Believe it or not, I am already halfway through my summer program. We took our midterm on Thursday and are now on our "break" from class, which is for all of 3 days. Most of the students left Beijing for greener pastures, but I decided to hang out here to relax and to explore the city some more. Yesterday, I went to the Ming Tombs, which are about an hour and a half outside the city.
The tombs were intended to contain the bodies of all of the previous emperors (the vast majority of them have been robbed repeatedly over the centuries), and are set amidst rolling mountains for good feng shui. The Chinese have had a rather stable approach to the afterlife, in the sense that they really believed that you could take it with you. Death was viewed not as an end, but as a portal to another world, and it was immensely important that you established yourself in the hierarchy from the getgo by displaying your worldly treasures. This is essentially why Chinese art historians exist today: the Chinese left behind a whole lot of loot.
Here I am ascending the stairs to the primary gateway to the tomb. The tomb is completely underground, but the entryway is marked with this structure and a stele containing the king's name.
I'm looking down from the tomb mound at the offering table below.
At most of the tombs, you are not allowed to go into the chamber where the body was kept, but I got lucky this time. Now I know that the inside of a Ming Dynasty emperor's tomb looks like Penn Station!
Outside of the tomb there were these cute little tables with elephant seats and three elephants supporting the table with upturned trunks.
Lots of picknickers at these tables.
An incense burner, where offerings were made to the emperor. Today, people continue to put money on these more sacred spots.
Older Beijing architecture has such amazing terracotta decorative elements!
I have to say that this weekend is sure going swim-MING-ly!
The tombs were intended to contain the bodies of all of the previous emperors (the vast majority of them have been robbed repeatedly over the centuries), and are set amidst rolling mountains for good feng shui. The Chinese have had a rather stable approach to the afterlife, in the sense that they really believed that you could take it with you. Death was viewed not as an end, but as a portal to another world, and it was immensely important that you established yourself in the hierarchy from the getgo by displaying your worldly treasures. This is essentially why Chinese art historians exist today: the Chinese left behind a whole lot of loot.
Here I am ascending the stairs to the primary gateway to the tomb. The tomb is completely underground, but the entryway is marked with this structure and a stele containing the king's name.
I'm looking down from the tomb mound at the offering table below.
At most of the tombs, you are not allowed to go into the chamber where the body was kept, but I got lucky this time. Now I know that the inside of a Ming Dynasty emperor's tomb looks like Penn Station!
Outside of the tomb there were these cute little tables with elephant seats and three elephants supporting the table with upturned trunks.
Lots of picknickers at these tables.
An incense burner, where offerings were made to the emperor. Today, people continue to put money on these more sacred spots.
Older Beijing architecture has such amazing terracotta decorative elements!
I have to say that this weekend is sure going swim-MING-ly!
5 comments:
The tombs looked cleaner than when wil and I were there some 13 yrs ago. Beautiful and historical.
It kind of breaks my heart to hear that the tombs have been robbed so many times. I try to imagine what they must have held in the beginning, and it boggles my mind. On the other hand, did you bring back and souvenirs?
i just looked through several hundred years of dynasties just to come up with another pun.
Pun away, my lovelies!
Hey Rish! I'm halfway finished with my internship and also can't believe the summer's going by so quickly. Just one request: I loved your bao and dumpling posting so much, please show more street snacks! I want to eat vicariously through you. Do they have night markets in Beijing?
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