Christoph Baumer

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Christoph Baumer in front of a Bronze Age grave, Gumugo 2009

Christoph Baumer (born June 23, 1952 in Zurich ) is a Swiss cultural researcher . Since 1984 he has been conducting research trips to Central Asia , the People's Republic of China and their Tibetan Autonomous Region . He has published their results in numerous books, specialist publications and radio reports.

Life

Baumer grew up as an only child in Frauenfeld in the Swiss canton of Thurgau , where his father worked as a businessman in the graphics industry. As a war reporter for French radio, the mother reported from the Finnish-Russian winter war of 1939–1940. The Asian researcher Sven Hedin helped her return to occupied Belgium, the home of the native French at the time. Baumer was fascinated by Hedin's travel reports from an early age. After graduating from the Gymnasium Frauenfeld, studied psychology, philosophy and art history at the University of Zurich from 1971 to 1977 with a licentiate degree; 1981 doctorate from the University of Zurich. From 1981 to 1996 various positions in marketing, most recently as International Marketing Director for Northern Europe at RJ Reynolds Tobacco. Freelance writer since 1996. The focus of activity is the cultural history of Asia. Christoph Baumer is a founding member and president of the Society for the Exploration of EurAsia.

Exploring the Taklamakan

In 1994 Baumer led the First International Taklamakan Expedition.

The Second International Taklamakan Expedition took place in 1998 , where he was the first visitor to the ancient ruined city of Dandan Oilik in the Taklamakan desert since Emil Trinkler and Walter Bosshard in 1928. Results of this expedition were a. the rediscovery and excavation of unknown ruins in Dandan Oilik and Buddhist wall paintings from the middle 8th century AD, the discovery of a paper document from the 7th / 8th centuries AD. Century, in Khotanese language resp. Brahmi writing, the discovery of an extremely rare stone inscription in Kharoshthi from the 3rd century AD in the ruined city ​​of Endere and the rediscovery of a Tibetan wall inscription from 790.

In 2003 he led the Third International Taklamakan Expedition in collaboration with the Urumqi Archaeological Institute, Xinjiang and the University of London , where he found finds from the higher Neolithic (4th – 3rd millennium BC) north of Qiemo .

In 2007 he led the Fourth International Taklamakan Expedition to unexplored regions of the Lop Nor desert . There he discovered u. a. a previously unknown settlement from around 100 BC Chr. – 400 AD

Further expeditions took Baumer to southern Tibet in 1996, where he discovered unknown wall paintings from the early 12th century at the Serkar Guthok monastery and in 1997 again to southern Tibet, where he found the oldest surviving wall paintings of the Bon religion in all of Tibet in the Pa-Lha-Puk monastery discovered early 15th century.

Publications

  • Ghost towns on the Southern Silk Road . Belser Verlag, Stuttgart 1996. ISBN 3-7630-2334-8
  • The Bon. The living ancient religion of Tibet . Akad. Druck- & Verlagsanstalt Graz, 1999. ISBN 3-201-01723-X
  • The Southern Silk Road. Islands in the sand sea. Sunken cultures of the Taklamakan desert . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2002. ISBN 3-8053-2845-1
  • Eastern Tibet. Bridge between Tibet and China . Co-author Therese Weber. Akad. Druck- & Verlagsanstalt, Graz 2002. ISBN 3-201-01788-4
  • Early Christianity between the Euphrates and the Yangtze . Urachhaus Verlag, Stuttgart 2005. ISBN 3-8251-7450-6
  • Time travel to hidden cultures. Discoveries in Central Asia . Akad. Druck- & Verlagsanstalt, Graz 2008. ISBN 978-3-201-01903-3
  • Wutai Shan - center of Chinese Buddhism. Monasteries and pilgrims on the holiest mountain in China . Detjen-Verlag, Hamburg 2008. ISBN 978-3-937597-29-4
  • The “Thousand Coffins Necropolis” of Xiaohe: The rediscovery of an important Bronze Age burial ground in the Lop Nor Desert (China) raises many new questions. In: Ancient World . 2006, Edition 37, No. 6, pp. 39–49.
  • Christoph Baumer, Aurel Schmidt, Therese Weber: Through the Taklamakan desert. In the footsteps of Sven Hedin and Sir Aurel Stein. Nünnerich-Asmus, Mainz am Rhein 2013, ISBN 978-3-943904-09-3 .
  • The History of Central Asia. 4 volumes. IB Tauris, London 2012–2018.

Web links

Expedition report by Christoph Baumer

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.exploration-eurasia.com
  2. ↑ Anupa Pande: The art of Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent in cross-cultural perspective. Aryan Books International in association with National Museum Institute of History of Art, New Delhi 2009, p. 179
  3. ↑ Christoph Baumer: The Legacy of the Silk Road , GEO Magazine No. 7/2008
personal data
SURNAME Baumer, Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss cultural researcher, explorer, photographer and author
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich