March of the Terra Cotta Soldiers

So the terra cotta warriors.  Wow!  It was amazing to finally see them in person.  Three pits containing terra cotta warriors have been partially unearthed.  The main pit where they were found is huge!  We were so excited to see them that we actually snuck down into the pit and had a man take our picture!

Okay, tell the truth.  How many of you actually believed me?  I was just joshin' you.  We may be crazy, but we're not crazy enough to want to stay an extra 15 days in China as guests of the State.  I mean, we love it here, but we've gotta draw the line somewhere.  This was actually just a tourist set-up but we thought it would be cool to give the illusion of being bad to the bone.  

So back to the main event.  Something that we found really interesting is that there are areas in the pit where you can see the warriors in the condition in which they were originally found.

That's right.  This is the condition in which all but one of the terra cotta warriors was found.  In fact, these statues are in better condition than many of the statues were when they were found.  You see, they were originally buried in this pit standing in battle formation and then the pit was covered with a wooden roof and covered in dirt.  Over time, the roof covering the terra cotta warriors collapsed and the statues were shattered.  This is a photo of the lone survivor, the only statue that was found completely intact.

It's an absolutely huge undertaking, restoring the terra cotta warriors.  Many of them were found in hundreds of pieces and the pieces have been put back together.  In one of the buildings, there is a bronze chariot with four horses on display that was found in 1,500 pieces and was somehow put back together.  Talk about your ultimate jigsaw puzzle!  When you look into the pit and see how many warriors are standing and think about all the hours it must have taken to put them all back together again, it's absolutely astounding.  

By way of a little background, the terra cotta army was commissioned by China's first emperor, Emperor Qin, as part of the burial ground and tomb that he had constructed for himself.  Emperor Qin was a warrior himself and is credited with unifying all the various provinces that compose modern-day China into one nation. He is also credited with unifying the written language, unifying the nation's currency and beginning the building of the Great Wall.  Pretty impressive for someone who began his reign at age 13 and only reigned for 38 years more than 200 years before the birth of Christ.  The Emperor's beliefs were very much like those of the ancient Egyptians who built the pyramids - you need lots and lots of stuff to be buried with you so you can take it with you to the afterlife.  Thus, there are about 1,500 total pits of stuff buried around the emperor's tomb, only 30 of which have ever been opened.  Over 700,000 people slaved away on this burial site for more than 30 years.  The burial site goes on for many kilometers and the terra cotta army was buried on the forward perimeter, the thought being that the army would protect the emperor and all his stuff.  Also like the ancient Egyptians, they buried his concubines and servants alive with him.  Mercy!  At present, there are no plans to open any other pits and the Emperor's tomb remains unopened and undisturbed.  They are saving that for future generations and for technological advances that will preserve the artifacts better.  You see, the terra cotta army was brightly painted when they discovered it.  However, once it was exposed to the air, the color all faded away within just a few hours.  No more pits will be opened until they can find a way to prevent this from happening.  

We also got to visit a factory that manufactures souvenir terra cotta warriors.  They use the same clay and the same baking techniques to make their statues as was used to make the original terra cotta warriors 2200 years ago.  They let us feel the clay.  I really expected it to be grainy, but it was very smooth, almost like modeling clay back home.  Below is a picture of a woman working on one of the small statues after it has been taken from its mold.

All in all, it was an awesome day and an incredible experience to see the terra cotta warriors on their home turf.  Terra cotta warriors are ding ding hao!