Bazaars of Chinese Turkestan
Subtitle: life and trade along the old Silk Road
By: text and photographs by Peter Yung.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Hong Kong; New York
Language: eng; chi
Number of pages: 144
Subjects: Bazaars (markets) -- Asia, Central -- Pictorial works; Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu (China) -- Description and travel -- Pictorial works; Silk Road -- Description and travel -- Pictorial works
Description: "The Silk Road was once the main artery for the exchange of goods, culture, and art between China, the Middle East, and Europe. It was along this timeless highway that the great religions of Buddhism and Islam were to enter China. In Bazaars of Chinese Turkestan, acclaimed photographer and filmmaker Peter Yung provides an intriguing photographic essay that travels down the Old Silk Road to the present-day marketplaces of Chinese Turkestan. With photographs of great beauty, accompanied by an evocative text, Yung takes us on a fascinating journey through the Taklimakan Desert--the 'Desert of Death'--to the flourishing oases of Turkestan, whose inhabitants learned long ago how to turn the sandy wastes into rich farmland and vineyards. We meet merchants selling yarns and dyes, silk and rugs, jade ('fished' from the rivers) and gold, daggers and shish-kebab, melons and pilaf. And we get a sense of the colorful people who visit the bazaar, the Uygar men with shaved heads and the women in bright silk dresses, billiard players in the open air, young boys watching an old man make paper beneath a trellis of grape vines. And along the way, Yung provides an illuminating commentary on the region's history, describes the legendary trading cities of Kashi, Shache, and Hotan, and discusses current efforts to maintain the Islamic heritage and identity of Xinjiang."
Notes: List of names also in Chinese.