A tall wooden pole stands on a braced foot, with one performer crouching arms-out on its top and another holding the pole with one hand and stretched out sideways from it; a bamboo rail forms a ring with onlookers behind, and at the left are an A-frame with poles and coiled rope, a drum on a stand and a basket of small flags.
Pole Feats
Climbing and balancing on poles; Dunhuang murals show pole feats
Introduction
Dunhuang preserves fairly rich material on baixi, and its murals carry images of pole feats; a study published in 2010 reads the mural images against the written records and covers the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, reading body, skill, strength, mind, movement, and aesthetics in the pole-feat images. The Ode to the Western Capital writes of pole climbing, and the Dongjing Menghua Lu records pole climbing among the Lantern Festival shows.