Shadow of the Tomb Raider: A Complete Record of the History of Tomb Raiders in China

Chapter 82 The Lost Soul: The Vicissitudes of the Looting and Excavation of the Loulan Ancient Tombs (2)
Before the 20s, it was a stage of vigorous investigation and research in Loulan, which had a strong colonial and semi-colonial cultural development color.Those who came to this area successively included military officers Przewalski and Kozlov of Tsarist Russia, Sven Hedin and Bergman of Sweden, Huntington of the United States, Stein of the United Kingdom, and Rui Chao of Japan. Almost all socialist countries came to Lop Nur or entered the ancient city of Loulan to excavate ancient tombs nearby.Naturally, Loulan could not escape the fate of being excavated and looted again and again, and cultural relics were taken away.Only Huang Wenbi and Chen Zongqi were the Chinese scholars who had the honor to visit this area. They formed the "Sino-Swiss Northwest Scientific Expedition Group" after the resolute resistance of the Chinese academic circles. As members of the Chinese group, they got this opportunity.The ruins discovered by Huang Wenbi in the northeast of Loulan City and the wooden slips dating from the Western Han Dynasty are still treasures in the study of Loulan.The route from Dunhuang to Lop Nur investigated by Chen Zongqi and the hydrological conditions of Lop Nur Lake also have important scientific value in the geographical research of Lop Nur.

Since the founding of New China, due to environmental and other reasons, our country has only carried out cleaning work for less than a month in the "Ancient Tomb Ditch" and "Loulan Ancient City" in this area.

The Lop Nur area has become a no-man's land due to the harsh ecological environment and lack of living conditions.Therefore, the country has relatively little protection for it, because the harsh environment is a natural barrier.However, the tomb robbers took advantage of this point, and they could excavate freely and boldly. Every site that the scientific expedition team passed by had traces left by the tomb robbers.

On March 1998, 3, in Loulan, a professional tomb robbery gang was busted.The leader of the gang is Abuliz Kerim, 5 years old, a Uyghur, and a self-employed businessman in jewelry and ancient coins in Urumqi.In order to find better cultural relics, he gathered 39 people including Liang Zhigang, who had a criminal record of theft, bought monographs on Xinjiang history, cultural relics, and archaeology, bought a car, and found a guide and driver. Everyone had a clear division of labor, and the goal was Loulan. .

In order to fully understand the ancient city of Loulan and the ancient tombs, Kerim found a few accomplices to buy related books and maps about the ancient country of Loulan and Lop Nur, hoping to obtain some important information from these tools.In order to speed up the search for ancient tombs in the desert, he also drove his jeep into the desert.The Crimean driver's car drove towards the ancient city of Loulan in the southeast direction on the vast desert.Accompanying him were Kurban and Liang Zhigang, his accomplices of Crimea.These 3 people are not honest characters either.Prior to this, Kurban had been stealing important materials such as oil in the desert all year round.Because he has traveled to many areas in the desert, he is very familiar with the terrain and landforms here. He claims to be a living map of this place, and he also boasts that all the wild camels in Lop Nur know him.Liang Zhigang was also imprisoned for stealing. After he came out, he still did not work properly, relying on some thieves to dawdle.Crime chose these people as accomplices after careful consideration. He thought that not only could he use Kurban's familiarity with the terrain to make up for his own shortcomings, but they could also help him during the tomb robbery.

They drove to their destination in the jeep they bought. The white jeep jumped like an antelope in the wilderness of Lop Nur, Xinjiang.Far to the southeast is the famous ancient city of Loulan. The desert wind has carved countless gullies and ravines on the Gobi, which is the ecstasy that all explorers fear.This is a restricted area for cars, but Abuliz Kerim has been traveling in this area for a few days, and he is about to approach the ancient city of Loulan, and he will see things even if he dies.

In the car was Kurban Gamali, who had been stealing oil and other supplies for many years. He was a living map and claimed that "every wild camel in Lop Nur knows me."Tomb robbers in the desert have the ability and sense of smell to haunt the wilderness like wild wolves.Abuliz's car stopped on a 20-meter-high Yardang terrace.The terrace is flat and covered with gravel.Several people got out of the car and started digging.After the case was solved, Zhang Yuzhong, deputy director of the Xinjiang Institute of Archeology, who conducted an on-site investigation here, lamented their awesomeness: "I really can't figure out how they found the ancient tomb."This Yadan platform is exactly the same as all the platforms, and the ancient tomb has no signs.

It didn't take long for the few people to dig, and there was a roof-like thing made of a mixture of red willow branches, reed stalks and poplar wood with a thick bowl mouth.Few people know what this is for.Kurban proudly told everyone that this roof-like thing should be the lid of the mausoleum, and there must be something interesting to dig from here.After hearing this, several people dug harder.After digging out the sand on and around the lid, a complete lid image will appear.Judging from its shape and size, if the underground is a mausoleum, then the scale of the mausoleum must not be small.Kerim couldn't wait to lift the lid with the help of others.The bright sun shot into a big black hole like a sharp sword.After seeing everything inside, Kerim happily announced that it really was a mausoleum.What they didn't know was that their simple action opened the ancient tomb that had been dormant for more than 2000 years.

However, facing the deep ancient tomb, several people gave way, and no one was willing to go down first.They were all afraid of some mechanism or poisonous gas in the ancient tomb, and they were afraid of being killed because of it.Moreover, due to the age of this ancient tomb, which has not seen the sun, it naturally exudes a cold air, which does not match the hot environment outside, and it is creepy.In desperation, Kerim remembered the live pigeons in the car that were specially brought in to test whether the ancient tomb was dangerous.He brought the pigeon and let it stay at the entrance of the cave for a while. After confirming that there was no poisonous gas in it, he killed it and threw it into the tomb, using the blood of the pigeon to ward off evil spirits.After doing this, the hearts of the tomb robbers gradually calmed down, and the desire to steal treasures overwhelmed the fear.Holding flashlights, they slowly slid to the bottom of the mausoleum.

Through the light of the flashlight, they saw that the ground in the mausoleum was covered with a brightly colored and exquisitely crafted painted carpet.Although the fibers of the carpet have begun to rot due to the passage of time, a tall and mighty lion can still be seen in the center of the carpet.All the tomb robbers were attracted by this exquisite carpet, they squatted down to caress it, and decided to roll it up and take it away.Just as they lifted the rug, a blinding light shot out from under the rug.Kerim took a closer look and found a colorful coffin under the carpet.Seeing the first impression of this colorful coffin, Kerim could only describe it with the words "that coffin is so beautiful, so beautiful".After the incident, Abuliz described the colorful coffin he saw on the day of the tomb robbery in this way. He could not use other words except beautiful.

The wood ballast of the colored coffin is all white.The age is Han and Jin, the whole body of the coffin is painted with red, white and black flowers, and the coffin is connected into a whole with a rhombus.Its lion pattern blanket has obvious western cultural color.The coffin is in an oriental style, and the two ends are painted with the red bird and the basalt that symbolize the sun and the moon of the Han nationality.Most of the mummified corpses unearthed in the Loulan area were wrapped in felt. I have never seen such a gorgeous coffin.The moment the lid of the colored coffin was opened, a complete male corpse appeared in front of his eyes.A tall, brown-haired male corpse was sleeping inside. He really seemed to be asleep, and his eyelashes stood like a row of groves.The male corpse was a burly man with brown hair, who must have been a handsome and handsome man back then.His skin and muscles were not rotted or damaged at all, only pale from the lack of blood.He seemed to be asleep, very peaceful, and even the eyelashes were clearly discernible.The clothes on the male corpse were also well preserved. Not only were they brightly colored, they looked like they had just been made, and there was no sign of tatters at all.His clothing was rich in warm wool and light silk.The greedy tomb robbers stripped off the clothes one by one, until only a white cloth was left on the body, and they threw it back into the pit.What they didn't expect was that even the cotton cloth used to wrap the corpse was designated as a national first-class cultural relic because of its early preservation.A total of 20 cultural relics were stolen this time, including three national first-class cultural relics, two second-class cultural relics, and the rest third-class cultural relics.Then, they searched all the valuables in the colored coffin and prepared to leave.The tomb thief originally wanted to take away the colored coffin, but because the colored coffin was too large, they had to temporarily put it back in the mausoleum, and planned to take it away again in a few days.When they came again, they took saw blades, divided the colorful coffin into 12 pieces, loaded them into the car and drove away.

The coffin could not be removed, and they came again a few days later and sawed it into 12 pieces.It found a big customer who bid 100 million yuan for it: Gama Sangzhu, a cultural relic dealer in Tibet.The cultural relics crossed Tibet and entered Nepal via Karma Sangdrup.Later, according to experts, this is the oldest and most complete colored coffin unearthed in Xinjiang so far.

After successfully robbing the tomb, Kerim immediately contacted a big antiquities dealer in Tibet and sold the colored coffin at a high price of 100 million yuan.This colorful coffin later entered Nepal via Tibet, and thus was exiled abroad.

Later, the news that Crimean robbed tombs in the ancient country of Loulan spread somehow.The local police immediately interrogated him and his accomplices.Kerim gritted his teeth and pleaded not guilty, and the investigation made no progress.Kurban fled at first, but later surrendered because he could not bear the huge psychological pressure.In this way, the crimes of the Crimean tomb robbers were uncovered.Crimea was sentenced to life imprisonment and Kurban was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

If Abuliz and the others cooperated in tomb robbery, Yasheng Qilaike, who also took tomb robbers as his profession, was a lone ranger in the tomb robbery world.Unlike other tomb robbers, Yashengqileike likes to find a few accomplices, but likes to commit crimes alone.Relying on his full understanding of the desert and rich experience in tomb robbery, he successfully stole many treasures in the desert of Niya.Whenever people who are familiar with him see him leading two camels from the oasis where he lives, across the desert road in the center of the Taklamakan, and heading for the farther western desert, they know that he is going to "digging treasure" again. .

The desert of Niya has always been a long-standing problem for expedition teams and expedition teams.It is deep in the hinterland of the desert, and it is also 140 kilometers away from Minfeng County in Xinjiang, the nearest human settlement.The key to the difficulty of entering Niya lies not in its remoteness, but in the fact that no matter how modern means of transportation are, it is impossible to move forward in this desert.If you want to reach Niya, you can only rely on the most primitive means of transportation, the camel.Therefore, whether it was Stein more than 100 years ago or the modern scientific expedition team, they all set out from Minfeng County and finally replaced with camels. It took two full days to successfully enter the desert.No modern means of transport could handle the distance.This is the only known way into Niya.The desert locks Niya deeply, and only a small number of Chinese and foreign scholars have been to Niya so far.

In this way, Asengqilak entered Niya sideways from east to west.He walked unhurriedly, as if visiting a relative's house from one end of the desert to the other.It took him two days to reach Niya.

Yasengqilaike could not stay in Niyaduo, he had to leave after digging for two days at most.He needs enough water to ensure he can walk out of the desert.In this way, the unassuming Asengkilak made three desert trips in one month.When I went to dig for treasure for the third time, I finally found what I was looking for.In an ancient tomb he found the well-preserved mummified bodies of a married couple, both of whom appeared to be of Caucasian descent.The male corpse is about 1.8 meters tall, dressed very gorgeously, the whole body is covered with expensive silk, and the beard and hair are yellow.The hair of the female corpse was also yellow, and she was dressed very coquettishly. She wore necklaces and earrings on her neck and ears respectively, and she was also wearing gorgeous silk clothes.It can be seen from their attire that these two must have been princes and nobles in life, and they can only receive such a rich burial after death.

Yashengqileke did not take off the jewelry from the female body, he knew that the better the preservation, the better the price it would be.But after walking for a while, the whole leg of the male mummy still broke off, and Yasheng Qilaike threw it away when he got annoyed.He also forgot where he threw it, and he couldn't find it later.When he got to the desert road, he buried the mummy in the sand hill beside the road, and lived in a self-employed restaurant by the roadside, waiting for a buyer.The transaction price of each mummy is 7 yuan.And after they are shipped out of the country, the price becomes 100 million yuan.

In 1999, Yashengqilaike was arrested for robbery and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The robbery of Loulan ancient tomb by Crimean and Yashengqilaike is just a microcosm of the army of tomb robbers.Due to the vast area of ​​the desert, the lack of personnel, and the harsh environment, the protection of the Loulan ancient tomb is very difficult.According to the local cultural management personnel, on average, two groups of people come here to rob the tomb every week.The nurse of the ancient tomb said that as long as they don't spend the night here, an ancient tomb must be dug up the next day.Often the bones on this side have not had time to be buried, and the bones on the other side are turned out again.As a result, the ancient tombs have become a riddled dump, full of exposed bones and fragments of funerary objects thrown out of the tombs.Today's tomb robbers are clever. They modify motorcycles or drive cars, bring enough water and food, use satellite positioning devices to guide the way, and start from Kashgar to cross the desert. It takes more than two months after the trip. Comb through the ruins in the desert.Archaeologists and tomb robbers even started a competition. Archaeologists often clean up the tomb site during the day, while tomb robbers frequently commit crimes at night.

The ancient country of Loulan once established a brilliant civilization, but it disappeared from the world in an instant. Where did it come from?Where did it dissipate?What kind of secrets are there in the Loulan ancient tomb?This all awaits new discoveries in future archaeological research.I only hope that the souls of the Loulan ancient tombs can find peace.

(End of this chapter)