Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves



The Bezeklik Thousand-Buddha Caves is situated at the north bank of Muzat River and about 7 km the
south of Bezeklik Town between the Kuqa County and Baichen County. The best known are undoubtedly
those at Bezeklik, a collection of retreats once inhabited by Buddhist monks.

Among all of these caves, the 18th, 29th, and 48th caves belonged to Qu Gaochang Period, while the
16th, 17th, 25th, 27th, 31st, 42nd, and 69th caves belonged to the Xizhou Period of the Tang Dynasty.
During this period Bezeklik was an important Buddha Temple Center in the Xinjiang area. It was also
called Ningrong Temple and the Bezeklik Grotto developed into one of the holiest places of Buddhism in
the area of the West Yard. The 14th, 20th, 31st, 33rd, 39th, 41st, and 82nd caves belonged to the Huihu
Gaochang Period. Most of the Kings of the Gaochang State built caves there and the relics in these
caves were among the richest found anywhere.

You can see 57 caves, all numbered, which contain fragments of frescos from the 6th to the 14th C portraying Buddhist themes. In Cave No. 39
can be seen a group of mourners accompanied by thirteen disciples of Buddha. The north wall of Cave No. 37 shows a painting of a bodhisattva,
dressed in red and with blue eyes and a long, straight nose. The explanatory inscriptions are almost all in Chinese and Uigur; this suggests that at
this time the cultures of China and Asia Minor complemented and influenced one another.

As to the themes of the frescoes, there is a wide variety: all kinds of Bodhisttva statues, large scaled scripture paintings, parlance paintings, the
thousand Buddha caves, and the eight parts of the flying dragon in the sky. Other themes include the statues of the four emperors, the Bodhisttvas
on the list of the ancestors sacrificed, the statue of Biqiu and other decorated patterns, and the stories about how Sakyamuni made himself among
the Buddha after generations of sincere sacrificing to the Buddha. 

In a word, the special shape of Bezeklik Thousand-Buddha Grottoes, the theme of mural painting and its
artistic style, mirrored the social pictures of the ancient Quici and provide valuable information for
researching history, Buddhism, culture and art of the ancient Qiuci, and the relationship between ancient
China and Western countries.