Traces in the Desert: Journeys of Discovery Across Central Asia »

Christoph Baumer is a leading explorer of Central Asia and Tibet. His many expeditions in these regions have yielded important discoveries in archaeology and art history. As the leader of three international expeditions into the Taklamakan desert he rediscovered the lost city of Dandan Oilik and found unknown Buddhist murals revealing ancient inscriptions. Not since Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin has a foreigner explored this region as extensively. A Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Explorer’s Club, Baumer is internationally recognzsed through his books, articles and appearances in documentary films and on radio. He is the author of many books, including Southern Silk Road, Eastern Tibet and The Church of the East (also I.B.Tauris).

For five millennia, the peoples and cultures of East and West have met and mingled in Central Asia. For explorers and travellers it is a promised land, a region of white spaces on the map, forgotten cities and archaeological treasures. Christoph Baumer has spent a lifetime travelling through the countries of Central Asia, making extraordinary discoveries along the way. Traces in the Desert follows in his intrepid footsteps as he finds evidence of Indo-Europeans in the steppes of Western Mongolia, discovers lost oasis cities in the Taklamakan and unearths art treasures in Tibet. He embarks on a quest to find Genghis Khan’s long-lost tomb and has numerous, occasionally hair-raising, encounters with shamans, corrupt policemen and bandits. Enlightening and full of adventure, Traces in the Desert uniquely illuminates the hidden parts of Central Asia that have not just disappeared beneath the shifting sands, but also from the horizon of our memory.

List of Illustrations     vii
Maps     x
Acknowledgements     xviii
Foreword   John Hare     xix
Introduction     1
In Search of the Nestorians
Christian Crosses in the Himalayas     9
The Churches and Monasteries of Tur Abdin     19
Christians in Iran     27
Merv, City of Infidels     37
The Mystery of Khukh Burd Sume     47
The Nomadic Land
Searching for Genghis Khan's Tomb     53
Among the Eagle Hunters     61
Art in Stone and Men of Stone     68
A Shaman from Tuva     78
Genghis Khan's Capital     82
Discovering the Treasures of Tibet
Land of Snows     93
Yaks as Snowploughs     100
Milarepa's Tower     110
The Unknown Bonpos     114
Between Heaven and Earth     125
Secrets of the Taklamakan Desert
A Second Mecca     139
The Guardian of Niya     146
The Wandering Lake     154
Skeletons in the Sand     163
Discoveries in Dandan Oilik     170
Black Hurricane     177
A Blank Space on the Map     184
Epilogue     195
Notes     197
Bibliography     203
Index     209