Oases are places where water miraculously springs up and greenery spreads across the vast, dry desert, which is a harsh environment for any living thing. Just the arrangement of the letters, the sound and resonance of the word “ou-éi-si-s” somehow gives the impression of a place of rest where the mind and body can be healed and comforted.
In arid regions, where springs emerge, this means they become important habitats for plants and animals. The springs provide a habitat for trees and plants such as date palms and acacias that can withstand the hot sun, and these trees and plants also serve as habitat for birds and insects. They also help to cushion the desert winds and hold the soil in place.
In fact, taking the Silk Road (絲綢之路), a magnificent trade route connecting the East and the West formed by the Han Dynasty in China in the 2nd century BC, as an example, oases have long contributed to the development of human civilization by serving as stopovers on trade routes for caravans traveling from west to east or east to west through the desert regions of Eurasia, and also as agricultural centers.
The Crescent Lake (月牙泉) in Dunhuang (敦煌) is known as a scenic spring surrounded by sand dunes, but oases vary in size and characteristics depending on the geographical conditions and culture of the region, and in addition to natural oases there are also artificially created oases.
In ancient Persia, a system of underground waterways called qanat was developed to transport groundwater from far away to irrigate the desert, which made agriculture possible and led to the formation of habitable settlements. In ancient Egypt, the development of irrigation technology led to the creation of artificial oases using tributaries of the Nile, which completely transformed the lives of desert residents and supported the development of the region.
Even on the Silk Road, oases were essential places for caravans to get water and supplies for their journeys, as they loaded their camels and traveled along trade routes across the vast, dry deserts. They were not just places to rest, but also places of trade in bazaars and cultural exchange, where not only silk and spices were traded, but also art, technology, culture, ideas, knowledge, Buddhist and Islamic doctrines were shared or exchanged.
In contrast, oases have been fought over as strategic military locations throughout history, and the Roman and Persian empires fought battles based in oases for control of the desert, and even in modern world wars, oases were seized as places where water and supplies could be obtained, as a key to successful military operations.
The direct etymology of the word oasis is said to be the name of an oasis city that existed in the Libyan Desert, which was written about by the ancient Greek writer Herodotus (484BC-425BC) in his history. In literature and mythology, oases are depicted as symbols of hope and survival in the harsh conditions of the desert, and have played an important role not only in providing water and food that sustain life, but also as a place symbolizing spiritual regeneration and emotional recovery.
For example, in ancient Egyptian mythology, oases were associated with many deities, and Ash, the god of oases and vineyards, was worshipped as essential for survival and prosperity and symbolized abundance and prosperity.
The Silk Road is said to have originated when the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833-1905) referred to the route via the so-called “Oasis Road” – a trade route that had been used since ancient times and ran east-west through East Turkestan, which was originally called the “Western Regions (西域)” in ancient China – as “Seidenstraßen.”
Some say that the eastern end of the Silk Road was Chang’an (present-day Xi’an) and the western end was Antioch in Syria, while others say that the eastern end was the Shosoin Treasures in Nara, Japan, and the western end was Rome. In any case, it was a vast trade route stretching over 8,000 km (about 5,000 miles).
The Silk Road can be broadly divided into three routes.
1. The Oasis Route
From Chang’an through Dunhuang, crossing the Tianshan Mountains, passing through Central Asia and reaching the Anatolian Peninsula in Turkey.
The Silk Road that Richthofen refers to is this oasis route.
After Dunhuang, it splits into three.
* Route passing through the south of the Taklamakan Desert
It follows the oases on the north side of the Kunlun Mountains, such as Dunhuang, Khotan, and Yarkand, and reaches the Pamir Plateau from Kashgar.
* Route passing through the south of the Tianshan Mountains
It passes through Dunhuang, Korla, Kucha, and Aksu, and follows the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains from Kashgar to the Pamir Plateau.
* Route that passes through the north side of the Tianshan Mountains
Go north from Dunhuang or Anxi, split off from the Tianshan South Route at Hami or Turpan, pass through Urumqi, and travel along the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains through the Ili River basin to reach Suiab.
2. Steppe Route
This is the northernmost trade route.
Go north from Chang’an to Karakorum, pass through the steppes of Mongolia and Kazakhstan, and reach the southern Russian steppes on the northern side of the Aral Sea and Caspian Sea to the north of the Black Sea.
3. Sea Route (Maritime Silk Road)
It sails south from China, travels around the East China Sea, South China Sea, and Malay Peninsula, passes along the coast of South Asia, and enters the Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula before traveling overland to Europe.
This route has been used since ancient Roman times, and began to be used by Islamic merchants in the 7th century.
The Silk Road had functioned as a trade route connecting Eastern and Western civilizations for a long time, but due to a combination of factors such as the following, it gradually lost its role and declined from the 15th to 16th centuries.
a) The beginning of the Age of Discovery
In the 15th century, Portugal and Spain developed a new sea route around Africa to the Indian Ocean, which made it possible to import goods directly from the East by sea in a safer and more efficient way than the Silk Road.
b) Deterioration of security in Eurasia
Under the rule of the Mongol Empire, the Silk Road had been protected as a safe trade route, but the breakup of the Mongol Empire led to frequent conflicts in various regions of Central and Western Asia, which led to a decline in security. As a result, merchants began to avoid the Silk Road and instead choose safer sea routes.
c) Adventure and the spirit of exploration derived from technological advances
Innovative technological developments such as gunpowder, compasses, and printing made new adventures and explorations possible. In particular, the compass made sea navigation easier and, combined with improvements in shipbuilding technology, enabled European adventurers and explorers to travel to more distant and unknown lands.
In any case, no matter which route along the oasis road one took, one had to pass through harsh natural environments such as vast, dry deserts and mountains and rivers, and on top of that, one had to be prepared for unknown calamities such as demons, thieves, evil spirits of mountains and rivers, and natural disasters that might be encountered at any time, so setting out on the Silk Road must have required considerable courage.
Journey to the West (西遊記) is a story based on this life-risking journey along the Silk Road, and the 100 episodes were compiled during the Ming Dynasty (明, 1368-1644) in the 16th century and are counted among the Four Great Unusual Books of China (aka The four great Chinese classics). The other three masterpieces are Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国志演義), Water Margin (水滸伝), and Jin Ping Mei (金瓶梅).
Many people may be familiar with Journey to the West, as there have been many novels, movies, TV dramas, anime, and stage plays based on the story.
The Tripitaka Xuanzang (玄奘三蔵, 602-664) who appears in this story is a real person, a monk from the Tang Dynasty (唐, 618-907) who traveled for 17 and a half years from Chang’an (Xi’an) to Tianjiku (天竺, India) in search of the Yogachara (唯識) philosophy, which attempts to unravel the mysteries of the human mind, and its scriptures.
After returning to Japan, Xuanzang devoted himself to translating the sutras he had brought back, including the Heart Sutra (般若心経).
Speaking of the Heart Sutra, many will be familiar with its opening verse:
—–
照見五蘊皆空、度一切苦厄、色不異空、空不異色、色即是空、空即是色、受想行識、亦復如是
(trans)
The five aggregates are all empty, transcend all suffering and misfortune, form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different form, form is emptiness, emptiness is form, feeling-thought-action-consciousness are also the same.
—–
Yogachara is based on the idea of emptiness (空, Śūnyatā), which holds that personally conceived beings are subjective and impermanent.
Yogachara is a view that holds that all existence for an individual is made up of only eight types of consciousness (八識). The eight types of consciousness refer to the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch (視覚、聴覚、嗅覚、味覚、触覚), as well as consciousness and two layers of unconsciousness, which include an individual’s broad representations and cognitive acts, and also include all states of consciousness and the individual’s unconscious realm that interacts with them.
Let’s return to the story of Xuanzang’s journey.
At the age of 28, Xuanzang left Chang’an and headed northwest. When he entered the Gobi Desert, he ran out of food and water and was attacked by demons, but he miraculously managed to escape alive and reach the state of Gaochang (Turpan).
The King of Gaochang stopped Xuanzang from leaving and begged him to stay in the country, but Xuanzang stuck to his original intention and headed to the country of Kucha (亀茲), where he stayed for two months. There, he was able to study Buddhism from Indian original texts, and with many different people passing through, it was an ideal place for language study.
Next, he headed for the Tianshan Mountains (天山山脈), the most difficult part of Xuanzang’s journey on the Silk Road. The Tianshan Mountains are freezing cold and icy mountains covered in perpetual snow, and strong winds blow sand and stones around, but Xuanzang made it through with his life and arrived at Lake Issyk-Kul (now the Kyrgyz Republic).
Xuanzang then headed west along the Silk Road, passing through Tashkent and Samarkand (now Uzbekistan), Bamiyan, and Gandhara (now Afghanistan), before crossing the Indus River and entering Kashmir.
There, Xuanzang studied under high-ranking monks for two years and visited places associated with Buddha, such as Jetavana Monastery, Kapila Castle, and Lumbini Gardens, before arriving at his destination, Nalanda Temple in Magadha, at the age of 31.
Xuanzang spent 10 years deepening his studies there, and his name became known even to the Indian kings, but he decided to return to his homeland to spread the teachings of Mahayana that he had completed his studies.He loaded 22 horses with the scriptures he had collected, traveled along the southern Tianshan route from Khotan to Dunhuang, and finally arrived back in Chang’an in 645, when he was 45 years old, for the first time in 17 years.
In any case, Xuanzang’s journey was truly epic and beyond imagination.
Homo sapiens, believed to be the ancestor of mankind, is believed to have acquired the ability to adapt to the environment around 100,000 years ago, and no longer needed to reside solely in Africa, its birthplace, so began to migrate and emigrate, spreading out across the globe.
It is said that the reason why humans are willing to take on such risky epic journeys is that for thinkers, the unknown is both a source of fear and a source of curiosity, which naturally gives rise to a desire for exploration and adventure. In other words, from the moment humanity first emerged, it has been acting based on intellectual curiosity, which can be considered the origin of travel.
In fact, while traveling brings with it many hardships and dangers, even if it strays from one’s original purpose, one can enjoy the scenery and cultural relics and gain new knowledge and experiences in unknown places, and as a result, one inevitably gains a lot from traveling.
In a sense, especially for those who have a settled place, traveling itself can be a good opportunity for self-growth.
This is because people who leave their everyday lives and travel experience conflicting feelings of tension and relief at the same time, and try to maintain a state of mind and body that can respond immediately to changes in the external environment. This awareness of maintaining a state also works to heighten sensitivity, leading to more active emotional responses.
Basho Matsuo (松尾芭蕉, 1644-1694) was a haiku poet who enjoyed these changes in environment and emotions, and transforming them into haiku with his keen sensitivity and deep insight, and continued his journey until the end of his life.
In 1689, Basho, accompanied by his disciple Sora Kawai (河合曽良), decided to push his aging body to embark on a journey of about 600 ri (600里, 2,400 km), fully aware of the risk that this might be his last journey. Or rather, it might be better to say that his desire to travel had grown so strong that he could no longer bear it, and so he set off on the journey.
Basho was 45 years old at the time, in an era when the average lifespan was said to be 50 years, and this was in fact his last journey. They returned to Edo in 1691, meaning they were on the road for about three years.
The travelogue of this journey, which began in Edo (江戸) and traveled through Oshu (奥州) and the Hokuriku road (北陸道), was later compiled as Oku no Hosomichi (奥の細道, 1702).
The opening passage is well known and describes Basho’s thoughts about his journey.
It’s unfortunate that I can’t capture the rhythm, resonance, and clever arrangement of words in the original, but the content is as follows. (Translation by Professor Donald Keene, here.)
—–
(trans)
The flow of time is like a traveler going on a long journey through time, and the years that pass by are also travelers.
They will grow old, the boatman spending his life on the boat and the carriage driver pulling the horse’s reins, but they too are on a journey, and the journey is the essence of their existence.
Even in the past, many poets, such as Saigyo (西行, 1118-1190) and Noin (能因, 988-1050), died while traveling.
I don’t remember when it was, but as if lured by the drifting clouds, I could no longer stop thinking about a journey.
So I wandered along the coast, and last autumn I returned to a shack by the river to clear out the old cobwebs and settle down for a time.
But as the year drew to a close, and spring came, gazing at the hazy sky, I suddenly wanted to cross the Shirakawa Barrier, and my mind began to stir, as if possessed by a spirit of restlessness that makes people restless for no reason.
So, as if I was being beckoned by the god of the road, I became unable to concentrate on anything, and even when I was mending my ripped hakama, changing the straps of my hat, and applying moxa to my Sanri tsubo, the first thing that came to my mind was the moon of Matsushima.
So I gave up my familiar hermitage in Fukagawa to someone else, and moved to a disciple’s second home until I set off on my journey.
Kusa no to mo sumikawaru yozo hina no ie
草の戸も 住み代わる世ぞ 雛の家
(trans)
Even this shabby house, with its doorway overgrown with weeds, will soon become a gorgeous home with new residents and beautiful Hina dolls on display.
I wrote the opening verse of eight-verse sequence (面八句) and left it on the pillar of my hermitage.
—–
In any case, we can see that Basho sought new discoveries and self-discipline by leaving the stability of everyday life and stepping into an unknown world, and was so excited to embark on this new creative journey that he could hardly sit still.
In fact, travel is said to bring about many discoveries through deep contact with nature, and Basho also felt the changing of the seasons and the cycle of life in nature, which he expressed in sophisticated haiku. Furthermore, by meeting and interacting with others, he was given the opportunity to look at himself and his new perspectives and values, which added fresh depth to his works.
For example,
* Through his travels, Basho found beauty in the midst of impermanence, and he wrote many poems about the transience of life and his impressions of the changing seasons.
Natsu kusa ya tsuwamono domo ga yume no ato
夏草や 兵どもが 夢の跡
(trans)
Summer grass and soldiers are the remains of dreams
* Basho felt the changing of the seasons, the cycle of life, and his deep contact with nature in nature, and expressed them in his haiku.
Sizukesa ya iwa ni shimi iru semi no koe
閑さや 岩にしみ入る 蝉の声
(trans)
Quietness, the sound of cicadas seeping into the rocks
* It is truly a sound in silence. In his life and works, Basho casually expresses the importance of paying attention to ordinary everyday moments, savoring each moment, and the power to find emotion in them. By stripping away the unnecessary and leaving only the essentials, the beauty is accentuated and emphasized, in other words, the aesthetics of wabi-sabi (侘び-寂び) are reflected.
Furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto
古池や 蛙飛びこむ 水の音
(trans)
An old pond, a frog jumps in, the sound of water
Matsuo Basho was a man who spent his entire life as a traveller, but he fell ill while travelling from Edo to Iga Ueno and then to Osaka to mediate a dispute between his disciples, and passed away in 1694 at the age of 50.
For Basho, each day was the beginning and end of life, and also the journey. In other words, with the belief that each encounter was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he expressed the emotions and sense of reality of those moments in his encounters with nature and people, entrusting them to a string of simple words of 5-7-5, 17 characters, known as haiku.
Basho, who was in bed, was suffering from fever, headache, and chills, but he was still on his journey and hoped to continue his journey, and wrote his last haiku while praying for recovery.
Tabi ni yande yume wa kareno wo kake meguru
旅に病んで夢は枯野をかけ廻る
(trans)
I’ve fallen ill in the middle of this journey, but in my dreams I’m still running through the withered fields.
Withered fields are the scene of a cold, wintery earth filled with loneliness, but it also expresses hope for the coming of spring, when buds will sprout. In addition, by adding the dynamic word “run” without leaving a space, the opposing emotions of wanting to cure the illness and continue the journey, and the deep resignation and sadness that recovery may not be possible, are amplified, inviting the reader to a deeper sense of impermanence.
Travel contains various values and added-value elements, and its purpose and meaning are as varied as the person, or perhaps infinitely different. However, one thing that seems certain is that the essence of a journey is not the starting point or the destination, but the process.
Basho believed that life is a journey, and he lived for the journey as well as he lived the process of the journey. And at the same time, this became the source of vitality that cultivated delicate insight and unparalleled creativity that allowed him to calmly and objectively capture the moments of nature, living things, and living spaces.
As an aside, living the journey may have something in common with the concept presented by German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) in “Being and Time (1927)”, in which he states that one exists as Dasein (present existence) on a timeline between the past and the future.
Heidegger believed that facing one’s existence and living one’s life to the fullest is an attitude based on one’s true nature.
In other words, as Dasein (present existence) that exists in the “process” of life’s timeline, we tend to fall into an inauthentic way of life that is swayed by the expectations of society and others, but it is true that we are true to ourselves when we pursue the meaning of our existence in a proactive and conscious manner, taking responsibility for our possibilities and choices, and living an authentic life that continues to consciously explore the meaning of our existence.
In any case, traveling is an innate desire and a sign of freedom, so it can be said that the malicious tactics that rulers are currently promoting against commoners should never be tolerated, such as behavior control by embedding digital IDs in the body, confinement in 15 Minute City, and restricting or prohibiting movement by DEW attacks.
Breaking through the limits of everyday life and being freed from its constraints was never seen as an escape, but as an adventure or challenge in the past. This is because traveling allows one to have multiple perspectives on one’s inner self, which may lead to empathy and tolerance for others. It also has the potential to help any individual find their own personal oasis, both mentally and psychologically.
It is hard to say how many commoners would actually be able to make such a journey the essential home of their existence and live on a journey in search of new discoveries, but even the mere thought of it is thrilling.
Sincerely grateful for your financial support.
Sources and references:
How conspirators precondition a society to accept tyranny
Is Ivermectin the Key to Fighting Cancer?
The Congressional Record on Covid Vaccines: Corrections
vs.
Leaked USAID Document Outlines Plan to Engineer a Global Famine
