The Wild Goose Pagoda was first on the list. It is a very old Pagoda that used to be used but now all you can do is walk to the top. It kinda leans a little, not a s much as the Leaning tower of Pisa, but just enough for you to notice. There is a temple built all around the Pagoda where monks like and worship. We learned a bit about Buddism while walking around the area. Here are some pictures from our time there:
This will soon have a carved dragon face on it. How exciting!
There's supposed to be part of the first Buddah's bone in here. Its hard to believe, it just looked like some rocks.
These are all prayers. It was kinda cool because they were in so many different languages.
Before we saw the real warriors we went to a ceramics studio where replicas have been created. It was pretty fun:
the kiln
Now, off to the thing we've all been waiting for! The thousands of warriors. So a brief bit of history. The same dude who had the wall built also had the warriors built, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. Like i said before this emperor wasn't the most liked or the best guy. He was cruel and abused his power. He came into power at the age of 13, but his mom reigned until he became of age. At age 22, he killed his mother's boyfriend (or someone very dear to her) and put her into jail. This was also the time he took full reign. He also buried many philosophers alive because he thought they were gossipers. Obviously he we powerful and incredibly jealous, and dare i say ignorant. He also took an elixir that was supposed to make him "immortal." However, it was made up of mercury and arsenic therefore it killed him at the age of 49. Irony is a bitch isn't it? He wanted his sons to reign like him and carry the name, "The first Emperor." But the dynasty collapsed four years after he died.
They have not opened the tomb of this incredible emperor because they feel they do not have the proper equipment to do so. Its nice to know that China does value its history and doesn't want to turn everything into a tourist attraction.
So why the warriors? What is their purpose? Well, this emperor was a horrible man. He was afraid people would try to come after him in his after life. So he built an army to destroy them. He made hundreds many even thousands of workers/slaves work all day one after another until more than 8,000 warriors, horses and weapons were created all for the sake of having peace in his afterlife. It seems to me, his army should be growing exponentially due to making so many people slaving away for his sake.
The army men were built in an underground room. A huge friggin room, im sure theres a better word for this. But the place was built specifically for the arm men. They have found about 8,000 soldiers and are still finding more. The problem with some of the findings is that many of the soldiers are broken. Not because they were buried, but because when the emperor died the people went on a crazy rampage, destroying everything they could that reminded them of the emperor. So, many warriors are lying in pieces. Some have been reassembled and others are still very much in tact. The warriors were originally hand painted, and they all have exquisite detail. And yes they are all different. They also have about five different poses. There is the standing archer, kneeling archer, calvarymen, generals and a couple more. You will see many of the warriors without heads or missing hands. Which tells us that the warriors were made in pieces and then fit together. If you wish for more info click here.
And lastly, a farmer discovered this great find one day around 1986 when he wanted to build a well. He realized he found something big and had a team of archeologists come out the see the findings. This man no longer has his farm, but he is a celebrity and is in one of the souvenir shops signing books all day long. I dont know if he's is happy, but he's probably rich and well taken care of now.
Here's pit one, the largest pit.
The hole on the back is actually a tomb of someone who was buried on the farmers property. There were a couple in this pit.
So sad to see them all broken like that. It was a pretty remarkable day.
And then we had subway for dinner because we are deprived of sandwiches in Korea. It was cool to see it in Chinese.
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