During the day, the people of Xiaoli, China, sit outside their mud-brick shacks, aimlessly fanning themselves. Xiaoli is a poor village in China's Henan province. Most people in Xiaoli are farmers, but high taxes have made farming unprofitable. So the farmers have nothing to do but wait for darkness to fall. At night, Xiaoli comes alive. That is when the tomb raiders go to work.
Underneath Xiaoli lie the riches of 5,000 years of Chinese history. The nearby city of Luoyang was the capital of at least nine ruling dynasties, or empires. In Xiaoli's fields lie the tombs of emperors and empresses. Many of the tombs hold valuable works of art buried centuries ago. Breaking into tombs and stealing treasures is illegal--and dangerous. But for the poor farmers of Xiaoli, the temptation is great. One major haul of treasures can equal a year's farming income.
Little Su, a doctor in Xiaoli, put himself through medical school by selling the precious works of art he stole. He says young people in Xiaoli think nothing of looting the tombs and selling the priceless treasures to smugglers. "If you're bored one night, someone will say, 'Hey, let's go find a tomb,'" he says.
Over the past five years, thieves have broken into at least 220,000 tombs, according to China's National Cultural Relics Bureau. "If the looting continues at this pace, we'll soon have nothing left to remind us of our glorious past," says He Shuzhong, the head of Cultural Heritage Watch in Beijing, China's capital.
A LAWLESS GOLD RUSH
Wealthy art collectors will pay big bucks for ancient Asian statues, sculptures and vases. In the past year, the desire for the artwork has sparked a lawless gold rush across not just China, but all of Asia.
The police in India recently busted a smuggling ring that they claim stripped hundreds of temples and monuments of sculptures. The criminals sent the artworks to collectors in the U.S. and Europe.
This March, raiders in the South-east Asian country of Cambodia gouged out the sculpted faces of gods from an 11th-century site. Earlier this year, Cambodian police seized several truckloads of sculptures that were also crudely ripped from archaeological sites.
"Why are we as a people, as a government, as a country, allowing our heritage to slip through our fingers?" asks Michel Tranet, who has the job of protecting Cambodia's treasures and heritage.
BRINGING THEM HOME
Most art thefts are never reported. One reason is that it's hard to say who owns some of the treasures. Many Asian countries were once colonies of European countries. Treasures taken centuries ago by invaders have come to be considered the property of whomever has them now. An item taken recently is clearly a stolen one. But is it stolen from the most recent owner or from the country where it was made?
For some poor people in China, India, Cambodia and other Asian countries, looting is seen as a way out of poverty. In Xiaoli, Little Su is a wealthy man. He owns a big-screen TV. Not surprisingly, his favorite video game is Tomb Raider.
But stealing a country's historical treasures is no game. Three years ago, tomb raiders broke into the 2,000-year-old tomb of Empress Dou in the city of Xi'an. Looters made off with at least 200 treasures, mostly ceramic statues. Some of the rare statues were valued at up to $80,000. Six of the figurines ended up for sale at an auction in New York City in March 2002. The Chinese government was able to stop the sale just in time.
Now those six figurines, valued at $6,000 to $8,000 each, have been returned to Xi'an. They are on display in a small museum. Li Ku, the vice director of the museum, is overjoyed at their return. "Looking at these figures, I feel like my family has come home at last," he says.