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Changling
Changling is the tomb for Emperor Yongle, the third Ming emperor, and his wife Empress Xu. He ruled for 22 years and made some achievements in political, military, economic, cultural and diplomatic fields.

Changling is located at the foot of Tianshoushan (Heaven and Longevity) Mountain and is the first and the largest of the Ming tombs. The tomb was constructed in 1409 and completed in 1427. It took almost 18 years.

In architectural design, it is square in the front and round in the rear, and is divided into three courtyards. The main buildings on the central axis are still standing.

Ling'an Hall, or the Hall of Eminent Favour, is grand and magnificent. It is 66.67 metres long from east to west and 19.31 metres wide from north to south. The 32 gigantic columns carved out of nanmu, a kind of cedar (this kind of nanmu can give off an unusual scent reputed to repel mosquitoes in summer), support the entire building. The four columns in the middle are the biggest, 1.17 metres in diameter and 14.3 metres in height. Each is made of a whole trunk. This kind of valuable timber came from Southwest China. The succeeding emperors used the hall for offering sacrifices to their ancestors.

According to historical records, 16 imperial concubines were buffed alive with the third Ming emperor, and the imperial concubines were permitted to be buried in the tomb of the emperor, various tomb grounds known as "pits" were built on either side of Changling. They were called pits because they were vertical shafts without horizontal tunnels.

Human sacrifice was a common practice in the slave-owning society in feudal China. From the Qin and Han dynasties onwards, wooden or earthen human figures were used instead, like the ones in Dingling. The first Ming emperor restored the old system. Those buried alive were granted honorable titles and their family members were usually assigned official posts.

This practice came to an end when the sixth Ming emperor made an edict in mid 15th century to abolish the system of human sacrifice.

A bronze seated statue of Zhu Di, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was designed by Miao Xintian, a sculptor in Shanxi Province and manufactured by the Dalian Daqing Metal Company Ltd. , was placed in Changling Tomb. The statue is 2.75 metres tall, 2.18 metres wide, and the total height is 4.08 metres, weighing 5.6 tons. A ceremony for placing the statue was held in Changling Tomb on September 18, 1999.


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Dalai Lama and Panehen Erdeni
When Tsong Kha-pa was alive, he had two famous disciples named Dalai and Panchen, who were later deemed the reincarnations of Tsong Kha-pa and succeeded to the throne of the Living Buddhas after Tsong Kha-pa's death with the titles of the First Dalai Lama and the First Panchen Erdeni. After that, the succeeding Living Buddhas inherited the titles. Up till now already the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and the Eleventh Panchen Erdeni exist. On either side of the statue of Tsong Kha-pa is a throne, the one on the left is for Dalai Lama when he came to preach; the one on the right for Panchen Erdeni. In 1954 Panchen Erdeni held Buddhist ceremonies here. "Dalai" means vast sea in Mongolian, and "Lama" means teacher in Tibetan.

The Reincarnation System
The Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682) declared that in the future when a Dalai Lama died his spirit would pass out of the corpse into an infant boy who had been born right at the moment of the Dalai Lama's death. The problem was to find the right child. In some cases the dying Dalai Lama would predict where his incarnation could be found. Quite often there were many babies born at the same moment and the investigation had to last for years. The childs boy must confirm to the ideal shape, notably a large head and generous ears, which were considered indicative of wisdom. Objects belonging to the Dalai Lama were identified, which would help establish whether the child was the living incarnation of the Dalai Lama. When he was two to six years old, his regents took him to Lhasa from his home for training. The parents of the chosen child, usually of humble origin, were also brought to Lhasa and given noble status. The Regents exercised full power until the Buddha incarnate reached the age of eighteen.

As the old reincarnation system had many disadvantages, Emperor Qianlong introduced in 1792 a new method of "drawing lots from the gold urn." The new system stipulated that many children were to be selected from various places after the death of a Living Buddha, and each child had a lot with his name inscribed on it. All the lots were to be put into a gold urn; lamas were to recite Buddhist scriptures. Buddhists believed that recitation of Buddhist scriptures was a process to reincarnate the dead. While people were watching, the high commissioners sent by the emperor would pick up the lot dropped out of the shaking urn and show it to the people. Therefore, the child with his name on it would be considered the reincarnation of the Living Buddha.

Scripture-Turning Wheel
The wheel is called the Scripture-Turning Wheel. It is said that each wheel, big or small, is stuffed with Buddhist scripture. If you turn it one revolution, it means you have already read all the Buddhist scripture once.

Buddhist Scriptures
Along the walls on both sides of the hall stand bookcases holding 108 volumes of the Buddhist Sutras in Tibetan language translated from ancient Indian language. It is titled The Great Tibetan Buddhist Sutra, with 207 volumes of the sequel of the Sutras. Now very few such Buddhist scriptures are preserved in perfect condition.

Mountain of Five Hundred Arhats ck wood and the arhats modeled out of gold, silver, bronze, iron and tin. Five hundred arhats are worshipped in some Buddhist temples. When Sakyamuni preached, there was no written scripture. Later his 500 disciples wrote down the Great Tibetan Buddhist Sutra according to what he preached. For their contributions, they were upgraded from lamas to arhats. Here a vivid picture shows they were on the road to Buddhahood.

Fish-and-Dragon Evolving Basin
This Fish-and-Dragon Evolving Basin is carved out of ebony wood. Buddhism has it that human beings evolved from fish, and those who have both ability and political integrity could continuously evolve to dragons. Emperor Qianlong had a bath in the basin when he was three days old. His mother hoped that her son would evolve to a dragon. So the basin is also called Three-day-old emperor Washing Basin.

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The Chinese people are sometimes thought to be rice-eaters, but most northerners prefer food made of wheat flour, and mantou is the most popular form of such food. It is made by steaming the dough and is therefore described in English as "steamed bread".

The first step in the traditional method of making mantou is fermenting the dough. Normally a small piece of leaven is kept from the previous time. This is well mixed in flour and water to make a new piece of dough, which is left for a few hours to swell. The leavening dough, when ready for steaming, contains a high degree of acid, so a suitable amount of soda solution must be mixed and well kneaded in it. The dough is then divided into smaller pieces, either round or square, which are arranged well spaced on a rack, and steamed under cover.

A kind of active yeast has been developed in recent years, making the steaming of bread easier. All one has to do is to solve the yeast in cold or lukewarm water and mix it well in dough. The dough is then kneaded, divided and shaped into pieces of a suitable size. Leave them in a temperature of 20.C to 30.C for half an hour at most, and they are ready for steaming. This method cuts short the period of leavening and improves the taste of the steamed bread.

An interesting story tells about the origin of mantou. It was first made, so the legend goes, by order of Zhuge Liang, a famous statesman and chief minister of the State of Shu during the Period of Three Kingdoms (220-280 A.D.). On an expedition to conquer the cave-dwelling southern Man barbarians who had often marauded his state, he came to the side of the Lushui River at the head of a big army. Someone told him that the river was poisonous and treacherous and that human lives would be lost in crossing unless the tyrannical River God was appeased. The way to do this, the man said, was to offer him mantou (heads of the captured barbarians) as human sacrifice. Now Zhuge Liang was a kind-hearted man. He accepted the suggestion but ordered to use "heads" (tou) made of dough instead of real human ones, thus saving a number of lives.

Since then the story goes on to say, mantou (barbarians' heads) has become a popular food and spread to the north of China.

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