An Army for the Afterlife

This Terracotta Army was buried with the first emperor for a similar reason of protecting him in his afterlife.

Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor to rule the whole country as one China. He unified the currency, measurements, characters, etc. The Terracotta warriors are all sculpted out of clay and they are meant to protect the Emperor's tomb. The warriors were first discovered by farmers digging their land and finding parts of the clay. Every army has a unique face and gesture. It is a form of funerary art buried with the Emperor in 210–209 BCE with the purpose of protecting the Emperor in his afterlife. The archaeologists have excavated more than eight thousand of them. The one you see now is a replica exhibited in the 1986 Expo Vancouver Chinese pavilion.