HOLDEN – Kelsey Lutz knows that traveling nearly 15,000 miles to see the world’s largest wooden temple isn’t the typical college student’s spring break getaway.

A 2003 graduate of Bangor’s John Bapst Memorial High School and currently a sophomore at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., Lutz was one of 12 students who participated in a recent 10-day spring break study tour of Japan and China that focused on the ancient historical capitals of the two countries, Nara and Kyoto in Japan and Xian and Beijing in China.

“This was just an incredible opportunity to see some of the oldest sites and structures in the history of the world and a wonderful way to escape the ‘Lawrence bubble,’ where students feel relatively secluded from the world outside of college life,” said Lutz, the daughter of Gordon and Marilyn Lutz of Holden. “Being in Japan has inspired me to pursue proficiency in the language and I hope to travel to Japan again in the future.

“When we arrived in China, I was surprised how different it was from Japan,” she added. “Even though I had studied both countries, the reality of what I had learned did not fully sink in until I was in the midst of experiencing the two cultures. Seeing the poverty and filth that pervades China was eye-opening. It was a very exciting trip for an anthropology major with a specific interest in archaeology.”

In Nara, Japan, Lutz visited an ancient palace site that dates to the 8th century. She toured several Zen Buddhist temples, including Todaiji Temple, an enormous complex that features the largest wooden temple in the world. It is home to the colossal Daibutsu statue, the world’s largest gilded bronze Buddha at 49 feet high.

In Kyoto, revered as the center of traditional Japanese culture, Lutz toured Nijo Castle, which served as the palace of the Shogun in the 1600s and dined on a traditional vegetarian meal at Tenryuji Temple.

Highlighting six days in China was a tour of the archeological excavation near Xian of the more than 6,000 life-size terra cotta warriors and horses discovered there. Lutz also participated in a special viewing of 8th century wall paintings housed at the Provincial Museum Frescoes. The huge frescoes once adorned Chinese tombs and are not regularly open to the public.

She ended the trip with a tour of Beijing’s famous Forbidden City, so named because ordinary things – people or materials – were not allowed inside the gates of the complex. Also known as the Imperial Palace, it served as the home of Chinese emperors through the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, a span of nearly 700 years.

The study tour was the second visit to Japan for Lutz, who spent seven weeks with a host family in the small town of Ohmori in 2002 as a winner of the Arcady Music Festival’s youth competition.

Michael Orr, Lawrence University professor of art history and one of the trip’s faculty leaders, said the purpose of the trip was to provide students an opportunity to experience first-hand the art and architecture of the ancient capitals of Japan and China.

Lutz’s expenses for the trip were underwritten by a grant Lawrence received from the Freeman Foundation of New York to support an expanded student emphasis on Asian perspectives through first-hand study and cultural exchange opportunities in Japan and China.