On the top of my list for our visit to China was to see the Terracotta Warriors. I freely admit that I wasn't tracking the fact that this would mean two things to me: First, a five hour train ride from Beijing and second, an ascent that at the tip top of my list of "people who completely missed the intent of mortality" was now going to be held by the first emperor of China: Qin Shi Huang. He took over his own kingdom at 13, raped and pillaged his way with death and destruction to unify all of China into one kingdom, and spent his entire life planning his afterlife, evidenced by his starting to work on his mausoleum when he was 14 years old. Talk about starting with the end in mind.
One of the perks of having the tour company we did was the transport aspect, and how everyday we didn't have to worry about where we were going or how to get there. These warriors are found in Xi'an (pronounced she-anne), which was a 5 hours bullet train ride from Beijing the night before. The train was awesome, cruised along at 302km/hr, and as we travelled we seriously felt like we were in the Hunger Games, going through the districts, some of which were hidden in clouds and fog. China has that feeling too it: pomp and circumstance in high tourist areas, and desolation and poverty in the rest.
And when you can, always take a chance to sleep!
The Terracotta Army is a collection of sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. This dudes story is amazingly backwards, and this army that stretches over 38 miles is a form of funeral art that was buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE with the purpose of protecting the emperor in his afterlife. Sad part was, it wasn't just statues buried with him, but all of his servants, mistresses, concubines, priests, eunuchs, servants, everyone. People existed to serve him only, so if he went, they went.
The figures, dating from approximately the late third century BCE, were discovered in 1974 by local farmers outside Xi'an, who kept it a secret for years and years because they were afraid to bring it up in fear they would be killed for discovering something "evil." The figures vary in height according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, and horses. The actual site is divided into three pits which are open the public, the first of which is the largest and most well known: Pit 1. Crazy part is that over the last 50 years only a small percentage of the pit is actually finalized, and so many of the figurines as in various states of repair.
This pit is humbling, huge, and has a very weird silence to it. The building was built after the extent of the burial site was discovered, but unfortunately that damaged some the figures due to fire or falling materials. So Pits 2 and 3, as a result, were built around the extent of the expanse of the figures discovered by radar prior to them being exposed.
The intent of these figurines is to line up in battle formations, archers, chariots, generals, all in their formation facing outward from the where the emperor is actually buried. Not one figure is the same, all of them look different in feature and height, and it's as if a real person was turned to stone. They served to protect the emperor in his afterlife, because he lived his life in fear of what might seek to hunt him after. Further more, he had his burial site covered in mercury to protect him, and buried with him all people who knew how to get in and out of his mausoleum. Warped dude: seriously.
Curtesy of the Rusts, our friends here in Korea who are also moving with us to Germany, their tour company they had on their trip was the same we used here. Our tour guide, Celine, was absolutely amazing. She pointed out so much to us about this, all pointing to a healthy realization of how backwards and prideful this dude was, the genocide his did among his people, and how much he didn't regard the human life.
It really was a very humbling experience to see these, and the delicacy of the preservation effort that is being made to restore them. We were told as well, that during their Chinese holiday a mere three weeks before we were there, over 70,000 people visited this place in one day! One Day!
Despite having a funny little monster buddy buddy on my back, not all of the remains there are in favorable condition. You can see here how many of them are broken, knocked over, shattered or rotten, but the crazy thing was seen how many areas where people were buried above them in burial plots owned by the farmers, who had no idea what was underneath them.
The preservation efforts to restore these is intense, and they even have a hospital for them. You can see here the variety of repair efforts depending on their stages of damage, which is housed in Pit 1. They even had surgery tables, which my kids aptly reminded me I would be good at helping to reconstruct their facial features. Bam: nailed it!
As we exited Pit 1, we then went over to Pit 3 which was closer to walk to. It was supposed to represent a military command post, and it comprised of the majority of the figurines represented generals and chariots. It's very dark and subdued, and the weird thing is that depth is even greater here than in the others.
We then finished up the war room visit of Pit 3, and finished up at Pit 2. Pit 2 is different in that the main attraction is related to the fact that Pit 2 doesn't actually have any exposed figures, although there are 1000's of them within it. Pit 2 is a maze of figurines that are all covered by ancient wood ceilings that still have been preserved until this time. The resulting effect of 2000 years of weight and weather caused them to bow down with the weight, making it appear like a wave of the sea flowing up and over each supporting beam. There is a hole in the middle where the figurines are being worked on underneath, but they are not exposed yet to public view in order to preserve the flowing wood ceilings.
Within Pit 2 is an actual museum that is held within it, the best preserved relics that have been found. Take a look at this: red markings on the stone of a kneeling archer with textured boots, standing archer, and the highlight, a miniature full bronze statue of a chariot and horses from that time, all perfectly preserved!
-Kevin
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