Saroj Gautam
Nepali audience lately have been enjoying an online exhibition on renowned ‘Terracotta Warriors’ museum located in Northwest China’s Shaanxi province.
Hundreds of Nepalese have already observed the pictures & visual materials along with textual details about the history of the ‘Terracotta Army’ during an ongoing online exhibition entitled ‘QIN-The Past and Present of Terracotta Warriors’ organized by China Cultural Center (CCC) based in Kathmandu.
The Terracotta Warriors of Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum, a series of beautiful and magnificent colorful terracotta warriors, that were unearthed more than two thousand years later, and were dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World” and ranked among the world’s civilization.
Discovered in 1974, the army of Terracotta Warriors was built by Emperor Qinshihuang of the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.-207 B.C.), who unified China for the first time.
The Nepali visitors express the amazement after digitally visiting Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum to catch a glimpse of the famous army of Terracotta Warriors.
“Chinese civilization is so rich and I wonder how beautifully they have preserved their past in such a perfect manner”, responded one of the exhibition visitors and a Kathmandu based Chinese language student Mr. Nikesh Shakya.
As the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting the physical gathering in Nepal, CCC has been utilizing online platforms to continue its tourism and cultural exchanges activities.
‘If the time was normal we would take group of Nepalese to visit the very site in China but corona pandemic has caused calendar halt at the moment’ said director of CCC Nepal, Xiao Jiang, adding ‘thankfully pandemic has not stopped us from organizing online activities to keep our connections alive.’
History of Terracotta Warriors
In the process of making terracotta warriors, the pottery model is first fired with yellow clay, and then filled with loess to make the shape, and then covered with the color of the fine clay to be fired in the kiln. Most of the figurines are spliced, and some are first fired and then assembled. The heat is uniform, the color is simple, the hardness is high, and the color is gorgeous. Pink green, vermilion, claret, pink, pink purple, sky blue, white, and ocher are the basic colors of coloring.
In March 1974, the terracotta warriors were uncovered by a farmer in Lintong, China when they drilled wells. So far, 4 pits have been discovered. Pit No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 have a dense array of terracotta warriors. Pit No. 4 Only the soil is sealed, there are no terracotta warriors. More than 8,000 terracotta warriors were unearthed in Pit No. 1, 2 and 3.
Terracotta warriors are mainly divided into two categories: soldiers and officers. According to their morphology, they are divided into chariots, standing warriors, kneeling warriors, samurai warriors, warriors, cavalry warriors, rider warriors, cart warriors, and pommel horse warriors. In December 1987, the Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum and the Terracotta Warriors were included in the World Heritage List. Since then, the Terracotta Warriors have become world-famous cultural of Shaanxi, and have become a must-see cultural landmark for foreign leaders and tourists visiting China.
The regular annual calendar of CCC in Nepal has been halted because of the second wave of corona pandemic.
The ongoing “Qin-The Past and Present of Terracotta Warriors” is a modern art online exhibition co-sponsored by the CCC and the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism. According to CCC, the exhibition that started on 5th of July 2021 will last till the end of this month.
