China-Asia’s MilitaryThe Terracotta warriorsBy Dhiraj Amarnani

Are you a paranoid twelve year old emperor who is afraid of your subjects not respecting you after death? Then craft a giant ghost army to defend your tomb and rule an empire in the afterlife! Me entering the tomb, the icy freezing breeze spread across the area and swept away the warmth from my body. The presence of the 8,000 some warriors standing there and looking straight unerringly shocked us, especially since every man Chinese man of those thousands of figures had a unique facial feature that made him unlike the rest. The hundreds of tourists around me gazed into the very eyes of the clay molded soldiers imagine. Incomplete, they stood there, at times armless, legless or even headless. Some warriors were gloomy, some were enraged, and some even gave the impression of being happy as big grins spread across their faces. Like a horizontal tower, the pit stretched 230 meters long. Paved with bricks, it seemed indestructible. Still, the soldiers had lasted over two thousand years quietly resting in place. I stared into the eyes of a warrior envisaging the history that their single 6 foot tall soldier had carried with him over millennia.

China’s past army has not undergone such change from the first emperor of the Qui Dynasty in 210BCE to the famous Mao Zedong (1943) and his people’s republic of China which is known as China today. The order and respect both these great leaders were granted were more than satisfactory. Each leader had hundreds and hundreds of thousands of soldiers at their disposal, they both demanded immense amounts of respect and yet these individuals are both from two different millennia.

It is not like everything Mao Zedong accomplished comparing to what the first emperor of the Qui Dynasty performed were exactly the same, significant differences were definitely present. Today China includes over 500 million citizens eligible to fight for their country in any emergency while the population of the Earth was not even close to that vast two thousand years ago.

Uniforms create separation between those who wear it and those who don’t. Each and every Terra Cotta warrior within the same class wore the exact identical uniform, whether it was a sitting archer, cavalrymen or even the generals. These uniforms created a boundary amid people with responsibilities and duties versus people who didn’t. Even in today’s China, everywhere I went, I would see policemen, ticket collectors, snack vendors in the theatres all wearing similar or alike uniforms. Not even once was there a man or woman, whether it be a licensed tour guide, security guards and even the snack

vendors on the street selling various Chinese based food who was not dressed in a uniform.

Maecenas aliquampurus sodales mauris, eu vehicula lectus velitBy Trenz PrucaChina today is still a third world country but the times of the old army i.e. the Terracotta warriors, have come and gone and now and China is modernizing. It is developing for its future to be the strongest and most powerful country in the world.

The Terracotta warriors are more of a symbol to the eternal strength of China’s military and warfare over the generations that have passed. The warriors, also known as “The Eighth Wonder of the World” are contributed by the sheer numbers in which they were created. China is basically “The Army” of Asia, with currently over 500 million people fit for service out of its ever expanding population of 1.3 billion to date. China is today the military center of Asia. So come on down to the magical city of Xi’an, the home of the terrifying warriors; and check out the ghost army built by a twelve year old psychopath afraid of not being respected in the afterlife!

CHINA WEEKLYPit number 1-containing over 8,000 statues, its stands as the biggest pit founded of these magnificent soldiers.

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Mao Zedong and China’s Armylaoreet vestibulumBy Trenz Pruca

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Ancient Chinese artifacts (Left) Warrior in combat pose kept in a glass showcase(Right) Chariot found in pit 2 of the 3 pits of the warriors found

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10(Down) Vertical picture of the first pit containing over 8,000 soldiers

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