Speaker
Dr
Joakim Enwall
(Uppsala University)
Description
The paper is focused on the part of the Silk Road in the
Tarim Basin and adjacent areas. Today this region is located
mostly within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the
People’s Republic of China, but in historical times it has
been contested by many states and power structures and has
served as a melting pot for many peoples, cultures and
languages. The relatively modern concept of the Silk Road
has been applied to the various trading routes linking China
with the Western World, although it served more as a link
between China and Central Asia. Since the latter part of the
19th century remarkable archaeological finds have given rise
to new approaches to the study of Silk Road history,
especially in the form of manuscripts in previously unknown
languages like Tokharian and Saka. In this region,
well-preserved mummies of Caucasian origin have been found,
and this has led to wide-spread speculations about the
migrations of mankind in this area, one of the last to the
permanently settled in the world due to its harsh climatic
conditions. Furthermore, the various interpretations of the
history of this region have further deepened the ideological
conflicts between the present-day majority population of the
area, the Uyghurs, and the soon-to-be majority, the Han
Chinese.
