Christoph Baumer | |
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 Christoph Baumer at Bronze Age graveyard Käwrigul (Gumugo), Lop Nur, 2009 | |
| Born | 23 June 1952 |
Christoph Baumer (born June 23, 1952) is a Swiss explorer and historian of Central Asia. [1] Starting in 1984, he has conducted explorations in Central Asia, China, Tibet and the Caucasus, the results of which have been published in numerous books, scholarly publications, TV and radio programs.
Baumer grew up in the Swiss Canton of Thurgau. His father was a businessman; his mother had been a war correspondent for the French national press agency and reported during the Finnish-Russian war in the winter of 1939–1940. Sven Hedin, the renowned explorer of Asia, aided her return to occupied Belgium, at that time her home. As an adolescent, Baumer was already fascinated by the travel reports of Hedin, and these likely laid the foundation for Baumer’s later development. After obtaining a PhD at the University of Zurich, he first worked in business until he became a freelance author and photographer with emphasis on the cultural history of Central Asia and the Caucasus. His books have been published in five languages.
Christoph Baumer is, together with Therese Weber, a Founding Member and President of the archaeological Society for the Exploration of EurAsia. [2] The Society makes scientific contributions to the exploration of the cultures of Eurasia. It promotes archaeological fieldwork in six to eight countries and the scientific exchange of ideas and experience through publications and international conferences.
In 1994, Baumer led the First Sino-Swiss Taklamakan Expedition, and was the first Westerner to reach the ancient oasis of Niya and Loulan since the 1930s.
The Second International Taklamakan Expedition followed in 1998. Christoph Baumer was the first visitor to the ancient ruined city Dandan Oilik in the Taklamakan Desert since Emil Trinkler and Walter Bosshard in 1928. The results of this expedition were, among other things, the rediscovery and excavation of unknown ruins in Dandan Oilik and Buddhist murals dating from the mid-8th century AD, [3] the discovery of a paper document from the 7th/8th century set in the Khotanese language and Brahmi script, the discovery of a very rare stone inscription in Kharoshthi from the 3rd century AD in the ruined city Endere, and the rediscovery of a Tibetan inscription from 790. From this expedition stemmed the ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) TV-documentary The Lost City of Taklamakan.
In 2003, Baumer conducted the Third International Taklamakan Expedition in collaboration with the Archaeological Institute of Ürümqi, Xinjiang and a representative of the University of London, during which he made finds north of Qiemo from the Neolithic Age (4th–3rd millennium BC).
In 2007, he led the Fourth International Taklamakan Expedition into unexplored regions of the Lop Nor Desert. There he discovered, among other things, a previously unknown settlement, dating from approximately 100 BC–400 AD. [4]
In 2009, he led the Fifth International Taklamakan Expedition into the unexplored ancient delta of the River Keriya in the centre of the desert, and discovered two unknown graveyards: Satma Mazar (Iron Age) and Ayala Mazar (Bronze Age). [5]
Further expeditions took Baumer to southern Tibet in 1996, where he rediscovered in the former monastery Sekar Guthok forgotten murals from the 13th century; and in 1997 again to southern Tibet, where he discovered in the Pa-Lha-Puk Monastery the oldest existing murals of the Bön religion – from the early 15th century – in all of Tibet.
In the years 2000 to 2005 he researched and documented most of the relevant cultural monuments of the Assyrian Church of the East, from southeastern Turkey to Mongolia, China and southern India.
In the years 1993, 2006 and 2007 he visited and documented all the Buddhist monasteries of Mount Wutai Shan, in northwestern China.
From 2013 to 2019 he explored on six journeys the Caucasus region in view of a forthcoming publication on the history of the Caucasus.
Sir Marc Aurel Stein, (Hungarian: Stein Márk Aurél; 26 November 1862 – 26 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at Indian universities.
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, was a British Army officer, explorer and spiritual writer. He is remembered for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia; especially the 1904 British expedition to Tibet, led by himself, and for his writings on Asia and foreign policy. Younghusband held positions including British commissioner to Tibet and president of the Royal Geographical Society.
The Taklamakan Desert is a desert in northwest China's Xinjiang region. Located inside the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang, it is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains to the west, the Tian Shan range to the north, and the Gobi Desert to the east.
Sven Anders Hedin, KNO1kl RVO, was a Swedish geographer, topographer, explorer, photographer, travel writer and illustrator of his own works. During four expeditions to Central Asia, he made the Transhimalaya known in the West and located sources of the Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej Rivers. He also mapped lake Lop Nur, and the remains of cities, grave sites and the Great Wall of China in the deserts of the Tarim Basin. In his book Från pol till pol, Hedin describes a journey through Asia and Europe between the late 1880s and the early 1900s. While traveling, Hedin visited Turkey, the Caucasus, Tehran, Iraq, lands of the Kyrgyz people and the Russian Far East, India, China and Japan. The posthumous publication of his Central Asia Atlas marked the conclusion of his life's work.
The Tarim River, known in Sanskrit as the Śītā, is an endorheic river in Xinjiang, China. It is the principal river of the Tarim Basin, a desert region of Central Asia between the Tian Shan and Kunlun Mountains. The river historically terminated at Lop Nur, but today reaches no further than Taitema Lake before drying out.
Wilhelm Filchner was a German army officer, scientist and explorer. He conducted several surveys and scientific investigations in China, Tibet and surrounding regions, and led the Second German Antarctic Expedition, 1911–13.
The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Xinjiang, Northwestern China occupying an area of about 888,000 km2 (343,000 sq mi) and one of the largest basins in Northwest China. Located in China's Xinjiang region, it is sometimes used synonymously to refer to the southern half of the province, that is, Southern Xinjiang or Nanjiang, as opposed to the northern half of the province known as Dzungaria or Beijiang. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern boundary is the Kunlun Mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The Taklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin. The historical Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin is Altishahr, which means 'six cities' in Uyghur. The region was also called Little Bukhara or Little Bukharia.
Shanshan was a kingdom located at the north-eastern end of the Taklamakan Desert near the great, but now mostly dry, salt lake known as Lop Nur.
Loulan, also known as Kroraïna (Krorayina) in native Gandhari documents or Krorän in later Uyghur, was an ancient kingdom based around an important oasis city along the Silk Road already known in the 2nd century BCE on the northeastern edge of the Lop Desert. The term Loulan is the Chinese transcription of the native name Kroraïna and is used to refer to the city near the brackish desert lake Lop Nur as well as the kingdom.
Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov was a Russian and Soviet traveller and explorer who continued the studies of Nikolai Przhevalsky in Mongolia and Tibet.
Chaghaniyan, known as al-Saghaniyan in Arabic sources, was a medieval region and principality located on the right bank of the Oxus River, to the south of Samarkand.
The location of Tibet, deep in the Himalaya mountains, made travel to Tibet extraordinarily difficult at any time, in addition to the fact that it traditionally was forbidden to all western foreigners. The internal and external politics of Tibet, China, Bhutan, Assam, and the northern Indian kingdoms combined rendered entry into Tibet politically difficult for all Europeans. The combination of inaccessibility and political sensitivity made Tibet a mystery and a challenge for Europeans well into the 20th century.
Dandan Oilik, also Dandān-Uiliq, lit. "the houses with ivory", is an abandoned historic oasis town and Buddhist site in the Taklamakan Desert of China, located to the northeast of Khotan in what is now the autonomous region of Xinjiang, between the Khotan and Keriya rivers. The central site covers an area of 4.5 km2; the greater oasis extends over an area of 22 km2. The site flourished from the sixth century as a site along the southern branch of the Silk Road until its abandonment before the Tibetan advance at the end of the eighth century.
Yesun Temur was a Tengric khan of Chagatai Khanate. He was the younger brother of Changshi Khan. Their father was prince Ebugen who was the son of Duwa, the Chagatai Khan. Yesun Temur's name literally means "Nine Iron" in the Mongolian language.
The 1902 Ōtani expedition was a Japanese archaeological expedition to a series of Silk Road sites in the Taklamakan Desert, led by Count Ōtani Kōzui and lasting from 1902 until 1904. The expedition aimed to study the early transmission of Buddhism through Central Asia into China, and conducted major excavations in the Kucha area.
Mazar Tagh is the site of a ruined hill fort in the middle of the Taklamakan desert, dating from the time of the Tibetan Empire. Like the Miran fort site, its excavation has yielded hundreds of military documents from the 8th and 9th century, which are among the earliest surviving Tibetan manuscripts, and vital sources for understanding the early history of Tibet. The site is now located north of the modern city of Hotan in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.
Rawak is a Buddhist stupa located on the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, China, along the famous trade route known as the Silk Road in the first millennium Kingdom of Khotan. Around the stupa there are other smaller structures which were originally decorated with a large number of colossal statues. The courtyard of the temple was surrounded by a wall, which contained terracotta relieves and some wall-paintings. The stupa and other structures form a three-dimensional mandala. The site is now about 40 km north of the modern city of Hotan in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China.
Ghorghori city or Ghurghuri, also called Ghor Ghori is a town and capital of Khash Rod District of Nimruz Province, Afghanistan.
Arthur Douglas Carey was a British civil servant in India, now remembered as a traveller in Central Asia, and in particular for exploration in what is now Xinjiang.
Through Asia Volume 1 is a travel book by the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin, which was published in 1898 by the British publishing house Methuen Publishing Ltd. Originally published in Swedish under the name, En Färd Genom Asien, the travel writing is an account of Hedin's first big expedition through Central Asia during the years 1893 to 1897. The first volume covers Hedin's records of his journey until June 1895. It contains multiple photographs and illustrations from sketches by the author.
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