Desert drums
- Northwest Circumnavigation Diary No. 5
Text/Shi Qinghua
At six o'clock, the red sun leaned in from the window and woke up every tourist. The quiet carriage suddenly became lively.
The gentle sun kissed me: Hurry up and indulge in the joy of last night. After getting on the train at 7 p.m. yesterday, I was invited by wu and Chen' two eldest brothers: I went to the zero car to fry a few dishes and drink a few wines. At seven o'clock, the train departed from Xining Station and left Xining City at about twenty o'clock and entered the open area of the distant mountains near the grassland. At 7:40 the three brothers began to drink and chat slowly, while admiring the open and endless grassland outside the window. The slanting sun shone on the vast expanse of the earth, and the cattle and sheep looked down at the sparse grass that clung to the ground. In the distance, there is a world of green and white, but up close, there are only small, rare yellowing grasses, and the earth sends off the sunset with half-naked yellow skin. At nearly eight o'clock, a large blue lake on the flat and vast grassland ran to the side of the train, and mobile phones of various shapes were crowded by the window to leave this rare beauty. But our three brothers danced happily: they were worried about the people who had no fun on the wine, and the blue lake was like a song to cheer. On the ground on both sides of the wine table, white grass that grows taller than other grasses becomes the mainstream, and the world is full of white. What kind of grass is this? Nest after nest, each nest is hollow, surrounded by green grass with a lower green, upper white, narrow and long hard grass stem. At this time, I suddenly remembered the sentence "The white grass folded by the north wind", is this the white grass of Cen Ginseng? No way of knowing. It was almost nine o'clock when he returned to the carriage drunk and misty-eyed, and only the window was empty and vast. At nine twenty minutes, between a series of peaks in front of the train, the sun blushed and plunged into the horizon, leaving only a few afterglows to look at the three drinkers on the train. The sight of the setting sun was about a hundred minutes later than in Jingzhou.
At six forty, I reluctantly got up from the bunk, and the red sun stood on the window, so that I did not dare to open my eyes, and I could only bend over and peek at the round face of the sun. On both sides of the train, a little moisture gathers on the short, sparse grass tips, and occasionally flashes. Oh, the temperature is not so low, how can there be frost on the ground? Dazzled? Knead, yes, there's a layer of cream. Look at it a little longer, and yes, there is a sparse layer of white frost everywhere on the ground. Later, I learned that this was a saline alkali land, and the train had entered the Gobi Zone. There are occasionally small lakes on the ground, called Haizi Bar by the locals, and there are also many shallow, curved ditches that flow flat after rain, and cut out many shallow, curved ditches on the ground. There are dry ponds, exposing mud-gray bottoms that are cut into irregular small pieces by ditches three to five centimeters wide. The barren Gobi stretches out before your eyes. According to fellow travelers who served as soldiers in this area, this is Aksay County.
At eight forty, the train entered the world of sand. There is no end to the sand mountains that rise and fall, high and low, large and small. On Huangsha Mountain, there are nests of sparse green grass. Railways, asphalt roads, and high-voltage power towers between sand and mountains carry the information of the times into the desert, The Gobi, and grasslands. At ten o'clock we entered the green world, and on both sides of the railway appeared green grass and corn, bushes and bushes on the sandy ground, and tall poplars appeared in a moment, row by row, and a small number of dead poplars sandwiched between them. Corn and other crops grow between some of the two rows. Whether it is crops or wild grasses, they are greener than jiangnan. Arrive at Dunhuang Station at 10:20.
Board bus 22079 at 10:35. Tour guide Pu Xuefeng introduced the two half-day itinerary, and then told everyone some relevant knowledge: the average altitude here is more than 1200 meters, the annual rainfall is only 39.9 mm, the annual evaporation is as high as more than 2500 mm, the temperature difference between day and night is large, and the sunshine time is longer. With a history of more than 2,100 years, Dunhuang is the meeting place of the world's four major civilizations. The Yellow River passes through Lanzhou, called Hedong to the east and Hexi to the west, called the Hexi Corridor, which is more than a thousand kilometers long from east to west, and is connected to Xinjiang to the west. Among them, Yumen Pass and Yang Pass are very famous. Dunhuang is the throat of the Silk Road, but it is of a lower level, only a county-level city to which Jiuquan City belongs, but it is the place where national and international conferences have been held many times. The Mogao Caves are mainly frescoes, and there are more than 490 caves in existence, with murals of more than 45,000 square meters.
Lunch is ok, 1:30 p.m. to visit the Mogao Grottoes.
Cave 096, the center of the entire cave, from the appearance, the dark red tower from the foot of the mountain up there are seven floors, the tour guide said there are nine floors. Looks tall and imposing. Entering the cave, the tall seated statue of the Buddha, which may be three stories high, is said to have been rebuilt by later generations, and only two large fat feet are from the Tang Dynasty, more than 1300 years ago. I know that the Tang Dynasty thought fat was beautiful, so I speculate that this may be true. The roof of the cave is full of paintings of the same size Buddha, and the four walls are filled with various murals, which are similar to the canvases I saw the monks hanging in the spiritual hall during funeral activities. If you want to look carefully and get detailed, the average person can't do it, from queuing up to enter, one next to the other can only move forward and can not retreat, scan the statues and pictures up and down, left and right, and when they come out, it will take up to ten minutes.
Cave 100, as before, is frescoed on the left and right, and in the arch like the Yan'an cave is a larger seated Buddha on the front, with a small Buddha on each side. On the left outside the arch is a Buddha riding a white elephant, and on the right is Manjushri Bodhisattva riding a lion.
Cave 148 is a huge statue of Shakyamuni Nirvana. Behind the reclining statue are many disciples of the Buddha, standing in various shapes, as if looking forward to the return of the Buddha. The murals everywhere are similar to the previous ones, but I can't find a difference between them. It is said that the surrounding murals are authentic tang dynasty paintings.
The tour guide of Cave No. 138 said that it was Guanyin Bodhisattva, which was molded in the late Tang Dynasty, and the existing one is remodeled in the late Qing Dynasty, but it basically retains the original appearance, and there is more guanyin in front of the body. The murals are naturally similar to the previous ones, and the two tall policemen are also closely monitored as before, and if any tourist has the slightest violation, it will be severely stopped. Otherwise, the millennium monuments that cannot be replicated cannot be well protected.
After a casual look at the four caves, I hurriedly finished looking at two museums related to the Mogao Caves. Whether it is a cave or a museum, they all tell a common truth: this is the world of Buddhas.
Across the bridge in front of the cave, the long history and culture of the world collide and merge, and a page of great color is written here. I speculate that the desert and stone mountains that are so desolate now should also have green in the two Jin Dynasties, and the dry river under the bridge should have clear blue water singing, otherwise, with the level of productivity at that time, this huge project could not be completed.
At 4:20 to the Dunhuang Souvenirs Exhibition Center, Guide Pu introduced many local souvenirs. For example: Suoyang, also known as desert ginseng, parasitizes the desert white grass, the herb on the root of the shuttle, with the miraculous effect of tonifying the kidneys and aphrodisiac, moisturizing the intestines and laxatives; Cistanche, also known as Grand Yun, is a perennial parasitic succulent herb rich in trace amounts of alkaloids, which tonify kidneys and aphrodisiacs, improve sperm, and moisturize the intestines and laxatives. Everyone may recognize her for her enthusiasm, kindness, and ability to speak, and she came out of the shopping mall without returning empty-handed.
Less than five o'clock, stay in Room 208 of Qilian Hotel (2037 Yangguan Middle Road). With a little preparation, meeting a few friends, and going looking for food, it wasn't hard, and I quickly found a place to go on the clean and tidy street. Sit at a spacious table, taste barley wine, taste delicious food, pull things up, be laid back, and enjoy the joys of life.
At 8:50 p.m., I went to see "Dunhuang Festival - Large Desert Live Performance". With a legendary love story as the main line, it recreates the dance scenes such as wrapped caves and crescent springs by recreating dance scenes such as wrapped caves and crescent springs through the real scenes of Mingsha Mountain, the desert yellow sand of the crescent spring and the splendid Han and Tang Dynasty architectural complexes of Dunhuang Mountain Villa, reproducing the historical culture and humanistic features of Dunhuang, an important town on the ancient Silk Road. The first program of calligraphy and painting auction: calligrapher and painter Ji Xiaojun wrote on the spot "good luck dangdang", "integrity wins the world", "willing to give", "quiet and far-reaching", "home and everything xing", etc., which is much better than the previous times I have seen it. Prologue to the sound of sand mountain drums. The four big men waved their arms to beat the huge drum to a great price, the thick drum sound seemed to roll hurriedly from the far depths, the big man's big hammer smashed the powerful life force into the drum surface, and the rumbling thunder crushed the vast land and ran into the distance. Then a poignant love story is used to connect many historical cultures related to Dunhuang, making it a relatively complete chapter.
The whole performance uses modern sound and light technology to perform ancient stories, combines film and television playback with physical performances, and brings the actors closer to the audience. It's a great alternative show I've seen so far.
(June 21, 2021)
【About the author】Shi Qinghua (male), retired teacher. Born from a humble background, I had the privilege of growing up, but the years were staggering, and I achieved nothing, so I had to work diligently and be a down-to-earth person. No ambition, socializing with civilians, sour, sweet and bitter, clutching sorrow and joy, penetrating into the heart. However, I hope that he will awaken and strive to be self-motivated. Seek your own welfare and be loyal to your country. Talk about civilian affairs and share human feelings.