Age-old heritage site victim of quake in SW China

     Guanghan county, located some 40 km northeast of Sichuan capital Chengdu, is known as the very place where the puzzling prehistoric Sanxingdui ruins were excavated in the 1980s.

    The age-old heritage site became one of the victims of the Monday earthquake in western China.

    The walls of the world-renowned Sanxingdui Ruins Museum were damaged in the disaster that has claimed the lives of thousands and counting.

    On the second and third floors of the museum, some 20 sets of 3,000- to 4,000-year-old ceramic utensils that were featured on display - fell to the ground, shattering to pieces.

    Immediate reports after the quake, however, indicated the museum's bronzeware remained intact.

    Found by local farmers in 1929, the prehistoric Sanxingdui remnants first stunned the world in the 1980s. Since then, further excavations have led to other considerable archaeological findings.

    Since 1929, more than 10,000 relics from 3,000- to 5,000-year-ago have been discovered from the site.

    Archaeologists around the world were excited by the unearthing of large palatial remains in 1980, the remnants of eastern, western and southern walls in 1984, and the findings of two large sacrificial pits in 1986.

    These discoveries prove that Sanxingdui contains the ruins of an ancient city, previously the political, economic and cultural center of the ancient Shu Kingdom.

    A metropolis of its time, Sanxingdui boasted highly developed mining and agricultural systems, and produced ceramics and sacrificial tools.

    Before the excavation of Sanxingdui, it was believed that Sichuan had a history dating back only 3,000 years. Now, it is believed that civilized culture first appeared in the province 5,000 years ago.

    Archaeologists further believe the Sanxingdui ruins dispel theories insisting the Yellow River was the sole starting point of Chinese civilization.

    The prehistorical Sanxingdui civilization has puzzled historians. There are several theories surrounding the fall of the ancient civilization because it disappeared with little trace - except for trinkets left behind that are unlike those found in other periods of Chinese history.

    As news about China's massive earthquake continues to travel across the globe, a Canadian teacher recalls fond memories of his time spent schooling students in the affected Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture area in Sichuan province.

    Martin Padgett became the first foreign teacher at Aba Teachers College in 2003.

    His heart skipped a beat when he first learned about the earthquake.

    In Sichuan's Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture, near the epicenter Wenchuan county, at least 160 are reported dead, 725 injured and 11 missing.

    Aba's neighboring Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture, also suffered a comparatively low number of casualties.

    "Fortunately, I have received word that the students and teachers at the college are safe," Padgett wrote China Daily from Toronto. "Photos taken by air after the earthquake show the students and teachers camped in the sports field. The buildings are all standing."

    Aba today is perhaps best known as a popular tourist destination.

    Its name can be traced back to more than 1,200 years, when Songtsen Gampo, the Great King of Tubo (now Tibet), expanded his reign to the area. He moved people from western Tibet's Nagri to settle in Sichuan. The people called themselves "Aliwa" (children of Nagri), which gradually became Aba.

    Aba county, for which the prefecture is named, is located 509 km away from the provincial capital Chengdu and 246 km away from the prefecture's capital Maerkang.

    Some 60,000 residents in the county have 48 monasteries that include all sects of Tibetan Buddhism. The Nangshig Monastery is the biggest site of the primitive Bon Religion, an aboriginal religion among Tibetans before Buddhism was introduced in the 7th century.

    A mere 16 km away from the earthquake's epicenter Wenchuan county, Lixian county of Aba prefecture also holds an important cultural heritage - the Taoping Qiang Village, which was first built in 111 BC.

  (Source: China Daily)