Stories of The old Silk Road were a constant inspiration in my youthful schooling years and as a journeyman via major industries and through four turbulent decades. My teachers are to many to mention, but deduced that I could not be taught, however I had a burning desire to learn, so to spite all who tried I discovered the teacher from within. Taking the few words my Father spoke and memorised them in quotations; "don’t blame the fire if you burn your fingers, and don’t blame your mother", "the best way to gain knowledge is to travel through other cultures", "the way to wisdom is through experience, wisdom cannot be gained from merely reading the teachings of wise men", knowledge and information is not a measure of intelligence" I added a little poetic license without detracting from true meanings of Father’s words of Wisdom.

My life long love of all things oriental eventually

A little History

The description of this route to the west as the `Silk Road' is somewhat misleading. Firstly, no single route was taken; crossing Central Asia several different branches developed, passing through different oasis settlements. The routes all started from the capital in Changan, headed up the Gansu corridor, and reached Dunhuang on the edge of the Taklimakan.

The northern route then passed through Yumen Guan (Jade Gate Pass) and crossed the neck of the Gobi desert to Hami (Kumul), before following the Tianshan Mountains round the northern fringes of the Taklimakan. It passed through the major oases of Turfan and Kuqa before arriving at Kashgar, at the foot of the Pamirs. The southern route branched off at Dunhuang, passing through the Yang Guan and skirting the southern edges of the desert, via Miran, Hetian (Khotan) and Shache (Yarkand), finally turning north again to meet the other route at Kashgar. Numerous other routes were also used to a lesser extent; one branched off from the southern route and headed through the Eastern end of the Taklimakan to the city of Loulan, before joining the Northern route at Korla. Kashgar became the new crossroads of Asia; from here the routes again divided, heading across the Pamirs to Samarkand and to the south of the Caspian Sea, or to the South, over the Karakorum into India; a further route split from the northern route after Kuqa and headed across the Tianshan range to eventually reach the shores of the Caspian Sea, via Tashkent.

So at sixteen years old began my romantic life of travel. Venturing across continents I drew closer to the origins of silk. From 2005 I had been using silk fabrics and manufacturing ties in England and China. Working a backward journey from the retail shop floor to the source and. At every opportunity took a journey back in time to my child hood, climbing Mulberry trees in search of fresh new leaves to feed my silk worm collection cosily housed in a new shoe box.

Secondly, the Silk Road was not a trade route that existed solely for the purpose of trading in silk; many other commodities were also traded, from gold and ivory to exotic animals and plants. Of all the precious goods crossing this area, silk was perhaps the most remarkable for the people of the West. It is often thought that the Romans had first encountered silk in one of their campaigns against the Parthians in 53 B.C, and realised that it could not have been produced by this relatively unsophisticated people. They reputedly learnt from Parthian prisoners that it came from a mysterious tribe in the east, who they came to refer to as the silk people, Seres'. In practice, it is likely that silk and other goods were beginning to filter into Europe before this time, though only in very small quantities. The Romans obtained samples of this new material, and it quickly became very popular in Rome, for its soft texture and attractiveness. The Parthians quickly realised that there was money to be made from trading the material, and sent trade missions towards the east. The Romans also sent their own agents out to explore the route, and to try to obtain silk at a lower price than that set by the Parthians. For this reason, the trade route to the East was seen by the Romans as a route for silk rather than the other goods that were traded. The name Silk Road' itself does not originate from the Romans, however, but is a nineteenth century term, coined by the German scholar, von Richthofen.