| Trailokya |
Posted
on 04-Jul-01 10:57 PM
A day well spent!
In 1974, some peasants digging a well in Xi’an unveiled what is now known as the Army of the Terracotta Warriors (bing-ma-yong). A major archaeological finding of the 20th century, bingmayung draws a huge crowd of tourists (both domestic and international) each year to Xi’an. Having heard and read about bing ma yong, I was tempted to go see them from the day I arrived in China. Fortunately, I did not have to wait long. After 2 and ½ months in Shanghai, I boarded the train to Xian with my roommate Tim.
Things weren’t easy in Xi’an. We had a tough time finding a hotel to stay, and when we finally got a place to stay, we could not get the tickets to go to Beijing. So, our first few days in Xi’an were spent going to the train station 3-4 times a day and come home frustrated. No tickets for you TWO—would be the facial expression of the people working at the foreigner’s counter at the ticketing office. So, we had to wait until the day before we left Xi’an to go see the terracotta warriors. It wasn’t very far from the City, it only took 40-50 mins to get there by bus. While on the bus, I was really happy. I was FINALLAY on my way to see the terracotta warriors! It was like a dream come true.
And in a blink of an eye, I was there, a place that was just a wasted land before the soldiers were discovered. Now the place is a major tourist attraction of China and is protected by the UNESCO as one of the world heritage sites. I looked at the huge gate trying to figure out where to buy the ticket. The ticket counter was a little to the right of the gate. I rushed to the ticket window, didn’t even bother to ask for the student discount, flashed a 100-Yuan bill, got my ticket along with 35 Yuan change, squeezed the change into my pocket and ran towards the main entrance.
In front of me was the army of the terracotta warriors. Spectacular, amazing, awesome… I can’t think of any word in either English or Nepali to describe the beauty of those terracotta warriors.
It was 2100 years ago, when the first emperor of the Qin dynasty, Qin Shi Huang ordered to build those terracotta warriors. It took almost 36 years for 700,000 workers to complete the project. The warriors are about 1.8 meters high, and look like they are ready to go on a war. The most amazing thing about the terracotta figures is that, that every single soldier is different—different hair style, different facial expression on each soldier’s face make it a great work of art. There are soldiers who look young and aggressive. There are generals who look old, calm and have moustache. The terracotta warriors, in the battle formation, stand according to their respective ranks.
After standing for more than 30 mins in front of those warriors, I followed the crowd and took a circular tour of the vault. As I was walking and getting the view of those soldiers from every possible angel, I was thinking why Qin Shi huang ordered them built? Was it just a mere display of authority or was it for his passion for art? I only learned it later that no body knows the answer to this.
After spending about an hour in the first vault, I went to see the 2nd and the 3rd vault excavated in 1976. They were not very different than the 1st vault, but the 3rd had a museum which had a good collection of artifacts found during the excavations.
After spending 2-3 hrs on the vaults, I was back to the main gate. I wanted to go see them one last time, but we were already getting late. I looked at the vaults for the last time, thanked the archaeologists who worked hard on restoring the soldiers and boarded on a bus to the city.
When I got back to the city, I went and bought my own terracotta warrior made out of plaster-of-paris. I look at it everyday and think about the real soldiers. My soldier isn’t bad, only his head looks a little out of proportion, but, for 10 Yuan, I can’t expect more. Furthermore, he does his job of reminding me that once in my life, I took a 25 hr train, went through all the troubles, and finally saw the real Bing-Ma-Yong.
I
|
