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 – Muslims and water fountains, babies walk on roads inclined, Azzurro) and the 藏 (the Tibetans – I can’t hear you, the white yak, the majestic, and the worm, two hundred by two hundred), 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