Marco Polo and Garrison Kiellor

Last updated on: September 15, 2008 at 6:59 pm by Justin Whitaker

Marco Polo and Garrison Kiellor 2008-09-15T18:59:00-06:00 Justin Whitaker

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

One of my little pleasures in life in the US is the Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Kiellor. Today he featured the great Italian explorer, Marco Polo. The discussion is enlightening for two notable facts. One – Europeans couldn’t trade with Asia for centuries due to the closed Islamic rule of the Middle East/Central Asia. It was Ghengis Khan, not often praised for his openness, that finally brought the worlds of Europe and Asia together.

Second, we get a glimpse into the explorer’s surprising experiences of Asia, seeing that the society was in many ways ahead of Europe. Not surprisingly, his tales of an advanced Asia were often not believed. Today, after nearly 700 years, an attitude of Euro-centricism still dominates the Western world. Luckily many more explorers have ventured East and found, to their surprise and our delight, yet more examples of the wonderfully advanced societies of the Asian world.

It’s the birthday of the Italian explorer Marco Polo, born in 1254. He grew up in Venice, and he was probably born there too. The Polos were a wealthy family of traders, and when Marco was just six years old, his father and uncle left to explore Asia together. For hundreds of years, Europeans hadn’t been able to travel farther east than the Mediterranean. All the overland trade routes were controlled by the Muslim empire, so when Europeans wanted spices or pepper or silks or jewels from Asia, they had to go through middlemen to get them, and those middlemen charged high prices. But then Genghis Khan established the Mongol empire, which was an enormous empire that stretched from China to the Middle East to Hungary to Russia. And the Mongols believed in free trade and open routes, so suddenly all the routes between Europe and Asia opened up, and a few adventurous traders — like Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, Marco’s dad and uncle — made it all the way to Mongolia, to the court of Kublai Khan, and then they made it back home.

Marco was raised by his mother, but she died just before Niccolo and Maffeo got back to Italy. As soon as the Polo men returned, they were eager to set out again, so they decided to bring along 17-year-old Marco. Kublai Khan had sent a request to the pope, asking for oil from the lamp of Jerusalem and 100 Christian missionaries. Instead, the pope sent two Dominican friars. The friars got scared and gave up partway, but the three Polos and the lamp oil traveled through the deserts of Iran and Iraq, the mountains of Afghanistan, and through the Gobi Desert, and arrived about the year 1275 at Shang-tu, at the summer court of Kublai Khan. At Shang-tu, the Khan had a palace made entirely of varnished wicker, and it was held to the ground by silk cords so that it could be picked up and moved any time.

Kublai Khan liked young Marco. He liked that the boy could speak several languages, including Turkish, which was similar to Mongol; and he liked the fact that Marco was a talented storyteller, who told colorful tales of the places he had traveled. So he asked Marco to go on a six-month diplomatic mission and then report back on what he had seen. The Khan was so pleased with the results that he went ahead and sent Marco on these missions for the next 16 years. Marco went to Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and all over China. The Khan also made him governor of Yangzhou. Marco Polo was fascinated by many things he saw in China: They used paper money, and printing presses, and they bathed frequently. Europeans didn’t do any of these things.

But finally the Polos got homesick for Venice. It took years for the Khan to relent and let them go. He finally agreed, but only if they would escort a Mongol princess to her fiancé, the king of Persia. They delivered her safely, and three years later finally returned to Italy.

When they got back to Venice, people were fascinated by their stories of life in the East. Crowds would gather to listen to their stories. But even though they thought the stories were great, people also thought they were lies. The things the Polos described seemed impossible.

Then Venice went to war with Genoa, and Marco Polo was captured and put in jail. He shared a cell with a writer named Rustichello, a man who wrote romances and adventure stories. Marco got so bored in prison that he decided to dictate the account of his travels to Rustichello, who added a few touches and produced The Travels of Marco Polo (1298), as it’s known in English.

The book became a huge sensation, even though Europeans didn’t use the printing press yet. Many Europeans were illiterate, so the ones who could read had to read it aloud to each other. The book begins: “Emperors and kings, dukes and marquises, counts, knights, and townsfolk, and all people who wish to know the many races of men and the strange customs of the many regions of the world, take this book and have it read to you.”

Many people read The Travels of Marco Polo as entertainment, but it was also a major source of information about Asia, especially since the Mongol empire collapsed in 1350 and the land route between Europe and Asia was closed again. The book inspired Christopher Columbus to try and find a route to Asia, and he carried with him a highly annotated copy.

The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge read Marco Polo’s book, and he had a dream about the places described in it, so he wrote the poem “Xanadu,” which starts

In Xanadu did Kublai Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river ran
Through caverns measureless to man,
Down to a sunless sea.

People say that on his deathbed, Marco Polo was asked to admit that his stories were fabricated, which he denied; in fact, he said, “I didn’t tell all I saw, because no one would have believed me.”

Uncategorized

Previous Post

September 10, 2008

Buddhism and animal intelligence

Next Post

September 16, 2008 Borderline Personality Disorder and Buddhism

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Academia Activism American Buddhism Art Book review Buddhism Buddhism Today Buddhist Ethics Burma/Myanmar China Christianity Commodification Environment Gender Happiness Health Humor India Interfaith Islam Japanese Buddhism Kant Media / News Meditation mindfulness Photography Poetry Politics quicktakes Running Teaching Technology Thailand Theism/Atheism Theravada Tibet Tibetan Buddhism Travels Uncategorized Unitarian Universalism video Western Philosophy Zen

Select a Month June 2021 January 2021 November 2020 August 2020 July 2020 March 2020 January 2020 October 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 November 2004 September 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz