Summary of Valerie Hansen's The Silk Road

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The wooden documents from the site and others nearby confirmed the existence of a small oasis kingdom stretching 500 miles along the southern Silk Road route. The Kroraina Kingdom flourished from around 200 CE to 400 CE. The natives spoke a language that was never written down, except for their names. #2 The kingdom of Kroraina was home to several oasis states during the Han dynasty. It was largely a desert when Stein visited, but he raised the intriguing question of how hundreds or thousands of people traveled nearly one thousand miles over the highest mountain passes on earth. #3 The Karakorum Highway linking China with Pakistan was completed in 1979, and since then, many have been able to see for themselves what was left behind by ancient travelers. The first identifiable drawings on the Karakorum Pass date back to the first to third centuries, and show a round burial mound with a ladder reaching up to it. #4 The Karakorum Highway was used by migrants from India to travel to the Kroraina in the second and third centuries. The inscriptions on the highway do not reveal why the migrants left Gandhara, but they do show that the Kushan Empire was powerful enough to send troops to western Xinjiang.