Bruno Baumann

This book is a description of a trip along the Silk Road, or rather along the several Silk Roads (as there are many diversions and different sections). The disappointing thing is that the reader hardly learns anything about the actual trip. Although the author travels through China, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, there are only two "adventurous" chapters: The first is about his various trips through the Gobi desert, one of them alone on foot that he had to break off because it was too hard. I loved that chapter because the descriptions were vivid and very interesting, and I was excited to read this account. The other one is about climbing Muztagh Ata, a mountain in China that is very close to the border to Pakistan.
Apart from this, there are a few descriptions of the places and how they look like today, but mostly, it is a history book - and not even of the Silk Road itself, but of the places along it. There are pages and pages of history of Chinese cities that the average European reader has never heard about - which could be interesting, but not if it is mostly fact upon fact upon fact, namedropping all the time, and throwing in dynasties and wars and battles. Often I couldn't really see the connection to the Silk Road at all and didn't understand why places or events were even relevant.
My wish was to read a travel account of following the Silk Road(s), not to read a detailed history of every place along it.
I admire the research that has gone into it, and someone with more knowledge of the region might enjoy it more. For me, there were some interesting descriptions, mostly of the natural world and different temples or other buildings of architectural or religious value, but that was all I took from it. No sense of adventure, and no sense of the local people - it was all so very non-emotional.… (altro)

Die Seidenstraße war fast zweitausend Jahre lang Verbindungsweg zwischen Ost und West. Sie führt durch grandiose Naturlandschaften in die größten Wüsten Asiens und über die höchsten Gebirge der Welt. Zahlreiche Mythen und Legenden ranken sich um diesen Handelsweg. Die beiden Autoren folgen der Route der Seidenstraße und berichten in diesem Buch von ihren Begegnungen und Erlebnissen.
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3455112838/… (altro)

Bruno Baumann schlägt sich monatelang auf verbotenen und abenteuerlichen Wegen durch das Hochland Tibets, zu Fuß, mit Bus und LKW, auf Pferden und Yaks. Er durchquert Amdo, Kham und Ü-Tsang und weitere verborgene Regionen des Schneelandes, besucht kaum bekannte Kultstätten, lebt bei Nomaden und nimmt an geheimnisvollen Festen teil. Eingewoben in seinen schillernden Erlebnisbericht sind Erzählungen über das historische Tibet, seine ältesten Klöster im Osten, die tiefe Einblicke in den Ursprung des Buddhismus geben.
-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3492403085/… (altro)