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Ad Rates / Articles / Classified Ads / Editorial / Home / Links / Showtime   China's Terracotta Army storms ROM   List John Norris Next   ROM visitors treated to Terracotta Army artifacts The 1974 discovery of China's Terracotta Army in an underground tomb has been described as "one of the most significant archeological finds of the 20th century.”   The Royal Ontario Museum's current The Warrior Emperor and China’s Terracotta Army exhibit consists of 250 artifacts from that tomb in northern Shaanxi province.   It is a small sampling of the over 8,000 life-size warriors, 130 chariots, 520 horses, 150 cavalry horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen, and musicians discovered in the tomb of more than 180 pits.   But the Toronto exhibit, running through to Jan. 2, is expected to draw huge crowds.   The Consul General of China has compared the find as being “equivalent to what Classical Greece is to the West.”   Created over 2,200 years ago during the Qin (pronounced “chin”) dynasty, the tomb is often referenced as the “eighth wonder of the world.”   Dr. Shen Chen, ROM’s senior curator of the exhibit, said just the core area alone of the tomb covers two University of Toronto campuses.   The tomb is “a striking message to the future” and its architect Emperor Qin Shihuang “revolutionary in death as in life,” he said.   ROM’s exhibit includes 10 life-sized complete terracotta sculptures of eight human figures and two horses. Of the former, six are warriors, including two of the nine generals ever recovered, one is a civic official, and one an entertainer. Each is unique, “exquisitely executed,” and accorded a “distinct personality.”   A favourite warrior is the Kneeling Archer. With traces of orange paint striping his breast armour, his left arm curves downward toward his right hand, cupped as to grasp his bow, displayed in another glass case with other weapons.   Another favorite gracing ROM ads is an officer standing formidably with hair topped in a bun, facial expression stern with pronounced nose and moustache, and broad scarf criss-crossed snugly around his neck.   Also exhibited are a multi-colored wall painting on clay with black dominant; gold objects (eg. currency, pendants, ornaments); a bronze ritual vessel; a tomb gate set; a suit of stone-plaque armour and helmet; and a life-sized bronze swan.   The warriors in particular had already received a lot of publicity. As early as 1992, the Army was featured in an episode of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?   In the 2003 movie, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Croft (i.e. Angelina Jolie) is wildly pursued in a cave by a Chinese robber recklessly wielding a sword that hacks into pieces some of the terracotta warriors he’d stolen. Of course, they’re just movie props, copies of the real terracottas. Nevertheless, with every screening, art lovers squirm, aghast at the very thought of the warriors’ wanton destruction.   In 2004, the army was visited by the contestants on Season 6 of TV’s The Amazing Race. In 2008, the army was replicated in the movie The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.   Last January, China’s World Chocolate Wonderland Theme Park in Beijing opened its own exhibition of the warriors, 560 of them made from 80 tons of chocolates coated in powder to give them the earthy, matte look of their terracotta counterparts.   The actual terracotta warriors vary in height according to their role, the tallest being the generals, and were placed in precise military formation according to rank and duty. Just as Egyptian pharaohs’ tombs were adorned with possessions to accompany the rulers in the afterlife, so were the terracottas to help Shi Huang rule another empire in his afterlife.   The warriors could defend him, he felt. Ironically, he ordered no two soldiers be made alike. That’s what’s so fascinating about them. Their various sizes of heads, arms, legs, and torsos, with varying uniforms and hairstyles even - an officer bears a knot of hair tied in a bun on top - were created by approximately 700,000 workers separately in workshops, assembled, and painted.   Eight face moulds were used, and clay added to provide individual facial features and intricate facial expressions. That they have survived at all testifies to (1) the skill of their unidentified makers and (2) to the power of Shi Huang, who, at age 13, ordered their making, just as the pharaohs ordered the pyramids.   Nearby, Shi Huang’s very tomb is under an earthen pyramid – unopened -- as it is too fragile to chance damaging any treasures buried with him.   William Thorsell, the ROM’s director and CEO, says the current exhibit is "the most rewarding experience we've had . . . further enriching our visitors’ experiences (of) China’s rich cultural legacy.”   China is about ceremony. Accordingly, the exhibition opened in June with a fanfare of drums and gongs loudly accompanying two dancers dressed as dragons in China’s traditional red and gold, weaving their way among the audience and dignitaries from Canada and China.   In addition, these same dignitaries aped Thorsell in “dotting the eye of the dragon” to bring good luck to the exhibition, as is customary to greet the New Year.   As with previous exhibitions at the ROM, visitors can pause and watch videos throughout the exhibit, including a giant one in black and white running along the top rear of the hall space and depicting the contents of the tomb proper.   The exhibition explores the figures in a broad historical and social context, and it has a three-part chronological storyline: The “Rise of Qin” concentrates on Ying Zheng’s becoming the Duke of Qin; The Terracotta Army focuses on Qin’s life and legacy, his becoming king of all China in 221 BC, and the emergence of his “army”; The Harmonious Han explores the changes following Qin’s death in 210 BC and Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 221). It also produced terracotta soldiers, ladies and farm animals but smaller.   Admission is $31 adults; students and seniors, $28; children 4-14, $19.50; aged three and under, free.   After January 2, the exhibition travels to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Calgary’s Glenbow Museum, and Victoria’s Royal BC Museum.   Photos: 1 - Armoured general earthwnware from 221-206 BC   2 - Duke of Qin's bronze bell 771-481 BC   3 - Terracotta horse earthenware, 221-206 BC   4 - Gold fitting for a bridle   All images © Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau and the Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Centre, People’s Republic of China, 2009 unless otherwise specified.   John Norris is a Toronto freelance photojournalist and retired English teacher. He has written articles, with photos, for antiques and other journals across Canada, the United States and Britain.     Return to top of page   This Is Livin' Publishing © 2010 581 8th Line West, RR1 Hastings, ON, K0L 1Y0 Phone/Fax: 705-696-1833   webmaster