Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
The caves were amazing. They are honeycombed on the cliff-face of the Mingsha Hills and are the richest treasure of Buddhist manuscripts, wall paintings and statuary. The caves span nine dynasties- from the 4th to the 14th Centuries.
The caves were supposedly started when a monk named Lie Zun came upon the cliff in 336 and had a vision of a thousand golden rays of light shining upon him like as many Buddhas. The monk asked a pilgrim to have one of the smaller caves painted and consecrated as a shrine to ensure his own safe journey. Other pilgrims and travelers followed and for the next thousand years, temples and shrines were carved out of the hill, painted and decorated by the pious to guarantee the success and safety of their journeys.
We saw the library cave and the caves containing the giant Buddha figures (“BFB” (Big F--- Buddha), two upright and one recumbent.
We had lunch back in town at Shirleys—once again, great food – and headed back to the caves after lunch.
Lily’s quote of the day, “I’m not a Buddhist, I’m a realist”
We had an hour after the caves before we had to head back to the train station. We stopped at “our place” in the market and the “three stooges” sat across from us and we traded phrases in English and Chinese.
Then it was on to Liuang in the ‘shake and bake’. We stopped for another flower stop with the drivers tribute: “May your beauty last as long as the yellow flower”…
John taught Lily the slave song from South Park, “Slaves never finish, master got me working, someday master set me free”. Then he tried to convince her to sing it to the next American tour group.
With time to spare, we walked through the local “free market”. I don’t think they’ve seen to many Caucasians here!
The train experience in China is never easy. Since it was peak tourist season, they had added a sleeper car to the train and we got to experience a true Chinese train boarding---lots of yelling and screaming. Lily threw us into our car and told us to keep the door locked. Outside, we could hear more screaming and yelling. Our ‘mama duck” left and we realized that we had no tickets and no water. A British couple following a similar itinerary had been booked on the same ticket with us and neither one of us had the ticket and the ticket enforcers were glaring at us. We finally found the CITS woman who had our tickets. She had been talking to one of her friends at the end of the car. We had another loud discussion and then just got into our beds and tried to sleep. The Brits came through with a bottle of water. Since we were connected at the end of the train to the baggage car, there was no way to get any service and hot water was not provided.
The caves were amazing. They are honeycombed on the cliff-face of the Mingsha Hills and are the richest treasure of Buddhist manuscripts, wall paintings and statuary. The caves span nine dynasties- from the 4th to the 14th Centuries.
The caves were supposedly started when a monk named Lie Zun came upon the cliff in 336 and had a vision of a thousand golden rays of light shining upon him like as many Buddhas. The monk asked a pilgrim to have one of the smaller caves painted and consecrated as a shrine to ensure his own safe journey. Other pilgrims and travelers followed and for the next thousand years, temples and shrines were carved out of the hill, painted and decorated by the pious to guarantee the success and safety of their journeys.
We saw the library cave and the caves containing the giant Buddha figures (“BFB” (Big F--- Buddha), two upright and one recumbent.
We had lunch back in town at Shirleys—once again, great food – and headed back to the caves after lunch.
Lily’s quote of the day, “I’m not a Buddhist, I’m a realist”
We had an hour after the caves before we had to head back to the train station. We stopped at “our place” in the market and the “three stooges” sat across from us and we traded phrases in English and Chinese.
Then it was on to Liuang in the ‘shake and bake’. We stopped for another flower stop with the drivers tribute: “May your beauty last as long as the yellow flower”…
John taught Lily the slave song from South Park, “Slaves never finish, master got me working, someday master set me free”. Then he tried to convince her to sing it to the next American tour group.
With time to spare, we walked through the local “free market”. I don’t think they’ve seen to many Caucasians here!
The train experience in China is never easy. Since it was peak tourist season, they had added a sleeper car to the train and we got to experience a true Chinese train boarding---lots of yelling and screaming. Lily threw us into our car and told us to keep the door locked. Outside, we could hear more screaming and yelling. Our ‘mama duck” left and we realized that we had no tickets and no water. A British couple following a similar itinerary had been booked on the same ticket with us and neither one of us had the ticket and the ticket enforcers were glaring at us. We finally found the CITS woman who had our tickets. She had been talking to one of her friends at the end of the car. We had another loud discussion and then just got into our beds and tried to sleep. The Brits came through with a bottle of water. Since we were connected at the end of the train to the baggage car, there was no way to get any service and hot water was not provided.
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