New Journeys to the West
Kingston International School , Ho , Shu Lin – 9
One boring Wednesday , my mother dug out an old album and shared her journey from twenty years ago across the Silk Road ….
From Xi ’ an , my mother travelled to Kashgar by train and bus . She stayed in a friendly local family . The first meal was funny . Two strong men carried a whole roasted lamb on a low table . Everyone sat on the floor and around the table . One little boy brought a big plate of Naan bread , another boy carried a basket of grapes . Water was in short supply and sheep ’ s milk was a common drink . She suddenly noticed that she was not sitting on the floor . Instead , she was sitting on a smooth and warm surface . It was a piece of woollen Xinjiang carpet weaved in wonderful patterns .
The next day , under freezing cold conditions , my mother went on a tasting adventure in a local market . Xinjiang Lamb Skewers had a shocking taste because of the spice . Xinjiang people had their special recipe to mix cumin and chili to form the Xinjiang spice . Cumin comes from the aromatic seeds of the plant that grows from the Mediterranean to the Central Asia . This spice is fantastic on grilled lamb and other meats . The Xinjiang spice became famous and was traded worldwide .
In the market , something glossy in bright colours caught my mother ’ s eye . It was a silk rug . She loved the smooth and soft feel . She said that the special pattern and colour combination reflected the happiness of the people . My mother showed me the rug that she bought twenty years ago and it still looked new .
“ Silk Road , how did it get its name ?” asked my mother while flipping the album . The sceneries of Crescent Spring and Tianchi were stunning but I was distracted while I was more curious to search the history of silk .
In the past , the Kingdom Of Khotan , now called Hotan , existed from 56 to 1006 C . E . It was built on an oasis where the place provided the right environment for silk cultivation . The king of Khotan was clever and he knew the three crucial components of silk . They were silkworm eggs , mulberry seeds and Chinese knowhow . Everytime interesting visitors like Xuanzang passed , they would exchange silk for food and necessities . In this way , Khotan became the first place outside China to start cultivating silk .
The king understood that silkworms are fed with mulberry leaves and they spit out silk to wrap around and over their bodies . The silkworm will turn into a cocoon . It is just like the lifecycle of a butterfly . However , in order to separate the silk from the cocoon , workers use boiling water to remove silk and the silkworm will die .
Silk is amazing and funny . It takes around two thousand five hundred silkworms to produce only a pound of raw silk ! A single cocoon has around a thousand yards of silk filaments , that ’ s a lot ! Silk filament is very light but very strong . In the olden days , silk was therefore very expensive . Its lustre and fine texture showed off the standard of royalty .
The Silk Road opened in the second century B . C ., missionaries and pilgrims began to travel between China , Central Asia and India . It kept on extending and was about 6400 km long which was the longest road on earth in 200 A . D . People walked through the route where trading of commodities began to appear . With the special characteristics of silk , the Silk Road gained the name in the 19th century .