Prior to coming to Korea to teach the Wendling family knew very little about Asia and its Historical treasures. Like many people we had seen pictures or heard about The Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal. However, the is much, much more. In fact, during a trip to China back in September the Wendling family had the opportunity to travel to Xi'an to see the Terra Cotta Soliders.
The Soliders, aka the Warriors, were discovered back in 1974 by local farmers who were digging a well. However, they are believed to be created around 200 BC during the reign of the First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang.
The Soliders as seen above, were created by many, many artisians over 50 years. The Soliders are one part of a large community that were created to accompany the Emperor after his death. In fact, as you get closer to his burial tomb there are not just Terra Cotta Soliders - but also Animals, Acrobats, Artists and others who were to join the Emperor in the afterlife.
Although the soliders are all very similar, standing 6 ft and having roles of soliders, archers, chariot drivers and generals still the statue above was very, very different compared to all the others. However, the detail of the statue should be noted as well the fact that of all the statues only one was in tact after being unearthed. Usually, after the soliders were uncovered by archeologists, the pit of broken statues and pieces of people were similar to what is seen below:
In total there are 4 pits containing Terra Cotta Soliders, the first pit, pictured below behind Rosanne and Mia, is the largest and was found first. This pit is 230 meters long with 11 corridors and contains over 8 000 Figures. Truly an impressive sight!!
The remaining three pits are not as large, but contain more weapons and more archers and chariots. As well, it appears that archelogists were a little more patient when working on the pits 2, 3 and 4.
If you look at the figure above you can see the detail that was placed in each Warrior. It is believed that there were 8 moulds used to create the head and that the bodies were similar for each role in the army.
One of the most uniques exhibitions at the Terra Cotta Solider site are there two puppets. These puppets were created for the 2008 Olympics in Bejing as part of the Ceremonies.
To truly guage the size of these Marionettes look at the picture above and note Rosanne and the girls standing approximately 3 stories above the feet of the figure.
Well, that is all from Xi'an. The Wendling Family will continue to be on the move as they head back to Beijing for time to sight see in the City and to go to Baulding to see the Great Wall of China.
No comments:
Post a Comment