Malik Ashfaq is an experienced writer, who has so far translated twelve books from English into Urdu, including six on major religions of the world - Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism and Judaism, which have been well received by discerning readers and academicians. He has now ventured into a new field of creative writing- travelogue.
Holders of two masters' degrees - Urdu from the Punjab University and political science from Bahawalpur University and law degree from the University of the Punjab , 46-year old Ashfaq Malik has already created a niche from him in the hierarch of literati in Pakistan .
A travelogue is a written account of person who has travelled in countries other than his own or different areas within his country. Only a person with penchant for observing the lifestyles, customs and cultural dispensations of people can do justice to this genre of literature. Also, he should have complete command over the language in which he expresses his thoughts and experiences gained during these travels.
The mainland of Peoples' Republic of China, which is spread over an area of 3,705,404 square miles, is inhabited by over 50 ethnic groups which profess different religions, including Buddhism, Taoism, Islam and Christianity. Its civilisation goes back to 5,000 BC when Neolithic agriculture settlements dotted the Huang (Yellow) River Basin. Their language, religion and art were the sources of later Chinese civilisation. Now the Chinese culture presents an amalgam of a large number of sub-cultures of its many autonomous regions.
Ashfaq Malik's journey through the vast landmass of the Peoples Republic of China and what he saw there have been creatively reflected in his book, Tab-e-Khak-e-Kashghar.
He has provided a vivid account of his experiences in different areas of the great Chinese republic, and his observations about its people, culture, customs, culinary tastes and different raiment its men and womenfolk use.
As has rightly been stated by the author of the book under review, a more voluminous book is required to encompass what he saw in the Chinese mainland. However, for readers who are desirous of knowing more about the great Peoples Republic of China, a time-tested friend of Pakistan, its history and civilisation, will find enough information to satiate their desire to know more about this great neighbour of Pakistan.
The book also contains information on inventions of the Chinese people, which they made much before European renaissance, including silk production, paper manufacturing, and pottery, metallurgy besides information about its people, their pursuits in creative arts such as plastic, visual and performing, customs and the Chinese people and their lifestyles.
The readers will find a lot of information about them. Written in chaste Urdu and supported by reliable sources of information the book makes an interesting and absorbing reading, which the students of history and political geography will find very useful and of special interest. The author has focused on Kashghar, the centre of Muslim community on the western fringes of Peoples Republic of China.