Post edited 8:44 am – July 25, 2009 by thaliahardy

This week two museums nearby in Xi'an stood out to me, the Be'lin, or forest of steles, and the Xi'an Museum, which we saw yesterday.  Steles are stone tablets on which calligraphy is carved, sometimes these are placed at tombs and contain a families' history.  The calligraphy is exquisite.  Students came here to take their examinations, and their calligraphy was considered an important part of assessing their character.  (If only my students knew!!- handwriting is a lost art.) Other tablets contain pictures of landscapes, florals, such a crysanthmums, or historical figures. This museum was described as a stone library, it is a beautiful and peaceful place.  Fortunately, Dr. Juliano had arranged for us to be sent books from the museum before our trip, so I have a wonderful book of this museum.  We had the opportunity to tour the museum with Dr. Juliano, one of our last trip with her, and to see examples of auspicious animals that lined the Spirit road leading to the tomb of one of the Tang emperors.  We also were able to watch experts completing rubbings of the stone tablets, a very careful process of applying ink to oversized hand paddles, for lack of a better word, and evenly applying the ink to rice paper.  We had time to see only a faction of the museum, but it is nearby, Li Jing and Lydia, my students who are so helpful and my dear friends, and I may return tomorrow.  Like so many of us in Washington, although they have seen museums farther away, such as the Terra Cotta Warriors, there are many jere in Xi'an they have not visited. 

We also visited the Xi'an Museum, where we met our new lecturer, Dr. Xiuqin Zhou, from the University of Pennsylvania.  She is very funny and tells wonderful stories during her lectures.  This museum has wonderful miniature reproductions of the City of Chang'an, now Xi'an, as well as my favorite- Bronzes!  I cannot explain my love of the brone age, but I am fascinated by the technology that they used at this time, the craftsmanship, and the mischievious Toatie- I have many pictures, and I suppose I will have an example before I leave China!  There may be a Taotie in my Classroom :> 

There were also examples of sculptures of women showing a voluptous image of beauty that coexisted with the thin image of beauty predominant during the Tang dynasty.  I also enjoyed the lively sculptures of the camels which depicted their true nature- complaining and spitting!

More later- time to get out of this beastly hot cafe!!  Zaijian!  Thalia 

Yesterday, we also saw a Buddhist Temple, very peaceful place.  One of the rooms contained the Buddhist version of Hell!  Pretty scary stuff.  We could not take pictures inside though           

We have now been back in school for two weeks, and I very much miss my Chinese friends and NIH Colleagues!  Freedom's first year of Mandarin Chinese is underway, I was unable to enroll in the Chinese course at GMU, having arrived home too late, but will look forward to the summer course.  I am excited to present some of the things I learned and my pictures at the first Chinese Student Association meeting.  I presented my principal, Christine Forester, with a quilt purchased in China.  I have since learned that it is a quilt traditionally given to students for good luck.  It is being installed in the school library, so I will send pictures once it is hung!  I have started to organized the many pictures, I'm sure Karl is more organized and we will see his pictures first!   

My parents threw a Chinese Dinner party the week before school started- I cooked dinner for 12!  It was quite and experience, but a lot of fun.  We are fortunate to have many Asian groceries here, so I was able to get everything I wanted.   The many gifts from the Muslim market were a huge hit here.  I am still working on getting my scrolls hung at home though- school seemed to come up so fast!