Today is the day when we visit the eight wonder of the world. The Terracotta Warrior. An amazing feat of building an army to protect you in the afterlife and when you are reincarnated the warriors will come to life to protect you.
Xian the ancient city was where the first dynasties were form. Emperor Qin Shi Huang ascended the throne at thirteen and then started to make his burial mound. He started the construction of the Terracotta warriors as well. In the latter part of his reign about 1000 artisans worked for 10 years once the idea was incepted and build approx 8000 life-like warriors. These were housed in areas in front of the emperor Qin’s tomb. All are life like size and each one has a distinct face.
A few years ago they had a competition to match the faces with real people around Xian. They found some people that had their faces encrusted in the warriors faces.
The emperor was ruthless and conquered the rest of China and for the first time most of China came under one ruler. This was the Qin dynasty. At a young age of 59 he suddenly died. The emperor was superstitious and believed strongly in afterlife. He drank elixirs to keep young and in a particular elixir, which contained mercury, it killed him – mercury being extremely poisonous. At 59 his warrior army was not completed so the artisans worked extremely hard to get the tomb and warriors completed.
The army were stored 5m under the ground and had a roof on top. They covered the roof with materials and then soil on the top. The warriors had a ramp which was covered in and the warriors were then left for over 2500 years only to be discovered by three farmers in 1974. They were digging a well to provide water for the commune and came upon pottery pieces. When they went further they discovered more. The local governors identified this as a significant site and halted all digging. One of the farmers that dug up the warriors was present at the site today and was signing books and everyone got photos with him. The warrior area was 54square kilometres. They have dug up only a small area of the warriors but have completed geological surveys to estimate the numbers that are under the ground.
The interesting point is that all the warriors were found broken and had to be excavated. The reason for this is that a after Qin’s death a mad general was not happy and decided to enter one of the areas and got his army to smash the warriors and to burn the roof. Another group of Chinese also found the warriors and were very superstitious and also went in and smashed the heads of the warriors because of the lifelike capabilities of the faces and didn’t want them to come to life. And finally many grave robbers also destroyed figures. But over the centuries the secret of the warriors was kept a big secret until the farmers found the. The warrior army was destroyed but all the parts remained buried hence the pain staking work of excavating the tomb. The Xian people believe this is the biggest jigsaw in the world.
There are many decades left to complete the job – if they ever get it finished. Other natural events destroyed the warriors as well like earthquakes.
Truly a place to visit and the group were moved by the significant place they had visited. We also visted the place were they continue to make terracotta warriors. We were and could buy a set of warriors ourselves. You could even buy a full sized warrior if you could get it home. Everyone brought a warrior of some sort.
Next we went to the Shaanxi Museum and learned about the dynasties and further information about the warriors. One thing we know is that the trip so far is certainly educational. We all know so much about the Chinese and their culture. Because it is so different it is so good to learn about. By the time we had finished this museum we were are over museums.
One thing we never got sick of was shopping. Off to the markets we go. We went to the Muslim markets. Once again great place and plenty of bargaining completed. Muslim are we found a NZ ice cream shop – awesome. The Muslim’s face do look slightly different from the Chinese more eastern looking.
Off we go to dinner. Here we had 16 different dumplings. They are morsel size dumpling but after 16 we had enough. There was also a show and the show was a group of musician playing and dancing tradition Chinese instruments and completing dance. The catch of the night was a whistler. He was magnificent. He whistled with a smile and played two traditional flutes. Apart from being clever he was also very funny. The whole group really enjoyed his wit and comedy.
Back on the bus and to the hotel. Everyone was absolutely exhausted. A real tough day. Hot smoggy and tired. We all really needed a sleep to be energised to visit the school in Xian.
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