It's better that first you see the museum, get your mindset right. Then see the workshop making replicas of Terracotta warriors, set your expectations and then you go to see the actual Terracotta Warriors site. Otherwise directly seeing the Terracotta Warriors can become really overwhelming.
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| Terracotta Warriors |
By far Terracotta army excavations are of greatest importance in modern times. What is Terracotta Army and how was it discovered? We will come to it, afterwards. As I have said, first we will see the museum.
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| Banpo Museum |
Banpo Museum is located in Shaanxi province of China. It was built near a prehistoric excavation site, near Xian city. It shows us life in a village before 6000 years. In the exhibition hall, you can see the artifacts found in excavation.
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| A drawing found in Banpo which is now it's emblem. |
This is one of the drawings found in Banpo. This artifact depicts fish, human and mountain. Some picture alphabets are also found in the excavation on some pottery pieces or stones etc.
In Banpo we can see a well organized settlement surrounded by a moat. The period of Banpo settlement is approximately from 5000B.C.- 3000B.C. i.e. nearly 6000-7000 years ago.
Foundations of houses can be seen in the excavation site.
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| Foundation of a house before 6000 years. |
The houses were having wooden walls and thatched roofs. There are some houses in the exhibition area which are reconstructed according to the original Banpo plan.
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| Reconstructed house according to the original plan. |
It seems that the village was divided in three areas- houses, potteries and cemetery. Some pottery kilns and tools can be seen in the exhibition hall. Jars for burial of kids, tombs of adults are found in the excavation in a specially designated area in the village. So that is called as cemetery area.
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| Cemetery Area of the village. |
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| Chinese Sayings in the exhibition hall. |
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| Workshop |
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| Am I that old??!! |
This was near the unexcavated tomb of first Chinese Emperor in 221 B.C. Qin Shi Huangdi. Why his tomb has remained unexcavated till now? Because of the fear of destroying the artifacts and precious jewels, metals which are buried with the emperor. It is said that there is lot of mercury in the tomb, which can be poisonous if the tomb is opened. It is said that there are some safety mechanisms installed in the tomb which can be fatal for the one who tries to open the tomb.
Though the tomb is unexcavated till now, the area around the tomb is excavated. It seems that many of the emperors young concubines were buried with him.
After the death of the emperor his second son murdered all his real and step brothers, in order to be the only one who can be the king and be the successor of the throne. In the royal tomb area, all the remains of these bodies of princes were found.
The king was curious about the afterlife, the life after death. He wandered in search of elixir and medicines to be immortal. So he wanted his complete army with him for the afterlife.
Over the past nearly 50 years, archaeologists have found nearly 600 vaults. Some of the vaults are inaccessible, but some of them are accessible.
Two pits which were found in excavation were such that they must have been burnt completely. What were they? Why were they burnt? No one knows till now.
In other accessible pits or vaults we can see various platoons of soldiers ready for the battle. Battle with whom? Is the battle with death?? No one knows! Is the army stationed there for protection? Protection of what and from whom? No one knows!
All of them are standing according to their ranks and they are facing east. Infantry, light cavalry, heavy cavalry and their horses can be seen. A separate pit for the officers of the army can be seen. There are some exotic animal figures, singers, musicians, the royal court officers, acrobats are also found in the nearby pits.
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| Terracotta Warriors |
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| Cavalry |
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| Terracotta Warriors |
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| The pits or vaults |
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| Ready for battle, in position. |
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| Horses waiting for riders |
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| Restoration work |
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| Viewing gallery |
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| High ranking officer |
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| Description of the High ranking officer. |
Officers of different ranks are shown wearing different cloths, having different weapons.
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| The Standing Archer |
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| Description of The Standing Archer |
Thousands of clay soldiers were found in the excavation. More than 8000 soldiers, more than 100 chariots, more than 500 horses are found till date. Recently 200 more figures are found. The real total number of the warriors will never be known. Finding of the two Bronze chariots i.e. which are at least 2000 years old is a really astonishing fact.
Each of these soldiers look different due to different facial expressions and anatomy. Originally they were having colored clothes, but today all of them look grey with a few patches of colors here and there. They say that the color faded when it came in contact with air. All warriors are handmade and taller than present day Chinese men. They are made up of locally found yellow clay and then burnt in kilns.
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| The archer |
The kneeling archer is the most iconic statue in the museum. The left leg is bent and right leg almost touches the ground.
The astonishing fact is that, many of their weapons having metal tips are still in good condition, even after 2000 years and are without any rust on them.
Building this mausoleum has taken the hard work of 7,00,000 labors. 30-40 years were required to build this mausoleum with terracotta warriors. Some of the labors were prisoners and bonded labors. Many of them had chains in their hands and color around the neck.
Qin Shi Huang was obsessed with the concept of afterlife and started this project of building mausoleum as soon as he took the throne. He was the emperor who unified the various fighting Chinese kingdoms, standardized coins and even the writing scripts. He has also the credit of standardizing weights and measures and interlinking the canals and roads in all states. He was the one who started building first version of the protective wall in China, which later came to be known as Great Wall Of China.
Being the greatest excavation of the modern age, thousands of visitors from all over the world, come to the museum. Chinese government is surely reaping the benefits of the boosted tourism due to Banpo and Terracotta warriors museum.
What happened to the farmers who first found these warriors while digging a well in their farm? Their farms and houses were taken by government for the museum and gift shops around it. They were left with very meagre compensation. You can find some of them sitting near the book shops and signing the copies of the books which the tourists purchase from the shops. But you won't come to know whether they are the original farmers or imposters.
Large number of relics are still unearthed. So how many treasures are still hidden, we don't know. Some local folktales say that this was a real army which had turned into Terracotta warriors due to some magical spell.
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