I went to the British Library to see the Silk Road exhibition on Tuesday. I really enjoyed it but it’s very dangerous if you’re at all vulnerable to the travel bug. I’ve always wanted to travel along the various Silk Road routes anyway, and the exhibition just made it worse.
Otoh, I did realise out that maybe I could combine my ambition to work in China with my Silk Road travel bug and try and get work on an archaeological dig out there.
If you go see it, check out the ‘singing sands’ at a sound post towards the end, and make sure you look up at the photography through-out the exhibition.
There’s a section on terracotta monkeys that have been found along the route. Monkeys were really popular even though they don’t occur in the area because of the same monkey myths we watched as children on tv as Monkey Magic. Look out for the particularly naughty monkeys.
Right at the end there’s a small panel on the three hares motif – the same symbol has been found in 6th century China, 13th century Mongol work and western medieval churches and no-one knows what it means or why that particular symbol caught on.