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Out of Steppe: The Lost Peoples of Central Asia
Exploring his life-long fascination with the Silk Road, the author travels alone through remote regions of Central Asia, glorying in its diversity yet lamenting the economic and cultural changes that threaten to eradicate some of its peoples.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published April 21, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 28, 2009
Mislead by the title, I thought this would be an in-depth analysis about the history of Central Asia. Instead, is a traveling diary which mixes the present reality with a bit of the Silk Road glorious past. Light, enough researched, enjoyable.
December 28, 2011
This is the 4.5 book that I'm giving a Christmas gift of a full 5 star rating. It's a wonderfully entertaining first book by a young English author who decided after graduating from college to move to Iran, learn Persian, and then set out into Central Asia to locate and meet some of the area's vanishing peoples. You soon learn from this and other books that the Soviet Union and the Middle East contained great ethnic diversity with many peoples living nearby in relative harmony and that it is only in the last hundred years that concepts of nationhood, communism, and then militant Islam that has destroyed so much of these. Metcalfe manages to find multiple fascinating groups, from the dying out Jews in one country to the literally dying country around the Aral Sea (this book is worth picking up solely for his description of what's happened around that body of water--it's heartbreaking). He also got himself into Afghanistan and Pakistan and wandered around there in search of some unique groups. I read Dilip Hiro's tome on the 5 "Stans" earlier this year and I'm glad I had that background as this is by no means thorough (and Kyrgzstan somehow is skipped altogether), but Metcalfe's enthusiasm for the trip and his experiences along the way make this a great book. Last, note that it's not out in the US but you can readily order it from Amazon from Britain at a good price.
January 19, 2025
Impressive book given author was c. 25 years old when travelling through the stans.
Metcalfe portrays a different perspective of the silk roads vs Frankopan and Quinn in that he focuses more on people (certain minority communities) than artefacts that have travelled through many lands..
Not afraid to turn away from romanticising either - Metcalfe describes a sometimes hopeless, sometimes illness-inducing modern day Central Asia.
Metcalfe portrays a different perspective of the silk roads vs Frankopan and Quinn in that he focuses more on people (certain minority communities) than artefacts that have travelled through many lands..
Not afraid to turn away from romanticising either - Metcalfe describes a sometimes hopeless, sometimes illness-inducing modern day Central Asia.
June 4, 2016
It is the one of the best books I've read about the Central Asia. It is a bit strange as it is a travelogue rather than a history book. But it is very well researched and beautifully written. Inevitably it touches upon the history and the Silk Road. And it does so based upon Iranian and sometimes Russian sources.
The author travels around the area investigating small and disappearing communities. But he does it in the context of this region's ancient and modern history.
I found out a lot of new, sometimes shocking issues about the regions. For example, the story of Aral sea. I did not know the scale of ecological catastrophe caused by careless, malignant Soviet central planning in the 80s. The result of diverting water from the two main rivers - sources for the sea are painfully evident and sad. The sea has almost totally disappeared for all practical purposes taking with it the climate, ecosystem, people. I googled the images of this place and it looks terrifying. But strangely enough I was growing in the Soviet Union in the 80s and I never heard about it, even when the Soviet Union empire collapsed in the 90s of the last century. Or maybe it is not that strange at all. This is the one of too many examples how self-destructing and harmful was that country together with its ambitions, the absence of the value of human life and crashing, misused power of the state.
Another example of the relatively recent history is misplacement of the Russian Germans by Stalin. This and the story of the Crimea tatars equates to genocide. But it is not a popular topic of the discussion in modern Russia. The story Daniel tells is about the woman in her 90s living somewhere in Kazakhstan who lost all her family in the process. You cannot imagine what she has been through, but the way she talks about makes it even more poignant. The resilience and kindness of those people who survived was limitless.
Daniel also visits the Jews of Bukhara, the Sogdians - these people were a total enigma to me and I am really grateful I know a bit more now about them, the Hazaras of Afghanistan and the Kalashas of Hindu Kush.
I felt that the first part of the book (devoted to ex-Soviet sphere) was much more thought and developed while the last few chapters are more like a travelogue. But overall the book is fascinating, poignant and personal as well as informative.
The author travels around the area investigating small and disappearing communities. But he does it in the context of this region's ancient and modern history.
I found out a lot of new, sometimes shocking issues about the regions. For example, the story of Aral sea. I did not know the scale of ecological catastrophe caused by careless, malignant Soviet central planning in the 80s. The result of diverting water from the two main rivers - sources for the sea are painfully evident and sad. The sea has almost totally disappeared for all practical purposes taking with it the climate, ecosystem, people. I googled the images of this place and it looks terrifying. But strangely enough I was growing in the Soviet Union in the 80s and I never heard about it, even when the Soviet Union empire collapsed in the 90s of the last century. Or maybe it is not that strange at all. This is the one of too many examples how self-destructing and harmful was that country together with its ambitions, the absence of the value of human life and crashing, misused power of the state.
Another example of the relatively recent history is misplacement of the Russian Germans by Stalin. This and the story of the Crimea tatars equates to genocide. But it is not a popular topic of the discussion in modern Russia. The story Daniel tells is about the woman in her 90s living somewhere in Kazakhstan who lost all her family in the process. You cannot imagine what she has been through, but the way she talks about makes it even more poignant. The resilience and kindness of those people who survived was limitless.
Daniel also visits the Jews of Bukhara, the Sogdians - these people were a total enigma to me and I am really grateful I know a bit more now about them, the Hazaras of Afghanistan and the Kalashas of Hindu Kush.
I felt that the first part of the book (devoted to ex-Soviet sphere) was much more thought and developed while the last few chapters are more like a travelogue. But overall the book is fascinating, poignant and personal as well as informative.
March 25, 2026
A very impressive trip for a young man to complete, hitchhiking alone through Central Asia post-9/11 to visit minority groups ignored or shunned from their societies for their lifestyles or beliefs.
A gruesome and heavy book at times, I found the second half easier going than the first. The story of the lake lost to human intervention and the community of fishermen left without food or work has parallels to the fates of many communities around the world.
I got a surprise when he travels to Afghanistan, to see the Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban, when the people there say “In New Zealand there are many good men.” I didn’t expect a community on the other side of the world to know of New Zealand, but apparently kiwi soldiers helped them after the Taliban had attacked.
Overall, the one feeling I got was that all of these small communities would be much happier if the rest of the world stopped with their war and conversions and forced resettlements and left them alone. And just twenty years later I wonder if they have still survived.
A gruesome and heavy book at times, I found the second half easier going than the first. The story of the lake lost to human intervention and the community of fishermen left without food or work has parallels to the fates of many communities around the world.
I got a surprise when he travels to Afghanistan, to see the Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban, when the people there say “In New Zealand there are many good men.” I didn’t expect a community on the other side of the world to know of New Zealand, but apparently kiwi soldiers helped them after the Taliban had attacked.
Overall, the one feeling I got was that all of these small communities would be much happier if the rest of the world stopped with their war and conversions and forced resettlements and left them alone. And just twenty years later I wonder if they have still survived.
October 15, 2022
I have travelled around much of Central Asia 2018-22, and this book shares memories of an amazing trip back in 2003 - an era of peace and calm compared to today. The author’s trip today would not be possible since he managed to catch the last living remnants of some of the most fascinating ethnic groups of the region.
Interesting, important and well-written, a great travelogue - I definitely want to visit the Jagnobis in Tadzikistan next year!
Interesting, important and well-written, a great travelogue - I definitely want to visit the Jagnobis in Tadzikistan next year!
April 8, 2020
Found this more of a 'tell' than 'show' style of writing with too many historical asides that didn't feel woven into the story. Bit of a dense read and tried to cover too much ground I feel.
February 20, 2021
Best book I’ve read in a long time, full of historical and geographical details. It’s a must if you’re interested in these kinds of genres.
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January 14, 2023The Seal of Honoraria
April 26, 2013
It's good to know Farsi and travel around Central Asia. People in a large belt of countries extending all the way to Afghanistan speak variants of the language, and if one can't get by with Farsi, why, Russian always helps. Our man Daniel Metcalfe is a traveller with a purpose and with the requisite skills, and it's no wonder that his book Out of Steppe has the makings of an excellent account of little-known people.
Little-known to the West, of course. The people in these lands are all quite aware of each other, having traded and intermarried amongst themselves for centuries. They share not only language but also culture. But the six nations that Metcalfe wants to seek out are islands of separateness even in this world. All of them find life a struggle in every way.
Metcalfe meets the Karakalpaks who live near the decimated Aral Sea. Once famous fishermen, they have been reduced to diseased subsistence by the utter environmental disaster that has befallen their land. They see no future for themselves. The Germans of Kazakhstan, forcibly settled there by Stalin, are the remnants of a proud people who had settled in Russia under the favour of Catherine the Great. They now find themselves isolated amongst the drug and alcohol-riven communities that surround them, neither fish nor fowl, neither true Germans nor yet Russians. Bukharan Jews are next on Metcalfe's agenda. Here another sort of disaster is going on - as the local Jews die out, the diaspora comes in touristily, and find that all the gems of Jewish architecture are slowly rotting away, and the Uzbeks who own the properties now are more interested in presenting a Disneyfied concoction to the visitors, thereby exacerbating the cultural vandalism. The few Jews that dwell in Bukhara are insular, and it's only by pretending to be Jewish himself that he manages to insinuate himself into their lives.
The remaining three cultures are somewhat of an afterthought, I felt. The Sogdians of Turkmenistan and the Hazaras of Bamiyan are dealt with in pedestrian fashion, and the Kalashas of the Hindu Kush are probably treated better in other books (such as Alice Albinia's Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River). Metcalfe can be commended for his zeal here, but the early parts of the book are much better.
Overall, an uneven tome with both high and low points.
Little-known to the West, of course. The people in these lands are all quite aware of each other, having traded and intermarried amongst themselves for centuries. They share not only language but also culture. But the six nations that Metcalfe wants to seek out are islands of separateness even in this world. All of them find life a struggle in every way.
Metcalfe meets the Karakalpaks who live near the decimated Aral Sea. Once famous fishermen, they have been reduced to diseased subsistence by the utter environmental disaster that has befallen their land. They see no future for themselves. The Germans of Kazakhstan, forcibly settled there by Stalin, are the remnants of a proud people who had settled in Russia under the favour of Catherine the Great. They now find themselves isolated amongst the drug and alcohol-riven communities that surround them, neither fish nor fowl, neither true Germans nor yet Russians. Bukharan Jews are next on Metcalfe's agenda. Here another sort of disaster is going on - as the local Jews die out, the diaspora comes in touristily, and find that all the gems of Jewish architecture are slowly rotting away, and the Uzbeks who own the properties now are more interested in presenting a Disneyfied concoction to the visitors, thereby exacerbating the cultural vandalism. The few Jews that dwell in Bukhara are insular, and it's only by pretending to be Jewish himself that he manages to insinuate himself into their lives.
The remaining three cultures are somewhat of an afterthought, I felt. The Sogdians of Turkmenistan and the Hazaras of Bamiyan are dealt with in pedestrian fashion, and the Kalashas of the Hindu Kush are probably treated better in other books (such as Alice Albinia's Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River). Metcalfe can be commended for his zeal here, but the early parts of the book are much better.
Overall, an uneven tome with both high and low points.
December 1, 2009
Interesting travel journal. Reasonably well written, but hard to stay engaged throughout.
June 15, 2012
Easy to read travelogue. Not too heavy on history, if that's your thing.
March 11, 2013
Surprisingly entertaining and easy to read travel log of Metcalfe's recent journey through Central Asia. Especially interesting to me because I will be there in a few weeks time!
April 20, 2013
A report about diverse peoples on their way to disappear in Central Asia.
June 6, 2013
Every time I read this book, I learn something new about the world.
Most memorable bit: has to be two, Karakalpakstan and the Aral Sea. Tragedies, but the world is unaware or just uncaring or both.
Most memorable bit: has to be two, Karakalpakstan and the Aral Sea. Tragedies, but the world is unaware or just uncaring or both.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews