The Internet May Love Eagle Huntresses, but the Eagle Hunters Certainly Don’t Until last week, Makpal Abdrazakova was the internet’s favorite eagle huntress, and I played no small part in her fame. I travelled hundreds of miles by train and bus across the flat steppe of Kazakhstan to meet her in her village, do an… Continue reading The Internet May Love Eagle Huntresses, but the Eagle Hunters Certainly Don’t
Unknown Mongolia : A Record of Travel and Exploration in North-West Mongolia and Dzungaria
Unknown Mongolia is Douglas Carruthers’ master work, two huge volumes of ethnographic and geographic accounts from a field trip in 1910. Carruthers was accompanied by the hunter Jack Humphrey Miller, who helped finance the mission and contributed two chapters of his own to the book. Visiting the upper valleys of the Khovd River in modern-day Bayan-Ölgii,… Continue reading Unknown Mongolia : A Record of Travel and Exploration in North-West Mongolia and Dzungaria
The Travels of Friar Odoric of Pordenone
Like his predecessor William of Rubruck, Odoric was a one-named Franciscan who inexplicably ended up in Kublai Khan’s China. These friars were not the brave, determined travellers that we usually imagine pioneers to be, but zealous men sent by their superiors into faraway lands – God help them. Odoric, from a small town in Northern… Continue reading The Travels of Friar Odoric of Pordenone
Anthony Jenkinson’s Explorations on the Land Route to China
Anthony Jenkinson’s Explorations on the Land Route to China Working with the historian Dan Waugh at the University of Washington, Lance Jenott prepared a fine online presentation on Anthony Jenkinson’s 16th century travels to Central Asia. Included on the site are passages from Jenkinson’s text that describe Central Asian falconry. Jenott wrote a nice primer on the… Continue reading Anthony Jenkinson’s Explorations on the Land Route to China
The Travels of Friar Odoric of Pordenone
Like his predecessor William of Rubruck, Odoric was a one-named Franciscan who inexplicably ended up in Kublai Khan’s China. These friars were not the brave, determined travellers that we usually imagine pioneers to be, but zealous men sent by their superiors into faraway lands – God help them. Odoric, from a small town in Northern… Continue reading The Travels of Friar Odoric of Pordenone