Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1984 - 77

all inclusive:
Raschke.
hotels,air,meals,fees,
$1810,
motorcoach.
Sunset
8589SunsetBlvd., Buddha.
Call/write
Travel,
A tiny museum contains
LosAngeles,
CA90069.
652-3044
(213)
art of great importance, including a tall
and ENGLAND.
GREECE,
EGYPT,
Archaeologicaland slender Kudara Kannon carved from
July a single piece of camphorwood.
StudyTour.Leadership
byNicholas
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for
inclusive
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30-September
except
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Information:
Atlas
creditoptional.
TVavel practicalities
Titan
Room
Travel,
Center,
M-47,
Fullerton,
CSUF,
University
Free
brochures and maps from the
CA92634.
(714)738-1481
Japan National Tourist Organization
THAILAND.
areas (New York,
INDONESIA,
Explore
fascinating
Dallas, San Franwithexpert,
fewpeople
haveevervisited
David
Hicks, cisco, Los Chicago,Honolulu, and ToAngeles,
ofAnthropology,
StateUniversity
ofNewYork.
professor
ronto ) can help you start planning. Then
KuoFengTours,
2
June1984.3 weeks.
Contact:
Erika,
NewYork,
NY10038.
EastBroadway,
431-7323
follow through with your own travel
(212)
for a visa from your nearest
ANINTRODUC- agent. Apply
THEPYRAMIDS
ANDSPHINX:
consulate
or embassy. Hotels
Japanese
SEMINAR.
No
TORY
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hotels. are of various types- you can reserve
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Summer
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208Sanford,
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Itineraries,
Columbia,
for exciting new experiences. When
«SOUTHERN
GUATEMALA
TOURS. making plans, remember that most
MEXICO*
Indian
craftvillages.
ruinsoption.
Small museums in Japan are closed on Monday.
Explore
Palenque
17yearsexperience.
Write:
Gordon
Frost,Box
groups.
Tokyo's Narita Airport (40 miles out)
CA91321
471-AR,
Newhall,
and Osaka Airport welcome visitors on
Pan American, Japan Air, Northwest
Passport
Orient, Singapore, United, and other
continued from page 65
airlines. Most cruises stop at Yokohama
excavated finds and 17 reconstructed
and Kobe. For domestic travel, a best
models.
bet is to buy a Japan Rail Pass before
Three outstanding temples of Nara
you leave home. Domestic airlines fly
are:
one class only. Regular local ferries ply
* Kofukuji, Temple of Establishing Hapthe seas. Left-side-of-the-road driving
and language problems make driving
piness, moved to Nara in A.D.710by the
powerful Fujiwara clan. The 165-foot- rental cars difficult, but local tours by
high, five-story pagoda (rebuilt A.D. road, rail and water are offered by Japan
TVavelBureau, Fujita and Gray Line.
1426) is reflected beautifully on the
surface of Sarusawa Pond. To-Kando,
Subways and buses are safe and clean.
Your taxi driver will understand a note
just north, has a healing Buddha flanked
with your destination written in Japaby two lacquered wood statues of the
Hakuho period (A.D. 645-701) brought
nese. Tipping is not expected; porters
from another temple. Treasures from the
charge fees and establishments add
service charges.
original 175buildings have been gathered
in the National IVeasure House.
Language assistance is available from
* Todaji Temple, oldest and largest wood
good-will guides wearing badges or
structure in the world, was founded in
young people likely to be studying
a.D. 745. Important thunderbolt-wieldEnglish in school. Tourist Information
Offices (TIC) run by the Japan National
ing guardian deities stand in niches.
The temple is famous for the world's
Tourist Organization in Tokyo, Kyoto or
Narita have English-speaking experts.
largest bronze Buddha, Daibutsu- over
53 feet high and 452 tons- that took five
Elsewhere, dial 106for "collect call, TIC
years to cast, a powerful expression of
please."
the belief that everything in the universe
Group travel with archaeological oriemanates from the great Sun Buddha.
entation is sponsored by : Archaeological
Although the vast edifice (rebuilt A.D. Tours, 30 E. 42 St., New York, NY 10017;
1709)is 187 feet long and 161feet high,
Globus-Gateways, P.O. Box 482, Forest
the original was at least a third larger.
Hills, NY 11375;Inter-Pacific, 485 Fifth
An octagonal bronze lantern in front is
Ave., New York, NY 10017;Japan Club,
famous for the reliefs on its four faces.
354 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA
Don't miss the Shosoin TVeasureReposi90013; Japan TVavelBureau, 45 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019;Lindtory, shaped like a log cabin on stilts; for
1,200 years it has protected imperial
blad TVavel,P.O. Box 912, Westport, CT
jewelry, ceramics, masks, textiles, met06881;Pacific Delight, 132Madison Ave.,
alwork, and musical instruments that
New York, NY 10016; Serenissima, c/o
can be seen only from late October to
Hartours, 20 Providence St., Boston,
MA 02116;Smithsonian Associates, A&I
early November in the Nara National
Museum.
1278, Smithsonian Institution, Wash* Horyuji, Temple of the Noble Law,
ington, DC 20560; and University of
where Buddhism began to thrive in
Pennsylvania Museum, 33 & Spruce Sts.,
Japan..The complex of 40 buildings is 45
Philadelphia, PA 19104.
minutes from Nara. lb your left, through
Japan's museum cities- their palaces,
the Middle Gate (a.D. 711),a five-story
temples, shrines, old houses, and unpagoda rises on a double stone foundachanged customs- provide a window on
tion. Timbers are probably A.D. 607
a lively and intricate past. That past,
originals and a vault under the central
deeply influential on modern Japan, is
pillar contains a bone of the historical
waiting for you to enter.

In the Field
continued from page 63
animals were generally braided or
clubbed so they would not become entangled in the chariot wheels. Whichever
equid the artists have portrayed, it is
not Equus caballus cab alius, a conclusion shared by some Chinese archaeologists. But since these are modeled figures, not actual animals, this
slightly disturbing question may never
be resolved or proven.
It is not conceivable that the Mongolian people, long regarded as among
the best horsemen in the world, would
not have had a close association with
the indigenous horses of the Asian
steppes long before the larger horses
were introduced from the north and
west. Once this foreign stock was available for crossbreeding, horses possessing the characteristics of both types
could easily have been produced. And
the Chinese may well have maintained
and preserved some of the introduced
breeds without changing them at all.
The Mongolian ponies maintained
and herded by the people of Inner
Mongolia today are not large equids
compared to horses from other parts of
the world, but their stamina and quality
are equal to working horses anywhere.
While visiting the Museum of Inner
Mongolia, I was able to seek out and
photograph two sizable herds of Mongol
horses of about 200 animals each which
are maintained on the grasslands of
north China. I was particularly interested in the possibility that some of
these animals might still possess characteristics reminiscent of the wild
Przewalsky's horse. Although most of
the animals were small and heavy bodied
with strong heads, and a few had short
manes, most had the general features
of western horses. None at all resembled
the few known examples of the Przewalsky's horse extant today.
One of the archaeologists in Beijing
suggested that I visit the fine family of
Equus przewalskii housed in the Beijing
Zoo. He made arrangements with the
curator, and we went off to see living
examples of this wild Asian horse. Sure
enough, a splendid group- male, female
and young- were on exhibit. When I
asked where these fine horses were
obtained the reply was, "from the San
Diego Zoo," which has one of the few
breeding herds of Equus przewalskii.
During our visit to the zoo we learned
that an official government team of
zoologists had been making an exhaustive search to locate any truly wild
Przewalsky's horses that might still be
roaming China. Unfortunately, the results of this search were negative. These
zoo animals are the last representatives
of what were once large, free-roaming
herds that ranged over much of China
from Pleistocene times until about the
close of the nineteenth century.
1984
January/February

Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1984

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1984