by Joyce Morgan
“The more I see of this glorious land”: Bodleian, Stein MS 40, Stein to Andrews, May 6, 1912.
“In a way I am sorry”: Bodleian, Stein MS 42, Stein to Andrews, June 29, 1913.
“the Queen wore a hat”: “The King and the Museum,” The Times, May 8, 1914, p 4.
“The King and Queen”: “The British Museum: The New Edward VII Wing,” Manchester Guardian, May 8, 1914.
“His two greatest finds”: “Wonders of the East: Exhibits in the British Museum Extension,” The Times, May 7, 1914, p 5.
“There was a succession”: Bodleian, Stein MS 94, Lorimer to Stein, May 8, 1914.
“He is better qualified”: Bodleian, Stein MS 89, Stein to Kenyon, June 30, 1913.
“If you should prefer”: British Museum archives, CE32/23/50/1, Barnett to Kenyon, August 11, 1913.
“It is from every point of view desirable”: British Museum archives, CE 32/23/49, Stein to Kenyon, July 1, 1913.
“The museums in this country”: British Museum archives, CE32/23/54, Government of India, August 20, 1914.
“Mr Andrews’s disadvantages in the matter”: British Museum archives, CE 32/23/82-2, Binyon to Kenyon, November 25, 1916.
CHAPTER 15: TREASURE HUNTERS
“as jovial & benign”: Bodleian, Stein MS 11, Stein to Allen, March 27, 1914.
“Honest Wang, the priest”: ibid., April 3, 1914.
“There was nothing to do but gasp”: Langdon Warner, The Long Old Road in China, p 211.
“Across some of these lovely faces”: Langdon Warner, Langdon Warner Through His Letters, edited by Theodore Bowie, Warner to his wife, Lorraine Roosevelt Warner, p 115.
“My job is to break my neck”: ibid., p 116.
“As for the morals of such vandalism”: ibid., Warner to Hamilton Bell, p 118.
“Each one visits the caves”: ibid.
“No vandal hand but mine”: Langdon Warner, The Long Old Road in China, p 220.
“neither of whom could ever come back and live”: Langdon Warner, Langdon Warner Through His Letters, edited by Theodore Bowie, Warner to Lorraine Roosevelt Warner, p 128.
“Otherwise it is no longer scientific archaeology”: British Museum archives, CE32/24/25, National Commission for the Preservation of Antiquities, Beijing, China. Received by British Museum January 5, 1931.
“still in the stage of grinding”: “China and her Treasures. Hampering the Scientist,” The Times, March 30, 1931, p 11.
CHAPTER 16: HANGMAN'S HILL
On World War II: The authors have drawn on the following sources, which proved invaluable in reconstructing wartime events. P.R. Harris, A History of the British Museum Library, 1753–1973; John Forsdyke, “The Museum in War-time,” The British Museum Quarterly, vol XV (1952), pp 1–9; Jacob Leveen, “The British Museum Collections in Aberystwyth,” Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1946; David Jenkins, A Refuge in Peace and War: The National Library of Wales to 1952, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, 2002; N.J. McCamley, Saving Britain’s Art Treasures From the Nazis. See also Joyce Morgan’s article “The Stein Collection and World War II.” In Sir Aurel Stein, Colleagues and Collections. British Museum Research Publication Number 184, 2012. www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/14_Morgan%20REV.pdf.
“suicide exhibition”: Marjorie Caygill, “1939: Evacuating the BM’s treasures,” British Museum Society Bulletin, no 62, Winter 1989, p 21.
“Stein Sahib is some kind of supernatural being”: C.E.A.W. Oldham, “Sir Aurel Stein 1862–1943,” obituary from the Proceedings of the British Academy, vol 29 (1943), pp 453–65.
“but his age of 60 shows”: quoted in Jeannette Mirsky, Sir Aurel Stein: Archaeological explorer, p 546.
“I have had a wonderful life”: “Sir Aurel Stein,” The Times, November 4, 1943, p 7.
“As Marco Polo is regarded”: C.E.A.W. Oldham, “Sir Aurel Stein 1862–1943,” obituary from the Proceedings of the British Academy, vol 29, pp 453–65.
“the last of the great student-explorers”: Percy M. Sykes, “Sir Aurel Stein,” Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, 1944, vol 31, part 1, p 5.
“He brought to light”: “Obituary, Sir Aurel Stein,” The Times, October 28, 1943.
“Like Odysseus”: Lionel Barnett, “Explorations in Central Asia, 1906–8—Discussion,” The Geographical Journal, vol 34, no 3 (September 1909), p 265.
“One cannot help feeling”: Peter Hopkirk, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road, p 229.
CHAPTER 17: FACETS OF A JEWEL
“amateurish and shallow slop”: Geddeth Smith, Walter Hampden, Dean of the American Theatre, p 230.
“It’s not philosophy”: Gary Snyder, interview by Joyce Morgan, March 24, 2010.
“The main problem for me”: Dr. Paul Harrison, interview by Joyce Morgan, August 25, 2009.
“all great texts”: Walter Benjamin, “The Task of the Translator,” in Selected Writings, vol 1, 1913–1936, p 263.
“The essential part”: Professor Robert Thurman, interview by Joyce Morgan, September 30, 2009.
“That does not mean”: His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, interview by Joyce Morgan, December 1, 2009.
“The Diamond Sutra specifically states”: Yoon Han, interview by Conrad Walters, August 3, 2010.
“Andrew started reading”: Renate Ogilvie, interview by Joyce Morgan, June 28, 2010.
CHAPTER 18: SHIFTING SANDS
“If you look very closely”: Mark Barnard, interview by authors, April 7, 2009.
“It was always something”: Dr. Frances Wood, interview by authors, March 16, 2009.
“Everybody in all the collections”: Dr. Susan Whitfield, interview by Joyce Morgan, March 10, 2009.
“imagine how we should feel”: Arthur Waley, Ballads and Stories from Tun-huang, pp 237–38.
On Stein as a looter: Gansu Provincial People’s Government Information Office, Dunhuang sees Great Changes over the Years, p 141.
CHAPTER 19: SCROLL FORWARD
“One of the most challenging issues”: Dr. Wang Xudong, interview by Joyce Morgan, October 26, 2007.
“The Terracotta Warriors”: Dr. Neville Agnew, interview by Joyce Morgan, November 20, 2007.
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About the Authors
Joyce Morgan has worked as a journalist for more than three decades in London, Sydney, and Hong Kong. Her writing has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Guardian, and The Bangkok Post. She has written on arts and culture since 1994. Joyce is a senior arts writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and a former arts editor. She has also worked as a producer with ABC Radio. Born in Liverpool, England, she has traveled extensively in Asia, including India, Pakist
an, China, Tibet, and Bhutan.
Conrad Walters has worked in the media for more than thirty years in the US, where he won awards for investigative journalism, and Australia. In 1999, he joined The Sydney Morning Herald, where he has worked as a feature writer and book reviewer. He is now an editor on the paper’s iPad edition. Conrad was born in Boston, educated in Europe and the Middle East and has lived in seven countries. He has a master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney.
They live in Sydney with a vial of sand from the Taklamakan Desert on their mantelpiece.
www.journeysonthesilkroad.com
Aurel Stein takes tea in Lahore in the 1890s. There, his eyes were opened to early Buddhist art in the city’s “Wonder House.” Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Stein’s desk at his summer camp Mohand Marg, in 1905, with Dash the Great, shortly before the explorer left Kashmir for his second Turkestan expedition. Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The ever-watchful British consul and family in Chini Bagh’s garden, Kashgar, circa 1913. Catherine Macartney, seated, with children Sylvia and Eric. George Macartney, rear, holds son Robin. © The British Library Board
Chiang, Stein’s Chinese secretary, translator and friend on his desert travels. Hiring Chiang was one of the wisest decisions Stein made. © The British Library Board
Stein and his core team in front of a tamarisk cone. From left: Ibrahim Beg, Chiang, Stein with Dash the Great, cook Jasvant Singh, surveyor Lal Singh and handyman Naik Ram Singh. © The British Library Board
Hassan Akhun, head camel man. His thirst for adventure made up for an explosive temper. © The British Library Board
Turdi, the dak runner, who made a perilous journey into the desert to deliver Stein’s mail. © The British Library Board
Wall painting of a winged angel found at Miran. The Western appearance of the image inside a Buddhist sanctuary suggests travelers from afar visited the oasis. © The British Library Board