International: Quake Devastates a Slew of China's Historic Sites

May 22, 2008

Author: Andrew Jacobs

Source: International Herald Tribune

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/22/asia/temple.php

The whoosh of the Min river, roiling through the valley below, drifted up the mountain. A breeze jostled the leaves of ancient ginkos. Here and there, the whine of a distant siren pierced the tranquillity.

The only other sound was the clatter of broken roof tiles underfoot as Wang Zhongcheng picked through the remnants of Two Kings Temple, a 1,500-year old Taoist sanctuary perched above this city.

All around him was an astounding scene of destruction: Giant bronze incense burners shattered by falling masonry. An ancient pagoda obliterated. A monument to the temple's patron deity - said to be one of China's oldest stone statues - fractured at the waist.

"I think the heavens were teaching us a lesson," said Wang, 36, one of the monastery's resident monks. "This is what happens when the world is out of balance."

The earthquake that struck Sichuan Province last Monday killed more than 51,000 people and injured nearly 300,000. Hundreds of children have become orphans. More than five million are homeless.

But the catastrophe that destroyed so many lives has also taken a toll on a region rich in antiquities. Here along the quilt of jagged peaks that stretch north toward the Tibetan plateau, 184 historic sites were damaged or destroyed in the span of five minutes, according to a preliminary government tally. The home of Li Bai, one of China's most revered poets, was shaken apart. An 800-year old wooden pagoda in Jiangyou was badly damaged. In a far corner of the province, a centuries-old Tibetan Buddhist shrine in Nyitso was jolted off its foundation.

At the sprawling Two Kings monastery, built to honor an engineer who created a vast flood control system in 256 B.C. and now a Unesco World Heritage site, the annihilation was nearly complete. The steep stone footpaths have been heaved apart and all that remains of the gift shop is a tangle of ancient timber, dented Coke cans and dust-covered postcards.