Although the Terricotta Warriors (tagged the 8th Wonder of the World) are right here in our own city of Xi'an, we hadn't seen them until our tour (which ended here at the end of the Silk Road). The bottom line is: ancient Chinese emperors use to bury their (childless) concubines and soldiers with them when they died. Of course the emperor was dead but everyone else was alive when buried. This was not a pleasant thing I'm sure for the folks who were deemed worthy to keep their emporer company when he "went to the other side". The Chinese emperor buried here in Xi'an 2000 years ago was a little more benevolent. Athough he had 40+ concubines buried alive with him when he died, instead of burying his military troops along with him too, he had thousands of clay replicas of his soldiers made to be buried instead of the real guys. That was very thoughtful of him. (Although it bothers me terribly that his concubines had to go with him to their graves.) This massive burial ground was hidden from the world until 1974 when a farmer digging a well, discovered a clay head of one of the soldiers. Authorities were immediately notified, massive excavating began, and thousands of the clay life-sized soldiers have been unearthed. The farmer sits at the sight today, spending his days autographing a $12 Terricotta Warrior book you must buy in order to get his signature. We noticed too late, that several of these "original farmers" were positioned throughout this massive present-day tourist sight.
2 comments:
Notice how each statue is different, as though it was fashioned after a particular soldier. Fascinating photos.
Karen Peterson sent me this link - thanks for sharing about your trip there! My 10 year old wants to be an archeologist and wants to work there someday. :)
Funny about the "original farmers." What do you do? I was in Germany the summer after the wall came down and have a piece of it, but there's probably a very good chance it's part of someone's sidewalk. :)
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