Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
I hope you all have had a wonderful Valentine's Day and that your secret lovers have surprised you. We are on a journey along the ancient Silk Road, a renown trading route straight through Asia. We started with the Northern Route around the Taklamakan Desert and yesterday I wrote that we are on the Southern Route and that's were we catch up again after our short stay at the home of Kamala together with Siddhartha. During his years together with Kamala, Siddhartha becomes very wealthy and rich. Together with Kamala he got a son, whom he never had seen. He saw his son for the very first time when he works as a ferryman, but that's a story for later this month.
At the start of this month I thought to journey along the Northern and Southern Route around the Taklamakan Desert, but as I wrote yesterday "this month is tougher to create than I thought. So for once I am glad that I don't have a complete prompt-list, because now I can decide to take another route. Also a Southern Route, ... let me tell you a little bit more about this Southern Route.
The southern route or Karakoram route was mainly a single route running from China through the Karakoram mountains, where it persists in modern times as the international paved road connecting Pakistan and China as the Karakoram Highway. It then set off westwards, but with southward spurs enabling the journey to be completed by sea from various points. Crossing the high mountains, it passed through northern Pakistan, over the Hindu Kush mountains, and into Afghanistan, rejoining the northern route near Merv, Turkmenistan. From Merv, it followed a nearly straight line west through mountainous northern Iran, Mesopotamia, and the northern tip of the Syrian Desert to the Levant, where Mediterranean trading ships plied regular routes to Italy, while land routes went either north through Anatolia or south to North Africa. Another branch road travelled from Herat through Susa to Charax Spasinu at the head of the Persian Gulf and across to Petra and on to Alexandria and other eastern Mediterranean ports from where ships carried the cargoes to Rome.
Because of lack of time, I am on the nightshift, I have another nice photo-challenge for you or in other words I love to inspire you to create haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form through an image of the Karakoram Mountains.
In the Karakoram Mountains you will find one of the most famous peaks of the world ... K2 also known as Mount Godwin-Austen or Chhogori and is the second highest mountain in the world, after Mount Everest (8,848 metres), at 8,611 metres (28,251 ft) above sea level.
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| Karakoram Mountains |
the silence between the clouds
a faraway sound
© Chèvrefeuille
Hm ... not as strong I had thought, but in a way it gives words to what I see, feel, smell, touch and hear as I look at this photo. Look at the beauty of that stone blue sky, the man and horses in the middle. Look at those tough guys in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the Karakoram Mountains. I would love to be there and comfort them, but I also would love to hear their stories.
around the campfire
listening to the song of the mountains
the trader's stories
© Chèvrefeuille
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 21st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on.
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