Silk Road Expedition, Sept. 2, Day 2 – Dunhuang (THE SEQUEL)

After enjoying the sun rise over the dunes, we took the camels over to Crescent Lake (a small freshwater lake that’s been a source of fresh water in the area for hundreds of years) and the small monastery / museum situated next to it, and then back to where we started, where all dismounted for good. Looking back, I like to think that my camel didn’t want me to leave, for instead of lying down all the way down that last time, at first he only lay halfway down, and for the longest time he would do no more no matter how much the guide hollered at him.

 

(What the hey, let's have one more picture of the camels for old time's sake)

The group then finally bid adieu to the desert and headed back to the hotel, where everyone more or less napped, showered, or both. Then, after lunch it was off to the Mogao Grottos, a relatively isolated mountainside where from the 4^th – 11^th centuries, Buddhist monks would carve out caves, which they would paint of place statues in to create a rich collection of Buddhist shrines. The caves were usually square with a carving of the Buddha at the center, and that was more or less where the similarities ended. The caves could have artwork that was Chinese, Indian, Persian, or some combination of the three, they could have paintings or statues of various Buddhist guardian spirits, painted Upsaras (graceful angelic like creatures, at least the female ones) flying across the ceilings or playing instruments, paintings of “A thousands Buddhas” to represent the past lives of the Buddha, and oh so much more. I only wish that we were allowed to take photos of the caves’ interiors rather than just blown-up images placed outside the caves, but one can’t blame those in charge of the grottoes for simply wanting to preserve the caves and their artwork for as long as possible.

 

Still…at least one picture of the first cave our guide took us into would’ve been fantastic. When I first entered, all I saw were painted images of dragons forming a peculiar V-shaped pattern. At first, I just thought it was a bizarre mural … but it was then that I realized I was only looking at the decorated hem of one massive stone robe. It was right about then that I finally noticed the gigantic stone feet at either side of me, and the enormous hands hovering above, which of course nearly gave me a small heart-attack. Turns out, centuries before some daring monks had carved out one of the largest stone Buddhas in the whole world in that cave. One would think that I should’ve realized that it was just one big statue much sooner, but alas, I managed to goof that up royally. As the saying goes, I was searching for the trees, and ended up missing the whole forest.

After the grottoes, it was back for a free night in Dunhuang, where many spent the night visiting the local night market with its stalls upon stalls of vendors hawking anything from “antiques”, stuffed camels by the truckload, pirated DVDs, small bronze cups, and the list just stretches on and on from there. 

What I personally found quite fascinating though were the local Hui, the ethnically Chinese Muslims who lived in the neighborhood.

 

Many of them manned small food stands where they usually sold some kind of spicy beef or lamb kebab, though a few had some other, odder choices as well, such as …

Well, I’ll leave it off at this; there’s no sight like a Hui woman lifting a wiggling, squirming fish from its tank and then scaling it right there on the spot.