The Silk Road at the American Museum of Natural History

I've been wanting to see the Silk Road exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History so I seized the opportunity to drive in Sunday morning. I found great parking on 78th Street a block from the museum. In fact I found parking so easily that I was at the museum 20 minutes before it opened at 10:00 a.m.

As the museum is across the street from Central Park I took a little walk through the park. On Sunday morning there are lots of runners, walkers and bicyclists - nothing like the number there would have been if the weather had been sunny and a bit warm. But I walked briskly, wishing I'd worn my long underwear (then I would have been overheated in the museum), and admired a cardinal, squirrels, runners and tourists. The water in the Lake was frozen, and I'm sure there were skaters on Wollman Rink, but I didn't walk that far.

Then back to the Museum for the Silk Road. I was surprised that there was an additional charge for the exhibit - guess I've gotten used to the Metropolitan with no extra charge. I though $24 was a bit steep, but hey I can afford that. Supposedly admission to the museum is pay what you will, but the cashier wasn't having any of that for the Silk Road.

The exhibit is well done - polished and slick and draws a good crowd of adults and kids to admire the lifesized camel models and silkworms (live), and artifacts. The layout follows a Silk Road journey from Xi'An in China to Baghdad with stops at Turfan and Samarkand. Each visitor gets a passport and all children and adults stamped them religiously at each city. It's an engaging exhibit. However the traffic flow suffers bottlenecks and backs up very easily. You can take the journey yourself on the American Museum of Natural History website without the crowd. Try it.

As a special event for the exhibit there was a concert of Japanese gagaku music at noon. Gagaku ("elegant music") was originally brought to Japan in the eighth century from the Tang Dynasty Court in China. It is the oldest traditional orchestral music with roots in the Silk Road period. I went for a while. It is paired with dance, but this performance was just music. Want to hear it? Check out this youtube clip.

I think it must be an acquired taste . Then out into the rain and back home.