Gansu, 我的老家

from Early October 2009:

Gansu province was really unique, on the border of Tibet and Xinjiang. Actually, my grandfather is from there, and i have some of his characteristics. especially the large nose. It is on the Western edge of the Chinese Empire, and thus the area has a large population of minorities- especially religious minorities- muslims, tibetans, etc.

We went to the mogao grottoes, where the massive Buddha statue’s foot was as large as I was. Sadly, no pictures allowed. The Buddha caves were filled with statues, scriptures, and wall paintings. It was so magical to see these Indian influenced caves the earliest ones) with peacocks drawn in, as peacocks are exclusive to india. Some caves had a wooden ceiling painted on, and to prevent fire, and water patterns drawn in between the beams
grottoes
the ginormous buddha sat in that temple, his head more or less reached the top tier of the wooden beams. and the colors were so well preserved from hundreds, maybe nearly a thousand years ago.
paintings, similar to what were in the caves!

The desert:
Trekked two hours into the desert, the camels were fun and obedient, had an amazing dinner made for us on the spot, hiked up a sand dune. Watched a breathtaking sunset. Crawled/ slithered down the sand dune.


remnants of the great wall, on the western edge of Gansu. i coulda jumped over that if i wanted to...

We went to linxia to visit a muslim community. The kids were adorable, and some wore their shoes backwards. We visited a pretty grimy and dusty street market, but the people there were so warm and curious about the American way of life. They didn’t believe I was American because I wasn’t white! Haha it was so refreshing to see this totally different lifestyle of China, where most people didnt look Han Chinese but had larger noses, lighter hair, ruddy skin.
this guy was real tough with his HUGE sunglasses. i had to get a photo with him. a mosque in Linxia, reminds me of the great mosques in Istanbul and Iran
adorable boy that loved the attention he was getting from all of usselling tea in the street market. my mother says the man on the right looks shockingly similar to my grandfather

Then.. went to the Labrang monostary, a Tibetan complex of great significance. We spun the prayer wheels, went inside these lavishly decorated interiors with rich silks and fabrics, that burned yak butter candles.

monks in training running in the background. i really love this photo
prayer wheels

Finally made it to the sangke grasslands, visited a nomadic family and their horses and sheep and stuff. The kids were going nuts over a ball that we brought, and we left it for them to play with. Last we drovev a little further down, danced the Macarena with these teenagers/ 20 somethings, they taught us their dances and songs.