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For the full pdf text of The Silk Road, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Summer 2008), click here. Note: This is a large file which will take a couple of minutes to load fully.
CONTENTS

From the Editor's Desktop: Museums, Entrepreneurship and the Politics of Cultural Identity 2
Some thoughts inspired by visiting Silk Road museums in western China.
 
China and Islamic Civilization: Exchange of Techniques and Scientific Ideas,
by George Saliba 9
There is a long and varied history of exchanges between the Islamic world and China. Why was it that there was exchange of technologies but little borrowing in either direction of scientific thought?
 
Caravan Routes of Iran,
by Frank Harold, with photographs by Ruth Harold 17
One of the most important segments of the silk roads traversed today's Iran. Here we obtain a sense of the human and physical geography and what the traveler along these same routes can still see today.
 
Some Buddhist Finds from Khotan: Materials in the Collections of the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg,
by Julia Elikhina 28
The State Hermitage Museum contains one of the largest and most varied collections of Silk Road material anywhere in the world. As this description of objects from its sizeable collection of material from Khotan, obtained by the Russian Consul in Kashgar Nikolai Petrovskii, demonstrates, this material deserves to be much better known.
 
The Buddhist Monuments of Adjina-tepa,
by Vera Fominikh 38
The small, but important 7th-century Buddhist monastery at Adjina-tepa in southern Tajikistan contains important evidence for the history of Buddhist art in Central Asia. The site is best known for its large statue of the buddha in Nirvana, which the author of this article restored for mounting in the National Museum in Dushanbe.
 
Mediating the Power of the Dharma: the Mongols' Approaches to Reviving Buddhism in Mongolia,
by Vesna A. Wallace 44
Buddhism was decimated by the anti-religious policies of Mongolia's Communist regime, but has experienced a rapid revival since the end of Communist rule there. There are important challenges connected with the intersection of religion and politics and with the spread of other religions in Mongolia today.
 
Tricky Representations: Buddhism in the Cinema during Socialism in Mongolia,
by Manduhai Buyandelger 54
The cinema was an important tool for the Communist regime's effort in Mongolia to create a Socialist society. Yet to use film in order to undermine Buddhism was not an easy task in a situation where, according to official policy, religion had been eradicated. The examples here are two films: Tsogt Taij and Awakening (Serelt)
 
The Tea Horse Road,
by Jeff Fuchs 63
The trade routes across Eurasia and the products carried on them were many. One of the most important routes historically flourished because of the export of tea from southwest China to Tibet and India. The author retraced the entire route in an epic 8-month journey.
 

For the full pdf text of The Silk Road, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Winter 2008), click here.