Skip to content

Dharma Documentaries

Buddhism and Its Cultures

Menu
  • Dharma
  • Culture
  • Ecology
  • Archives
  • About
Menu

The Silk Road Series 13/16: Across the Pamirs

Posted on December 6, 2013October 14, 2018 by Dharma Documentaries
In the 13th episode of this classic series the expedition crosses into Pakistan and goes down the Indus Valley finding remains of Buddhist Civilisation along the way.

13-Across-the-Pamirs

At the end of 2010 I posted a 12-part series of films made by NHK and CCTV in 1980 about an expedition along the old silk roads crossing China and from Xi-an to the Pamir Mountains.

This series is one of my all time favourites, and I have watched it all the way through no less than three times! But it always galled me that it broke off half-way and that the rest of the series was not available.

As I understood that the second half had not been translated I had no hope of ever seeing it, except by chance in Japanese or Chinese, neither of which I understand.

But fortunately the further 18 episodes have now been translated (or maybe always were translated?), and I will embed them once a week on a Friday over the coming months.

The 13th in the series takes the Karakoram Highway across the Pamirs and down into Pakistan. At the time of filming this 645km long rd. had only been open around 5 years, and was a very perilous journey.

On the other side of the mountains the team descend to the township of Hunza, where we get the first glimpses of the giant Buddha Reliefs carved into the mountains in this area.

They then pass down the valley until they come to Gilgit, with its ancient monasteries at Chilas along the Indus Valley and Thakot, and on into the Gandhara Region, which was such an important role in the history of Buddhsim.

It was here that the first Buddha images were made, and we see many fine examples, now kept in the Museums at Peshawar and Lahore, which include the famous fasting Bodhisattva Statue. We are also told something about the seminal role King Kanishka played in the propagation of the religion.

 

if the video does not appear on the page, try reloading the page; and if that doesn’t work, leave a comment so I can update the page (the comment is not published)

 

to see an album of screenshots click here

 

TAGS:
Culture, Dharma, China, NHK Silk Road, Pakistan, Sculpture, Silk Road

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Comments do not appear straight away, but are moderated before publication

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Subscriptions

Follow our Facebook Page Follow our Tweets Subscribe to our Feed

Subscribe by Email

Email


Shortlink and QR

https://dharma-documentaries.net/b/2Vq

Donations

This site has taken more than fifteen years and 1,000s of hours to build, and has more than a thousand documentaries on it. If you would like to help, you can do so here. Even small amounts make a difference.

Copyright

If anyone has any copyright claims please contact me at dharmadocus@gmail.com and the posts and films will be immediately removed.

Top Ten Tags

Theravada
Mahayana
Vajrayana

India
Silk Road
China
Tibet

Arts
Lectures
Women

Sponsorship

 hosting sponsored by exabytes.my 

Random Posts

  • Himalaya, Path of Yarchagumba
  • Amazing Sri Lanka
  • The New Pinnacle on the Ruwanweli Maha Seya
  • 26 of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang in Detail
  • Art of Compassion
  • Karamoja City Warriors
  • Cambodia’s Land and People (Folkways of Indochina)
  • Bhutan, Change Comes to the Happy Kingdom
  • Beliefs Made Visible – Hindu and Buddhist Art in South Asia
  • The Story of Sudhana, Gallery 2, 1-32

Recent Posts

  • Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty
  • Amala, The Life and Struggle of the Dalai Lama’s Sister
  • Chadar, the Ice Trail
  • Brancaccio, Buddhist Monasticism in Kanheri
  • Marco Polo, The Great Explorer
  • 1948, Creation & Catastrophe
  • Bhutan, Back to the Roots along with Matthieu Ricard
  • Walid Haddad, Jātaka, the Buddhas Past Birth-Stories, 02
  • Walid Haddad, Jātaka, the Buddhas Past Birth-Stories, 01
  • Karma Girl

Related Posts:

  • The Silk Road Series 12/16: Two Roads to the Pamirs
  • Introduction to The Silk Road Series
  • The Silk Road Series 45, Echoes of Distant Prayers
  • The Silk Road Series 43, Steep Road to the Oasis
  • The Silk Road Series 16/16: The Travels of Xuang…
  • The Silk Road Series 7/16: Khotan-Oasis of Silk and Jade
  • The Silk Road Series 41, The Flame and the Cross
  • The Silk Road Series 44, From Wasteland to Motherland
  • The Silk Road Series 42, The Progeny of the Queen of Sheba
  • Beyond the Himalayas 1, Other Side Of The Mountain
© 2025 Dharma Documentaries | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme