This is Chris Bricker, and I’m thrilled to introduce you to Bill Porter – or Red Pine – one of the world’s finest translators of Chinese Poetry and religious texts. For those of you who already know him, and those of you who will get to know him, he prefers to just being your neighbor Bill Porter. Each week, Bill will bring you a series of enticing installments that we’re calling A Journey Along the Silk Road. So sit back and enjoy the journey, every Tuesday at approximately 5:20 and Friday at approximately 12:15. And lose yourself in the mystery of the Silk Road!
(Airdate: December 12, 2025) When China first exerted its influence In the 2nd Century BC, Hami was just beyond their reach. In those days, Hami was known as Yiwu. In subsequent dynasties, Chinese authority in this area waxed and waned. Not only did the northern branch of the Silk Road pass through Hami, another branch veered east at Hami and continued on through Mongolia to Peking. This was the shortcut to northern China…
(Airdate: November 25, 2025) We’re in Xinjiang Province, in the town of Hami, and we’ve already visited the tombs of the Uyghur kings, who ruled Hami over 90 years ago. When the last ruler died in1930, Chinese bureaucrats moved in to fill the vacuum and precipitated a rebellion that spread across the entire Province….
(Airdate: November 18, 2025) We’re in the town of Hami, and we’ve rented a couple of bicycles from an obliging lady at the entrance to our hotel. We didn’t have to pedal far. After one kilometer, we passed a cemetery. We stopped and walked up a pile of steps to a mausoleum at the top of a small hill….
(Airdate: November 11, 2025) We’ve already noted the ancient homeland of the Uyghurs on the shores of Lake Baikal north of Mongolia, and their short-lived empire that encompassed much of central Asia during the 8th Century. We’ve also noticed their practice of a variety of religions. But today it’s hard to find a Uyghur who isn’t Muslim….
(Airdate: November 4, 2025) We’re in Xinjiang Province, the land of the Uyghurs. Today most all of the six million Uyghurs in China are Muslims, and they wear the skulk cap that Muslims wear the world over. But during their moment of glory, where they controlled most of central Asia from their base in Mongolia, they wore their hair beneath the sky, and they bowed to the sun instead of Mecca….
(Airdate: October 28, 2025) We’re in Xinjiang, China’s so-called Uyghurs Autonomous Province. The Uyghurs are the largest ethnic group in the province, with 45 percent of the population, and the Han Chinese are close behind with 40 percent. Still, 99 percent of the power is in the hands of the Chinese….
(Airdate: October 21, 2025) We’re in Xinjiang Province, and we’ve just arrived In the town of Hami. Up to now we’ve seen people in every Silk Road Town wearing skull caps of various colors. Usually they’re white, and occasionally black or dark green. Such caps are part of the Muslims’ traditional dress. In Hami, the amount of people wearing such caps approaches the number of uncapped. That is because we’ve entered a region where until recently the Chinese have been in a minority….
(Airdate: October 14, 2025) We’ve finally left the Gansu Province and entered Xinjiang. In a very real sense, we’ve left China. From here on out the Han Chinese would be in a minority. In fact they wouldn’t be here at all, had it not been for a tribe of rowdy barbarians…
(Airdate: October 7, 2025) We’ve finally left Gansu Province and Dunghuang behind and heading for Hami, the next oasis on the northern branch of the Silk Road. The size of the Oases along the Silk Road always surprised us. It took our bus almost 30 minutes to get past the fields and pastures, and then we were back in the desert again—this time along rolling black hills and sage brush flats.
(Airdate: September 30, 2025) We’re in Gansu Province, and we’ve just watched the secret of silk leave china in a woman’s hairdo through Jade Gate Pass. From there the secret traveled through the Lop Desert on the southern branch of the silk road to the kingdom of Khotan, and from there on to India. But most travelers avoided this branch of the Silk Road. Even today the road constantly gets lost among the constantly shifting desert sands. From Jade Gate Pass, most travelers took the route north, through the Malhuyen Desert, including the famous Chinese monk Xuanzang….
