Upcoming Events
- Central Asia’s Economic Rebirth in the Shadow of the New Great GameFriday
02-06-2023 @ 14:00Platform | Online EventID: Please register on "Join Meeting" Passcode: NoneAbstract:
This presentation will describe the unique history and economic development of Central Asia as defined by its landlocked geography. Particular attention is paid to the achievements and challenges of the post-Soviet economic and political transformation of the region, as well as its relationship with the participants in the New Great Game – Russia, China and the West – all competing for influence in Central Asia. The presentation contends that, located as it is in the geographical centre of booming Asia, and with the opportunity to become a key logistics bridge connecting the world’s largest economies, the region is well placed for rapid development. However, at the same time, Central Asian countries face a range of complex problems. In the 21st century, the Eurasian powers that encircle Central Asia look certain to become the engines of global economic growth. But how will this affect Central Asia itself? Will the region join the powerful locomotive of history, or will it remain on the sidelines?
About the speaker:
Djoomart Otorbaev is a former Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic (2014–15). He also worked as a Senior Adviser in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, based in London (2006–11). He is an honorary member and invited speaker at some boards and forums on development and investment.
- Encounters in the Persianate World: The Safavid Diplomatic Envoy to SiamFriday
09-06-2023 @ 14:00Platform | Audit Room, King's College (and online)ID: Please Register on "Join Meeting" Passcode: NoneAbstract:
In 1685 a diplomatic envoy of the Safavid Empire (Iran) embarked upon a journey across the Indian Ocean to Siam (Thailand). A relic of this journey is the travel or diplomatic account the Safīna-i Sulaimānī – the Ship of Sulaimān – written by the scribe of the Persian envoy Muhammad Rabī‘ at the end of the seventeenth century. In this talk Dr Arian explores the Safavid envoy’s politics of knowledge formation about the encounter with the Siamese and discusses the envoy’s knowledge production about the Siamese sovereign, court and kingdom, society, culture and religion, and how this was governed by the Safavid political order.
About the speaker:
Dr. Anahita Arian is a postdoctoral research associate at the Centre for Geopolitics and a college research associate at King’s College Cambridge University. She has a PhD in International Relations from the University of Groningen and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of History of Science at the University of Erfurt. She has also worked as a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Erfurt and the University of Groningen and has been a visiting scholar at the Department of Global History and the Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut of the Freie Universität Berlin, the Department of International Relations at Universidad de San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador, and at the Orient Institute Beirut of the Max Weber Foundation in Lebanon.
- King’s Silk Roads Workshop: "Sedentary Lives of Mongols" I. Morning SessionMonday
12-06-2023 @ 10:00Platform | Keynes Hall, King’s College and OnlineID: Please Register on "Join Meeting" for Morning Session Passcode: NoneMonday, June 12, 2023 – 10:00 to 16:30 Keynes Hall, King’s College
King’s Silk Roads Workshop: “Sedentary Lives of Mongols”
The word “nomadism” has become the regular keyword in conceiving Mongol history and culture. It is true that Mongols, in particular herders, were devotedly nomadic; however, not all Mongols contemporary and in the past were nomads. In many regions, some of them raised crops and lived settled life in villages and towns. Others dedicated themselves to the life of the mind, to government, or artisanship. There is multiple archaeological evidence of cities associated with Mongols, while in modern times, most Mongols are living in urban areas.
The workshop invites young and experienced scholars to present historical and contemporary instances of Mongol urban lives. Papers will address a wide range of topics connected with the material and social aspects of Mongol stationary residences, such as Buddhist monastic centres and ancient as well as contemporary Mongol cities. Acknowledging non-nomadic elements of Mongol society will help us to understand better the diverse history of the Inner Asian communities on the Silk Road.
Programme:
10:00-10:10 Peter Frankopan. Opening remarks.
10:10-10:50 Katie Campbell. Did Mongol Rule Change Cities in Central Asia?
10:50-11:30 Said Reza Husseini. From the Steppe to the City: Mongol Urban Life Represented in the ‘Tarikh-i Rashidi’.
11:30-11:40 Coffee break
11:40-12:20 Nikolay Tsyrempilov. A Buddhist Stronghold in the Kazakh Steppe: the Rise and Decline of Ablai-khiyd.
12:20-13:00 Sayana Namsaraeva. Conquest, Trade and Tribute in the North-Western Frontiers of the Qing Empire: Mongolian Khobdo as a Para-Military and Trade Settlement.
13:00-14:00 Lunch break
14:00-14:25 Ayur Zhanaev. Glimpsing Dingyuanyung (Bayanhot). On Archival Photographs of Alashaa by Frederick Wulsin (1891-1961).
14:25-14:50 Gol Tengis. Minzu Architecture: A Historical Study of the Mausoleum of Chinggis Khan in Ordos.
14:50-15:00 Coffee break
15:00-15:40 Caroline Humphrey. “Intuitive Districts” of Cities: the Case of Ulan- Ude.
15:40-16:20 Tuya Shagdar. “Where are you from?” The Rural Faction and The City Mafia in Ulaanbaatar.
16:20-16:30 Caroline Humphrey. Concluding remarks.
- King’s Silk Roads Workshop: “Sedentary Lives of Mongols” II. Afternoon SessionMonday
12-06-2023 @ 14:00Platform | Keynes Hall, King’s College and OnlineID: Please Register on "Join Meeting" for the Afternoon Session Passcode: NoneMonday June 12, 2023 – 10:00 to 16:30 Keynes Hall, King’s College
King’s Silk Roads Workshop: “Sedentary Lives of Mongols”
The word “nomadism” has become the regular keyword in conceiving Mongol history and culture. It is true that Mongols, in particular herders, were devotedly nomadic; however, not all Mongols contemporary and in the past were nomads. In many regions, some of them raised crops and lived settled life in villages and towns. Others dedicated themselves to the life of the mind, to government, or artisanship. There is multiple archaeological evidence of cities associated with Mongols, while in modern times, most Mongols are living in urban areas.
The workshop invites young and experienced scholars to present historical and contemporary instances of Mongol urban lives. Papers will address a wide range of topics connected with the material and social aspects of Mongol stationary residences, such as Buddhist monastic centres and ancient as well as contemporary Mongol cities. Acknowledging non-nomadic elements of Mongol society will help us to understand better the diverse history of the Inner Asian communities on the Silk Road.
Programme:
10:00-10:10 Peter Frankopan. Opening remarks.
10:10-10:50 Katie Campbell. Did Mongol Rule Change Cities in Central Asia?
10:50-11:30 Said Reza Husseini. From the Steppe to the City: Mongol Urban Life Represented in the ‘Tarikh-i Rashidi’.
11:30-11:40 Coffee break
11:40-12:20 Nikolay Tsyrempilov. A Buddhist Stronghold in the Kazakh Steppe: the Rise and Decline of Ablai-khiyd.
12:20-13:00 Sayana Namsaraeva. Conquest, Trade and Tribute in the North-Western Frontiers of the Qing Empire: Mongolian Khobdo as a Para-Military and Trade Settlement.
13:00-14:00 Lunch break
14:00-14:25 Ayur Zhanaev. Glimpsing Dingyuanyung (Bayanhot). On Archival Photographs of Alashaa by Frederick Wulsin (1891-1961).
14:25-14:50 Gol Tengis. Minzu Architecture: A Historical Study of the Mausoleum of Chinggis Khan in Ordos.
14:50-15:00 Coffee break
15:00-15:40 Caroline Humphrey. “Intuitive Districts” of Cities: the Case of Ulan- Ude.
15:40-16:20 Tuya Shagdar. “Where are you from?” The Rural Faction and The City Mafia in Ulaanbaatar.
16:20-16:30 Caroline Humphrey. Concluding remarks.
- Why do the Silk Roads matter to histories of medicine?Friday
16-06-2023 @ 14:00Platform | Audit Room, King's College (and Online)ID: Please Register on "Join Meeting" Passcode: noneAbstract:
In this talk I shall discuss a number of case studies which illustrate how medical encounters along the Silk Roads can—and should—help us think about histories of medicine. The starting point of my work has been the Tibetan medical manuscripts from Dunhuang. Zooming out from these texts allows us to think more broadly about questions like: How does knowledge move (or not move)? Why is it so important to think beyond ‘termini points’ of the Silk Roads and look more closely at the “in-betweeners”?
About the speaker:
Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim’s research has focused on the transmission of medical ideas along the Silk-Roads. Within this general scope, she has been working on the history of early Tibetan medicine, based primarily on manuscripts found in the Dunhuang caves. This work followed up on her work which consisted part of the ‘Islam and Tibet’ project at the Warburg Institute. Her research project “Re-Orienting Early Medicine: Bridges of Knowledge between ‘east’ and ‘west’”, funded by the Wellcome Trust, sought to analyse the ways in which ancient Hebrew medicine, like ancient Tibetan medicine, is a case of ‘medical syncretism’ deriving from what is termed ‘eastern’ and ‘western’ medical traditions. Her latest book is ReOrienting Histories of Medicine: Encounters along the Silk Roads (2021).
Recent Events
- How Asia Found Herself: Intercultural Understanding in the Age of EmpireThursday
27-04-2023 @ 14:00Platform | Keynes Seminar Room 1, King’s College (and online)ID: Please register on "Join Meeting" Passcode: NoneAbstract
This book discussion explores how one half of Asia—the Middle East and India—attempted to comprehend the societies and cultures of the other half, from Burma to China and Japan. Bringing to light the pioneers of inter-Asian understanding, we follow their vacillating journeys between interpretive misadventures and revelatory breakthroughs that ranged from Muslim perceptions of Buddhism and Indian accounts of Confucius to Middle Eastern Japanophilia and translations of the Quran in China.
About the speaker
Nile Green is Professor & Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History at UCLA. He is a historian of the multiple globalizations of Islam and Muslims. After beginning his career as a historian of India and Pakistan, he has traced Muslim networks that connect Afghanistan, Iran, the Indian Ocean, Africa, Japan, Europe and America.
- From Underground Asia to the Milk Tea Alliance: Connections between Asian Activists and Movements, 1903-2023Friday
28-04-2023 @ 14:00Platform | Keynes Seminar Room 1, King's College (and online)ID: Please register on "Join Meeting" Passcode: NoneAbstract
This short talk, which will be followed a conversation between the speaker and Peter Frankopan and public Q&A, will introduce themes from a short book the presenter is completing for Columbia Global Reports. That book, whose working title is Impossible Dreamers, focuses on the recent struggles of protesters in and exiles from Hong Kong and Thailand and other participants in the loose network of “Milk Tea Alliance” activists. In seeking to place the activists into historical perspective, it brings in other periods when there struggles along the Pacific Rim became entwined in complicated ways, including the early years of the twentieth century that are the focus of Underground Asia, an important recent book by Cambridge historian Tim Harper.
About the Speaker
Jeffrey Wasserstrom is Chancellor’s Professor of History at UC Irvine and is spending the spring of 2023 as a Leverhulme Visiting Professor at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of a dozen books, the most recent of which are, as author, Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink (Columbia Global Reports, 2020) and, as editor, The Oxford History of Modern China (OUP, 2022). He regularly writes for newspapers, magazines, and literary reviews, including the Guardian, the Atlantic, and the TLS.
- From Silk Road to Belt and Road: Narrative and History in Sino-Iranian RelationsFriday
05-05-2023 @ 14:00Platform | Keynes Hall, King's College (and Online)ID: Please Register on "Join Meeting" Passcode: NoneAbstract
China and Iran have made headlines in recent years for their contemporary relationship, but this history of these ties remain relatively unknown. Both China and Iran claim that this relationship stretches back through thousands of years of “mutual friendship and cooperation,” a natural connection between ancient centers of civilization that was unnaturally severed by Western colonialism. This narrative is simple, straightforward, and appealing to both sides. But do they bear out in the historical record?
About the Speaker
Dr. William Figueroa holds a PhD in History from University of Pennsylvania and is currently a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics. His research explores the political, social, economic, and intellectual history of Sino-Iranian relations. His dissertation, ‘China and the Iranian Left: Transnational Networks of Social, Cultural, and Ideological Exchange,’ explores connections between Iranian and Chinese constitutionalists, socialists, and Maoists between four revolutions, from the early 1900s to the late 1970s.
- Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval ChinaFriday
12-05-2023 @ 14:00Platform | Online EventID: Please Register on "Join Meeting" Passcode: noneAbstract:
With the flourishing of the Silk Roads in the first centuries C.E., the two relatively independent worlds of Indo-European and East Asian medicine came into sustained conversation for the first time. This moment in history represents one of the most significant and best-documented instances of cross-cultural medical exchange in the pre-modern world, and Buddhism played a surprisingly central role in facilitating this exchange. While many sources of Indo-Sinitic medical exchange are no longer extant, a survey of medieval Chinese Buddhist texts from approximately 150-1000 C.E. finds that Indo-European medical terminology, doctrines, and metaphors were carried to China as part and parcel of the transmission of the philosophies and practices of the religion. These texts reveal that medicine and religion were intimately intertwined in medieval Asia, but they also demonstrate intriguing resonances with the globalization of Buddhism in the contemporary period.
About the Speaker:
I am a transdisciplinary scholar of health humanities who is fascinated by historical and contemporary intersections between Buddhism, medicine, and crosscultural exchange. I have a Ph.D. in History of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (2010), and teach Asian history, medicine, and religion at Penn State University’s Abington College, located near Philadelphia. The major theme in my scholarship is discovering the role of Buddhism in the global transmission and local reception of knowledge about health, disease, and the body. I approach this topic using methodologies from history, religious studies, translation studies, literary studies, and ethnography. I am continually seeking opportunities to cross disciplinary lines in publishing and presenting my work. I regularly publish writing for non-scholarly audiences and am passionate about connecting my scholarship and teaching with contemporary issues and events both within and beyond the academy. More recently, I have gotten into documentary filmmaking and podcasting as well.
- Aquilaria and Exotic Aromatics on the Maritime Silk RoadsFriday
19-05-2023 @ 11:00Abstract:
The historical importance of the overland Silk Road connecting China, India, and other Eurasian cultures has generated much scholarly interest in the past century. On the other hand, that of the maritime routes requires further exploration, especially from a longue-durée perspective. This paper examines the role of the Maritime Silk Road connecting South China, Southeast Asia, India, and beyond from the first millennium CE, focusing on the case of aromatic trade, from which Hong Kong was named after. The spread of the exotic aromatics and the cultivation of a variety of species of Aquilaria across tropical and subtropical Asia demonstrate the robust and long-lasting connectivity between a number of Asian cultures from China to the far end of the Indian Ocean.About the speaker:
Bill M. Mak is Director of Chinese Research Center, the ISF Academy, Fellow of the Jao Tsung-I Petit Ecole, University of Hong Kong, Research Associate of the Needham Research Institute, Senior Member of Robinson College, Cambridge University. He completed his linguistic training at McGill University (B.A. Hons.) in 1996, specialising in Sanskrit and East Asian languages. His areas of research include history of science in Asia, historical Sino-Indian cultural contact, and Buddhist philology. After he received his Ph.D. in Indian languages and literature from Peking University in 2010, he held several research and teaching positions in Hong Kong (University of Hong Kong), Germany (Hamburg University), and Japan (Kyoto University). Mak has authored over 30 academic articles in peer reviewed journals and is co-editor of Overlapping Cosmologies in Asia, published recently by Brill. He is now completing a book project titled Foreign Astral Sciences in China, from Six Dynasties to Northern Song, to be published by Routledge under the Needham Research Institute Monograph Series.
