The beginning of day 2 started with a visit to the Ming Tombs. The Ming Tombs encompass 13 of the 16 tombs of the Ming Dynasty. There are 3 Emperors that are not buried in tombs - the first Emperor was buried in the old capital, the second Emperor was burned to death and they didn't have a body to bury (another good story to look up - it deals with the Dragon Lady and her quest to retain power), and the last Emperor (#16) because he lost power and was a disgrace - thus, no burial. Construction of the Ming Tombs started in 1409 and ended in 1644 (when the Ming Dynasty collapsed). There are 3 tombs that are still in tact and we visited the 13th tomb (the Ding Tomb - it covers 180,000 sq meters) - Emperor Zhu Yijun was buried in 1590 with his two Empresses (you should google that b/c it is an interesting bit of history full of scandal!). They put jade in the mouths of the Emperors to preserve the bodies.
This wall carving was on the way to the tombs:
The entrance to the tombs:
Flowers for the 50th celebration of the excavation of the tombs:
Flowers outside the entrance:
Michael snapping random pictures (we got our second wind so we could take more pics):
Looking up towards the Ding Tomb (it is on a hill - for feng shui purposes, of course). You can see the middle portion of the pathway is raised, the body of the Emperor was carried over the top of this path by servants (you'll see pics of the tomb later):
His body was also carried up the steps over this bronze carving:
I liked the little elephant seats:
This is before you head up into the tomb. The middle one is for incense, two are for flowers and two are for candles:
As always, feng shui dominates the layout. According to the Chinese, Heaven is a round shape, and Earth is a square shape - this is why the tomb is in this format (his tomb is in the Heaven portion):
You can tell the walkway starts to bend in a circle:
This is where they accidently found the coordinates for the Diamond Wall:
This is the Diamond Wall - my arms are completely outstretched and it is wider than my arm-span. This area was 27 meters deep:
The actual tombs! The smaller boxes are (were) full of offerings like silk, jade, textiles, wood, porcelain, etc. This is what the servants had to carry over that raised path!
Michael in front of the Emperor's and the Empress' tombs:
There were 3 thrones in the middle portion:
It was a huge area!
The other entrance to the tombs:
Leaving the tombs:
Me with a dragon-turtle:
1 comment:
Nice pics. Ming Dynasty Tombs are the thirteen Tombs of the Ming Empire.This location was cautiously selected as per the Feng Shui principles.It is a valley that has water and other necessities as per Feng Shui.
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