SILK ROAD PROJECT

WORK
CLASS: XI

B Y: N I C K M I D D L E T O N

Project Done By: (Aksh Nagar XI-D)

 Instructions to be followed
• This entire exercise is a journey towards your Term 2.

• Marks out of 10 will be awarded after the completion of the PPT (5 Marks) & VIDEO (5 Marks) .
• DO NOT change the slide template and slide sequence.

• DO NOT add or delete any slide.

• Use Bullet Points to write the text.

• Put less text on each slide. DO NOT bombard the slides with text.

• Use relevant images.

• Font Style: Times New Roman

• Font Size: 16

• You may use colours, wherever necessary.

• Use animations.

• Upload the entire PPT with Video in MS Teams in the Assignment Section by January 9, 2022.
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

• Nick Middleton is an award-winning geographer, writer, TV presenter, environmental

scientist and university lecturer. He teaches at Oxford University where he is a Fellow of St
Anne’s College. His curiosity about how planet Earth works and how people interact with it
was fuelled from an early age by his family’s world atlas, Herge’s Adventures of Tintin and an
endless flow of Willard Price novels.
• He is the author of seven travel books, including the 2001 bestseller, Going to Extremes (Pan)
and its follow-ups Surviving Extremes (Pan, 2004) and Extremes along the Silk Road (J
Murray, 2006). Each of these sets of adventures, which looked at some of the world’s least
hospitable environments and those who live there, was filmed as a major television series,
which he wrote and presented for Channel 4 in the UK and National Geographic Channel in
most other parts of the world. His most recent series, Britain’s Worst Weather (tx February
2007), is also for Channel 4.  
• Nick’s interests span the entire subject of geography. He also works, teaches and
communicates on a wide variety of environmental issues for a broad range of audiences, from
policy-makers to five year-old children. His books in these areas include The Global Casino:
An Introduction to Environmental Issues, and the UN Environment Program's World Atlas of
Desertification.
 ABOUT THE CHARACTERS
• Nick Middleton: Nick Middleton is the narrator of the story. He is on a journey to Mount Kailash. He is quite brave, courageous, and daring.
He faces many obstacles during his journey.

• Lahmo:The author, Nick Middleton had gone to Tibet to do Kora. On the way to Mount Kailash. he had to stay at Ravu with native people;
Lhamo was the girl of the family with whom he had stayed for a few days. She developed friendship with the author and as he was to leave
Ravu, she gifted the author a drokba, a long-sleeved sheepskin coat that men in Tibet usually wear. Lahmo felt the author did not have enough
warm clothes for the severe cold he was to face later on while completing the Kora.

• Tsetan: was a local Tibetan whose profession was to ferry visitors or tourists to places of interest in Tibet. The narrator, Nick Middleton had
hired his cab to travel up to Darchen from Ravu. Tsetan was an expert in driving through the rugged Tibetan terrain and high altitude rough
roads.

• Daniel:Daniel was the translator whom Nick, Middleton had hired. He helped the narrator to communicate with the local Tibetans. He
accompanied the narrator up to the town of Hor. There he parted from him as he was to go to Lahsa. Fortunately he got a ride in truck to Lahsa.
 

• Norbu:The author met Norbu at Darchen. He was a Tibetan who worked at Beijing at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He had also
come to do the Kora. Both of them struck friendship and decided to do the Kora together. 
SILK ROAD - MAP
TIBETAN MASTIFF

• The Tibetan mastiff is a large size Tibetan dog breed. its double
coat is medium to long, subject to climate, and found in a wide
variety of colors, including solid black, black and tan, various
shades of red and bluish-gray, and sometimes with white
markings around neck, chest and legs.

• it is considered a primitive breed. It typically retains the

hardiness which would be required for it to survive in Tibet,
Mongolia, Ladakh and other high-altitude Himalayan range.

• The Tibetan mastiff originated as a herding and guarding dog for

the nomads of Tibet and as a watchdog in Tibetan monasteries.
HURDLES IN THE JOURNEY
 DESCRIPTION OF DARCHEN

• . Darchen,Tarchan or Taqin is a small village in Purang County of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It was previously
known as Lhara and still signposted as such. It was previously an important sheep station for nomads and their flocks and
had only two permanent buildings; only one of which survived the Cultural Revolution and is now used to house Tibetan
pilgrims. it is situated right in front of the sacred mountain, Mount Kailash. Its altitude is 4,575 metres (15,010 ft) and is the
starting point for pilgrimages in the region. It is only a one-day bus drive (about 330 km) from the town of Shiquanhe or (Ali)
to the northeast, where Gunsa Airport, opened 1 July 2010, is located, offering flights twice a week to Lhasa and Chengdu.

• It contains a couple of restaurants and the Ganges guesthouse and restaurant, the Zhusu guesthouse next door, and the
Gandise Hotel where Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers are stationed from spring until October, and where pilgrims must
get their travel permit stamped, and buy a "ticket" if they wish to circumambulate Mt. Kailash.

• At first the author found Darchen horrible. It was dusty, partially abandoned with heaps of rubble and rubbish lying
here and there. It had some simple general stores. The town had only one café and he caught cold due cold weather..
 NICK’S ENCOUNTER WITH LAKE MANASAROVAR

• Hor was an ugly and miserable place which had no vegetation and just dust and rocks. It is scattered with
gathered refuse and it was luckless that it was on the shore of Lake Mansarovar which is Tibet’s most respected
water. According to ancient Hindu and Buddhist cosmologists, it consists of four Indian rivers – the Indus, the
Ganges, the Sutlej, and the Brahmaputra. Sutlej River flows from this lake and other three rivers rise near the
sides of Mount Kailash.

• Nick’s experience in Hor came as a stark contrast to accounts I’d read of earlier travellers’ first encounters with
Lake Manasarovar. Ekai Kawaguchi, a Japanese monk who had arrived there in 1900, was so moved by the
sanctity of the lake that he burst into tears so nick’s experience was therefore quite opposite from what he read on
traveller’s first encounters of the town. Ekai Kawaguchi was a Japanese monk who arrived in the town in 1900,
he was so moved with the purity of the lake that he cried. After few years, similar effect was on Sven Hedin a
Swedish who didn’t have such an emotional outburst.
 WORD MEANING
1. ducking back: quickly going inside
2. swathe: long strip
3. careered down: descended
4. manoeuvres: exercises involving a large number of animals
5. cairn of rocks: pile of stones marking a special place
6. salt flats: areas of flat land covered with a layer of salt
7. billowed: swelled out and went
8. gulps: to swallow large amounts of food, drink
9. voluminous: very long and detailed
10. windcheater: a type of jacket or coat worn for protection from the
wind
Your Reflection/ Theme/Message Conveyed:
Silk Road - Prose
 SELF PREPARED VIDEO: 1 MIN

• Assuming yourself as Nick Middleton, prepare a video of 1 minute describing your

journey through the Silk Road.

• Upload/ Insert the Video on this slide itself.