04-25-2007 11:16
"Every cloud has a silver lining". And so it seems, do no clouds at all. The lack of rainfall in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has brought a drought which threatens local farmers livelihoods. But it's also brought about the rediscovery of some priceless ancient stone statutes.
The figures are believed to be the so-called "Ten Gods", of Indian Buddhism. Continuous drought has resulted in a dramatic fall of water levels at the Da-Zu-Zhong-Ao reservoir in Chongqing Municipality. And to the delight of archeologists, as the water levels fell, the group of stone statues emerged. The alcove in which the statues stand is four meters wide and just one meter tall.
Experts believe that they were made around nine hundred years ago, during China's Southern Song Period. And the fact is that the images are characters from Indian Buddhism. They have shed new light on religious cross-pollination between China and her neighbor.
Elsewhere in the Municipality, the famed "Da-Chang Ancient Town" threatened with eternal submersion by the Three Gorges reservoir has survived thanks to a two year relocation project. It now stands on a new site some eight Kilometers from the original. Today, visitors from around the world flock to the Da-Chang Lake to see the seventeen hundred year old town, blithely untroubled by its recent moving history.
Editor:Liu Fang
