I started teaching in China back in the Summer of 1999. I remember being told Chinese people don’t believe in God and a number of students told me that they were atheists. I just said okay. I had grown up hearing that every person has a God shaped hole in their heart that only the Lord can fill, but what could I say? It didn’t feel like there was anything I could say. Tracy and I got to go on a 6 day trip to JiuZhaiGou, China this past summer. It was amazing. Probably the icing on the cake for a number of us was SanXingDiu. The literal English translation is Three Star Mound. SanXingDui is an archeological site that reveals the Bronze Age culture in China. Archaeologists believe that the artifacts were discovered between the 12th and 11th century BC. Given that this was such a long time ago, there aren’t a lot of historical records to verify it. There are however links between the idols discovered and the Kingdom of Shu. These discoveries are awakening the world to what otherwise would have been lost.
Excavation
The Three Star Mound site is located 4 km North East of NanXing, Guanghan, Sichuan. It used to be a trapezoid shaped walled city with sacrificial areas, residential areas, a palace, and workshops. Questions about the area first emerged in 1927 when a farmer was digging and uncovered an artifact. Then a large discovery was made in 1986 when local workers accidentally found a sacrificial pit containing thousands of broken gold, bronze, jade and pottery artifacts. About a month later another sacrificial pit was discovered a short distance from the first. This pit had 800 objects in it.
Cultural Relics and Idols
Since that time other discoveries have been made and nearly 20,000 cultural relics have been discovered. Much international attention and funding has been acquired. New aspects of Chinese art, culture and history have all been uncovered. Task Rosen from the British Museum remarked that these findings are even more outstanding than the Terracotta soldiers in Xian.
Our Guided Tour
Our guide, the girl in the pink skirt, gave us each a Bluetooth ear piece so that we could follow her detailed tour around the facility. Unfortunately, she spoke too fast for me and I wasn’t able to follow most of it. After the program was finished I asked one of our team members what he thought of the experience and he described it as magical. Part of me understood where he was coming from. The scope of the discoveries was vast and it revealed so much about the people and their history. There was so much there to take in.
Awakening the World to Believe What
I shot picture after picture. It wasn’t just the idols that captured my attention. It was the crowds of people, who seemed captured by the idols that really stood out to me. What about all those people who told me Chinese people don’t believe in God? Here in front of me was evidence to prove that they did and I would suggest still do. In 1 Corinthians 17:22 Paul addressed the people of Corinth about the gods they worshiped. One of them was titled the unknown God. Paul talked to them about the unknown God and his audience listened attentively.
