day 230: 张掖 (zhangye) = 0km

The caboose was almost ready to go:

It only needed some minor adjustments and a complete coating in white to make it more tolerant to direct sunlight.

So I realized two things:

1) I wasn’t going to get anywhere today,

2) it was still before noon.

So I hopped on a bus…

…and went to 马蹄寺 (mati temple) a place 70km southwest of 张掖 (zhangye):

(I marked this place as a “Scenic Spot” in the Google Earth trackfile - you should easily be able to locate it!)

What’s so special about this place though?

Somewhat resembling the world-famous 莫高窟 (mogao grottoes) in 敦煌 (dunhuang), the amazing 马蹄寺 area consists of several temples and a system of Buddhist caves, the earliest dating back to the 4th century AD:

There are countless caves to explore:

And there are temples that have been built directly into the mountainside:

Most of the ancient shrines are not intact any more, having suffered destruction to a pretty massive extent, but they are still being actively used by the locals and by the guests from afar:

马蹄 (mati) means horseshoe, so the whole place is called “horseshoe temple”.

This is due to one certain stone in the temple that somehow has an imprint resembling a horseshoe:

Local belief has it was the legendary 格萨尔 (Gesar)’s flying horse that left this imprint when it kicked the ground here a long long time ago - according to the Tibetan epics.

…

There was another thing that I found very interesting about this place:

I might have to do a bit of explaining: China’s population is currently at about 1.4 billion. The nation consists of 56 ethnic groups, the 汉 (Han) forming the vast majority of more than 95 percent.

Two minorities that we’ve come across on the way so far are the 回 (the Muslim Hui - March 2nd 2008, March 30th 2008, April 8th 2008) and the 藏 (the Tibetans - May 24th 2008, May 25th 2008, May 26th 2008), both of which make up populations of several million people.

…there are some minorities that are a LOT smaller in terms of population though.

The 裕固 (Yugu) for example:

Having close ethnic and cultural ties to both the 回 (Hui) and the 藏 (Tibetans), this ethnic minority is one of the smallest in China, consisting of only a little more than 10.000 people, all of which traditionally settle only in this small area close to the 马蹄寺.

Unfortunately, I had to catch the last bus back at 17:30, and thus my time was very limited - I would have loved to find out more about the 预估-people and about the Buddhist caves that had formed such an important part of their living environment for so many centuries.

…

When I arrived in the city later that night, the caboose stood there, radiating with a sparkling whiteness:

She was perfect.

I gave many thanks to my dear 王先生 (Mr. Wang), then I gently rolled her home.

I had such high hopes for the caboose.

Soundtrack: Cool V - “Drop It”

—total: 2879,6km