The Society for the Exploration of EurAsia / www.exploration-eurasia.com

This page is at the disposal to all founding members of the Society to briefly present their major publications currently available in the market.

Dr. Christoph Baumer, born 1952, is a leading explorer of Central Asia, Tibet and China. On his expeditions, he has made important discoveries in art history and archaeology. In remote areas of Tibet, he discovered ancient Bönpo murals from the 15 th century which were previously unknown. He led three international expeditions into the Taklamakan Desert in 1994, 1998 and 2003. Among other things, he came across the ruins of Dandan Oilik, a thousand five hundred years old city, where he excavated unknown Buddhist murals dating to the 8 th century and a paper fragment in middle-Khotanese language and Brahmi script from the 7 th /8 th century. In the ancient city of Endere, he discovered two stone tablets inscribed with a text in Kharoshthi providing new knowledge about the spread of Mahayana Buddhism along the Southern Silk Road. In the Eastern part of the Taklamakan desert his third expedition chanced about 5000 to 6000 years old Neolithic traces.

Foto © by C. Baumer

Christoph Baumer – Wikipedia

Baumer is internationally recognized through his scholarly books, articles, and contributions to popular science. He makes appearances as a lecturer, on radio programs and in documentary films. He has published books and articles illustrated with his own photos in six languages. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, of the Royal Geographical Society, London and of the Explorers Club, New York.

The following books are available in the trade or at www.amazon.de or www.amazon.com.

English
Tibet's Ancient Religion. Bön. Weatherhill and Orchid Press 2002. www.orchidbooks.com ISBN 974-524-011-7 (Asia & Europe), ISBN 0-8348-0517-0 (Americas)

Southern Silk Road. In the Footsteps of Sir Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin. 2nd revised edition, Orchid Press, Bangkok 2003. www.orchidbooks.com ISBN 974 8304-39-6 (Soft Cover), ISBN 974 8304-38-8 (Hard Cover)

Eastern Tibet. Bridging Tibet and China. Orchid Press. www.orchidbooks.com
ISBN 974-524-064-8 Oct. 2005.

The Church of the East. An illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity.
I.B. Tauris, London 2006. www.ibtauris.com ISBN 1 84511 115 X

Traces in the Desert. Journeys of Discovery across Central Asia.
I.B. Tauris, London 2008. www.ibtauris.com ISBN 978 1 84511 337 7

German
Der Bön. Die lebendige Ur-Religion Tibets. Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt Graz 1999. www.adeva.com ISBN 3-201-01723-X

Die Südliche Seidenstrasse. Inseln im Sandmeer. Versunkene Kulturen der Wüste Taklamakan. Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2002. www.zabern.de ISBN 3-8053-2845-1

Ost-Tibet. Brücke zwischen Tibet und China. (Co-Author: Therese Weber) Akademische Druck und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 2002. www.adeva.com ISBN 3-201-01788-4

Frühes Christentum zwischen Euphrat und Jangtse. Eine Zeitreise entlang der Seidenstrasse zur Kirche des Ostens.
Verlag Urachhaus, Stuttgart 2005. www.urachhaus.de ISBN 3-8251-7450-6

Wutai Shan. Mittelpunkt des chinesischen Buddhismus. Klöster und Pilger am heiligsten Berg Chinas.
Detjen-Verlag 2008. kontakt@Detjen-Verlag.de ISBN 978-3-937597-29-4

Zeitreisen zu verborgenen Kulturen. Entdeckungen in Innerasien.
Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt Graz 2008. www.adeva.com ISBN 978-3-201-01903-3

Russian
Sledi B Pustine. Veche Publishing, Moscow 2009. ISBN 978-5-9533-3931-5

Associate Professor Dr. Dr. Wassilios Klein teaches Comparative Religions at the University of Bonn.

Foto © by W. Klein

The following books are available in the trade or at www.amazon.de or www.amazon.com.

W. Klein: Das nestorianische Christentum an den Handelswegen durch Kyrgystan bis zum 14. Jh. Brepols, Turnhout (www.brepols.net) 2000. ISBN 2-503-51035-3.

The missionary enterprise of the socalled Nestorian christianity in Asia is an amazing chapter of the religious history. Without any support by rulers or states and independent from the important western church centers Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch, the Assyrian Church did not only survive over so many centuries but it spread by the Silk Road through many parts of the Asian continent. The present book focuses for the first time on a limited region, the northern branch of the Silk Road in modern Kyrgyzstan. This concentration makes it possible to understand the conditions of expansion, survival and eclipse of Christianity there. The reader is introduced to the political and religious environment with its competition of Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Buddhism, Shamanism and Islam. Archaeological and literal sources and especially many tombstone inscriptions are not only introduced and discussed, but raised to life. Therefore the experiences of Christianity at the Silk Road can help us to understand the evolution of our own modern world.

Wolfgang Gantke, Karl Hoheisel u. Wassilios Klein: Religionsbegegnung und Kulturaustausch in Asien, Studien zum Gedenken an Hans-Joachim Klimkeit , Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2002. ISBN 3-447-04574-4.

Hans-Joachim Klimkeit (died February 7 th, 1999) dedicated his life's work to the study of Comparative Religions, especially to the interaction of the religions in Asia. On the first pages the memorial volume offers a complete overview about his life and work. Then 18 articles pick different items of his research work up and cover a wide range beginning with questions relating to the history of religions, to Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Buddhism, Shamanism, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam until to systematical questions, which deal with more than one religion.

Wassilios Klein (Hg.): Syrische Kirchenväter , Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2004 (Urban-Taschenbücher 587), ISBN 3-17-014449-9.

For most people, early Christian literature is thought of as being the product solely of authors writing either in Greek or in Latin: tertium non datur . The reality, however, is very different: besides the Greek East and the Latin West, there is a third component, what one might term the Syriac Orient. Although the New Testament was written in Greek, Jesus himself will have spoken and taught in Aramaic. Syriac also played a vital role in the transmission of the Greek intellectual heritage to the Western world, providing the bridge between the Greek-speaking world of Late Antiquity in the East Mediterranean and the Arabic-speaking world of Islam. Once in Arabic, these philosophical, medical and scientific texts were developed by Muslim scholars, and it was these works which were translated into Latin in Spain and elsewhere in the twelfth century, thus stimulating intellectual developments, and the growth of universities, in Western Europe. Whereas general introductions to the Church Fathers of the Greek East and the Latin West are available, there is nothing comparable for the Fathers of the Syriac Orient, and so this present volume, with its excellent coverage and written by experts in the subject, is most welcome.

Prof. Therese Weber, Professor for visual Arts, University of North West Switzerland

The Language of Paper
by Therese Weber October 2007. 224 pp., 178 colour and 26 b&w plates, 1 map, bibliography, index, 29 x 21 cm., hardcover. ISBN-10 974-524-093- ISBN-13 978-974-524-093-31 Orchid Press

Paper technology originated in China some two millennia ago, from where it spread east, to Korea and Japan, and west, along the Silk Road, to Central Asia, eventually reaching Europe in the 13th century. As the technology propagated, paper effected profound changes in each society it touched, becoming one of the most important of all cultural media, a status that it retains to the present.
Paper accrues value as religious and symbolic markings are added to its surface; fortune papers transport messages to the gods, paper is given the value of money in the form of banknotes, and the dream of flying was first realised in hot-air balloons made of paper. Paper can even be employed as architectural elements, as textiles for garments, and as a medium for artistic expression. In one or many of these manifestations, paper affects the lives of all on earth today.
In this cultural history of paper, acclaimed paper artist Therese Weber travels to the few remaining places where traditional methods of papermaking have been preserved. Commencing there Weber takes the reader on a fascinating and colourful journey of discovery of a commodity that many may take for granted, but few fully understand.

Therese Weber is a professor for Visual Arts at the University of North West Switzerland, Liestal/Basle, and enjoys international recognition as a free-lance artist. Her work is represented in private collections and public institutions. She was honored with the Japan Paper Academy Award, and in 2005 she received the Art-Award at the “PAPERart 9” in Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren, Germany.