Bezeklik is a locality in the western part of the Mutou Valley of the Fire Mountains , located at the northeastern edge of the Takla Makan desert near the ruins of Gaochang ( Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region , China ).
Between the 5th and 9th centuries. in Bezeklik an ensemble of Buddhist cave monasteries was created with a unique wall painting (“caves of a thousand buddhas”). In the 77 caves are hundreds of mural paintings of the Buddha , as well as gifts to him on the Silk Road merchants, often Caucasoid appearance. Part of the murals was removed and transported to museums in Europe, including the State Hermitage Museum . [1] In comparison with the UNESCO protected Mogao caves in Dunhuang, the preservation of the Besklik frescoes is of great concern.
Gallery
Pranidha Scene, Temple 9 (Cave 20), with bowed figures praying to the Buddha, who were considered Persian (German: “Perser”) by Albert von Lecoq , noting these Caucasoid features and green eyes and comparing the hat of the man on the left (in a green coat) with headdresses worn by Sassanian Persian princes. [2] However, modern scholars identified scenes of the pranidha of the same temple (No. 9) as depicting Sogdians, [3] who inhabited Turfan as an ethnic minority in the stages of the Chinese Tang (VII-VIII century) and Uighur rule (IX-XIII centuries). [four]
View of the valley
View of the caves
View closer to the caves
Buddha murals
Buddha murals
Uyghur prince
Uygur princesses, cave number 9, approximately VIII — IX centuries.
Uygur princes. Bezeklik, cave number 9, approximately VIII — IX centuries., Wall painting.
Perhaps a Tokharian [5] or Sogdian [3] monk (left) with a Buddhist monk (right)
Sogdian donors to the Buddha (fresco, with details), 8th century
The Indian figure of the Brahmin from the cave 9, dated VIII-IX centuries. n eh., wall painting
Pictures
Fragment of Buddhist wall painting
Traders, Tang Dynasty
Uighur woman from Bezeklika frescoes
Uighur noble from Bezeklik frescoes
Uighur noble from Bezeklik frescoes
Uygur donor. Bezeklik, cave number 17, approximately X — XI centuries., Wall painting, 45 × 25 cm.
Notes
- ↑ “Pranidhi” - wall painting from Bezeklik monastery
- ↑ von Le Coq, Albert. (1913). Chotscho: Facsimile-Wiedergaben der Wichtigeren Funde der Ersten Königlich Preussischen Expedition nach Turfan in Ost-Turkistan . Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), im Auftrage der Gernalverwaltung der Königlichen Museen aus Mitteln des Baessler-Institutes, p. 28 , Tafel 20 . (Accessed 3 September 2016).
- ↑ 1 2 Gasparini, Mariachiara. " A Mathematic Expression of Art: Sino-Iranian and Uighur Textile Collection in Berlin, " in Rudolf G. Wagner and Monica June (Eds), Transcultural Studies , Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg, No 1 (2014), pp 134-163. ISSN 2191-6411 . See also endnote # 32 . (Accessed 3 September 2016.)
- ↑ Hansen, Valerie (2012), The Silk Road: A New History , Oxford University Press, p. 98, ISBN 978-0-19-993921-3 .
- ↑ von Le Coq, Albert. (1913). Chotscho: Facsimile-Wiedergaben der Wichtigeren Funde der Ersten Königlich Preussischen Expedition nach Turfan in Ost-Turkistan . Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), im Auftrage der Gernalverwaltung der Königlichen Museen aus Mitteln des Baessler-Institutes, Tafel 19 . (Accessed 3 September 2016).