snuggle along the northernSilk Roadin the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region suffer a beautiful testament to China ’s ancient Buddhistic past – the Kizil Caves . Carved into the face of the ochre - hued cliffs of the Flaming Mountains , the cave are an archaeological treasure that beckon history enthusiasts and the spiritually minded alike .
China’s oldest Buddhist complex
Far from simply communicatingtradersand travelers , the Silk Road was also a canal for the exchange of mind and beliefs . For instance , Arab traders helped spread the influence of Islam along the Middle East , through the point that connected this ancient web .
Similarly , Buddhismand Buddhistic artistic production wasintroducedinto China from India via the Silk Road in the first century CE , during the Eastern Han Dynasty . In Xinjiang , where the ancient Tocharian ruler were sympathetic to Buddhism , many temple were created for worshipper . Among them were the Kizil Caves .
These caves , sometimes known as the Qizil Thousand - Buddha Caves , are a building complex of Buddhist cave temple that were created between the third and eight centuries BCE . There are 236 roll in the hay cave temples ( 135 of which are still in good condition ) carved into the cliff face , spreading from east to west – spanning 2 kilometers ( 1.2 mile ) in length .
An example of a mural from the Kizil Caves depicting a figure painted with a vibrant blue pigment.Image credit: Unknown 5-6th century artist viaWikimedia Commons(public domain)
The caves hold a big range of architectural mode that vary across the year they were constructed . Forexample , some of the earlier influence were Indian and primal Asian in design , while later caves are more Chinese in their influences .
The caves include common architecturalfeatures , such as supplicant halls , gathering hallway , corridors , and speculation cells . All of these were typically high decorated with frescoes , murals , and sculpture .
Although most of the sculptures are gone , the wall painting and fresco are well preserved . They depict a variety of narration , including the life of Buddha , tales from Jataka narrative , and celestial being from Buddhist cosmology .
apart from their spiritual and artistic allure , the Kizil Caves are also a will to the cultural exchange that took topographic point along the Silk Road . The murals also portray scenes from quotidian life sentence , including farming , hunt and riding , and even melodic performances .
Generally speaking , the murals are assort into three periods . Firstly , what is referred to as “ Indo - Persian style I ” , because the effigy show a portmanteau of Indian and Iranian artistic influence , covers the early cave , which are beautify with tone - on - smell paintings using Brown , orange , and Green River .
The second category , “ Indo - Persian vogue II ” , features stronger contrasting colours , bolder line apoplexy and the vivid lapis - lazulibluethat come from Afghanistan . As with the first period of time , murals create at this clip show the influence of Iran as well as those from India and other contributions from Central Asia .
at last , the last style , the “ Uyghur - Taiwanese dash , ” appears in two cave at the complex and shows distinct Formosan influences from the Tang dynasty .
Their preservation
Despite their beauty , many of the cave within the composite have been disfigure over the centuries . This was done by some Muslims when they get in the part , as well as more recently by enthusiasts during Mao Zedong ’s Cultural Revolution . In gain , Germanarchaeologists smuggled big chunks of mural from the cave , which they took back to Berlin during the early twentieth century . These human interferences have taken a toll on the appearance of this idealistic construction that was centuries in the devising .
The cave are also in risk from the constituent , as the harshdesertenvironment impact their conservation . Nevertheless , scholarly person and conservationists are collaborating to encounter mode to protect them and to allow visitor a chance to see such a rich source of historic and cultural fundamental interaction .
