Journeys on the Silk Road: A Desert Explorer, Buddha's Secret

Journeys on the Silk Road: A Desert Explorer, Buddha's Secret Library, and the Unearthing of the World's Oldest Printed Book

When a Chinese monk broke into a hidden cave in 1900, he uncovered one of the worldâ€™s great literary secrets: a time capsule from the ancient Silk Road. Inside, scrolls were piled from floor to ceiling, undisturbed for a thousand years. The gem within was the Diamond Sutra of AD 868. This key Buddhist teaching, made 500 years before Gutenberg inked his press, is the worldâ€™s oldest printed book.
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The Silk Road once linked China with the Mediterranean. It conveyed merchants, pilgrims and ideas. But its cultures and oases were swallowed by shifting sands. Central to the Silk Roadâ€™s rediscovery was a man named Aurel Stein, a Hungarian-born scholar and archaeologist employed by the British service.
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Undaunted by the vast Gobi Desert, Stein crossed thousands of desolate miles with his fox terrier Dash. Stein met the Chinese monk and secured the Diamond Sutra and much more. The scrollâ€™s journeyâ€”by camel through arid desert, by boat to Londonâ€™s curious scholars, by train to evade the bombs of World War IIâ€”merges an explorerâ€™s adventures, political intrigue, and continued controversy.
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The Diamond Sutra has inspired Jack Kerouac and the Dalai Lama. Its journey has coincided with the growing appeal of Buddhism in the West. As the Gutenberg Age cedes to the Google Age, the survival of the Silk Roadâ€™s greatest treasure is testament to the endurance of the written word.
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Country	USA
Binding	Kindle Edition
EISBN	9780762787333
Format	Kindle eBook
Label	Lyons Press
Manufacturer	Lyons Press
NumberOfPages	349
PublicationDate	2012-08-22
Publisher	Lyons Press
ReleaseDate	2014-07-29
Studio	Lyons Press

Journeys on the Silk Road: A Desert Explorer, Buddha's Secret Library, and the Unearthing of the World's Oldest Printed Book

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