Journey to the northwest is a trip into history
As our coach trundled steadily along a provincial highway, a shimmering red dot in the distance was the only car that had passed us in an hour. It soon disappeared into the darkness.
Apart from the road ahead illuminated by the headlights, there was nothing to see out of the window. For a person born in the South like me, this kind of situation was rare, worrying even.
It was 9:30pm. Most of the people on the coach were fast asleep. The driver, also the tour leader, had been working for over 12 hours. By the time we reached our destination, it would be midnight.
“They work long hours because May to October is the high season here,” a local taxi driver had told me the day before.
In the middle of nowhere, the coach came to a stop. The driver lit a cigarette. People hopped off and chatted under the headlights. The summer night in the Gobi is cooler than in many parts of China.
I was traveling in Gansu Province in the northwest. The area is known as the Hexi Corridor, an alluvial plain area west of the Yellow River. I was en route to the cities of Dunhuang, Jiayuguan and Zhangye.
A view of Mati Temple near Zhangye
A dead wood trunk and camelthorn in the Gobi Desert near Dunhuang
Dunhuang
Zhang Qian, an envoy of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) first arrived in Dunhuang in the second century BC, establishing a garrison there. It became an important junction of the northern and southern silk roads that connected the empire with Central and Western Asia.
The history of Dunhuang is dominated by multi-ethnic living, cultural integration and communication. The Mogao Grottoes, 25 kilometers from the center of city are a perfect illustration of this.
The name refers to a collection of Buddhist grottoes dug over a period of 1,000 years. Rulers of different ages were keen to over-paint murals in the caves drawn by previous patrons and create their own.
Following our tour guide’s torchlight, we were able to see traces of earlier mural layers underneath a corner of the present layer that had peeled away. Murals of the Sui (AD 581-618) and Tang (AD 618- 907) dynasties are generally considered to be of the highest artistic value.
If murals at the Mogao Grottoes portray religious ideals, the painted bricks found in tombs in the area vividly depict worldly life more than 1,700 years ago.
We visited one such tomb in the Gobi to the east of the city. The desert was actually a natural graveyard, dotted with various conical mounds, old and new. A stele put up by the local cultural heritage bureau confirmed the tomb’s identity.
An old man in a cap opened the door for us. He told us the tomb belonged to a Western Jin Dynasty (AD 266–316) official and his wife. It was raided in 1983, but the murals on the bricks had been kept well.
Following the steps down a narrow corridor leading to the burial chamber, one can see a screen wall of painted bricks, with themes ranging from animals, historical stories to auspicious motifs.
In Dunhuang Museum, we saw more examples of such painted bricks excavated from similar periods. These murals showed vibrant scenes of everyday life: How people traveled in carriages pulled by horses, how they grew mulberries, how they slaughtered their cattle and even how they hung their clothes.
The white stupa at Dafo Temple in downtown Zhangye
The wood-structure eaves and bronze bells in Dafo Temple, Zhangye downtown
The Danxia landform and a colorful balloon near Zhangye
Jiayuguan
In Dunhuang, the poplar is the most common tree on the street. The long and slender crown is as barren as the land itself. But Jiayuguan was a surprise.
The road from the airport to downtown was flanked by luxuriant weeping willows. For one moment I thought I was in the abundant Jiangnan Region (south of the lower reaches of Yangtze River), but a tall chimney in the far distance broke my daydream.
Jiayuguan is an industrial city built around the steel industry. In 1955, geologists found iron ore in the nearby mountains. Three years later the Jiuquan Iron & Steel Factory was established. In 1965 Jiayuguan was officially set up as a prefecture-level city.
It is therefore a migrant city with people coming from Sichuan, Henan and northeastern provinces.
More than 450 years ago, the Jiayu Pass (for which the city was named) was an important frontier fortress at the west end of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Great Wall. For a long time it was the northwestern boundary of the Han Chinese regime.
The trade on the terrestrial silk route was on the decline then, while another Silk Road on the sea was growing in importance.
Standing on one of the towers at the Jiayu Pass today, one can see the snowy caps of the Qilian Mountains and steel mills erected in the endless Gobi.
The construction of the fortress and Great Wall stretching to it took 167 years. The builders creatively used fiber and mortar mixed with rammed earth to strengthen the structure. In the 18th century during the Emperor Qianlong’s reign, the towers and gates were partially renovated. In the 1980s several restoration attempts were made.
The main hall housing the giant reclining Buddha in Dafo Temple in downtown Zhangye
The wind-eroded remains of Ta’er Temple in Suoyang City. Xuanzang was said to have lectured in the temple on his journey to the West.
The wooden pagoda in downtown Zhangye
Zhangye
Zhangye is one of the four counties in the Hexi Corridor set up by Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC– AD 9), together with Dunhuang, Jiuquan and Wuwei.
The place is a fertile valley with Heihe (Black River), the second largest inland river of China flowing through it up from the Qilian Mountains.
The city is also the northwestern center of Buddhism in China, with many temples still standing. The Dafo Temple downtown is a royal temple of the Western Xia regime, who controlled the area from 1038 to 1227.
It is said to be the birthplace of Kublai Khan, fifth Khagan of the Mongol Empire and founder of the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368).
The temple is known for its gigantic reclining Buddha in the main hall, 34.5 meters long, with a height of 7.5 meters. On the wall at back of the statue, one can find murals telling the story of seventh century Buddhist monk Xuanzang and his fictional followers, who journeyed to the west to acquire Buddhist texts.
Historical records show that at least two monks had traveled to Zhangye on a pilgrimage to India, Pakistan and Nepal, where Buddhism originated. One was Faxian in the fifth century, the other being Xuanzang.
I spent the whole afternoon in the temple, listening to the wind blowing through the pine trees and the bells ringing under the eaves of each building. The melodious sounds of the bronze bells of the white stupa were especially soothing.
The stupa stood behind the sutra collection pavilion and is proof of the influence of Tibetan Buddhism in the area. Yuan Dynasty emperors used to appoint Tibetan Buddhist leaders as their imperial preceptors.
The Mati Temple 50 kilometers south of Zhangye is such a Tibetan Buddhist temple that keeps traces and stories of the legendary hero King Gesar. The Tavatimsa Grottoes in the north part of temple are carved into the 100-meter-high cliff. Its 21 caves are arranged in seven stories linked by steps in a tunnel.
When I finally reached the highest floor using both my hands and feet, I was surprised to find a sizable main hall and a lama. Tara, the Tibetan Bodhisattva representing success in work and achievements is enshrined here.
“How can you manage to travel in and out daily?” I asked the lama. The tunnel was narrow and steep, sometimes without hand or foot holds.
“I just got used to it.”
The lama gave me a faint smile.
