Seven years in Asia (1913-1920). A Carpathian peasant’s oriental “ethnographic experiences” Cover Image

Şapte ani în Asia (1913-1920). „Experienţele etnografice" orientale ale unui ţăran din Carpaţi
Seven years in Asia (1913-1920). A Carpathian peasant’s oriental “ethnographic experiences”

Author(s): Liviu Bordaş
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Institutul de Cercetări Socio-Umane Gheorghe Şincai al Academiei Române
Keywords: travel; account; Transylvania; Asia; Far East; Dumitru Nistor; Vasile Parvan; Sergiu Al-George; India; Ceylon

Summary/Abstract: Even if Romanian travellers to the Far East can be traced back to the Middle Age, the evidences are very rare and accidental. Travel journals are even scarcer. This is why the case of a peasant writer at the beginning of the 20th century, who has never published his travel impressions, deserves all the attention. Dumitru Nistor’s account of the military expedition in Asia is kept in three manuscript note books acquired by the “Octavian Goga” County Library in Cluj-Napoca, in January 1994. The first is entitled My Journal, contains the young man’s travel diary during his enrolment in the army and as a prisoner, “among the foreigners, black people, Arabians, Chinese, Indians, Japanese and God knows how many kinds of people”. Dumitru Nistor’s travel account paved the way for the 20th century Romanian travel literature into the Far East.

  • Issue Year: 2007
  • Issue No: 10
  • Page Range: 112-136
  • Page Count: 25
  • Language: Romanian