Central Asia - The Silk Route

Many people have personal journeys. Me, all my life I have travelled the Silk Route.

Turkey, Iran, Rome
Moscow to Bejing
Bible Study
All forming a network
Since ancient days

Greatest achievements
Transcended mere trade
It was, and still is
An ancient information highway
Different cultures met
Ideas and philosophies mingled
Art and religious doctrine entwined

Christians, Jews, Muslims
Fled along the Silk Road
Buddhism, Taoism took route from China

Silk came in from China
Spices came along the same route
Gradually the Silk Route withered
To leave entire cities marooned
In the desert sands
As Central Asia was transformed
from the shop window of Asia
Into an isolated and neglected
Wasteland

The Silk Rooute connected
The two ends of the known world
China and Rome, at a time
When each was only a faint glimmer
In the imagination of the other

Now in 2003 when direct flights
Connect Rome to Bejing
Silk Road renaissance is underway
Near complete route is open again
The IRON railroad leads from
Moscow to China

All over the Silk Route
Archaeologists find ruins
From the 6th Century
Ancient Bible cities are found
Alexandria, the Great was here
Cyrus, King of Persia was here
Jews fled from the Romans
Foirest and trees afforded
Thick, vegetation, flowers, fruits
Ancient Temples go back as
Far as Zoriasterism
When Fire, Water, Air, Earth
The beginning of the Four Elements
And concepts of Good and Evil

Great warriors who sought
Personal power from ownership
The land, they thought
Belonged to them
One conquer came, killed
Millions of people
Another came later and
Destroyed that country

Mongols, Tamerland
Others, all thought
THEY owned the land
We know today
No one owns the land
It belongs to the Creator
And Humankind in his image

Traversing the Silk was never easy
Physical dangers crossing world's
Greatest deserts and mountains
Thirst, heat, cold, sickness
Matchbed only by brigands, thieves,
slave raiders encountered en route

Sometimes merchants gathered together
Than thousands of camels
To offer protection and caravanserais
To offer quarters under stars
For the travelers and animals
And so started all the great cities
Were built over and over each other

Today, the countries are known as
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan

Riders at Kyrgyzstan	Wonderful landscapes at Tajikistan

Afghanistan also on the Silk Route
Is slowly being destroyed by our
Own President Bush, of the U.S.A.

It was the five stans
That I visited the second time
Once, before on the Oriental Express
Bejing to Moscow in 1996
And again in 2003, more slowly

Starting at Almaty, Kazakhstan
The centger of Central Asia's
Richest country, oil and gas
Foreign investments are attracted
And American businessmen are all over
Travelling the same Silk Route
As of yore.

Kyrgytzstan has snow capped mountains
In Bishkek is Buryan Tower
One of the only existing wstchtowers
of the Ancient Road, to remind one
This was once a flourishing town
The new city built on the same remains
Has large boulevards, friendly people
More trees than other Central Asia
People take time to relax
In the mountains

In the Fergana Valley crops as of yore
include cotton, fruit, walnuts, grapes
The oldest cultivated regions in the world
The center for Uzbek silk manufacturing
The Sunday market at Margilan
A major Silk Road stop by the 9th Century
Some say its history dates back to
Alexander the Great.
A major Muslim Center for culture
The Russians destroyed over 200 mosques
and the stronghold of Islam
With its dozen Islamic religious schools

In Uzbekistan, ancient cities of Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, all destroyed. Rebuilt, restored to its former glory. Khiva is one of the best preserved cities. Once a haven for slave traders, pirates.Today a tourist attraction with remote exotic travel along the ancient Silk Route

 

Jews, Muslims, Christians have all
left their mark in the restored buildings

A small country, Tajikistan
But important for what may lie underneath
Are old Zoriastrian ruins
Certainly from Persian occupation
But maybe even before
In Turkmenstan, we departed
From Ashkabad via Lufthansa
Frankfurt to Dulles, USA