Warriors

Perhaps this was more appropriate last week, but with the high winds, cold temperatures and snow, I decided to do a still tonight, and the Warriors were the perfect models.

Last July, I had the privilege of visiting the Qin Terracotta Warriors in Xian, China with ramblerstale and worldlens. We were awed by the incredible numbers of full life size warriors together with their horses. We also were able to visit the Han Terracotta Warriors. These warriors are much smaller, but there are even more of them, together with their horses, chariots and animals!

Legend has it that the Qin Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, wanted to bury his real army with him when he died. But a wise counselor suggested that he make terracotta warriors, horses and chariots to accompany him into the afterlife. The Emperor took his suggestion and gave the order to have thousands of warriors, horses and chariots made. They were discovered in 1974 by a group of farmers. They have only uncovered three pits with over 8,000 warriors, but they believe there are as many as 9 other pits yet to excavate. The farmers who discovered the warriors ended up losing their fields. But the only surviving farmer was recently given a position at the museum - to pose for photos with the tourists for a fee.

As a momento, I purchased these two small replicas of the captain (standing) and the archer. We pulled a fast one on my husband, and told him that we were shipping full size replicas home. When I arrived home, he was so disappointed that I hadn't really sent him the life size warriors! He promised that when he goes to visit Xian, he will be sending the army home!

Thank you so much for all of your wonderful comments, stars and favorites for KT. KT made the spotlight for a short time today. Thank you for putting him there. He and I were both very surprised and deeply honored.