"The electricity here has run out," he said and handed us a fragrant candle.

The lama chanted scriptures as our guide, Wang Weixian, director of the Bairinzuo Banner Liao Shangjing Museum, unveiled a curtain hanging on the temple's back wall. Entering the stone gate behind the curtain, we climbed into an extremely dark grotto.

As the guide moved the candle, I saw in the weak light a four-metre-long statue of a reclining Buddha, and 18 statues around the Buddha, each with sadness etched on their face. Carved on the walls of the large grotto are more than 100 figures from Buddhism.

"The statues here depict the nirvana of the Buddha, and the grottoes, built by the Khitans in the Liao Dynasty (916-1125), were called the Zhenji Temple (the Temple of True Nirvana)," said Wang.

From a gate at the foot of the Buddha, we entered a dark narrow passageway leading to another grotto carved with various Buddhist figures. Wang moved the candle close to the statue of a Buddhist warrior.

"See his extremely strong chest muscles, the weapon in his hand and his horse-boots? He was actually a Khitan warrior," he said.

When we emerged from the grottoes, moon-lit clouds illuminated the vast grasslands, spreading silently from the foot of the cliff.

Tinged with red, the clouds provided shepherds with enough light to drive their sheep and cows across the grasslands at Bairinzuo Banner, Chifeng, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

"The ancient grandeur of the grasslands remains in the Khitans' fabulous art works at the Zhenji Temple," said Wang.

Archaeologists and historians agree that the grassland is the historical site of Shangjing (Grand Capital) of the Liao Dynasty, which was built by the Khitans in the early 10th century.

A project has been launched to guarantee the site's protection. Trial excavations, which will provide necessary information for future protection, have begun in the site's core areas.

"The Liao Shangjing historic site is one of the best protected of the 408 major historic sites that have been listed as Important Cultural Relics of China by the State Administration of Cultural Relics," said Wang.

"The success of the Liao Shangjing protection project can contribute to the protection of the major historic sites around the country."

Ups and downs

As the first capital on the grasslands in the northern part of China, the grand capital of the Liao Dynasty used to be reed marshes before Khitan Emperor Yelu Abaoji established his tent there in AD 908.

The grasslands witnessed the rapid rise of the Khitans in the reign of their emperor. Being warriors on horseback, the Khitans conquered part of the Mongo Plateau, the Bohai Kingdom (in today's Northeast China), Northwest China's Gansu Province and the Gaoli Kingdom (northern part of the Korean Peninsula).

With the expansion of the Khitan Kingdom, a prosperous city emerged on the reed marshes. Thirty years after the establishment of the first tent, the Grand Capital developed into the political and economic centre of the kingdom and the trade centre of the grassland silk road, which linked the Song Dynasty (960-1279) with the West and Central Asia, Japan and the Korean Peninsula.

The Hans from the south, the Bohais from the northeast and people of many other ethnic groups moved to Shangjing and developed various industries and arts there, according to the "History of the Liao Dynasty" compiled in the 14th century.

Historians estimated the population in two of the capital's counties to be more than 140,000.

The extreme prosperity of the grand capital in this 200-year period was demonstrated by a large number of inscriptions, frescoes, stone carvings, bone carvings, textiles, potteries and building structures collected and unearthed at the site.

In 1125 the Liao was defeated by the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234). Overnight the whole Khitan ethnic group disappeared into the history and the Grand Capital fell. During the Jin Dynasty, the site was reduced to a frontier post and by the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), grasses covered the once prosperous city.

The ancient capital below the grasses had been forgotten for 600 years before it was rediscovered by historian Zhang Mu in 1846.

In 1955 the Chinese Government built a protection zone of two hectares around the historical site. And in 1961 the State Administration of Cultural Relics listed the site as an Important Cultural Relic of China.

Protection plan

In existence at the site today are the Zhenji Temple, a mysterious stone house, and two brick pagodas. One of the pagodas, 25.5 metres tall, boasts precious stone carvings of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva and flying Apsaras.

The core areas of the historical site are the Royal City and Han City, which was once divided by the Shali River.

To enter the Han City from the Royal City, visitors must climb up a large bank of river sand deposits, which is about 1.5 metres high. The sands are deposited annually when the river floods.

"The Khitan emperor built his capital in the valley of the Shali River and the Wulijimulun River, but today the Shali River, which has changed its course, poses a great danger to the remains of the Grand Capital," said Wang.

Xu Pingfang, president of the China Association of Archaeology, said: "We must urgently strengthen the dykes of the Shali River and improve the environment in the river's upper reaches."

The local government has re-built the river dykes three times since 1980. It is working to plant trees and grasses in an area of 4,453 hectares in the upper reaches of the Shali River.

The Bairinzuo Banner will change the courses of other rivers that flood and which run through the historical site. It will also resettle the 163 households around the core protection zones, ban the release of waste water into the royal city area, and improve air quality at the site, according to the Liao Shangjing Protection Plan.

The plan has been worked out by the China Cultural Relics Research Institute, the Inner Mongolia Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute and the Bairinzuo Banner Museum.

"To some extent it is easier to carry out protection plans in the Liao Shangjing historic site than in many other major historic sites," said Wang.

While the Grand Capital of the Liao Dynasty is surrounded by grassland, most of the 408 major historic sites in China, which have been listed as Important Cultural Relics of China, are located in crowded cities and heavily developed suburbs.

"The areas of major historic sites range from several to several hundred square kilometres," said Jiang Ling, a scholar visiting the Liao Shangjing grassland.

"Some sacrifice often has to be made to local development in the protection of many historic sites."

(China Daily September 26, 2002)