MARCO POLO'S SILK ROAD : THROUGH TATAR and MONGOL and CATHAY IN the 13TH CENTURY

MARCO POLO'S SILK ROAD - The Art of the Journey - An Italian at the Court of Kublai Khan

is introduced by John Masefield and published by Watkins.  It's a beautiful book from it's red silky cover to all of its contemporary photographs that don't just make it beautiful but bring the reader closer to the sights and the cultures that Marco Polo witnessed and experienced hundreds of years ago and shorten that distance.  Polo's work is perhaps one of the earliest examples of TRAVEL WRITING that we have. 

The purpose of this book was to unconfused the reader by providing a map and mini chapters that move us along the silk road, which was a merchants route, as Marco proceeds to the court of the great KUBLAI KHAN, a grandson of GENGHIS KHAN.  Polo left Venice Italy as a young man and over many years encountered vast armies, amazing wealth, and sophisticated cities.   Sometimes they did travel for weeks without coming across a settlement but clearly the cultures were greatly developed. In particular he told of the unusual (by European standards) practices that various ethnic people had regarding sexuality and women: one group considered a woman unavailable for marriage until she had slept with at least 20 strangers who gifted her but once married she was expected to remain chaste.  The Khans didn't just have armies of 20,000 but 500 wives or concubines.

Just one little excerpt from page 134  Chapter 13 THE FASHION OF THE GREAT KHAN'S TABLE at his HIGH FEASTS

"And when the Great Khan sits at table on any great court occasion, it is in this fashion.  His table is elevated a good deal above the others, and he sits at the north end of the hall, looking toward the south, with his chief wife beside him on the left.  On his right sit his sons and his nephews, and other kinsmen of the blood imperial, but lower, so that their heads are on a level with the emperor's feet.  And then the other barons sit at other tables lower still,. So also with the women; for all the wives of the lord's sons, and of his nephews and other kinsmen, sit at the lower table to his right; and below them again the ladies of the other barons and knights, each in the place assigned by the lord's orders.  The tables are so disposed that the emperor can see the whole of them from end to end, many as they are....Outside the hall will be found more than 40,000 people; for there is a great concourse of folk bringing present to the lord, or come from foreign countries with curiosities."

SQUIRRELS - PIGEONS - HORSES - ALL LIVING BEINGS POOP! MY DOG HAS A SQUIRREL OBSESSION!

Maybe most dogs do. 

I just know that my dog is so obsessed with squirrels that she doesn't care if she hurts herself to chase them.  She could care less if she pulls her leash tight against her neck or that she breaks a nail leaping into a tree. I worry that she will get away from me and get hit by a car; I want her to have a long life and more natural death.  She has only gotten away from me twice, even breaking her leash, and both times it was because a squirrel was antagonizing her, or playing. 

Then she was suddenly a field away, galloping with glee, and it made me feel bad, that she has to live a life in which she is almost always in step with me, a tug at her neck, like a slave.

My dog is actually a sweetheart and only shows her hunting and killer instinct when it comes to squirrels, or playing with some of her toys which she treats as road kill.  Most of the time she is beloved by all, old people and children especially, because she is so gentle.  Never one to bite, even when a bratty child is trying to grab her by the nuzzle or pull her ears, (Really, the parents of these children are not doing their job to allow their children such behavior!).  She has been attacked by other dogs four times and each time she goes home and throws up.

Apparently not everyone in this world likes dogs or thinks they are clean.

Squirrels: I read that some people are upset with all the squirrel poop, comparing it to all that horse poop that is also in our urban environment.  Really, I wondered where this was going.  Maybe in the same direction as the attitude towards pigeons which is that there are way too many, that they are filthy, that they spread disease, that their poop is disgusting, so go ahead and poison them.

I dare say that I may have met someone who has eaten squirrel but never anyone who has eaten a pigeon.

In my neighborhood there are some Muslims and they think dogs are so unclean that they are not supposed to even touch them.  Muslims who need the assistance of an animal are allowed to take small horses (three feet tall) as their service animals into the local libraries!  A librarian tells me the rule is "as long as the horse is trained not to make a poop inside the library!"

I say, this may be bad, but it's not as bad as what Koreans do (or used to) and that is eat dogs.

If you are wondering what the difference between a Korean and a Hungarian is...

MAGYAR POSTA : MOKUS = SQUIRREL

 

Squirrel

I MEET A ROMANIAN- SERBIAN AMERICAN JUST HOME FROM WEEKS IN SIBIU AND MAGYAR TERRITORY

This morning I had a half dozen errands to complete before my day really started.  I decided to take a bus to the center of the next city which allowed me to grocery shop at my favorite Trader Joes, return a pair of shoes I changed my mind about, make a bank deposit, pick up a reserved book at the library, and get some movies for later before 10 am. On the bus I sat near an older gentleman who proceeded to tell me he was from Transylvania.

"Ah!  I have an ancestor who left Sebes (Sibiu) in the 19th century.  I think he was a German Hungarian."

"A Magyar!"

"Yes, I'm Magyar!"

"I just got back from there.  I don't speak English too good.  I thought I would speak Romanian but everyone said to me "Speak English!"

We laughed.

"I understand the Romanians want the Germans and the Hungarians out!  But they've been there for hundreds of years!"

He nodded.

"I have been in America for 45 years," he said.

VIDEO DOWN

NORTH CAROLINA HUNGARIANS! REALLY!

NORTH CAROLINA HUNGARIANS. ORG

"We live in the-Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina, but we also have members from the Triad and from Eastern North Carolina. We have a close relationship with other Hungarian groups in North Carolina such as Elkin and Charlotte.  If you are temporarily working in our area, if you have been living here for years, if you are an immigrant Hungarian or later generation, if you are part of a mixed marriage or just curious about Hungarian culture you are welcome!

The preferred language is Hungarian, but we will be glad to translate. COME, BE A PART OF IT! 

THEY NEED A 2014 UPDATE but I can bet they're still there!

GENGHIS KHAN : "ASIAN" DNA : THE KIDNAPPING OF BRIDES TODAY IN CENTRAL EUROPE IS PLAY!

I've been reading around DNA of the Hungarian people, and the people of the Carpathians, Romania, and Central and Eastern Europe.  The science is getting more and more sophisticated but I think what I read so far is an argument that there was once a lot of mixing - maybe before ethnic identities were tribal. 

I decided to watch GENGHIS KHAN -TERROR and CONQUEST which is an older Biography video, because of that question of "Asiatic" blood in some Hungarians.  This video didn't bring up the fact that he had hundreds of wives or concubines and  maybe 500 children so that Genghis's DNA is in a huge number of people today like I hoped but I still learned a lot.

13th century Asia - what is Mongolia today - was desert forest and grassland and the Chinese considered the place and the people that lived there "The Barbarians." (Seems to me the notion that the other tribe is the barbaric one prevails today!) The tribes there included the Mongols, the Merkits, the Tartars, and the Naimans, and they were all nomadic.  China had already built the famous Wall by then to keep these Barbarians out.

Though there are many accounts of Genghis Khan and his conquests written by Persian, Russian, and Chinese scribes,  there is only one, written soon after his lifetime, that is considered dependable.  The book is called "The Secret History of the Mongols." It begins by saying this bloodthirsty man was born with a clot of blood in his hand. 

No doubt Genghis' power came from his fearlessness to slaughter not just individuals but whole groups of people in the days when this was hand to hand combat and swords, before military battles were fought with guns or the weaponry we have now that distances soldiers from the place they bomb.

The story is also about the abduction of women and the rape of women and the revenge for doing so.

I learned long ago that many Hungarian marriage ceremonies into the 19th century (and perhaps beyond) play acted the abduction of a woman to be a bride, said to be the way it was done when the Hungarians were also nomadic.  The bride who had been sewing, weaving, spinning, and doing needlework, and saving for her life as a married woman since childhood, and who was probably marrying someone from her village that she had known since childhood, would kick, scream, cry out, and make a performance of it.

SOME LINKS : BIOGRAPHY.COM MINI BIO OF GENGHIS  includes video.  (His enemies sometimes surrendered out of fear.)  by 1206 he was his people's Great Ruler.


TIMES OF INDIA - GENGHI GENETIC IMPACT ACROSS ASIA

EXCERPT: "Over 10 years ago, comparisons of Y chromosome lineages across Europe and Asia showed that a large number of Asian men shared a common Y chromosome. The breadth of the distribution of this haplogroup, and the extrapolation that roughly 0.5% of the world's population carried the same Y chromosome together with age estimates led to the idea that Khan himself might have left a lasting genetic impact across Asia.

More recently a study using genome-wide data with different methods and genetic markers but on a similar (but smaller) set of populations found evidence of admixture in the Uighurs dating to the time of Genghis Khan.

"As well as the Uighurs, we found evidence of this Mongolian expansion in a further six populations. These populations approximately span the maximum spread of the Mongol empire. Taken together we believe that there is now strong evidence that this event had a major impact on many Eurasian populations," scientists said."


  THESE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE HAVING FUN WITH HUNGARIAN WEDDING TRADITIONS... 

BUT HERE'S WHAT THEY'RE DOING IN BUCHAREST ROMANIA...   ALL THESE BRIDES WERE KIDNAPPED FROM THEIR OWN WEDDING PARTIES!

IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD TODAY KIDNAPPING WOMEN AND FORCING THEM TO BE MARRIED TO THEIR KIDNAPPER ISN'T JUST PLAYING!  And I can't help but wonder what my own DNA says about the women of my heritage and who kidnapped them!


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