The Excavation of a Buddhist Temple Complex of the Qocho Uyghur Kingdom in the Middle of the West Zone of the Tuyoq Caves in Shanshan County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region: Research Center for Frontier and Ethnic Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Academia Turfanica
The original report published in Kaogu 考古(Archaeology) 2019.4:57–73 with 39 illustrations was authored by Lidong Xia 夏立栋, Yuqun Li 李裕群, Long Wang 王龙, and Hailong Zhang 张海龙. This abridged version is translated into English by Catrin Kost 金秋月.
關鍵詞
Shanshan (Piqan) County; Xinjiang; Tuyoq caves; Buddhist temple complex of the Qocho Uyghur kingdom
摘要
In 2016, remains of a ground-level Buddhist temple complex were found in the middle of the west zone of the Tuyoq caves in Shanshan (Piqan) County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. This Buddhist temple complex consisted of the Buddha hall, dorms for monks, and storage facilities. In the Buddha hall, many murals of bodhisattvas, devas, and donors were found, and artifacts such as household utensils made of clay, wooden architectural components, textiles, and manuscript fragments were unearthed. The date of this Buddhist temple complex was the Qocho Uyghurs kingdom from the latter half of the tenth century to the latter half of the fourteenth century; the excavation is very important for understanding the distribution of the construction centers and the iconographical composition of the Buddhist cave temples and monasteries in the Qocho Uyghurs kingdom period.
