Silk Road: Hand Shredded Lamb

Roasted whole lamb presented to our table with a red bow

You can't go to Xinjiang without eating lamb. Lamb kebabs, lamb dumplings, lamb with noodles and whole roasted lamb.

We had a chance to have the whole roasted lamb in a dish called shou zhua gua yang or literally "hand shredded lamb" at a restaurant in Dunhuang before we watched the show about the Mogao Grottoes.

Lamb roasting in one of many charcoal ovens

Like every other restaurant we ate at during our tour, they were catered to tour groups and this one was not exception. At the entrance to the restaurant were brick ovens powered with white hot charcoal where they had really young lambs that were spread as flat as possible onto racks and then roasted.

They were slow roasted for about two hours so that in the end the skin was very crispy, most of the fat had melted and the meat very tender.

When the lamb was ready, it was strangely presented on a stainless steel platter with leaves in its mouth. It's almost as bad as the glowing red eyes that some whole roasted pork have...

Apparently there is a ritual around cutting the lamb -- where the eldest at the table is given the knife to make the first cut. My uncle was given the knife and he stabbed the lamb... as if it needed to be killed -- again.

Afterwards the lamb is shredded for consumption. Dig in!

The lamb was then taken back to the kitchen and soon afterwards it reappeared on our table completely ripped up into chunks and bits.

Each of us were given a thin plastic disposable glove to grab the meat and dip it into a choice of a few sauces, but really it was fine on its own. The meat was very tender, particularly those near the bone. Some of us licked the bones clean too.

This lamb dish was accompanied by mostly vegetable dishes, like pickled radishes, mung bean jelly, cucumbers with garlic and fried vegetables.

Silk Road: Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves

A view of Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves at the foot of Flaming Mountain

Buddhism came to China through the Silk Road, and the first contact point was in what is now Xinjiang. Early on the Uyghurs were Buddhists and Turpan became the centre of the religion.

One of the lasting tributes to Buddhism is the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves that are located at the bottom of the Flaming Mountains, 45 kilometres east of Turpan.

There is a range of painting styles that can be found here

These series of caves are quite amazing, in the middle of nowhere, much like the Mogao Grottoes, and whatever is left is quite impressive. The caves were built during the Southern and Northern dynasties or the 5th century through to the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties or 14th century.

Inside the caves are beautiful murals of Buddha in the past, present and future, along with his disciples and followers painted in various styles depending on the dynasty. Some of the murals still have some vibrant colours with very intricate designs that cover every inch of space.

However around the end of the 13th century Buddhist Uyghurs were converted to Islam during a holy war when the they were conquered by the Muslim Chagatai Khanate ruler Khizr Khoja. Therefore, interest in Buddhism declined, while Islam was introduced.

The skin colour of these figures used to be pink long ago

As a result, these caves became neglected, while in subsequent centuries later robbers cut out and stole entire pieces of murals, or Muslims who were anti-Buddhist came and gouged out the eyes of and mouths of figures on the walls.

It was a pity to only see a few caves -- that are guarded nowadays by Uyghurs to ensure no one took pictures of each -- but you can see why it's so important that these caves be guarded.

Strangely these caves are not considered to be good enough to be national treasures on par with Mogao Grottoes as these ones are some of the earliest known Buddhist art work dating back to the 5th century; the Mogao Grottoes date back to the 4th century.

The intricate paintings are impressive

Some patches of murals can be seen in museums around the world, such as the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Tokyo National Museum, the British Museum in London and national museums in Korea and India.

Apparently some of the best pieces were afixed to the walls of the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin, but during World War II, they could not be removed and were thus destroyed in the bombing of of the city by the Allies.

It makes you wonder how many Uyghurs today know their history with regards to Buddhism and would they consider converting back?

Silk Road: Dunhuang Celebration

Learning about the story of the Mogao Grottoes through an outdoor show

To extend our Mogao Grottoes experience we got to see a show related to the caves. We didn't quite know what to expect, but then again, what else are you going to do in the evening in Dunhuang?

Our tour guide didn't know the show would be outside, so it did get a bit chilly, but given that an audience of several hundred were packed together, we were able to generate some body heat.

Special effects like these fire-related splashes were a bit much

The stands where the audience sat could move and it turned at right angles around four times to face four different stages. It's described as "luxury live desert theater", but how is it luxurious if you have to brave the natural elements? And the plastic seats aren't very comfortable... are we asking for too much?

The story is about a painter called Mo Ding who works in Dunhuang, painting in the caves. It is highly dubious that he and a princess fall in love, but we suspend our doubts, because there's conflict in that she is betrothed to a warrior leader in order to have peace in the area.

The smitten couple escape and hide for a while, but then the barbarian leader finds her and takes her back -- she apparently later dies of depression! In the end, Mo Ding continues his mission by expressing his love for her on the murals at Dunhuang.

Some of the projections are pretty neat, creating a 3D effect, or at least adding another layer to the production, while other scenes, like in Dunhuang town dancing in the streets and couples standing by windows were irrelevant. There were also some fire special effects used that again were not relevant to the story, but were there to keep the audience interested.

A romantic ending with some 3D projection

The ending was kind of tacky, women dressed in white with the dresses covered in LED lights, while Mo Ding and the princess danced on a huge crescent moon...

Having just been to New York where the performers on Broadway are thrilled to be on stage, the dancers here looked at it as a job, some appeared bored, others managed a smile or two.

The performers stood on or by the stage as the audience left, and a few elderly women pinched some of the young women's cheeks as if to check if they were real or not. Did the performers get this kind of treatment all the time? How bizarre!

It was an entertaining show for the most part, though it's heavily promoted by the government which makes us wonder who gets how much of a cut out of it. Since it's the only show in town, there's pretty much a captive audience every night...

Silk Road: Mogao Grottoes

The Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu province

About 10 years ago when I was in Beijing, I checked out an exhibition that was a replica of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang.

There are over 400 caves, but only a handful shown publicly

I didn't know anything about them but it sounded fascinating and was so glad I went. Afterwards I was thinking, I have to see the real thing... wherever Dunhuang is!

It took me a decade to finally go see the place in person and it has to be appreciated on so many levels in terms of art, history, and society. It all started in 366AD, when a Buddhist monk named Le Zun was traveling in the area and had a vision of a thousand Buddhas. He built a cave here in hopes of reaching nirvana.

Others soon followed, digging out their own caves and began decorating them with paintings. It's here in these caves or grottoes that one can see not only the artistic skill that spans over 1,000 years, making it a kind of library of art history of that time, but also how Buddhism was depicted and studied.

Some caves reveal intricate artistic detail and vivid colours

Some pilgrims paid artisans to decorate caves for them, and so it must have become a mini industry in the middle of the desert to demonstrate their devotion to Buddha. Apparently there were some 1,000 caves, but when they were abandoned, the desert sands took over them; there are 735 left, of which almost 500 are decorated.

While most of the caves feature three Buddhas -- the present, past and future, along with musicians and dancers that seem weightless in the sky, there were also more down-to-earth portraits of wealthy patrons, such as the Cao family, featuring women in long robes and make-up. Others captured daily life, such as farming and the foods they ate.

Musicians in flowing robes performing for Buddha

We only saw about seven caves and the ones we saw were not all in good condition. Some figures had black faces, but that's because the pink colour had oxidized over the decades and centuries. Some caves had glaringly empty spots where sculptures used to be and had been stolen, or the "eyes" of Buddhist disciples scratched out because they used to have gold on them.

One cave had a giant Buddha lying on his side after death, his disciples mourning in grief, while another had Buddha standing up 75 feet tall.

Black faces are from oxidation of the paint on the walls

A reminder of foreign theft was shown in one cave that had stored 7,000 manuscripts including the Diamond Sutra that was published in 868AD and were gone, now in the British Library. The caves are individually locked with padlocks which our guide has to use a key to open each one and lock afterwards.

We were lucky to come here just before the Golden Week rush, so there wasn't a massive crowd of people, and we came early in the morning too. We wished we could see more, and the prime examples of caves, but alas, our guanxi wasn't good enough.

But just to have the experience of being in these caves and seeing the majesty of the art work was enough to satisfy our curiosity. Will we come back? Not sure, but at least we saw a slice of it.

Some have large statues housed in them with disciples

No wonder artists like Zhang Daqian came here to copy many of the murals, staying here for months at a time. I managed to see some of his works from his time there in August when there was an exhibition in Macau.