Analysis Assignment Of Life Along The Silk Road

Analysis of Life along the Silk Road
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Analysis of Life along the Silk Road
Susan Whitfield’s Life along the Silk Road is a great and rich account of the history as well as life along the Silk Road. The book provides details of how different life was for different people. Whitfield uses ten individuals to help reconstruct history and to detail some of the personal experiences these individuals had along the Silk Road. Many researchers concur that the Silk Road corresponds to today’s Eastern Uzbekistan, Mongolia, western China, Tibet, and south of the Himalayas. In the past, the Silk Road boasted of towns with some of the biggest populations in the world. However, this has slowly changed over the centuries, and desert sands have reclaimed this land. From the first chapter, the book is loaded with a lot of information regarding the Silk Road, and it is clear that this route was loaded with lots of activity. From the name, one would think that only Silk was traded, but Whitfield quashes this thought by showing that other products including horses, wool, salt, and jade were also being traded. The historical significance of this road cannot be downplayed, and through the lives of 10 individuals, Whitfield has helped to paint a clear picture of how a normal day on the Silk Road was.
Chapter 2: The Soldier’s Tale
In the Soldier’s Tale, Whitfield relives the life of a soldier along the Silk Road. This account is quite detailed and is loaded with lots of information regarding the Chinese and Tibetans wars. Through the life of one Seg Lhaton, Whitfield provides details of a soldier’s life along the Silk Road. First of all, in the past, kingdoms established and announced their intentions of expansion by fighting and concurring their neighbors. The Tibetans and the Chinese were always involved in battles, and even though many lives were lost in the process, neither party was willing to surrender.
Seg Lhaton was a Tibetan soldier, and according to Whitfield, military service was a duty, and every man was expected to serve. “The Tibetan emperor required a strong army to support his diplomacy and to deal with internal and external enemies. For Seg Lhaton, as for all his countrymen, military service was obligatory” (39). Therefore, all able bodied Tibetan men were expected to take part in the battle at some point in their lives. Life for a Tibetan soldier was difficult, and as Whitfield narrates, it often involved leaving one’s family thousands of miles away and travelling to lands and kingdoms far from home. The duties of a soldier were varied and mainly included irrigation and agricultural work, making bricks, the collection of bundles of wood, and keeping watch in the hill stations which was deemed the hardest.
Whitfield helps the readers to see how life for a soldier was unpredictable especially because war could break out at any moment. The Chinese could attack the Tibetans without warning and vice versa, and one could easily lose their life. Economies would rise and fall, and Whitfield provides details of how kings would strive to maintain their kingdoms. Back then, internal wrangles were deemed more dangerous and costly because they led to division and mistrus...