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The Story of India: Spice Routes and Silk Roads

2007 History

In this episode he traces India in the days of the Roman Empire. In Kerala the spice trade opened India to the world, whilst gold and silk bazaars in the ancient city of Madurai were a delight for visiting Greek traders. From the deserts of Turkmenistan Michael travels down the Khyber Pass to Pakistan to discover a forgotten Indian Empire tha ...t opened up the Silk Route and at Peshawar built a lost Wonder of the World. Show More

Series: The Story of India

The Story of India: Ages of Gold

2007 History

Presenter Michael Wood seeks out the achievements of the country’s golden age, discovering how India discovered zero, calculated the circumference of the Earth and wrote the world’s first sex guide, the Kama Sutra. In the south, he visits the giant temple of Tanjore and sees traditional bronze casters, working as their ancestors did 1,000 yea ...rs ago. Show More

Series: The Story of India

The Story of India: The Meeting of Two Oceans

2007 History

Michael Wood charts the coming of Islam to the subcontinent and one of the greatest ages of world civilisation: the Mughals. He visits Sufi shrines in Old Delhi, desert fortresses in Rajasthan and the cities of Lahore and Agra, where he offers a new theory on the design of the Taj Mahal. He also looks at the life of Akbar, a Muslim emperor wh ...o decreed that no one religion could hold the ultimate truth, but whose dream of unity ended in civil war. Show More

Series: The Story of India

The Story of India: Freedom

2007 History

This episode examines the British Raj and India’s struggle for freedom. Wood reveals how in South India a global corporation came to control much of the subcontinent, and explores the magical culture of Lucknow, discovering the enigmatic Briton who helped found the freedom movement. He traces the Amritsar massacre, the rise of Gandhi and Nehr ...u, and the events that led to the Partition of India in 1947. Show More

Series: The Story of India

A Passage to India

2004 Nature

Travelling from K2 in Pakistan to Ladakh in India. It is a short distance as the crow flies but, due to politics, a huge loop. He passes through the Sikh city of Amritsar, with its Golden Temple, and through Shimla with its Vice Regal Lodge, Gaiety Theatre and cosy half-timbered tea-houses. He then meets the 14th Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, whe ...re the Tibetan government is in exile. Show More

Series: Himalaya with Michael Palin

Leaping Tigers Naked Nagas

2004 Culture

Following the Yangtze along Tiger Leaping Gorge into Yunnan in China, Palin reaches the easternmost end of the Himalayas. He gets a medical check-up before exploring medieval Lijiang with the director of the local orchestra. Heading over Myanmar to Nagaland in India he rides the steam train to Tipong Coalmine. In Assam he rides an elephant an ...d then stays in a strange monastery. Show More

Series: Himalaya with Michael Palin

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