For the first time, the reporter had the opportunity to follow Xuanzang's footsteps in person at 1999. Because he participated in an activity of the United Nations, he had the opportunity to inspect along the grassland Silk Road. The ancient Silk Road was divided into land and sea, and the land Silk Road was divided into the desert Silk Road east of Pamirs and the grassland Silk Road west of Pamirs by historians according to their geographical features. At that time, the specific route of the delegation was from Moscow to Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, and then three characters "Zhi" were found in Central Asia, covering the route taken by Xuanzang.
From a cultural point of view, the significance of the Silk Road on land far exceeds that of the Silk Road on the sea. Because this commercial artery not only connects the Han Empire, Guishuang Empire, Rest Empire and Roman Empire in the core area of human culture, but also has the most thorough cultural connection among Nestorianism in Rome, Buddhism in India, Islam in Arabia, Manichaeism in Persia and Zoroastrianism. However, from 300 AD, the Silk Road began to decline. By the time Xuanzang passed here in the early 7th century, the Silk Road was bleak and no longer brilliant.
Although the area we walk in is called the Grassland Silk Road, its landform is actually dominated by desert surrounding oasis. From a distance, the mountains are covered with snow, the mountains are green, and yellow is pouring out from the depths of green. Transpiration in the distance is like a wrinkled plastic sheet under the action of light, hanging in the drought, and the figure becomes a small mud spot on it. I am filled with emotion when I think of Xuanzang's hurried figure in the desert.
I remember that the Ji 'an Temple in Xi 'an preserved a stone carving of Xuanzang's Buddhist scriptures: Xuanzang wore a monk's suit and hung beads on his chest, which looked like an emperor and a saint. He wore sandals on his feet, a small package of clothes tied around his waist, a scripture in his left hand, a duster in his right hand, and a book box on his back. The round cover on the top of the bookcase is an umbrella with a small oil lamp hanging in front of it. This is probably the scene of Xuanzang chanting on the road at night. Song Dynasty stone carving authors seem to have no travel experience. In the vast wilderness, it is impossible to read while walking alone.
The most rare thing in the desert is the oasis. Every time we go to such a place, we will deliberately stop to look at the life of the descendants of the ancient caravan. The local distinguished elders will welcome us with bread and salt, which is the heritage of the Silk Road. They live a quiet and simple life here. The surrounding desert restricts the development of local economy, and these people basically maintain the living habits of 100 years ago. They provide us with the best food. Everyone can get two cucumbers, three tomatoes and a bowl of mutton soup. An elder here told me that his ancestors were mainly engaged in long-distance selling. When they came here from Hami, China, it was said that there was a plague in another oasis. They dare not move forward and settle here.
Xuanzang's journey is really hard. However, compared with other monks who went to India to learn Buddhist scriptures, he was much luckier. At that time, there were many monks in China who decided to go west, but except Faxian, Xuanzang and Yijing, they all died of hunger and cold or were killed by thieves. So every time I stare at the image of Xuanzang, the reporter always feels that it is the accumulation of countless images of ancient monks in China.
Xuanzang trekked in the deserted 800-mile desert. After crossing Lingshan Mountain, he must look back at Tianshan Mountain, because it is really "dangerous and windy". Xuanzang not only outlined its geographical location, but also accurately described it as "hundreds of cliffs, steep valleys, continuous accumulation of ice and snow, and cold winds." Following the United Nations delegation, the reporter had the opportunity to overlook the magnificent scenery of Tianshan Mountain and Pamirs from the air.
Because there are many Soviet military bases on the west side of Tianshan Mountain, the helicopter that the reporter took can only fly over Tianshan Mountain very quickly and stick to the cliff, but overlooking the "roof of the world"-Pamir Plateau is still very shocking. Here is the "knot" formed by the intersection of Tianshan Mountain, Kunlun Mountain and Hindu Kush Mountain. The huge energy in the depth of the rock layer offsets each other here, forming a gentle mountain range with an altitude of 4200 meters. From the helicopter, you can see a clear stream in the valley, covered with green grass and dotted with small yellow flowers. An unknown animal seemed to smell something at this time and quickly flashed behind the rock. The local tour guide said it was a snow leopard. This snow leopard activity is in the area between 1800 meters and 5500 meters above sea level. The tour guide said that there is a legendary "snowman" activity in Pamirs.
Central Asia is beyond Pamirs. The neighboring countries of Central Asia are the centers of ancient civilizations, so this place has become a collision intersection of different civilizations and an eternal crossroads. Looking through history, we will find that the dynasties in the early history of Central Asia, like a short tornado, were arrogant for a while and finally fell in the desert without exception. It was not until the 7th century that Islam entered Central Asia that Central Asia gradually gained its own identity and character.
Xuanzang seemed to be in a hurry when he passed by here, and he didn't pay much attention to the two ancient cities standing here-Bukhara and Samarkand. But when Xuanzang entered the Western Regions, China had been in contact with the Western Regions for at least eight centuries. From Turkmenistan to Uzbekistan, we often hear local people talk about two kinds of animals, one is the silkworm in China, and the other is the horse in the western regions. When we visited Mosor Racecourse in Turkmenistan, the owner here talked about how much the emperor of China liked their "Tianma". The heavenly horse in his mouth is really extraordinary, elegant and noble, and the chestnut hair is as soft and bright as satin. However, when the reporter asked whether this kind of horse was the BMW with blood described in ancient Chinese books, the owner of the racecourse said that he had only seen a horse with blood on his shoulder once in his life, but the horse died soon.
Bamiyan is the most famous place Xuanzang passed by in recent years. Sadly, it is associated with a cultural disaster that shocked the world. In 2002, journalists set foot on the land of Bamiyan, when the United States used force against the Taliban, which facilitated their trip to Afghanistan. From the plane, Afghanistan is a rolling and desolate hill, dotted with oases full of honeycomb adobe houses. The river flows out of an oasis, only a light wave appears and evaporates in the sand, making the trees in the distance wait hard.
After Xuanzang entered Afghanistan from Central Asia, his walking speed slowed down obviously, and he felt that Buddhism at that time had been quite declining. He lamented from time to time: "Although there are many Galand, there are few monks"; The courtyard is lonely and there are no monks. However, there are more than 6,000 grottoes on the cliff, and Bamiyan, who has six giant buddhas in the grottoes, still gave Xuanzang a great surprise. In his works, the giant Buddha is "resplendent and magnificent, and the jewels are decadent". However, when the reporter visited here, the Bamiyan Buddha statue group was already desolate. Grottoes are the remains of Buddha statues, and the gravel and yellow clods scattered outside the grottoes should be the "bodies" of the giant Buddha. Some plastic sheets were covered on it, which read "Protected by UNESCO". There are vacancies in the shrines of nearby temples. The grottoes on the mountain wall are places where Buddhist believers practice, and now there are more than 600 Afghan refugees living here.
Xuanzang continued his westward journey from Afghanistan and entered today's Pakistan and India. In these two places, he visited many Buddhist centers, including Buddhist shrines in Pakistan, Taxila, where Buddhist sculpture reached its peak, and Rokuyaun and Bodhgaya in India. These local journalists visited them one after another after they became Indian journalists in May, 2000, but among them, the destination of Xuanzang's westward journey, the Western Heaven where he learned from the scriptures, had to be mentioned.
Xuanzang arrived in Nalanduo Temple in 630 AD. Nalanduo Temple was then the largest temple in India and the center of Buddhism in the world. "There are always thousands of monks and guests." In the 5th century A.D., King Gupta built the Buddhist Academy here, which not only taught the scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism and Hinayana Buddhism, but also taught Brahmanism and Vedic literature, philosophy, astronomy and other subjects. When Xuanzang arrived, it was the place with the richest collection of books in Nalanduo Temple, where Xuanzang read and became familiar with various Confucian classics. However, he is still not satisfied. He left Nalanduo Temple to travel around India for six years, and finally returned to the temple to become a visiting professor, preaching Mahayana theory, knowledge-only choice theory and other classics to the monks in the whole temple.
It is said that there was a Brahmin at that time. He was self-reliant and knowledgeable, and even challenged Nalanda Temple, claiming that no one in the temple could refute his views. In order to maintain the Buddhist status of Nalanduo Temple, Xuanzang stood up and argued with the Brahmins, but after a while, the Brahmins bowed their heads and gave up. Seeing that China, a monk with a short nose and small eyes, can speak fluent Sanskrit, the onlookers suddenly admired three points. By the time Xuanzang casually asked a quotation, he was so impressed that Xuanzang became famous from then on. In 642 AD, the Buddhist debate in Qunnv Town brought greater honor to Xuanzang, but he declined the invitation from other countries and resolutely set off for home with 675 Buddhist scriptures.
Various religious philosophies were discussed in Nalanduo Temple for 800 years, but the Muslim army came. 1 197, after a period of burning and looting, Nalanduo Temple, the ideological home of Buddhism, was never known. It wasn't until 186 1 that people rediscovered this site with the help of The Tale of the Western Regions of Datang. Today, this magnificent Buddhist building is in ruins and is protected by the Indian Archaeological Supervision Agency. However, there is a brief introduction next to almost every site here, introducing when Xuanzang came here and what activities he engaged in here. Although the text is short, it expresses the Indian people's infinite gratitude to Xuanzang, the pioneer of Sino-Indian cultural exchange, and the author who interprets the most important historical document of Indian Buddhism-The Tale of the Western Regions of Datang.
The basic route of Xuanzang's trip: In 627 AD, Xuanzang set out from Chang 'an, sneaked into Yumen Pass, took Yiwu (now Hami, Xinjiang), went west along the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain, passed Aryan State (now Yanqi, Xinjiang) and Qu Zhi State (now Kuqa, Xinjiang), and crossed Lingshan Mountain. After the founding of the People's Republic of China (now east of Samarkand), it crossed the iron gate (now Buzgara Pass in southern Uzbekistan) to Tuholo (now the northern border of Afghanistan), then went south, passed through Daxue Mountain (now Hindu Kush Mountain), came to Fanyana (now Bamiyan, Afghanistan), and went east to Matola (now Peshawar, Pakistan) to enter India. In the spring of 643 AD, Xuanzang went north, passed through Pakistan, passed through Afghanistan, crossed the Pamirs, and returned to Chang 'an along the southern line of Tarim Basin.
Cowboys in the west get together once a year.
Tame wild horses and fly down calves with one hand.
Chen Tean
Calgary, an important town in western Canada, is known as the "Cow City", with Rocky Mountains in the west and prairies in the east. Since 19 12, cowboys from western Canada and the United States have come here to hold competitive meetings every year. Calgary's rodeo has a strong local flavor and many competitions, which is called "the biggest rodeo in the world".
Calgary Cowboy Festival is held on Friday in the first week of July every year, lasting 10 days. Early in the morning, almost all local people and foreign tourists wore cowboy hats, jeans and cowboy boots. After enjoying the free breakfast, people flocked to watch the opening ceremony parade of Cowboy Festival.
At 8 o'clock in the morning, the streets near the parade route are already three floors and three floors are crowded with people. In some areas, multi-storey stands have been set up. In the waiting crowd, many people wear blankets or sit on quilts and sleeping bags. It turned out that they all came from the suburbs or other places the night before to watch the parade. In Calgary in summer, the temperature difference between morning and evening is large, and the temperature at night is as low as 9 degrees Celsius, which has not affected people's enthusiasm for attending the Cowboy Festival at all.
At 9: 30, the parade officially began. The 4.5-kilometer parade was protected by police cars. In the parade of nearly 100 people, there are Canadians and aborigines representing Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Arabia. The performance of shepherds herding sheep in the parade was particularly eye-catching. I saw the sheepdog lying on the ground and the sheep stopped at once. The sheepdog jumped and ran, and the sheep immediately followed.
There are also cleaning vehicles with horsehead shapes in the parade, which are arranged in the middle and tail of the parade respectively. The cleaner drives a horse-headed car to clean up the horse manure and other garbage on the road in time. After the two-hour parade, hundreds of thousands of people dispersed, leaving no garbage on the streets.
The cowboy park in western Calgary is the most attractive place for the cowboy festival. It is not only a place for teenagers to entertain, cultivate adventurous spirit and seek excitement, but also a place for cowboys to show their courage and wisdom. I saw a young cowboy hooked up and hung in the air for dozens of meters. Suddenly, the hook came loose and the cowboy fell from the sky. The onlookers screamed at once. He landed safely in a net close to the ground and gave a thumbs-up to the onlookers excitedly.
There are many young riders around 65,438+00 years old among the cowboys in Saddle-shaped Stadium. The performance on the racetrack was exciting. The winner of the competition can get a huge bonus. Although the tickets are expensive, the most biased seats cost 33 Canadian dollars (1 Canadian dollars is equivalent to 5 yuan RMB). Looking around, all the seats in the stands are full of people.
In the horse racing performance, cowboys ride on the backs of wild, fierce and violent horses or cows, laughing their heads off. An unruly horse or cow always tries to leave the cowboy behind. Cowboys should be dexterous in arms, waist and legs, adapt to the rhythm of horses or cows jumping wildly, and firmly grasp the reins. In order to win, the cowboy must stay on the back of a big cow for 8 seconds, and then he can escape the attack of the angry bull safely after being thrown. Or when riding a horse, the spurs always hold the horse, and the cowboy's hand can't touch the horse. In the competition of catching calves with bare hands, the cowboy riding a horse galloped within a certain distance and pounced on the running calf. He grabbed the horn with his eyes and hands, and with all his strength, he broke the calf's neck. As a result, both the cowboy and the calf fell to the ground.
The carriage race attracted many spectators. Four horses are running on the runway with their carts. The audience joined in and cheered for the carriage. People shouted at the top of their lungs, "Run! Run! " Because there were too many galloping horses, some horses knocked each other down while grabbing the road. The scene was really lively.
Cowboys are pioneers in people's minds, full of youth and vitality. They are hardworking, brave, determined and straightforward, and carry forward their personalities. Nowadays, the clothes worn by cowboys have become an important part of world popular culture. According to Blond, director of the Calgary Cowboy Festival News Center? Hencha introduced that the purpose of holding a large-scale rodeo is to protect and carry forward the local historical heritage, respect and inherit the cowboy culture and carry forward the cowboy spirit. At the same time, it has added vitality to the development of agriculture, trade, culture and entertainment, sports and education in western Canada. According to the figures provided by the person in charge, this year's Cowboy Festival added 3,500 jobs to Calgary, attracting more than 65.438+0.2 million tourists, with a net income of 65.438+0.4 billion Canadian dollars.