Sunday - With the Wish for a Day of Rest

---

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind of activity with class at the university, appointments, meetings, looking at art and photographing paintings.

Class on Thursday was good with same number of students as Tuesday. With all of the questions the class went until 9:30. Friday was a day of running around with meetings and appointments on one side of the city and then another leading to a very late night with friends. In the afternoon I gave a short informal guided tour to a group from Queens College, NY. We visited one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Sichuan dating back at least 1600 years. My favourite part of the temple is a room with over 500 life size arhat sculpture all with a different posture, clothing and different facial expressions. hair, attributes, etc. It is a must see when visiting Chengdu.

Saturday started early as well with a 9:00 pickup by a car and driver provided by the university. We went outside of the city to a museum that contained large scale masks excavated from the local area. The masks date to 4000 years ago. Some Tibetans believe the masks are related to the Bon culture of Tibet but I think they belong to the early Sichuan culture. A fascinating experience none the less. If there is an opportunity to see this museum then the moment should be taken. The museum grounds are beautiful with trees, tall bamboo and grassy parks perfect for picnics or napping in the shade.

Today we hope to spend time in the Tibetan antique market. It is good training for learning how to spot fake art. The Sichuan Museum and the Taoist Temple are also on the agenda. The Taoist temple is supposed to be the oldest in Sichuan and one of the three oldest in China. I like it very much and find it both beautiful and relaxing.

I have lots of images to upload but have not had an opportunity to take them off the camera. I have also secured two large collections of art for upload to the HAR website when I return to the office.

---