Product Details

• Producers: Flying Monk Films
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: TravelVideoStore.com
• DVD Release Date: February 28, 2008
• Run Time: 38 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B0012DUD4M
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,830 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars The Dragon-Carvings and Terracotta, January 22, 2010

By 

Ian R. Chandler (New York City, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dragon The Dragon: Carvings and Terracotta (DVD)

"The Dragon: Carvings and Terracotta" starts out in Xian. When Qin Shi Huang unified the army and became the first Emperor of China in 221 BCE, he made Xian his capital, and Xian is one of the few cities in China to be surrounded by a wall and defensive towers. Qin Shi Huang was known for undertaking huge public construction projects such as the Great Wall. The now-famous army of Terracotta Warriors was his creation. The terracotta Warriors were discovered accidentally in 1974, and a museum complex - resembling an athletic stadium - was built to house them. The army of warriors was thought to offer him protection during the afterlife, and his actual tomb is an immense hill--a construction project said to involve the labors of 700,000 people. Qin Shi Huang was known as a dictator who killed thousands of people, but was also a pivotal figure in Chinese history. He imposed a unified currency on China and a written script to stabilize the Chinese language. The "Forest of Stelle" museum, located in an old Confucian temple in Xian, houses 2,300 stones engraved with Confucian classics, Buddhist classics, dictionaries and financial records, some of them written in Qin Shi Huang's ancient Chinese script. The stones were a form of permanent storage for important documents, and rubbings from the stones could be printed on paper. The stones were engraved over a period of 1,000 years from the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. They are 2.5 meters high, and the museum has one of the largest collections in the world.

After Xian, the film shifts to Luoyang. From 494 until the tenth century, Luoyang ("Dragon Gate") was the capital of the northern part of China. At its peak, Louyang had 13,000 Buddhist temples, and ten dynasties ruled China from Luoyang. The Longmen grottoes, located 12 km south of Luoyang, are carved into the porous walls of cliffs on the banks of the Yi river. The 10,000 Buddha caves have side walls covered with tiny Buddha statues. These caves are famous for their frescoes, but many have been sold over the years on the black market to American and European collectors. The caves took over 200 years to build, and even today contain more than 100,000 Buddha statues and bas reliefs. Approximately one-third of the statues date from the Northern Wei dynasty, and two-thirds date from the Tang dynasty.

Stretching along the cliffs is the "Grand Vairochana" Buddha niche. Dating from 672-675 AD, it was carved during the Tang Dynasty, and originally had a roof. The Grand Vairochana Buddha is 17.4 meters tall. This statue is sometimes called the "Eastern Mona Lisa", or the "Mother of China" The assembly is a masterpiece of Tang Dynasty Buddhist sculpture. Erosion and art collectors have done a lot of damage to the grottos. Also, many of them were badly mauled during the Cultural Revolution. After Luoyang, the film shifts to Shaolin Temple. Shaolin was founded by Bodhidharma, who brought Zen to China in the sixth century AD. Bodhidharma is also credited with bringing Kung-fu to China, and Shaolin monastery has long been known as a center for martial arts. It currently hosts the best wu-shu (sword) school in China. The film includes shots of people working out with swords and doing kicking exercises. Frescos in the halls of Shaolin depict the martial arts. Shaolin monastery was destroyed several times, most recently during the cultural revolution. It was renovated entirely in 1985.

"The Dragon-Carvings and Terracotta" is accompanied by a low key voice-over historical narrative. There is no gabby tour guide standing at the center of the scene. This is a low-budget tourist film, and includes shots of local food and local street scenes. Like the other Flying Monk films, it is a good film for anyone planning a trip to Asia or simply interested in studying the history of Buddhism China.