Devout Of This World 1

Tiantishan Grottoes

This morning I left most of my gear at my hotel in Huangyang, and cruised out to an incredible ancient Buddhist site, about 25km to the southwest.

As soon as I got outta town I could see how low the snow had fallen during yesterday's sudden cold (and bloody challenging) snap.

The view in the morning reminded me of another life, when I used to work picking apples and pruning grapevines near Christchurch in NZ, and would ride my bike out to the fields every morning, marvelling at the snow on the hills not too far away.

Traditional rammed earth village

It was really cold, but it felt so good to get back out onto the little village roads.

Eventually I left the farms and the fields, and began to climb. It got colder, but I rugged up. I was prepared this time.

Shepherd with his flock. There's a lot of them around these parts, just sitting in the hills, tending to their flocks, like little Jesuses trying to get their followers to stop getting distracted and wandering off all the time.

Old brickworks

Newer village

A spider's web of sheep tracks

I finally made it to the top of the hill, at around 2200m elevation, and climbed a long wooden walkway to a lookout.

The view from the top was really stunning

Then there was a steep and cold descent on the bike, all the way down to lake level.

Can you see anything?

There were lots of these chattery, clicking Eurasian magpies about, or black-billed magpies, as they're sometimes known. I've seen them a lot in many places in this region. They're feisty, quick and quite large.

I finally made it to the grotto area, and strolled along beautifully manicured and spotlessly clean walkways.

This area, designed for high volume tourism, is typical of Chinese public spaces and gardens. Not only are they meticulously well-planned and built to last, but as soon as they're open there's armies of people working fulltime to maintain them, to sweep the paths, tend to the gardens, keep the car parks secure, and continuously upgrade the whole place as needed. So efficient and organised.

There was an arhat cave there, full of statues of these revered characters, who are fully realised beings, but who decided not to enter Nirvana yet, so they could help all the other less fortunate buggers get enlightened.

I tell ya, I'm not doing that. Once I'm fully realised I'm outa here, bugger you lot. I hope you fully realise that.

Nah, only joking. If you give me a job maybe I might help ya a little bit.

A couple of the arahats. Not exactly sure what the boar head's all about.

It was beautifully still down there.

And then, eventually, I reached the ancient Sakyamuni Buddha, the Buddha of the Present, a truly huge and magnificent sight.

It's hard to comprehend the size of Monsieur Buddha from the pic, but he's about 30m tall. That's bloody big.

I scrambled down a long rickety wooden staircase to stand at his feet, the top of which were as high the top of my head.

Looking up at the man-being, some arahats, and a couple of guardians.

The cave sculptures here actually predate the Medieval era. They were built during the Northern Liang Dynasty era, a dynasty which reigned from 412-439 AD.

The Medieval Era, also called the Middle or Dark Ages, began with the fall of the Roman Empire in much of Western Europe in 476 AD, and lasted till the Renaissance hit the scene in the 14th Century.

Just in case you were interested.

The religious art here was also extended and rebuilt over the centuries, particularly during the Ming Dynasty in the mid 1400s.

One of the things that makes this place so powerful is the knowledge that the people who built these incredible spiritual art works did it all by hand, as a physical manifestation of their deep faith. So unshakeably devout.

But unfortunately, two major events much later in history caused a lot of destruction here.

There was a major earthquake in 1927, causing considerable damage. Many caves collapsed, along with the sculptures in them.

And then in the 1950s the local government made the incredibly shortsighted decision to dam the river, and basically flood most of the caves. Historians and archaeologists scurried to remove as many of the sculptures and art as they could, and they're now displayed in various museums elsewhere.

But hey, come on guys, what were you thinking? This site, whilst still incredible, is now just a shell of its former glory.

Sad but true.

I mean, Sakyamuni Buddha and his mates are truly magnificent, and incredibly important art, but it's so sad to know that there were so many others like them in caves around here, that are now flooded and ruined forever.

There's still colours in the frescoes, but they're fading.

High five baby, I'm glad that at least a few of you are still around in your original home.

Peanut snack stop on the way back to Huangyang.

To Wuwei

It was an easy downhill run back to my hotel, and I was there in no time.

Standard once-a-day meal (lately)

This is a really common sight. A bunch of guys playing various games, crowded around a table on the pavement. These guys were playing some sort of card game, with long yellow cards. But when they're bored they also play board games.

So I loaded up and headed out of town, towards Wuwei, only another 40 clicks up the road, which I was happy about, as I'd already ridden to the grottoes and back, about a 50km return trip, and a solid climb.

Doesn't matter where you are, there's always people out there growing food for you.

I pretended I was a motorbike.

Muslim scarecrow

Animal pens

The first dairy cows I've seen here. Milk products are starting to work their way into the mainstream diet here, just like they are in Southeast Asia.

Greenhouses. The back wall is mudbrick, basically to stop the wind, and the front is either covered with plastic or some sort of sheeting, or left open, depending on the type of plants and the weather.

Shit A Mudbrick, It's A City!

You know, sometimes I really laugh at myself.

I don't really get much into the nitty gritty of where I'm going beforehand, and when it comes to the actual towns I'll be passing through, most of the time I know absolutely nothing about them before I get there.

My English language map apps, which I suspect use older maps and don't have the funds to update regularly, provide no real details about town sizes and any real details here in China. And Baidu, the main Chinese map app, doesn't have an easy visual interface to get a perspective on size and layout of towns and cities.

So as I rode into Wuwei, and the town just kept going on, and on, and on, I eventually realised that this wasn't just a large town. Nah mate, Wuwei's a city, and one and a quarter million buggers live here, bless their warm wooly socks.

My hotel was situated right smack bang in the middle of downtown, but, somehow, was still pretty cheap. Most hotels I've been staying at like this are around $20 Oz a night for the simplest room, but they're hugely luxurious compared to similarly-priced places in Thailand or Malaysia, for example.