Tomb-Sweeping Day in the Gansu Earth
or Seeking the Sublime Beyond
the Sunburst Clouds and the Sepia Sky
A Collection of Photographs Out of Gansu
Remembering My First Tomb-Sweeping Day in Gansu
“Oh, well! Tell me then, enigmatic man, extraordinary stranger,
what do you love?”“I love the clouds. The clouds that pass.
“L’Étranger,” Charles Baudelaire.
Up there, up there. Above and beyond. The clouds, the clouds.
The marvelous clouds.”
In China, with the start of spring each year, it is a tradition for people to return home to the countryside to clean the graves of their ancestors. In the west, we bring flowers to the tombs of our dead. In the Chinese countryside, families shovel fresh soil onto the earthen mounds marking the graves of their deceased relatives and bring baskets of steamed or baked bread and fresh fruit to leave as an offering for their dearly departed ones. Some families bring rice wine and bowls of homemade dishes, too. Often, the day turns into a countryside picnic.
The holiday, between April 3-5 each year, is known as Tomb-Sweeping Day. It’s also customary for children to fly kites on this day. If you are lucky, perhaps you’ll catch a kite and a bird in flight in the same shot. If you’re really lucky, perhaps the clouds and the sky will be as bold and brilliant for you as they were for me on this wondrous and miraculous day of my life when I was blessed, even if only briefly, to experience the sublime on earth.
These photos were taken in the Gansu countryside amid the terraced hills and high fields of grass at sunset on my first Tomb-Sweeping Day in China. April 3, 2010, Peace Corps Days.
Thank you for viewing and for visiting the Land West of Long Mountain Gallery. “Landscapes and Portraits of Asia” photography series and photo collections will be coming in the year ahead. We welcome you back then. Have a happy summer. Best wishes from Gansu.
