XIAN TO DUNHUANG -- Journal by Stacey Irvin
Well, I’m at the train station in Xian in the special waiting room for people with Soft Sleeper tickets and I really hope I get on the right train! I have developed some kind of cold that has taken away my energy and I really want it to go away! John left to go back to the US and this has been quite an adjustment. We really make an excellent travel team. It is remarkable! He’s easy-going but also loves to challenge himself and can’t sit still for very long.
When we arrived in Xian, I got to meet my friend Yiqian’s aunt and uncle and that was so special! Her uncle is a very talented artist and the whole family is so sweet! They took John and I out to lunch and we also got to visit her Uncle’s studio. Then, after John had left for the US, they invited Longyin (a childhood friend of Yiqian’s who came to Xian to help show me around) and I over for a jaozi lunch! Those are Chinese boiled dumplings! We got to help stuff the dumplings with pork and vegetable fillings and I can’t wait to try and make them at home! Yiqian’s uncle also showed me his little pet crickets that sing at night! He’s had them for 5 months!
I also enjoyed meeting Yiqian’s grandmother. She is 85yrs. old. She said that during the revolution one of her brothers was in the Koumintang Party and the other was a communist! She also said that she really didn’t have any problems during the Cultural Revolution.
Wow! Now I am on the train and just entered a more mountainous area.... It has been about 31/2 hrs. since leaving Xian. For the first time, the Wei River has become more than a muddy trickle. There are farms and terraced fields scattered in and out of the mountains and lots of dark tunnels for the train. The feeling is too cool to know that I really am on my way West towards sacred Buddhist temples, Muslim Mosques, harsh deserts, and remote oasis towns. And, I am on my own.
It sure is nice to see more rural areas again. I was ready to get out of the city. Here in the country I may also see similar things over and over again, but at least the pace is slower, more natural, and more humane. The traffic, pollution, and repetition of Chinese cities wares on my patience. I’m on my way to Tianshui, a city with a large collection of Buddhist art caves up on a high ridge. The caves are called Maiji Shan Shiku. I don’t know if I’m going to visit it or not...... I am a little confused in general about my travel schedule. But, I do know that someone is supposed to be picking me up at the train station and that eventually I will make my way to the town of Gangu tonight!
Well, it has been a little over 5 hours and, during a stop, I walked out of my compartment looking slightly confused and a nice young policeman wanted to chat. He asked me where I was from and wanted to look at my passport and then I got out my phrasebook and managed to ask him if he would tell me when we get to Tianshui! He responded by finding out what time we expect to arrive! I still have 3 hours, so I can rest easy without panicking at each stop!
4- -00Today I went to Daxiang Si, a cliff side Buddha statue and collection Buddhist/Daoist shrines high on a cliff. I met two old men in their 60’s who were so sweet. I took their pictures, but at first there was some confusion..... they were afraid to have their pictures taken with a foreigner... this fear stems from the time of the cultural revolution. They thought they might get in trouble! I explained that I would be in the photos with them and everything ended up alright. They gave me their addresses and want copies of the photos. One of the men lives up on the actual cliff-side inside a small cave with a Daoist shrine to the god of medicine. He tends to the giant Buddha carved onto the cliff above. The other man, 63yrs old, was with his five year old grandson. The boy was your typical wide-eyed runny-nosed little guy and he carried 3 empty water bottles on a string. The men wore the traditional Mao blue jackets and caps. The grandfather also wore some lightly shaded large eye glasses.
We (my guide and I) were invited for tea by the man who lives at the shrine and all sat and talked together. The man with the glasses is a farmer and raises honey bees! He invited me to come and see his bees and his blooming tree. Before we left the shrine, 4 men (3 of whom where policemen in Gansu Province) came and sat with us too. They liked my camera and my photographs and were very interested in all of the places I was going to see. I sure do get alot of questions about my hair color too!
As we were leaving the cliff-side temple, the little caretaker gave us all handfuls of crackers and candies from dishes on the alter. He said it was Buddha Food!
Then we went to visit the farmer’s “bee factory”. He gave us straw hats with netting around them for protection and my guide, Rose, was a pretty scared. I was just so happy to be there, the thought of bee stings didn’t seem to matter. He pulled out a section of bees and they were everywhere! I was a little nervous, but just kept snapping. He wanted me to take a picture of him and his bees next to the flowering tree and I did.
Then, we asked him if he had any jars of honey for sale and, instead, he gave us sips of his homemade “Prince Honey Rice Wine” (supposedly made from the Prince bee’s honey). Wow! It sure was sweet and strong! We all had a couple of sips...he had several and gave his grandson several too!
4- -00Now I’m in Wushan at our hotel for the night. It is a big step from last night. All the plumbing works and they even have hot water between 8:30 and 10pm! Boy, this hotel is the Ritz compared to last night! There are tile floors, wall paper on the ceiling, the TV works, and the furniture is nice and clean. The only minus: the bed must be made of concrete.
I got to check my e-mail too and that really helped because I was worried about my film being x-rayed in transit to the US Dad checked on it after I called sounding quite stressed this morning. I love my parents. They are so incredible! How did I get so lucky!?
So, anyway, if all goes like it should, my film will arrive at the lab in Dallas on Monday or Tuesday and I will find out if it came out O.K.! God! It’s like waiting for test scores or acceptance letters. I try not to think too hard about it (good or bad). Ahhhhh! I sure hope they don’t get messed up!
And then there is the fact that my other film (sent from Hong Kong) may be damaged and I perhaps I didn’t catch it on the one test roll I had developed in Xian..... Jeez....... oh well! That’s why I have you, Journal!
4- -00Yesterday we left Wushan and drove all day to Xiahe. There were lots of little towns along the way that all had muddy streets and all seemed to be having their weekly market day --> this meant lots of local color, but also LOTS of honking too! I’m not a fan of the way Chinese drivers have to honk at EVERY thing. Of course, I also don’t like the fact that no one moves until long after the honking has already begun. Even though I was upset at my guide’s poor English skills and my driver’s honking and swerving, the ride did offer a great variety of sights. Each place became more and more Muslim - men with white or black caps and women with green or black veils.
We drove through the Loess Plateau and the muddy hills are just wild looking - it seems like a heavy rain would just dissolve them, but they’ve been there forever. We stopped and I walked up to a cave-like hole in the side of a hill that was apparently the type of housing farmers had prior to the “Liberation”. These caves are dotted all over the sides of hills and cliffs the whole way to and from Tianshui and there are supposed to be even bigger ones in Northern Shaanxi Province.
We also passed many fields full of covered (green-house like) plots for growing vegetables in the cold months. Many families were out in the fields plowing and planting. Many people were just working with there hands, while some would employ the services of a mule or cow.
My favorite stop was photographing drying potato noodles. According to my guide, they are made from potatoes and are hung out to dry. From a distance they look like bright white pieces of silky cloth row after row after row. But then, you get close and it’s just noodle after noodle after noodle! Chickens walk around underneath the rows and nibble at the debris.
At the place we stopped there were two older Muslim women with scarves on who took great interest in earring on the top edge of my right ear. Their smiles were beautiful, despite a lack of teeth. I just loved photographing them!
In late afternoon we neared Linxia and, in the distance, were snow covered mountains!
4/6/00 --- FROM AN E-MAIL HOME TO FRIENDSI got to meet my friend, Yiqian's, aunt and uncle while I was in Xian. They are such sweet people and her uncle is a very talented artist! He does oil paintings of the people and places he's seen on his annual visits to Tibet! Yiqian's aunt teaches English at a middle school and her uncle teaches art at a college. They invited me over for jaozi (Chinese boiled dumplings!). Oh! The whole experience was sooo wonderful! I got to help make them (well, stuff the dumplings with the mixture of finely chopped pork, cabbage, soy sauce, vinegar, and salt... I'm probably leaving something out!). Yiqian's friend, Longyin, came with me and helped to translate. Longyin is an old schoolmate of Yiqian's and she came up from Guangzhou to show me around Xian. We had a great time and she was so helpful!
Now I'm on the "Silk Route" and it is pretty darn incredible too! I took a train west towards a town called Tianshui and then met up with a guide and driver for the trip to Xiahe. The drive was like most drives in China -- you just have to hang on and pray. My guide, Rose, doesn't speak very good English at all, so that's been tough. But, I'm dealing. In fact, I taught her a fun card game and she taught the driver too! Now we can all play!
During the drive, we passed many Hui (Chinese Muslim) villages. All of the men wear white caps and the women wear dark scarves on their heads. They were plowing fields and planting new seeds with the help of a mule or two and there were also a couple of places where they were hanging long white noodles out to dry. Supposedly these are noodles made from potatoes, and from a distance, they look like row upon row of white silk. Chickens like to hang out under the rows and clean up the debris. Many of the fields are dotted with greenhouse-like domes with earthen sides and a plastic roof strung over a wooden frame.... this is where villagers plant their vegetables during the freezing winters! It still feels like winter here, there have even been some scattered snow flurries.
In a town called Gangu I visited a Buddhist shrine way up on the side of a cliff! It is home to the second largest Buddha sculpture in Gansu Province. The fun part was meeting two old men who invited me for tea and let me photograph them. (Though at first they were quite nervous because they thought that I wanted to be in the photos with them.... apparently they still harbor fears from the Cultural Revolution--having a photo with a foreigner could get them into real trouble back then.)
One of the men lived on the cliff-side literally inside one of the cave-shrines! His bed was right next to an altar for the Daoist god of medicine and his job was to tend to the large Buddhist shrine above. The other man wore a pair of large slightly shaded spectacles and had brought along his 5 yr. old grandson, a little guy with wide eyes and a runny nose. Later, we went and visited his nearby bee farm! He was so proud of his bees and the flowering tree in his garden and wanted to be photographed with them. My guide and I were given hats with netting over our faces and I could tell that she was really frightened... I was just so happy to be there that I didn't worry that much! He picked out a section of bees from one of the boxes and there were thousands of them everywhere!!
I wanted to know if I could buy a jar of honey from him, but he seemed more interested in giving us all sips of his homemade "Prince's Honey Rice Wine".... made from the prince bee's honey! Wow! It was sweet and strong! We all had a couple of sips, he had several and gave his grandson several too!
XIAHENow I'm in Xiahe, home of the Tibetan Labrang Monastery (yellow hat sect). Guide books say that this is a miniature Lhasa and I believe them! The Tibetan people are so beautiful! I just can't believe my eyes! Pilgrims come from all over to complete clockwise circuits around every holy sight in the huge monastery! Men, women, and children are dressed in thick coats with long sleeves almost touching the ground and neat little straw or felt hats! Everyone has a string of prayer beads that are constantly in motion between their fingers. The Lamas wear deep pink robes and quietly make their way around town. There are over 1,800 monks in residence at the monastery.
During my first full day in Xiahe I was given a guided tour of Labrang. Oh, the color, the detail, the beauty of the dimly-lit halls. Yak butter lamps glow under alters to the many forms of Buddha and other leaders of the yellow hat sect. The Lamas are so sweet peaceful and serious, yet playful. What I’ve heard is true.... the Tibetan people can win your heart with just one smile.
Inside the monastery’s Institute halls bright embroidered cloth hangs from the ceiling in rows over the large square cushions used by the monks while studying or chanting. Light seeps through small windows near the center of the ceiling and sets these tapestries aglow. There are rows and rows (from floor to ceiling) of cubby holes housing brightly wrapped scriptures. There are also detailed paintings of thousands of Buddhas lining the walls. You can hear Lamas chatting or chanting with their deep guttural voices throughout the halls.
On my first free-day in Xiahe, I walked up to the monastery again and wandered around the grounds. There were monks and pilgrims everywhere.... it seemed like I was on the set of a movie, but this was all too real. The funny thing is that they are the one’s who are real and I am actually the “unreal” one here. I have had to run my thoughts around like this many times throughout this trip.
The sun was bright and the monastery was alive in color! I set up my tripod to photograph passing pilgrims through a door to some prayer wheels. Several young Tibetan girls and men came over to look through my viewfinder - this is the simplest gift I can give to people. I continued on, walking down towards a stupa and some prayer wheels that pilgrims pass on the circuit around the monastery. I came across a very old woman hunched over with two canes slowly circling the bright white stupa. She paused just then for some good old “nostril discharging.” Hey, who needs Kleenex when you’ve got a finger and a strong pair of lungs? I also received several of the all too common bursts of “HELLO! What is your name?! How are you?” from young monks. Just a few years ago everyone would yell in Chinese the word “lao wei!” when they saw a foreigner. Now “hello!” seems has become the universal way to identify a foreigner...... often followed by lots of laughter, especially if you respond.
I followed along almost the entire loop circling the monastery and I wanted to photograph every face and prayerwheel I saw! What faith and what obsessive compulsiveness goes into being a Tibetan Buddhist! A few pilgrims were kowtowing, but most were walking briskly with only the elderly stopping for rests.
During my second freeday (day without my guide Rose) in Xiahe, I chose to go with a local Hui (Chinese Muslim) guide/restaurant owner out to the grasslands where the semi-nomadic Tibetans live. A far less touristed area with endlessly beautiful scenery. We drove all day on rough dirt roads and I was able to meet with several people in their homes. Early in the day I stopped often to photograph Tibetans with their herds of sheep and Yak. I even got to sit on a Yak!
The first camp we stopped at consisted of several mud walled homes with mud corrals for the animals. Two young Tibetan men greeted us and led us to one of their homes while protecting us from several very large barking dogs. The Tibetans are known for owning fierce guard dogs. The young man’s home consisted of one room about 6’X6’ and a small storage hallway with shelves. The room is where he and his wife and 3 yr. old daughter sleep and do all of their cooking.
.The floor was raised so that they could burn dried Yak dung underneath for warmth. A few matted layers of hide padded the floor and their thick bed rolls were stored up on a shelf. Our host heated a pot of water on the stove and served us green tea while he began to prepare some Tsampa. Tsampa is a staple for Tibetans. First, a small amount of hot water is poured into a bowl, followed by a couple of spoonfuls of Yak Butter. Finally, a couple of large scoops of toasted barley flour are added and the mixture is kneaded into a dense doughy mass. It is slightly damp to the touch, but quite dry to the taste. You definitely have to consume large amounts of tea with it! Tsampa sure isn’t something I’d crave, but it works as food!
Several young men, a woman, and a young girl piled into the doorway of the small room where we sat. I got out my little Polaroid sticker camera and they loved seeing the images appear right before their eyes. Having this camera has been so helpful in allowing folks to open up to my photographing them! There was a little bit of light coming through the door with most coming in through the room’s small window. The window light was so subtle and beautiful and I took many pictures using just this light. I sure hope I was able to hold my camera still enough! Then, everyone piled outside and I photographed them in brighter surroundings. They seemed to have fun with it and I hope I was able to capture their beauty! I told them that people all over the world admire the Tibetan people -- something they modestly seemed to already be well aware of.
From there we drove a long while passed many other Tibetan encampments.... I wanted to stop at every one! Women weaving wool and people herding their Yak and sheep. We arrived in the town of Moa and ate lunch at a Hui restaurant. We then drove to the secluded Moa monastery. This monastery was even older than the Labrang and had been pretty much demolished during the Cultural Revolution. Today there are around 200 monks in residence and a gradual recovery continues. I asked a monk (in his late 60's) about that time period and the look on his face said it all. He said that they do not speak about it, and added only that they were forced to memorize something along the lines of, "there is no god but the Communist Party."
After we left the monastery, I met a family with a Han Chinese husband and a Tibetan wife (this was her second marriage). They had 3 daughters and some Muslim neighbors.... all of which were gathered in the tiny main room of their mud-walled home to watch the TV they had just bought the day before! They were much more interested in the television than they were me. Afterwards, we stopped in a nearby town and I photographed a bunch of Tibetan men playing pool outside. I tried to play, but realized that they were playing with a couple of solids, several stripes, and other red balls... and I had no way of knowing what the rules were. It's a good thing they only wanted to stare at me funny...otherwise, I probably would have lost money!
That's one thing I'm trying to adjust to -- the staring is getting increasingly intense as I move further west. Folks in the smaller, less touristed towns aren’t used to seeing many westerners.
XINING TO DUNHUANG4-8-00
Well, today is Sunday, April 8th and I was sick late last night. I hate the feeling of knowing that I am going to throw up. I guess it was bound to happen to me at some point. Instead of going to Qinghai Lake (a few hours outside of Xining) today, I’m trying to keep still and sip lots of fluids.
4-09-00Unfortunately, just as my guide, Rose, had arrived to take me to dinner I was sick again. She freaked out and insisted that we go to the hospital. I asked her to make sure we knew where we were going first and to also find out which, if any, hospital or clinic had an English speaking doctor. Rose made a phone call and reassured me that we would go to the Xining City Hospital, the best hospital in the Province. We left and proceeded to drive all around the city asking people on the street where the hospital was.... after quite some time, we finally drove up to the terribly pot-holed entrance of the hospital. A couple of mini-vans with red crosses on the sides were parked nearby as ambulances. The entrance was dark and dirty with no real sense of order. We walked down the dimly lit hall until we found a room with a man wearing a white coat.
Inside the room there was a black wooden desk and a long table with a scuffed and slightly torn orange vinyl surface. This is where I was asked to lay down. There was a long fluorescent bulb dangling lopsided from the high ceiling, paint was peeling away from the scuffed and scratched walls and the dark tile floor got darker as it neared the base of the walls. Everything I had prayed wouldn’t happen, was happening. There was no observance of any type of privacy as new patients and their friends also shuffled into the small room. At one point there were two nurses, two doctors, my guide and driver, and seven additional plain-clothes strangers all standing around looking curiously at me. They all listened intently as my guide described my illness to the doctor and watched closely as the nurse took my blood pressure and the doctor examined my stomach. This was followed by great confusion about whether or not I had dysentery - no one was able to translate or comprehend the difference between dysentery and plain old diorreah. After tending to a couple of onlookers who were waiting for prescriptions, the Dr. sent my guide to pick up my prescription for Prepulsid (helps settle down stomach acids). The pills cost around $4 and the book in which he wrote my diagnosis cost another $0.25. Not bad for a hospital visit! Thank God I didn’t have to stay there! Oh thank you God! From now on, if I ever have to go to an American hospital, no matter how sick I am, I will skip happily into the ER!
While this was an adventure I would have preferred not to have had, at least it wasn’t an all out bacterial assault on my intestines. This was just a little reminder that, at any moment, I may be swallowed up in these great big developing jaws!
4-10-00The Prepulsid did help settle me down and we managed to make it out to Qinghai Lake the following day. Now we are in the car attempting to make a 200km trip to Jaiyuguan. However, we have yet to make it out of the city because the Muslims are revolting! Well, they have set up a road block at a toll station with their farming equipment. The government charges every vehicle 3 yuan each time they pass through. The Muslims are local farmers and pass through this way several times a day!
Apparently this road was just paved and opened two months ago. The road is quite wide (8 lanes) and the government took a good bit of the farmers’ land in order to build it. No wonder the farmers are pissed! First the government takes their land and then it has the audacity to charge them everytime they need to use it to go 10km into town!
In the restaurant where we just had lunch the Hui, Han, and Tibetan clientele explained all of this and expressed that most people in this city have strong anti-government sentiments. Historically there have been many problems between the Muslim population and the Chinese government in this region. Two or three years ago there was a Muslim rebellion here and, according to my guide, because the majority of the people here are Muslim, the communist government is more “fair” with them. Rose told me if the farmers leading the road block were Han Chinese they would have been hauled off and “punished” by now, but here, the government doesn’t want to risk a city-wide rebellion again!
I never thought I'd really witness people expressing this...despite the fact that I'd read about these problems! Luckily this was only a mild example. Although, the van of police wearing bullet-proof vests and helmets wasn’t very comforting!
After 5 hours of negotiations, no one had budged, so we set off on a much longer route to our destination. I didn't take any photos because I've been advised that the police aren't fond of that sort of thing!
Now I'm on the fringe of the desert in Jiayuguan and I'm starting to get a feel for the way exiled Chinese felt hundreds of years ago. Jiayuguan is home of the western-most part of the Ming Dynasty additions to the Great Wall. Tomorrow I'm going to go see it and the day after tomorrow I set off on a days drive across endless nothingness toward Dunhuang.
4-11-00The great wall at Jiayuguan was very impressive and I enjoyed sitting at the back gate of Jiayuguan Fort and staring up a small hill at the nothingness beyond. I cannot imagine someone actually heading out this way in exile, let alone on a trading caravan.
4- -00I met a couple from San Francisco in Jiayuguan and now they are also here in Dunhuang. If it isn’t windy or cloudy tomorrow night, we are going to go on a night hike in the dunes under the full moon!
I met up with some Canadians at the internet cafe and went with them to the night market. They were nice and so alive and thoughtful. I felt kindof guilty for having such an expensive way of getting around China. I guess if I didn’t have such an incredible fine arts grant and was traveling with one or two other people, I’d do it the cheaper, more “backpacker” way.
The Buddhist Mogao Ku (grottoes) just outside of Dunhuang were very impressive. It’s hard to believe how detailed, extensive, and OLD the Buddhist murals are! Cave after cave after cave with thousands of Buddhas, flying Apsaras, Bodhisatvas, and intricate designs covering the ceilings and walls. The oldest cave I saw was from the fifth century while others were restored and refurbished as recently as the 19th century. There are several caves dating back 2000 years to the Han period, but those weren’t open to the public. It was also fascinating to see the smoke stains and graffiti left by White Russians who used these caves as a hideout. There were also markings left by the French Explorer, Paul Pelliot. It was really great to have read about the history of these caves beforehand... it’s amazing how some of it is beginning to stick! I look forward to reading more about Buddhism after I return home.
4- -00The couple from San Francisco and I went out to the Mingha Shan (Sand Mtns.) after sunset last night to hike under the (almost) full moon! Oh it was so incredible! I felt like I was on another planet or in heaven or something surreal. The air wasn’t too cold, the wind had died down and the sand was cool and soft. The moon was clear and high in the sky with an occasional passing cloud Closer to the horizon, the dunes faded into a misty layer of settling sandy air. We climbed all the way up to the highest peak nearby and sat in the sand staring off into the distance. God! It was heavenly! I could have slept out there! The moon’s silver muted light cast shadows on the dark sides of the wavy dunes. I can’t believe I was really there having one of the coolest experiences of my life with two people I barely knew. It was really special and will always stand out in my memory.
The other wild thing was that we had to get to the dunes by having Mr. Jao (my driver) drive us through a dark tomb-filled cemetery that runs right into the encroaching dunes. It was kind of creepy and alot of fun. I’m even more madly in love with the desert now that I was before!
