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ACROSS ASIA ON HORSE BACK
1. Pelliot, Queen of Alai, her grandson and Mannerheim
2. The zhentai's wives score only hits
3. Visiting the kalmuk chief Nasumbat
4.
The yurt of the khan's wife
"Pondering over the question of the
name I was to bear the Daotai of Kashgar seized a fine brush and added
two beautiful characters after "Ma". I was now called Ma-da-han
'a horse who reaches the land of the Han-people, China'."
Colonel Mannerheim, soon to be celebrating his 40th birthday and currently
with the Chevalier Guards in St Petersburg, has behind him a period of
service as an officer in Poland, a marriage that gave him two daughters
but ended in separation, and occasional rheumatic pains in his knee as
a reminder of the Russo-Japanese War, which had ended but three months
before.
In spring 1906, C.G. Mannerheim accepts an assignment form the Russian
General Staff to collect information of a political nature on the Chinese
border provinces – he is to travel as an explorer and to ride across
Central Asia, keeping Beijing in sight as his final goal.
It was the wish of the Finno-Ugrian Society, who financed the acquisition
of objects of ethnographic and archaeological interest that Mannerheim
should concentrate on the cultures of Chinese minority peoples.
The 14 000 km expedition comes to life as Mannerheim conscientiously records
in picture and word the life of the peoples along the Silk Road: Turkish
oasis farmers and caravan merchants, nomads, members of ethnic minorities
and Chinese – their clothing, food, dwellings, marriage contracts,
administration, military exercises and attitude to Russia.
Mannerheim's astounding trek across Central Asia and China in 1906-1908
has been dramatised in QTVR images and sound as an interactive travel
account. The 1000 or so photographs were restored from the original negatives.
In the autumn of 1944 Marshal Mannerheim, then 77 years old, is inaugurated
the President of Finland.
CD-ROM production group
Sari Koskinen, multimedia design
Outi Mansikkamäki, graphic design
Johannes Raumonen, composer, dramatizer
Helena Lehtimäki, producer
Materials
Finno-Ugrian Society,
Mannerheim Foundation
Scientific Production
Museum
of Cultures - Heli Lahdentausta, Marjatta Parpola, Pilvi Vainonen,
Pirjo Varjola
University of Helsinki - Harry Halén
Financial support
National Board
of Antiquities, Finland
Helsinki City of Culture Foundation
The Media II Programme of the European Union
Production
Försti-Filmi
National Board of Antiquities, Finland
Languages
English, Finnish
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