| Duration | |
| Adventure |
Square dancing (Guangchangwu)
You see this everywhere in China.
So much good vibes. I love it!
So much good vibes. I love it!
Hui minority dance
This one you see in cities where the Hui minority, a muslim minority, is present.
- "How often do you do this ?"
- "Every day"
- "How often do you do this ?"
- "Every day"
Xuanzang - Wild Goose Pagoda
Xuanzang is one of my heroes.
Buddhism came from India to China through the silk road around the 1st century.
Sacred texts were translated by monks, and due to the difficulty and the length of sanskrit scriptures, translations were often imperfect and incomplete.
In the 7th century, Xuanzang, a young buddhist monk, grew frustrated with the incoherences of the translations.
At 27, he decides to travel to India to study the original texts.
For this, he has to go against his nation's ban on travel abroad and face great danger in a 2000 km journey across the Taklamakan desert and central Asia mountain ranges.
Here is how he described his journey:
"The purpose of my journey is not to obtain personal offerings.
It is because I regretted, in my country, the Buddhist doctrine
was imperfect and the scriptures were incomplete.
Having many doubts, I wish to go and find out the truth,
and so I decided to travel to the West at the risk of my life
in order to seek for the teachings of which I have not yet heard,
so that the Dew of the Mahayana sutras would have not only
been sprinkled at Kapilavastu, but the sublime truth may
also be known in the eastern country."
His trip took 17 years.
When he returned, he brought with him 600+ Sanskrit texts, with the help of a caravan of 20+ horses.
He was welcomed by the emperor and offered a minister post, but he declined and devoted the rest of his life to translating the texts he brought back.
He set up a large translation office in Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), attracting students and collaborators from all over East Asia. For 20 years, until his death, he oversaw the translations of more than 1000 books of scriptures into Chinese.
He recorded his journey in a book named "Travels in the Western regions" which countains information about cultures, customs and religion of the regions he traversed.
600 years later, his story was the base for the fiction novel "Journey to the West", probably the most famous book in east Asia.
Xuanzang was a man who defied authority in his search for the truth and risked his life for what he believed in. To me he is a model of humility, resolve and courage.
In his life-long work towards improving the understanding of foreign texts, he built bridges between cultures.
The Wild Goose Pagoda was built to host and preserve the sutras he brought back.
Buddhism came from India to China through the silk road around the 1st century.
Sacred texts were translated by monks, and due to the difficulty and the length of sanskrit scriptures, translations were often imperfect and incomplete.
In the 7th century, Xuanzang, a young buddhist monk, grew frustrated with the incoherences of the translations.
At 27, he decides to travel to India to study the original texts.
For this, he has to go against his nation's ban on travel abroad and face great danger in a 2000 km journey across the Taklamakan desert and central Asia mountain ranges.
Here is how he described his journey:
"The purpose of my journey is not to obtain personal offerings.
It is because I regretted, in my country, the Buddhist doctrine
was imperfect and the scriptures were incomplete.
Having many doubts, I wish to go and find out the truth,
and so I decided to travel to the West at the risk of my life
in order to seek for the teachings of which I have not yet heard,
so that the Dew of the Mahayana sutras would have not only
been sprinkled at Kapilavastu, but the sublime truth may
also be known in the eastern country."
His trip took 17 years.
When he returned, he brought with him 600+ Sanskrit texts, with the help of a caravan of 20+ horses.
He was welcomed by the emperor and offered a minister post, but he declined and devoted the rest of his life to translating the texts he brought back.
He set up a large translation office in Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), attracting students and collaborators from all over East Asia. For 20 years, until his death, he oversaw the translations of more than 1000 books of scriptures into Chinese.
He recorded his journey in a book named "Travels in the Western regions" which countains information about cultures, customs and religion of the regions he traversed.
600 years later, his story was the base for the fiction novel "Journey to the West", probably the most famous book in east Asia.
Xuanzang was a man who defied authority in his search for the truth and risked his life for what he believed in. To me he is a model of humility, resolve and courage.
In his life-long work towards improving the understanding of foreign texts, he built bridges between cultures.
The Wild Goose Pagoda was built to host and preserve the sutras he brought back.
Xuanzang - Tomb pagoda
Xuanzang's tomb lies in Xingjiao temple, a small temple 1 hour away from Xi'an.
It's a humble and peaceful place. Even the local bus does not stop there.
If you take the bus, you still have to walk 30 minutes to the temple, passing by the depictions of Xuanzang's journey on the side of the road.
The pouring rain was fitting that day.
It's a humble and peaceful place. Even the local bus does not stop there.
If you take the bus, you still have to walk 30 minutes to the temple, passing by the depictions of Xuanzang's journey on the side of the road.
The pouring rain was fitting that day.
Qin Shi Huang and Terra Cotta Warriors
People come here for the Terra Cotta Warriors. I was here for Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum.
The Terra Cotta warriors are the guardians of the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. A few hundred meters away from the warriors, the mausoleum is still untouched today. It is believed to hold a reproduction of the Chinese empire, with rivers of mercury and constellations in the ceiling. An underground world lit by lamps supposed to stay bright for eternity.
To this day, the entrance has not been found.
So, after a quick visit to the Terra Cotta warriors, I left the crowd and headed to the site of the mausoleum.
It is burried inside a hill built for this. Like the pyramids, but bigger. The hill itself is not accessible, you can only walk around, and the vegetation does not make it easy to get a good view. So unfortunately, there was nothing to see. Still, I walked around the hill, soaking in the significance of the place.
It is worth noting that the memory of the first emperor of China is not much celebrated today, as 99% of the visitors are here only for the terra cotta warriors. Historians tend to paint emperors of their dynasty in a positive light, to protect their status and stay in favour. When relating the lives of emperors from the previous dynasty, often toppled by the current one, historians become more critical. The Qin dynasty was very short and accounts of his reign were exclusively written by historians of the following Han Dynasty.
The Terra Cotta warriors are the guardians of the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. A few hundred meters away from the warriors, the mausoleum is still untouched today. It is believed to hold a reproduction of the Chinese empire, with rivers of mercury and constellations in the ceiling. An underground world lit by lamps supposed to stay bright for eternity.
To this day, the entrance has not been found.
So, after a quick visit to the Terra Cotta warriors, I left the crowd and headed to the site of the mausoleum.
It is burried inside a hill built for this. Like the pyramids, but bigger. The hill itself is not accessible, you can only walk around, and the vegetation does not make it easy to get a good view. So unfortunately, there was nothing to see. Still, I walked around the hill, soaking in the significance of the place.
It is worth noting that the memory of the first emperor of China is not much celebrated today, as 99% of the visitors are here only for the terra cotta warriors. Historians tend to paint emperors of their dynasty in a positive light, to protect their status and stay in favour. When relating the lives of emperors from the previous dynasty, often toppled by the current one, historians become more critical. The Qin dynasty was very short and accounts of his reign were exclusively written by historians of the following Han Dynasty.
Everyday life
