scholarly journals The Silk Road Journey in the Marketplace as the Modern Time Pilgrimage

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (01) ◽  
pp. 17-24
Author(s):  
Dhruba Karki
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Shopping Malls ◽  
Sacred Sites ◽  
Transformation Of Consciousness ◽  
Celestial Sphere ◽  
The Silk Road

The Silk Road journey embodies an individual's revelation, a universal process of transformation of consciousness. At times, people set for pilgrimages to holy sites; other times, they go on trekking through hills and mountains. Pilgrimages to sacred sites have been replaced by people's journey to discotheques, fashion centers and shopping malls in the marketplace in today’s corporate world. What binds them together is the transformation of consciousness along the journey from the terrestrial to the celestial sphere. Specific human, including pilgrimage and business trip become popular when people, ranging from children to adult across cultures make them significant parts of their lives. Sound and images of disco, jazz, hip-hop, and pop-rock have entered the streets and hotels in cities, from Lhasa to London, Shanghai to San Francisco, Karachi to Kathmandu, and Tokyo to New York. In today’s world of saturated media presence, images and icons of heroes and legends, motivated by commercial and popular appeal, are circulated with a greater speed, becoming simultaneously a shared mythic currency and continuity, the modern world embodiment of silk road business, and thus, crossing the East-West divide.

scholarly journals The Heroic Journey in Popular Culture

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-40
Author(s):  
Dhruba Karki
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Popular Appeal ◽  
Saturated Media ◽  
Transformation Of Consciousness ◽  
Celestial Sphere ◽  
East West ◽  
Business Trip

Popular culture integrates people in diverse settings. Individuals share ideas through materials they use, including food, dresses, movies, magazines, and holiday spots. In the past, people set for pilgrimage to holy sites; these days, they go on trekking through hills. Pilgrimages to consecrated sites have been replaced by people's journey to discotheque, fashion center and shopping complex in the modern time corporate world. What binds them together is the transformation of consciousness in line with the journey from the terrestrial to the celestial sphere. Specific human activities, including pilgrimage and business trip become popular culture when people make them significant parts of their lives. Sound and images of disco, jazz, hip-hop, and pop-rock have entered the streets and hotels equally in cities of the industrial world, from Lhasa to London, Karachi to Kathmandu, and Tokyo to New York, irrespective of their cultures and ethnic backgrounds. In today’s world of saturated media presence, images and icons of heroes and legends, motivated by commercial and popular appeal, are circulated with a greater speed, becoming simultaneously a shared mythic currency and continuity, the modern world embodiment of silk road business, and thus, crossing the East-West divide.

The ‘Silk Road’: Historical Perspectives and Modern Constructions

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39
Author(s):  
Ravi K. Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Mongol Empire ◽  
Historical Past ◽  
The Silk Road

As it is frequently the case in the modern world, the term ‘Silk Road’ or ‘Silk Roads’ is of colonial provenance. The elaborate network of ancient routes originating in the fourth millennium bc and linking various parts of the Eurasian landmass through Central Asia was re-imagined and reinvented in the late nineteenth century as a ‘Silk Road’ connecting China with the Roman Empire, thereby undermining the role of the steppe with its various nomadic and oasis cultures which had always been at the heart of this Eurasian system of trade and other exchange. Ever since, historiography has focussed on the role of sedentary civilisations in this system of exchange, with a particular emphasis on China and the West, thus undermining the role of other sedentary civilisations such as India. Contrary to the dominant narrative, the antiquity of the Eurasian trade network goes back to several millennia before the rise of either the Han Empire or Rome. Whereas this network did connect the agrarian civilisations, this happened primarily through the agency of central Asian intermediaries whose culmination is represented by the rise of the vast Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century. The idea of the ‘Silk Road(s)’ is thus anachronistic in the sense that it is a backward projection of present into the historical past, especially in view of the fact that silk was only one among several important items of exchange, such as horses, cotton, precious stones, and furs.

scholarly journals The Celestial Empire looks to the West

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 20-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. E. Denisov
Keyword(s):  
Policy Development ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Transport Infrastructure ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Strategic Objectives ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Silk Road Economic Belt ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Silk Road

The Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) initiative demonstrates the Chinese desire to become a political and economic leader of the modern world. In this article the author analyses popular views and opinions made by Chinese experts about the “Economic Belt”. He also describes the key trends occurred on the early stages of the initiative 's implementation. The work touches on such aspects as resource allocation, trade and investment policy, development of transport infrastructure. However, SREB initiative is likely to face some significant problems on the next stages such as intergovernmental and interagency communications, potential countermeasures from the side of the USA or regional powers, terrorism or high level of political uncertainty in some of the involved states. The author concludes by giving his view on the potential role of the Silk Road Economic Belt as a new element of the Chinese concept of foreign policy. Obviously, strategic objectives overweight the economic ones. However, the lack of concrete information makes it difficult to interpret the purposes of the project accurately. Beijing's real rationale remains an issue for further research to provide valuable insight for Russia-led integration projects in the post-Soviet space.

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