Steven A. Martin Archives - Steven A. Martin

English Tutoring and Consulting

Amazonia

Where is the most biodiverse place on the planet?

In my search for far-flung places to study, I met Professor Kelly Swing, an ecologist with the University San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) in Ecuador, who believes the Tiputini Biodiversity Station (TBS) may well be that place.

Swing told me that the station's output of research marks it as a world-leading biodiversity hotspot. While there are other sites of similar importance, these do not offer the same level of access and safety for researchers.

My arrival in the Amazon town of Puerto Francisco de Orellana, Ecuador, better known as El Coca, was little short of disaster. On flying out of Quito, the Andean city nestled at the foot of the infamously active Cotopaxi volcano, we hit turbulence and heavy rain as the plane descended into the Amazon basin.

Packed with an odd mix of environmental researchers and oil workers, the 12-seat twin-engine propeller plane was forced by the weather to turn back across the mountains and the safety of Quito.

The sound of the jungle grew louder as I looked around and saw nothing but trees and mud. It was my first time in the Amazon and I started to think that I might just be in serious trouble.

There was a light rain, no shelter, and the only thing to do was follow the muddy track and see where it led. But which way to go, left or right?

At that moment, a tall, strikingly confident Indian strode out from the forest and walked straight up to me.

He spoke to me in Spanish, "What are you doing here alone?"

I was half terrified, and half relieved to see someone. In halting Spanish, I explained that I was a visitor from the University, and that my car had left without me because I had arrived on a later plane than expected. I was worried he might stab me and steal my camera, but instead he offered to show me the way to the hotel normally used by the university in El Coca.

Although I was stranded for a few days until I got things sorted out, it allowed time to get to know my rescuer. It turned out that he was not just any random passer-by, but a famous environmental campaigner – Moi Enomenga, Huaorani Indian and Amazon eco-warrior.

Moi is an Amazon celebrity, the son of a proud indigenous leader who chose the traditional life over the ideology of early Christian missionaries. His father took his family deep into the Western Amazon to an area known today as Yasuni National Park, and so instead of learning the Bible, Moi learned deep indigenous knowledge and the cultural traditions of the Huaorani.

The man I met near the runway at El Coca, little did I know, was also the Huaorani jungle boy featured in Savages, a best-selling book by award-winning writer Joe Kane. Moi had matured to become a leader of the local indigenous movement trying to defend the rainforest against the oil companies.

He certainly helped me out – a total stranger in the forest.

Moi's example shows that one man who chooses to raise his voice can speak for the collective resources of the largest – and most endangered – natural habitat on the planet. Protecting the Amazon rainforest is his life's work, and the Yasuni National Park and surrounding area are testament to his ongoing success.

His recent project is the creation of a new protected area named Yame Reserve, in honor of his late father. In the light of all the growing threats to his environmental and cultural heritage, his willingness to network with tourism organizations, conservation groups, the Ecuadorian government and the United Nations offers hope to this globally vital, and profoundly endangered, natural paradise.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 2012 | "Ecuador's Yasuní Park is one of the Amazon's last wild frontiers, boasting an incredible biodiversity—treetop orchids, prowling jaguars, nearly 600 species of birds—and serving as home for two indigenous nations. But a vast untapped oil supply beneath the forest floor is attracting the attention of multinational oil companies. National Geographic sent a team of five photographers, each with a different specialty, into the heart of the Amazon to document the delicate balance of life in Yasuní and how it is being impacted by the demand for oil."

It was an Ecuadorian holiday weekend and I was unable to get a call though to USFQ. Given my limited time schedule, it was looking like the Tiputini trip was off.

I didn't know exactly where the Tiputini Biodiversity Station (TBS) was, and my assumption that it was "just down the river" was way off.

For several days, I explored El Coca. The Spanish I gained from studying abroad in Spain was a godsend. I met taxi drivers and boat transport services, and eventually a group of oil workers at a makeshift helicopter pad.

They told me it was next to impossible to get to TBS without an organized expedition. The oil companies and other interests had a variety of armed guards, checkpoints and road-blocks along the route. There were also the issues of traversing several rivers, and, of course, a wide range of natural predators, including snakes.

Making phone contact with the university was the only way in.

Puerto Francisco de Orellana | Maplandia

After several days of this, I returned to the hotel one evening, and reception informed me that USFQ had called. My transport to Tiputini was arranged.

Due to my delay and problems in scheduling transport, I would have to travel to the Biodiversity Station at night. My first reaction was shock, but I figured I was in good hands with USFQ, and there was a full moon and clear sky.

It was a long night, traveling by jeep, by boat, and on foot. First we traveled several hours downstream on the Napo River to the village of Pompeya and the entrance of an oil operation.

In order to pass the oil company's security checkpoint, I needed to produce my passport and the yellow fever vaccination card, which I had gotten in Quito a week earlier. The guards at the checkpoint were armed, dressed in military fatigues, and seemed larger than life.

Next, we drove several more hours by jeep to the reach the bank of the Tiputini River, arriving at just after midnight.

The best was yet to come – we had to navigate the river, a deep and narrow channel carved through the clay that forms the Amazon Basin.

In a motorized wooden canoe, with the help of a small group of Quechua Indian guides, we powered down the Tiputini River toward the station, dodging obstacles in the water as insects pelted us in the face for two hours.

My knuckles turned white from clutching the sides of the canoe to avoid being catapulted into the river as it tilted sharply left or right to avoid rocks, branches and sand-banks.

Above, the river naturally created an opening to the sky, and the full moon was visible the entire night. The air was fresh and clean. Once my eyes adjusted, I could clearly see the river and banks in the moonlight, and I felt exhilarated to be in the real Amazon at last.

Batanes Islands

During my post-graduate studies in Taiwan at National Chengchi University (NCCU), I wrote my Master's thesis on the Bunun, one of the island's 16 Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, historically known as the Formosan Aborigines and collectively referred to today as "Indigenous Taiwanese Peoples".

Comparative linguists and anthropologists had theorized for some time that the Formosan languages were among the earliest Austronesian languages, and that some of the speakers of these languages were skilled ocean navigators who had successfully migrated south from Taiwan to the Philippines.

From the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, Austronesian-speaking peoples spread as far west as Madagascar, and as far east as Hawaii.

Today, Austronesian languages comprise a super-family of over 1,250 languages dispersed throughout maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific (See Figure 1).

In 2005, I had the good fortune of discussing this topic with anthropologist David Blundell and archaeologist Peter Bellwood at Academia Sinica, a research institute located on the outskirts of Taipei, where I often went to use the library services. I clearly remember the cold rainy night when Peter Bellwood produced from his pocket a piece of green jade discovered in an ancient site in the Batanes Islands:

"If the linguists are right about Taiwan as the homeland of Austronesian languages, there must be material evidence, and I think I've found it!"

Peter explained that this type of stone, namely a jade classified as Taiwan nephrite, could only have come from Taiwan due to the unique green tint, and Earth scientist Yoshiyuki Iizuka at the Academia Sinica research lab would analyze it in the morning to see if it was true.

The results came back positive – the jade was from the east coast of Taiwan.

I was intrigued by the scientific evidence supporting the "Out of Taiwan" hypothesis – that is, a prehistoric movement of language, material and people out of Taiwan – a cultural diaspora that reached across the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Could Taiwan be the "mother island" of the Pacific?

Due to the fact that the Batanes Islands are the nearest island chain to Taiwan, Peter suggested it would be an outstanding place to conduct archaeological research on Taiwan jade.

I was more than keen to go.

In March of 2006, after attending the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association (IPPA) conference at the University of the Philippines in Manila, I asked Peter if I could tag along as a photographer on his upcoming archaeological adventure to Batanes.

A memorable and educational expedition followed, and a selection of the photographs I took were used in the development of the Batanes Islands Cultural Atlas under the care of David Blundell.

The Batanes Islands Cultural Atlas is part of the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI), a global consortium of people who share the vision of creating a distributed virtual library of cultural information based at University of California, Berkeley.

The islands were built through geologic and physiographic processes, whereby ancient coral reefs formed a limestone base coated millions of years later in thick volcanic ash, like a dried-up vanilla sponge cake with a layer of fresh chocolate icing. As an ongoing process spanning 35 million years, the limestone core of Batanes has been steadily uplifted by tectonic forces while at the same time peppered with minerals and rocks of all sizes from volcanic explosions, resulting in distinctive landscapes host to diverse flora and fauna.

Today, the Batanes islands form a unique karst landscape of limestone cliffs, caves, and underground streams, ringed with volcanic stones now tumbled and polished in the surf to form expansive bays and boulder beaches.

The Ivatan people are believed to have migrated to the islands during the Neolithic period, approximately 4,000 years ago. Their exact origin remains a topic of debate.

Ivatan is an Austronesian language, representing an early branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages (i.e. Bashiic languages), which are distinct from the Formosan languages on Taiwan. Cultural and linguistic connections with Taiwan and Bashiic languages include the Yami, a fishing, seafaring, and boat-building culture on Orchid Island, located just off Taiwan's southeast coast.

The Ivatans originally built storm-proof thatched houses until limestone construction was introduced by the Spanish in the16th century. The long-lasting limestone buildings have become cultural icons for the tourism industry.

I relished the opportunity to play archaeologist for a week, and it left me with a lasting appreciation for this very important type of work, helping to piece together the improbable story of human history from whatever clues our ancestors left behind.

The Batanes Islands were the key staging grounds for a well-established ancient maritime trading network. This was evident from the discovery of Taiwan nephrite workshops, where ancient craftsmen shaped tools and created art. They would then have traded their products, sending them southward over vast distances of open sea, taking advantage of a sociocultural and commercial network which spread right across the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

What impressed me most in Batanes archaeology was the richness of each site, the number of sites, the potential for finding new sites, and the vast extent of the maritime trading networks the sites represented.

In the good company of distinguished professionals, I had the opportunity to witness the recovery of ancient artifacts from beneath the soil, and to make a personal connection with the spirit of human endeavor. Peter's team had found clear evidence of workshops producing earthenware, jewelry, adzes, fishing tools, and other artifactual materials, some of which were indeed crafted out of Taiwan nephrite.

David Blundell describes such artifacts as the voice of Austronesian history, speaking to us from the ancient past, imagining them as, "Austronesian-speaking stones."

Through excavations at archaeological sites in Taiwan, the Philippines, East Malaysia, Southern Vietnam, and peninsular Thailand, green nephrite from Fengtian in eastern Taiwan tells a story of ancient maritime trade networks and cultural communication in a 3,000-km-wide halo around the South China Sea (Hung et al., 2007).

Figure 3 (below) displays Taiwan nephrite artifacts uncovered from sites in the Batanes Islands, including a Fengtian (Taiwan) nephrite adze (A) from the Sunget site, Batan, which dates to between 1200 and 800 BC (Hung & Iizuka, 2013).

In Batanes, I gained a new appreciation for the study of ancient history, as well as for the craftsmanship of the ancient islanders. Archaeology embodies the spirit of human exploration – not exploring only space, but exploring also the long-forgotten past. Working with the team in Batanes opened my eyes to the value of different methods of research, the joy of collaborating with friends and colleagues from different universities, and the importance of publishing findings in peer-reviewed journals so that all future researchers in this area can benefit.

During my time with David Blundell in Basco, Batan, we got to spend a few unexpected days around town after learning that the weekly Asian Spirit flight had been delayed.

It was a great opportunity to spend time with the Ivatan community at the Batanes Heritage Center, where Ivatan youth were painting a mural telling the story of navigation and settlement in the islands.

Pictured here, the mural begins with a canoe driving through the surf and landing in the Batanes Islands under the blazing sun. The story continues with the development of the characteristic thatched roof houses, agriculture, pottery, and the arrival of the Catholic religion. The third section of the mural welcomes the computer age, with sports, education, and modern transportation connecting the islands with the world.

ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences – Prof. Peter Bellwood
Bellwood, P., & Dizon, E. (2005). The Batanes archaeological project and the out of Taiwan hypothesis for Austronesian dispersal. Journal of Austronesian Studies, 1(1), pp. 1-32.
Bellwood, P., & Dizon, E. (Eds.) (2013). 4000 Years of Migration and Cultural Exchange (Terra Australis 40). Canberra: ANU E Press.
Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI) – Batanes Islands Atlas
History Learning – Wilhelm G. Solheim II
Hung, H., Iizuka, Y., Bellwood, et.al. (2007). Ancient jades map 3,000 years of prehistoric exchange in Southeast Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). USA.
National Commission for Arts and Culture (NCCA) Republic of the Philippines – Austronesian Expansion- Paths of Origin
National Chengchi University – Dr. David Blundell
UNESCO – Batanes Protected Landscapes and Seascapes

Cambodia

The natural abundance of fresh water has always been the basis of agriculture and transport systems, thanks to the Mekong River (Mother of Waters) and the Tonle Sap (Great Lake), two of the world’s greatest hydrologic systems.

Meanwhile, ready access to stone, mainly rusty-red laterites and pastel sandstones, provided the building blocks of early civilization in the region.

Emboldened with hardwood forests, iron ore deposits, and the mastery of fire, the Khmer were empowered to build houses, fire kilns, and smelt ores and forge the tools and weapons of the largest ancient empire in mainland Southeast Asia.

The Mekong is the 10th largest river in the world, and is the symbolic heart of tropical mainland Southeast Asia. Seasonal flooding brings silt and nourishment to the land, and nutrients and freshwater fish to the Tonle Sap, producing two ecologically vibrant outcomes, the floodplain and the flooded forest.

The floodplains receive water and minerals from as far away as Tibet, naturally irrigating and fertilizing enormous tracks of low-lying land, perfect for cultivation of rice and other food crops. As the Tonle Sap swells, it creates a flooded forest similar to the Amazon basin, where partially-submerged trees and their root systems create a haven for spawning fish.

Historically, fish resources on the Tonle Sap were among the most plentiful on Earth. Elderly fishermen still boast of the days of their youth when the Tonle Sap was so teeming with fish that all they had to do was row their open boats into the lake and wait for a full catch to jump in.

The Tonle Sap is the largest freshwater lake in Asia and a global hot-spot of biodiversity, a valued sanctuary for migrating birds.

Tonle Sap River, which connects the lake with the Mekong, is the life-blood of the lake and one of the only rivers in the world to display an astonishing natural feature: the biannual flow reversal.

As rains brought by the Southwest Monsoon feed tributaries along the six countries of the Mekong (China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam), the Tonle Sap River reverses the direction of its flow, and carries an extraordinary volume of water and fish species from the Mekong into the lake.

This remarkable hydrologic event occurs from June to October, when the river fills the lake to as much as five times its normal depth and area. In the dry season (November to April), water drains out of the lake and toward the Mekong.

The lake is the key source of food for nearly fifty-percent of the Cambodian people and represents the greatest inland fishery network in Asia. The Mekong and the Tonle Sap remain the life-blood of a country and its resilient people who use their local culture and knowledge to follow the seasonal changes of the monsoon to survive.

Khmer architects learned many centuries ago how to cut cubes of this metallic mud-like rock from the ground in large blocks and set them to dry quickly, forming a near lava-like stone perfectly suited to building megalithic structures such as Angkor Wat.

Laterite is to Cambodia what limestone was to Egypt, a workable stone employed in the building of enormous structures that exemplify the historical geography of a great civilization.

However, compared with Egyptian limestone, laterite forms coarse blocks pitted with holes. It is difficult to prepare a clean, smooth surface with the aesthetic qualities desired for a religious monument.

Galapagos

Fortunately, I had packed several surfboards for the trip, and was able to meet up with the local surfers, who explained that although sharks are definitely of concern, they are well-fed due to the natural abundance of fish in coastal waters, and not generally interested in eating surfers.

However, Galapagos sea lions were another story, particularly males protecting females, and mothers protecting their young. Males reach weights over 400 kilos and females average 120 kilos when full grown. Although they barked at me in the water, and chased me around a little, nothing serious happened.

I had surfed among frisky sea lions before in California, but sharing the waves with large marine iguanas was a first for me. I watched as they launched themselves off the rocks and dove through the big waves like fearless prehistoric surfers.

In 1835, a 26-year-old Charles Darwin (1809-1882) arrived in the Galapagos Islands aboard the Beagle, a 10-gun brig-sloop, captained by Robert FitzRoy, landing at San Cristóbal.

Forever touched by his experiences in the Galapagos, Darwin went on to develop his theory of evolution, and is best remembered for his research on the process of natural selection. His name, now a globally-recognized acronym for his scientific theories, is often expressed as simply "Darwinism".

As far as we know, Darwin didn't surf, but it is safe to assume that he marveled at the big waves, as well as the wildlife around San Cristobal.

Today, the port city of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, capital of the Galápagos province, remains the oldest permanent settlement of the islands.

Mekong Delta

Mekong Delta is an expansive floodplain of 40,000 sq. km. populated by over 17 million people across 13 provinces. It is responsible for 60% of Viet Nam’s rice production (90% of this is exported) and 60% of the country’s fruit.

There is a large export industry of fish, and 65% of fishery production is sent to the USA. While there is a considerable fishing fleet working the offshore areas around the Delta, the majority of production is based in aquaculture. For the most part, local peoples eat the small fish and sell the big fish.

Land reclamation is evident throughout the Delta, with gravel and dirt-laden barges destined for low-lying properties and canal banks. Farmers also dredge local canals every few years and use the silt to reinforce the sides. Busy barge-based cranes used for large-scale dredging of the main river branches are nearly always in view on the horizon.

The ancient network of rural mangrove-lined canals invite visitors to reflect on the country's enigmatic past, while the new palm-lined highway to Saigon represents the fast lane the country is taking to its future at the heart of the economically vibrant and socially diverse ASEAN community.

The water level is higher during the rainy season, and this ‘wet time’ is utilized for fishing, while the ‘dry time’ is best for vegetables and potatoes. Climate change is evident and local farmers explain that nowadays the seasons are not so distinct.

The biodiversity of the region is still wide-open to exploration and inquiry, with thousands of new species discovered in recent years. However, there is an unfortunate war-torn legacy of ‘agent orange’, the chemical defoliant dropped by American forces upstream of the Delta, and as many as 2 million people are affected by it today.

The Delta was once part of the Funan (68-550 AD) and Chenla (550-760 AD) empires with ties to early Chinese trade networks, and later saw Champa settlements (associated with central Vietnam) and Khmer settlements (associated with Cambodia). Some Khmer still live in the west of the delta region near Cambodia.

According to my Delta guide, the Khmer never actually left the region; rather they mixed and integrated with the North Vietnamese (i.e., the ‘Kinh’ ethnic group) who migrated to the Delta over time.

The feelings of the North Vietnamese about their Delta settlement are represented in the local music which carries sad tones and lyrics, voicing their homesick emotions.

There was also a significant era of assimilation 300 years ago, when Chinese, Vietnamese and Khmer cultures mixed together.

Interview with Prof. Dr. Sombo Manara, a leading expert in Khmer ancient history. The interview took place at the Po Nagar Temple in Nha Trang, Vietnam, a 7th - 12th century Hindu temple and vestige of the once powerful Champa Kingdom.

Cham is an Austronesian language, part of a super-family of languages generally associated with the seafaring peoples of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Visit Chasing Jade: Archaeology and the Batanes Islands Cultural Atlas to learn more about Austronesian prehistory.

The Mekong Delta is a beautiful place to visit, an exotic tropical landscape steeped in ancient tradition with modern geographical significance. At 4,350 km, the Mekong is the world’s 12th-longest river, the lifeblood of mainland Southeast Asia – a trans-boundary network known as the ‘Greater Mekong Subregion’ (GMS).

The Mekong derives its name from the Sanskirt word ‘ganga’ after the Ganges River in India, and the toponym evolved in Thai and Laotian languages to ‘Mae Nam Khong’, literally ‘mother water Khong’.

The mouth of the Mekong called to traders, invaders, and great cultures and philosophers from India and China, providing them safe harbor and entry to upstream riches, including Cambodia’s fish-laden lake, the ‘Tonle Sap’, and the Khmer Kingdom at Angkor.

Coined by the French as "Indochina", friends, foods and freedoms await in the mighty Mekong Delta, an eclectic blend of culture, race and religion along Southeast Asia’s greatest of rivers.

Pakistan

Indeed, things didn't always go as planned when travelling the Silk Road, a common theme in the journals of ancient Chinese monks, such as Xuan Zang, the who traveled this very route in the mid-seventh century.

Half way to the Pakistan border from Tashkurgan, the bus was forced to stop at a section of road that had been washed out from a flash flood during the night.

In the spirit of the monks and merchants of yesteryear who had experienced great challenges on the Silk Road, I felt it was a great opportunity to get off the bus and get my hands dirty. Fortunately, the road workers allowed me to help them construct the cages of rocks in wire needed to temporarily repair the road so we could pass.

Landslides from sedimentary rock, shale, and glacial debris shaken lose from earthquakes characterize the landscape, and it is logical to assume this led to the name Karakoram, Turkish for black gravel, given by early Central Asian traders. Today, K for Karakoram, stands for the second highest mountain in the world, K-2.

My driver, Usman, said to me, with his eyes peeled to the road, “I use both eyes, one for the road, one for falling rocks.” He suggested buckling my seat belt: “Muslims believe that life is very precious.”

Any account of the research and excavations at Taxila, and the Indus Valley Civilization sites of Harappa and Mohenjodaro, would be incomplete without mentioning Sir John Marshall, the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902 to 1928. He was the first person in modern times to recognize the significance of these abandoned cities, and worked extensively to document, protect, and popularize these mysterious ancient sites.

During my site visit at Taxila, I had the opportunity to personally interview the grandson of Basharai Khan, who was Sir John Marshal's personal assistant. Alongside learning about Marshal's fieldwork, I was also fortunate to visit the Taxila museum, which he founded in 1918.

The works of Sir John Marshall in PDF

John Marshall’s outstanding work is currently online and publicly available at: Archive.org.

Below, I have provided direct links to three relevant books from Sir John Marshall’s legacy.

Marshall, J. (ed.) (1931). Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilization. | 30Mb
Marshall, J. (1951). Taxila: An illustrated account of archaeological excavations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. | 65Mb
Marshall, J. (1960). The Buddhist art of Gandhara: the story of the early school, its birth, growth and decline. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. | 65Mb

Academic Resource Online | Gandhara Sculpture from Pakistan Museums

In 1960, a comprehensive exhibition of Gandharan sculpture was brought to America. Subsequently, sixty-five free-standing and relief sculptures dating from the 2nd -5th centuries A.D. were photographed, catalogued and published as Gandhara Sculpture from Pakistan Museums. The book visually represents the golden age of Gandhara, when the flourishing Buddhist colonies created some of the first representations of the Buddha in human form. Benjamin Rowland, Harvard University,1960

Beginning over five thousand years ago, the UNESCO-listed site of Harappa was once one of the world’s most important cities and cultural centers.

Through personal interview with my Pakistani guide, Shafik Malik, he told me a story of a young Sir John Marshall working on a British railroad project in the area:

"Villagers were bringing wheelbarrows loaded with red bricks for use as fill under the railroad tracks, and Marshall, suspecting that they looked unusual, asked where they came from. The villagers told him about a place where there were scores of old bricks spread out all over the land, and no one had idea where they were actually from. Marshall went to investigate..."

Since the discovery and excavation of the site in 1921 by Marshall, Harappa has come to be recognized as one of the oldest and most important civilizations and archaeological sites in the world.

As explained by Mr. Malik and outlined in the interpretation signage at the site, the earliest settlement at Harappa was the Ravi phase, founded on an ancient levee of the river Ravi between 3500 and 3300 BCE.

With more than a decade of experience working at Harappa, I wanted to know more about Malik's personal feelings about the site:

“At 2600 BC the Harappa Civilization is magnificent, a great city center with monumental public buildings, craft areas, bazaars, and connecting trade routes to the world... Small manufactured seals still puzzle us with undeciphered inscriptions… When I think about Harappa, I get a mystic feeling.”

Skate the Wall

Our sleek private taxi wove its way between big trucks and buses, tiny cars and vans, zooming motorcycles and buzzing scooters. The silent bikes and carts yielded without stress, smoothly avoiding us as if doing Tai Chi.

Radiating from Beijing, the traffic faded into tranquility. We, students from the University of Hawaii, headed due north with our driver, a kind-hearted Chinese man with dark glasses and a love for classic Western rock music.

We gave him a thumbs-up and nodded when his stereo played Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall.

Set in the Qin dynasty (221BC-206BC), one story still resonates among the collective memory of the Chinese, the dramatic separation of a loving couple and their tragic ending as a result of building the Wall.

Ancient literature, paintings, poems, music, and modest temples throughout China, Japan, and Korea honor the heartbreak of Meng Jiang Nu (Lady Meng Jiang), who searched the entire length before finding her beloved dying husband, Fan Qiliang. Legends tell she cried so hard that the wall collapsed where she found him.

Modern cartoons, videos and films in recent years continue to romanticize her story, representing the ruthlessness of the emperor, the tragedy of the Great Wall, and the kindness of a gentle woman.

A great unification of the Wall took place under Emperor Qin Shi Huanghi, the legendary ruthless ruler who founded the Chin Dynasty (221-206 BC) and hence gave his name to China. He also left behind his personal terracotta army of Xian, the larger-than-life clay soldiers built supposedly to guard him in the afterlife.

A continuous project, the Chin fortifications that began in strategic mountain passes now string together to stretch thousands of miles across China, from Heilongjiang Province in northeast China, winding westward to Jaiyuguan, Gansu Province, in the Gobi Desert.

The Great Wall can be justly described as the world's first information superhighway. Timely information could be sent across the entire country in a single day – smoke by day, and fire by night.

The Wall served as a secure connection network, offering enough band-width to allow soldiers to ride two-abreast and travel in both directions, garrisons serving as safe terminals, battlements providing the firewall, vats of hot oil ready to be poured on the heads of potential hackers.

From the east, China streamed live to the world – and from west, the world steamed live to China.

The Great Wall was heavily fortified, serving as the military power line of the Silk Road as early as the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), when caravans of horses and camels transported men and women, trade wares and silks, plants and animals, technologies and religions.

Perhaps no other exchange of information was as profound as what occurred leading up to the Golden Age of Chinese philosophy (Tang Dynasty, AD 618-907), when Indian Buddhism flowed into China along the trade routes of the Silk Road, carrying information and ideas that changed how the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans think.

For example, ancient Buddhism and art, illuminated with Greek and Persian influences, flourished in Western China, a sign that east-west cultural communication and collaboration is much older, and much better developed, than previously thought. (Visit my Silk Road and Pakistan pages to learn more about Grecco-Buddhist culture and China, or see the works of Sir Aurel Stein and Sir John Marshall).

Perhaps the most told story of Jaiyuguan Fort is about the designer who was in charge of construction. Upon ordering the massive number of bricks required to build the fort, which he calculated down to a specific number, he was warned that it had better be enough. With confidence he agreed and added one brick to the order just in case.

When the complex was completed, only one brick remained. The story is a testament to Chinese ingenuity.

Four characters inscribed near the front gate roughly translate to mean: Strongest fort under heaven.

Layers of architecture attest to the acuity and continuity of Chinese culture and philosophy as the wall, like the art of the earth, rises in chronological order from a subterranean foundation.

I have stood at sections where the base was built during Chin Dynasty, the middle during Han, the upper during Ming, the watchtowers Qing (AD 1644-1911) while the surface was only one week old.

I’ve watched as farmers bashed bricks off the Wall with sledge hammers, loading them on donkey carts to use on their farms, while in the distance I could see contemporary building crews adding a fresh face, handrails, stairs, and toilets for tourists.

It is often said that the Great Wall is the only man-made structure recognizable from space, but when I asked Colonel Scott Horowitz of the US Air Force, commander of four Space Shuttle missions, he told me:

“It's nearly impossible to see the Great Wall, even from low orbit, because the color of the bricks and building materials match the colors of the corresponding landscapes, and also due to the heavily polluted skies over China.”

Scott said that it was just about possible to make out the line traced across China by the Wall, with a little imagination, on a crystal-clear day. On the other hand, he said that the Great Pyramid, in Giza, Egypt, was clearly visible throughout the hours of daylight, and especially in the early morning and late evening, due to its long shadow.

Returning to Peking University after a trip to the Wall, I asked my philosophy professor, Yang Xin, a specialist in Great Wall aesthetics, “Why Great Wall, and not simply long wall or border wall?”

He explained, “Although the original name may have implied long wall (wall of 10,000 Li), the significance matured and greatness was attributed. One brick is only one, with function limited, yet when they combine, a great animation is formed, just like the Chinese culture.”

He added, “The Wall unifies mankind with heavenly forces, as if an enormous composition of cursive calligraphy, its aspects constantly altered through time and seasonal changes."

Silk Road

Although a long journey across deserts and mountains, it was certainly not as difficult as in the past. By 2001, modernization in Xinjiang had brought hotels, tourist amenities, and transportation networks, including a new rail link between Urumqi and Kashgar.

I hope you enjoy the highlights of the 1995 and 2001 photo journals below, and find the links to Silk Road maps, presentations and resources helpful.

For more information, please contact me or visit my university course at Eastern Civilization.

In the summer of 2001, I made an agreement with the University of Hawaii at Hilo (UHH) to conduct independent research on the Silk Road. I proposed to travel overland from Xian, China, to Delhi, India.

My Liberal Studies Adviser, Prof. John Cheng, agreed, providing I visited Harappa, the Indus River Valley Civilization site, and Taxila, the Gandhara Civilization site.

Taxila was one of the most ancient universities in the world, where people from all over Asia and the Middle East came to study and teach. At least eighteen subjects were covered, including medicine, religion, and science. Instruction was available in at least five different languages, and this multicultural environment contributed to the pre-eminence of Taxila as a center of learning from the 5th century BC until the 2nd century AD.

Taxila was a key site where the ancient Greeks met the Buddhists, a cultural coincidence that occurred at the dawn of Mahāyāna Buddhism and the birth of the Gandhāran Civilization.

I was fortunate to be able to visit the Sirkap archaeological site at Taxila, evidence of an ancient Greek city in South Asia.

My plan was to follow in the footsteps of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang (玄奘) (c. 602–664), who traveled to India in the 7th century, during the Tang Dynasty, and kept a detailed account of his travels.

His journal, Great Tang Records on the Western Regions (大唐西域記), is an outstanding treasure of Chinese history.

Nine hundred years later, Xuanzang's true story was brought to life in the16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West (西遊記), one of China's "Four Great Classical Novels."

Ancient History – Gandhara Civilization
Archive.org – Sir Aurel Stein
Depts.Washington.Edu – Great Tang Records on the Western Regions
Gutenberg.org – Journey to the West
Harrapa.com – Ancient Indus Valley Civilization
Kenyon College – Silk Road Links
Silk Road Foundation – SilkRoadFoundation.org
The Silk Road Online – The International Dunhuang Project
UNESCO – About the Silk Road
UNESCO – Magao Caves
UNESCO – Taxila
University of Washington – Sirkap Photos (Patricia Young)

South Africa

Fortunately, at this point I heard about the School for International Training (SIT) at Cape Town, South Africa. They offered a pathway to a six-month student visa through enrollment in their program in Arts and Social Change.

SIT is a globally-respected institution, based in Vermont, USA, with a philosophy based around intercultural exchange and experiential learning. They're the result of a 1932 project called “The Experiment in International Living”, from which one participant, Sargent Shriver, would ultimately develop the Peace Corps.

"Just to travel is rather boring, but to travel with a purpose is educational and exciting." – Sargent Shriver

The SIT Cape Town program included homestay accommodation, and classes at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The day my SIT acceptance letter arrived, I packed my clothes and surfboards for the trip of a lifetime to South Africa.

It was longest commute to school I ever had, the better part of two days and nights.

Kona – Honolulu – Chicago – Washington, D.C. (Dulles) – Frankfurt – Johannesburg – Cape Town.

Once I got to the university, I was pleased to find that the campus offered spectacular views from the top of the gently sloping city, at the foot of the city’s iconic landmark, Table Mountain.

In 1997, the study abroad program I attended was called South Africa: Arts and Social Change. The program is still running, currently under the name South Africa: Multiculturalism and Human Rights. The program continues to offer students opportunities to explore issues of multiculturalism from historical and contemporary perspectives, and to visit important cultural and environmental sites around the country, such as Soweto (South West Townships) located southwest of Johannesburg.

The history of Soweto illustrates the segregationist thinking which lead to the 1948 establishment of Apartheid.

During Nelson Mandela's 18-year imprisonment on Robben Island, he drafted Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela.

Visiting the prison, now a living museum, I met an ex-inmate who knew Mandela personally and told me about Mandela's commitment to education and learning, especially reading books, as exemplified by his famous remark, "We'll turn this prison into a library."

South African History Online (SAHO) | Robben Island
Long Walk to Freedom Prison Manuscript | View or Download

My first impression of Cape Town was of an Atlantic coast, multicultural city, with sandstone mountains towing over picturesque white sand beaches, reminding me of Rio de Janeiro.

Over the course of time, I discovered much more about the city, taking public transportation to school, visiting townships, and eventually living within walking distance of Glen Beach. Surfing the waves at Glen Beach connected me with Cape Town's surfing culture and from then on I felt like a local, with a tight-knit group of friends and opportunities to travel to other surfing spots.

I surfed some of the best waves in the world with the Cape Town crew, including Elands Bay, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, north of the city, and Jeffreys Bay, on the Indian Ocean coast, east of the city.

Bartholomew Dias captained the first European vessel around the Cape of Good Hope in the name of Portugal in 1488, returning home after a skirmish with local tribes. Ten years later, Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape, and was the first to reach India by that route.

Nearly a century later, Sir Francis Drake, the legendary English explorer, described the Cape of Good Hope in his ship’s log as, “the fairest Cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth.”

Among members of the international surfing community, the powerful waves around the Western Cape province are legendary, and I was keen to see them for myself.

Before the semester abroad was over, I felt that I needed to see and learn more of the country and its rich history, so I bought a ticket on the Trans-Karoo, South Africa’s cross-continent rail system linking Cape Town with Johannesburg.

I was intent on experiencing Xhosa and Zulu cultures, seeing Durban and the Indian Ocean Coast, and visiting the country’s legendary game reserves to see the wildlife I heard so much about for myself.

The Trans-Karoo was the modern-day route of a much older story in the European quest to push east and across the continent, namely the 1837 Great Trek undertaken by the Voortrekkers, South Africa's Dutch pioneers.

After arriving in Johannesburg, my first stop was the Voortrekkers monument, a focal point in South Africa's historical geography which I had studied at UCT (see photo below).

The Voortrekkers (Afrikaans for the ‘first pioneers’) are comparable to the American pioneers, zealous Christians who ventured across a continent in search of a new land, encountering native peoples, and facing challenges and dangers. Whereas the American pioneers headed west in their covered wagons and encountered Native Americans, the Voortrekkers headed east and encountered the Xhosa, Zulu, and other large tribes already occupying the land – and poised to defend it.

Descended from the Dutch East India Company's original settlers, the Voortrekkers were hearty adventurers left behind from an early supply station at the Cape of Good Hope. They were Boers, Dutch pastoralists, dissatisfied with British rule, choosing instead to make the “Great Trek” and face untold dangers and bloodshed in the African heartland.

They camped at night with their covered wagons drawn in a “Laager” – That is, they formed their wagons into a tight circle to provide security. Laagers were more than a campsite; they represented an isolationist mentality, first from the church in Europe, then the English church in the Cape, and on the frontier from the Khoi-San, Xhosa, and Zulu.

To the Voortrekkers, the African interior was terra incognita – a foreboding land of savages and wild beasts – but the Voortrekkers pushed east with great South African pride, “Ons vir jou Suid-Afrika,” which meant “We for you South Africa.” Outnumbered by large and powerful Zulu tribes numbering in the thousands, they nevertheless pressed on into Kwa-Zulu Natal, where they were narrowly victorious at the Battle of Blood River in 1838.

Armed with a doctrine of supposed racial superiority supported by religious belief, their guns were loaded with "Bullets with butterfly wings," a modern graffiti I saw spray-painted on nearby street-corner by local youth targeting ideological connections between the Voortrekkers, the institutional segregation employed during Apartheid a century later, and the residual challenges they face today.

I was fortunate to tour Soweto with Max Maximum Tour Company, run by a Soweto local named Max, a Xhosa man about my age with first-hand experience with the sufferings of Apartheid.

In 1976, as a young boy, Max witnessed the force of the apartheid system against unarmed children of Soweto: “They opened fire on us with live rounds and ran us down with mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles called Casspirs, ominous war toys named after the South African Police (SAP) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).”

The Casspir I saw looked like a truck straight out of a Mad Max movie, with tall military tires, armored plates, bulletproof windows, and the only entrance through a hatch on top.

Max took me to see the monument and small museum honoring Hector Pieterson, the first student killed in the riots which began on June 16, 1976. He showed me a group of white storage containers, with black and white photos on the walls illustrating the chaos and violence that had claimed somewhere between 200 and 700 lives.

I walked around, practicing what little isiXhosa I had learned at UCT, meeting people, and exploring squatter shacks as well as some newer parts of the city with electricity and improved roads. People were friendly with me, especially when I said, "Molo!" (Hello!) and "Unjani wena?" (How are you?) in isiXhosa.

My camera was a great tool to break the ice when I asked residents if I could take pictures of houses and families.

One of the highlights of living, traveling, and studying in South Africa was going on safari at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park in KwaZulu-Natal Province. Seeing Africa's legendary wildlife with my own eyes was a life-changing experience, deepening my understanding of natural history and the role that human beings play in conservation.

I have posted a few photos below, and links to Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, the official website for park management conservation and biodiversity in KwaZulu-Natal Province. Click on a photo to enlarge or visit Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife pages for the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park camp areas.

Other than the draw of surfing some of the best waves on the planet, I chose South Africa for my African study abroad experience as there was relatively less chances of catching malaria than in other countries in the region.

But this wasn't always the case.

It was diseases like sleeping sickness and malaria that would echo the name “Dark Continent” behind the very mention of Africa. I learned that malaria came from Italian words meaning “bad air,” because it was believed to be an airborne disease, which was partially true considering that mosquitos are definitely airborne.

The TseTse fly was actually the greatest single factor for the name “Dark Continent,” causing sleeping sickness in man and ‘Nagana’ in livestock. The fly made much of central Africa, and Zululand in South Africa, virtually uninhabitable for the Europeans.

In 1945, DDT spraying wiped out the fly, but a recent outbreak was reported during my stay, just north of the South African border.

“Surf Doctor” Steven Andrew Martin, professor emeritus

English Tutor and Consultant for Students of All Ages and Backgrounds

English Tutor and Academic Advisor Intro Video for Professor “Surf Doctor” Steven Andrew Martin

Welcome

Asst Professor Dr Steven A Martin

The Tiputini Biodiversity Station, bordering Yasuni National Park, Ecuador

TREASURES OF WESTERN AMAZONIA | JOURNEY TO THE TIPUTINI BIODIVERSITY STATION AND YASUNI NATIONAL PARK

Steven A. Martin, Ph.D., Environmental Management

Click on Photos to Enlarge

The Rio Napo, Ecuador | Western Amazonia

Where is the most biodiverse place on the planet?

Tiputini Biodiversity Station | Western Amazonia, Ecuador

Location of Yasuni National Park in the western Amazon, Ecuador

Featured Research

Experience of a lifetime

Above Quito, Ecuador

First sight of the Amazon Basin near Puerto Francisco de Orellana (El Coca)

Featured Research

First sight of an oil drilling station near El Coca

Stranded in the jungle

Alone in the Western Amazon

Moi Enomenga

Moi Enomenga, Huaorani Amazon eco-warrior and environmental celebrity

Interview with Moi Enomenga

Amazon celebrity

"Savages" by Joe Cane, with Moi Enomenga

A voice for the forest

National Geographic | Ecuador's Yasuní National Park

National Geographic Magazine Online

by Scott Wallis

Oil pumping station and water pollution in the Amazon rainforest | Steven Martin

Puerto Francisco de Orellana (El Coca)

Puerto Francisco de Orellana, or El Coca | Amazon frontier town of nearly 45,000 people and gateway to the Tiputini Biodiversity Station and Yasuni National Park

People of El Coca

People of El Coca

People of El Coca

Moonlight expedition

Moonlight on the Tiputini River | Franklin, a Quechua guide with USFQ, whistles to signal our arrival

Tiputini Biodiversity Station | Patrice Adret

Select Photos | Travels and Guides at Tiputini

Click on photos to enlarge

Quechua guides at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station

Franklin, my Tiputini guide

Tiputini River transport canoe and guide

Rainforest research observation tower at TBS

Bromeliads in the rainforest canopy at the Tiputini observation tower

View of the Tiputini River below the Rainforest

View of the Tiputini River from TBS during the dry season

Curious Toucan

TBS researchers accommodations

Learn more

Thank you for reading my story and sharing in the journey to the Tiputini Biodiversity Station and Yasuni National Park

Contact USFQ and TBS

Home | Environmental Studies | Galapagos Islands | Learning Adventures

Asst Professor Dr Steven A Martin

CHASING JADE | ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE BATANES ISLANDS CULTURAL ATLAS

Pacific navigator, Batanes Islands, Philippines | Ivatan cultural heritage

Archaeological survey in the Batanes Islands, northern Philippines.

The 2006 Batanes Islands archaeological survey team with Prof. Peter Bellwood (second from right) | Sabtang Island

Ivatan Idjang fortress | Sabtang

Archaeological survey | Batan

Across the Pacific rainbow

Figure 1: Distribution of the Austronesian Language Family | Source: Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI)

Taiwan nephrite unearthed in the Batanes Islands | Terra Australis 40

Steven Martin (left) and Peter Bellwood (right) interview | Photo and camera work by David Blundell – Basco, Batan, The Philippines | April 2, 2006

Batanes Islands Cultural Atlas

Traveling from the port of Ivana, Batan, to the port of San Vicente, Sabtang | San Vicente Ferrer Church, c. 1785, in the distance

Batanes geography

The iconic Mt. Iraya | Elevation 1,009m | last erupted in 1454

The eerie eye of Super Typhoon Meranti surrounding Itbayat, Batanes | September 13, 2016

Batanes Islands Geography | Volcanic rocks tumbled in the surf to form a boulder beach | Limestone cliffs in the distance

Figure 2: The Batanes Islands, staging grounds for the Austronesian diaspora | Source: Peter Bellwood, Australia National University (ANU)

The Ivatan | Language, culture and history

Ivatan Fisher | Chavayan, Sabtang

Ivatan limestone houses | Batan

Ivatan fisher and family | Sabtang

Cleaning Mahi-mahi | Batan

Drying fish | Batan

Conversations with Pablo and Anquilina Valientes | Ivana, Batan

Archaeologist for a week