Kazakhstani University helping to revive ancient Silk Road route

New Delhi: Expert anthropologists and archaeologists from Nazarbayev University are developing the New Silk Road in an ethical, sustainable, and culturally-respectful way, says Dr. Daniel Pugh, Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities. This is after joining The University Alliance of the Silk Road (UASR), an alliance between universities with the aim of reviving the 2000-year-old East to West trading route.

The UASR supports The Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to promote educational collaboration and economic growth in countries along the Silk Road.

As a trained anthropological archaeologist, Dr. Pugh is partially involved with the UASR via the Heritage Alliance of the New Silk Road; a group of universities and heritage professionals interested in developing the Silk Road in an environmentally sustainable way while preserving the archaeological, historical, and cultural resources of the region.

The original Silk Road was a network of trade routes integral to the economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the East and the West from 2nd century BCE to the 18th century – almost two millennia! This trade route was significant in the development of civilisations in South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.

Dr. Pugh believes that the heritage of the region needs to be protected by uptraining those involved in the construction, that the New Silk Road should be used to develop tourism of the area, and that knowledge gained during construction should be developed as a resource for scholars around the world.

Would you be interested in speaking to Dr. Pugh about the impact of the original Silk Road, the benefits the New Silk Road could have for Asia and the world, and the responsibility of higher education institutions to protect archaeological, historical, and cultural resources?