Publications 7-10-2018 Aurel Stein and the Kiplings: Silk Road Pathways of Converging and Reciprocal Inspiration Geoffrey Kain Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.erau.edu/publication Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Scholarly Commons Citation Kain, G. (2018). Aurel Stein and the Kiplings: Silk Road Pathways of Converging and Reciprocal Inspiration. Humanities, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/h7030068 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. humanities Article Aurel Stein and the Kiplings: Silk Road Pathways of Converging and Reciprocal Inspiration Geoffrey Kain Honors Program, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL 32114, USA;
[email protected] Received: 4 June 2018; Accepted: 5 July 2018; Published: 10 July 2018 Abstract: Biographies of the renowned linguistic scholar and archaeological explorer Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862–1943) inevitably yet briefly refer to the role played by John Lockwood Kipling (1837–1911), as curator of the Lahore Museum—with its extensive collection of ancient Gandharan Greco-Buddhist sculpture—in exciting Stein’s interests in and theories of what likely lay buried under the sands of the Taklamakan Desert. A more insistent focus on the coalescing influences in the Stein-Kipling relationship, including a subsequent line of evident inspiration from Stein to the internationally famed author and Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling (Lockwood’s son; 1865–1936), helps to synthesize some of the highlights of Stein’s first expedition into the remote Tarim Basin of Chinese Turkestan, including and involving the forgeries manufactured by the Uyghur treasure-seeker Islam Akhun.