An Italian journalist and writer who won international fame, raged against capitalism, and communism, and chronicled demise of ancient Asian arts, witnessed the fall of Saigon, the destruction of old Beijing, the demise of the Soviet Union; and India's repudiation of its Gandhian heritage.
 

Tiziano Terzani, an Italian journalist and writer who won international fame as he chronicled Asia's race toward modernity with the curiosity of a travel writer and a deep cultural sensitivity, died on July 28 at his home near Florence. He was 65.

Mr. Terzani had had cancer since 1997, his wife, Angela Staude, said.

The Asian correspondent for the German news weekly Der Spiegel for more than 30 years and a regular contributor to two major Italian dailies, Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica, Mr. Terzani transcended national labels.

His overarching theme was the high social and cultural cost of Asia's embrace of the West's materialism. A man of leftist persuasions, he railed against Communists as often as capitalists.

Mr. Terzani chronicled the demise of ancient Asian arts, architecture, religion, literature and way of life as a traveler as much as a political journalist. He witnessed the fall of Saigon; the destruction of old Beijing by a "death by a thousand cuts," in his words; the demise of the Soviet Union; and India's repudiation of its Gandhian heritage to become a nuclear power.

His writings, imbued with personal charm, made him a folk hero in his native Italy. In "A Fortune Teller Told Me" (1995), he recounted how he gave up air travel for a year on the advice of a soothsayer, and he entranced readers in Europe, North America and Asia with his accounts of using slow boats, railways and highways in Southeast Asia.

But Mr. Terzani raged against the world as often as he embraced it, and in his later years his greatest ire was directed against the United States and its wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. His "Letters Against the War" (2002) was a best seller in Italy.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Terzani is survived by his son, Folco, and daughter, Saskia, and a grandson.

The New York Times > International > Europe > Tiziano Terzani, Writer Who Had a Keen Eye for 'New' Asia, Dies at 65
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