lot of these men may be considered treasure-hunting rogues, many of them were highly intelligent, gifted, and brave to have completed these expeditions and excavations, and they have my awe and respect. Their stories and rivalries were very interesting to read.

The other theme of the book touches on the status of these lost treasures. Many pieces were lost before the "foreign devils" even found them, and others were destroyed during the Word Wars. Others were moved only to remain in storage to this day! Despite some of the sad demises of men like Hedin, Stein, and von Le Coq, I find the avoidable losses of these "lost treasures" most depressing.

The positive I've taken from this book is my desire to learn more and the addition the other books and journals I've added to my reading list on this topic.

[Yigal Zur · Rating 5 out of 5]

great tale of the silk road.

[Mike Winters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read from Mr Hopkirk.

This real devil-may-care, heart-pounding adventure.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard for me to describe HOW much I liked this book. First off, Hopkirk's work is fantastic. He covers a lot of ground but manages to keep it light. Taking into account the number of discoveries and cultures involved in the Silk Road, it's a great achievement to tell the story without getting tangled in it. His journalistic expertise clearly shines here.

The book covers the different archeological expeditions that uncovered some of the biggest archeological discoveries since the Tutankamon's chamber and only partially rivaled by the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls. The story has it all, geopolitics, spies, accidents, deaths, forgeries, you name it. If someone shot a movie based on these stories, it would probably surpass any of Indiana Jones' movies.

I grew up with Dr. Jones, in a family of art and history professors, frustrated archeologists, and architects. It's fair to say, I'm a big fan of archeology and history. However, the sheer magnitude of the discoveries of China's Turkmenistan (Current Xinjiang and Gansu) highlighted in the book is staggering. From paintings, tablets, sculptures to key manuscripts including the earliest printed book ever. They also found key monuments, stupas, towns, cemeteries, and fortifications like the Jade Gate, the entry point to the ancient Chinese kingdom.

And maybe the most incredible thing is the heterogeneousness of the cultures and faiths involved. None of the previous or posterior archeological discoveries rivals the wealth of information on different cultures and ages that came out from the Taklamakan desert. And yet, its knowledge is quite limited, barely known outside of the Asian scholar circles. This book changes that, giving a powerful perspective on what was discovered there and the role of foreign archeologists (and all the associated criticism) in siphoning cultural relics out of China.

If you enjoy history, the Silk Road, archeology, and/or Asia cultures, this is a must-read book. Even if you only like a good adventure book, this is it.

[Daniel Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daring adventure, international subterfuge and ... archeology?

Foreign Devils on the Silk Road tells the incredible stories of the intrepid archeologists who discovered the long lost Buddhist and Chinese kingdoms in the Taklamakan desert.

The Silk Road is one of the most fascinating regions to read about; did you know there was a Greek Buddhist kingdom in China? How had I never heard of Aurel Stein! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurel_S...)

I feel incredibly lucky I was able to explore the Silk Road a few years back and reading this book brought out the nostalgia and wanderlust hard.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific tales, told by an author who knows his onions. I could not have lapped this up with more gusto. I can't imagine how much time he must have put into his subject.
The foreign devils being those who battled against all to discover and record the ancient civilisations that once thrived in those parts. Digging, discovering and recording then became pilfering and carrying back west thousands and thousands of priceless artefacts.
Back then, the later and early part of the 19th and 20th centuries this behaviour was tolerated and encourage: far better for everyone that the evidence is displayed in museums across Europe than from some dusty old shack in China. Times have changed the thoughts of many, but in reading of these hardy, courageous souls, I did shudder at what went on.

[RySack · Rating 3 out of 5]

A small book, quite cyclical in its structure, but nonetheless interesting. All of the incredible history, art and manuscripts of China were, and still are, stolen from them. But, I guess, it was a different era, with different norms and rules. Who knows which side is best in the grand scheme of things (other than - give it back).

Peter Hopkirk - as amazing as ever, vividly painting the dusty, dangerous world of the Central Asian Silk Road.

6/10

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at the explorers who competed to uncover the buried treasures along the Silk Road.