Desert Encounters: Arts, Cultures & Kingdoms of the Silk Road

art of person looking downward

The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco is hosting a lecture series through its Society for Asian Art. Fourteen lectures by prominent scholars will dig into ancient Central Asian history. Fridays August 17 – November 16, 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM. $20 per lecture for drop-ins. Highly recommended. Much Kushan-related material.  https://www.societyforasianart.org/programs/arts-asia-lecture-series/arts-asia-fall-2018-desert-encounters-arts-cultures-and-kingdoms

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Tamed by Religion: Centaurs in Gandhara

artwork of centaurs and other historical people

A fascinating article by Dr. Ulf Jager appears in the March 2018 issue of Silk Road, the journal of the Silkroad Foundation, tracing the changing interpretation of centaurs in Graeco-Roman culture. Possible meanings for their appearance in the Buddhist culture of Gandhara are suggested. Highly recommended for both the specialist and generalist, with beautiful illustrations including this…

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Engaged Reader

Baby sitting in a high chair with a milk bottle and a book

I love this photo of my friend Chris Carlsson’s granddaughter Halloul reading my board book ‘Look at the Animals!’ from Dial Books for Young Readers. Another book in that series, ‘Look, Look!’, was just chosen for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. 

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Good News for Mes Aynak

Facebook post Saving Mes Aynak

Unesco agreed on Oct. 15, 2017 to help preserve the site of Mes Aynak over the next three years. This is good news, the site is a Buddhist city dating to the Kushan era, rich in architecture and sculpture. It sits on a huge copper mine which, if excavated, would destroy the city. The documentary film…

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Taxila: Jaya’s Hometown

Jaya’s hometown is the ancient city of Taxila, now near Islamabad, Pakistan. ‘Discovering Ancient Taxila’ shows sites today where Indian and Greek cultures combined and Buddhist stupas were built. One of the only throughly excavated Gandharan sites, Taxila is one of the most important sources for information about the Kushan era.   

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Video about ‘Jaya’ by BAYCAT

Thank you BAYCAT for telling Jaya’s story! BATCAT is a nonprofit social enterprise that provides access, education and employment for low income youth, youth of color and young women, tackling the lack of diversity in technology and digital media. BAYCAT provides high-quality video production, branding, graphic design, and community engagement strategies. Contact BAYCAT at (415)…

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‘The Silk Roads’: a new world history

Silk Roads a New History of the World book

Dr. Peter Frankopan’s ‘The Silk Roads: a New History of the World’ was published in 2015 and became a bestseller. Dr. Frankopan questions the Eurocentric view of history and “…forces us to sit up and reconsider the world and the way we’ve thought about it…The book takes us by surprise right from the start.”(NPR) “A glorious…

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‘Jaya’ Visits Forest School

children bonding with author outdoors

Children at the Forest School are outdoors all day, rain or shine. Yesterday I read ‘Jaya’ there, showed a real Kushan coin, and made golden necklaces with the kids. Thank you teacher Heather for the great photos! 

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