Zhaohuli Temple

Site of SUBASHI Buddhist temple

synonym

Zhaohuli Temple generally refers to the site of SUBASHI Buddhist temple

Site of SUBASHI Buddhist temple

Zhaohuli temple, also known as zhaohuli temple, is located at the south foot of Queletage mountain in the northeast of Kuqa County, Xinjiang. It is a national key cultural relic protection unit. SUBASHI Buddhist temple site is divided into East and west temples, on the East and west sides of Tongchang river. The East Temple has been destroyed and remains of the pagoda and monk's house are preserved. Coins of the Han, southern and Northern Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty, copper, iron, pottery, wooden ware, murals, clay Buddha statues, and wooden slips and scraps of paper used to write ancient national characters have been unearthed. An ancient tomb was also found in the temple.

On June 22, 2014, at the 38th UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting held in Doha, Qatar, the site of SUBASHI Buddhist temple was successfully listed in the world heritage list as one of the sites in the "Silk Road: road network of chang'an-tianshan corridor" jointly applied for World Heritage by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

geographical position

SUBASHI Buddhist temple is located in the south foot of queerdage mountain, 20km northwest of Kuqa County, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It is on the impact platform on both sides of Kuqa River between Olgas village and Langan village of agexiang township. It is adjacent to Queletage mountain in the north and Gravel Gobi in the South. The geographical coordinates of the site are 83 ° 02 ′ 07 ″ - 83 ° 03 ′ 47 ″ e, 41 ° 51 ′ 07 ″ - 41 ° 52 ′ 00 ″ n, and the altitude is 1250-1280m.

Kuqa county is under the jurisdiction of kuci, a famous oasis kingdom in the western regions during the Han and Tang Dynasties. It is an important town on the silk road connecting the economic and cultural exchanges between the East and the West.

Site structure

The ancient SUBASHI temple is a Buddhist temple site in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. It is divided into eastern and Western temples. It is distributed on the East and west sides of the Tongchang River, facing each other.

The whole site takes the pagoda as the center, surrounded by temples, caves, halls, monk rooms and other buildings, which are well preserved. The river runs through it, and the sites are distributed on the mounds on the East and west sides of the river, which are called the West Temple and the East Temple. The main buildings are concentrated in the West Temple.

Toji

Dongsi site, distributed in the East Bank of the Kuqa River Ridge, the site is irregular distribution. The East Temple is built on the mountain. The temple wall has been destroyed. The houses and pagoda temple sites are all Adobe buildings. The walls are more than 10 meters high and there are double towers. There are three high towers in the city, which are quite grand. The northernmost one stands on the hillside, overlooking the ruins of the whole temple; most of the relics are concentrated on the undulating river banks. The site is about 500 meters long from north to South and 140 meters wide from east to west. It is mainly composed of Three Pagodas in the north, middle and south. The South pagoda is well preserved. The body of the pagoda is round and made of adobe. The top of the pagoda is domed. There is a circle of column holes in the middle of the pagoda. There may be wooden bones. There are walls around the pagoda and more than 10 niches on the wall.

West Temple

Xisi site is located on the West Bank of Kuqa River. Most of the sites are well preserved. The site is 700 meters long from north to South and 190 meters wide from east to west. It is mainly composed of North, middle and South pagodas, Buddha Hall and South Temple. There are Buddhist caves around the North Tower, in which there are murals and kuci inscriptions.

In the middle of the West Temple, there is a small square wall at yiduan rock, about 318 meters in circumference. It is also built with adobe, with a remnant height of more than 10 meters. There are several high towers on the site, and a Buddha cave on the north side. The wall is carved with kuci script and Buddhist figures. In 1978, Kuqa County cultural relics department excavated a skeleton of kuci beauty, baby bones and other funerary objects at the base of the tower, which is now stored in Kuqa kuci Museum. The Buddha Hall is located in the middle of the site, with a perimeter of more than 300 meters. It is composed of pagodas, halls and several houses. The temple in the south of the site is magnificent, most of its architectural remains are exposed to the ground, and the site is slightly square. The temple is surrounded by walls. Both the east wall and the southeast wall have collapsed, while the west wall and the north wall are well preserved.

It has unearthed coins of Han, southern and Northern Dynasties and Tang Dynasty, silver coins of kuslao II of Sassanian Dynasty in Persia, copper, iron, pottery, wood, murals, clay Buddha statues and relic boxes with music and dance images. In addition, wooden slips and scraps of paper with ancient national characters were found.

In May 1978, a tomb was found in the area of a pagoda temple, and a mural of characters was found in the temple site, with a kuci inscription on the mural. All these new discoveries show that this group of buildings existed as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the most prosperous in the Tang Dynasty. It is one of the famous Buddhist temples in kuci kingdom. As the largest existing Buddhist cultural site in Xinjiang, the SUBASHI Buddhist temple has been used for nearly a thousand years in history.

It enjoyed a high reputation in the ancient kuci country on the Silk Road during the Han and Tang Dynasties. From the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Tang and Song Dynasties, it has been one of the important cultural centers in the western regions and played a very important role in the cultural exchanges between the East and the West. The Buddhist temple site has high historical value, artistic value, scientific value and social value. Its construction techniques basically cover different construction forms of earthen sites. It is a typical representative of earthen sites in arid areas of Northwest China and even in Central Asia.

Development history

Although it has been abandoned for nearly a thousand years, the remaining buildings in the sun are still shocking. Standing on the vast Gobi desert and reflecting the golden light, the tall pagoda silently tells people its glory. SUBASHI Buddhist temple was built in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Kumarashi, one of the three great translators of Buddhist scriptures in ancient China, once gave lectures here. The temple flourished in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. There were as many as ten thousand monks, and the incense was very popular. Tang Xuanzang went to Tianzhu to learn Buddhist scriptures. He also stayed here for more than two months

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In the middle of the 7th century (658 AD), after the relocation of kuci in the Tang Dynasty, there were a large number of eminent monks from the mainland. The Buddhist activities in the temple flourished, with morning bells and evening drums, and banners burning continuously until it was destroyed by war in the 9th century. In the 14th century, after Islam entered the Tarim Basin, the temple was completely abandoned. The site of the Buddhist temple was once known as Queli temple, Queli temple, zhaohuli temple and so on in history. Now it is called the site of SUBASHI Buddhist temple, commonly known as the ancient city of SUBASHI.

SUBASHI is Uyghur, which means "Shuitou" or "Longkou". The site is the Buddhist cultural center of kuci and even the western regions from Wei Jin to Tang Dynasty. After thousands of years of wind and rain erosion and excavation and destruction by foreign expeditions, it is now beyond recognition, but the existing ruins and pagodas still show the grandeur and magnificence of the past.

archaeological excavation

SUBASHI Buddhist temple site is divided into East and west temples, with a total area of about 180000 square meters. It is the largest Buddhist temple site ever found in Xinjiang. There are Buddhist halls, pagodas and statues in the East Temple; the Buddhist halls in the West Temple are large-scale, and the square earth pagodas are well preserved; there are 17 Buddhist caves in the north, with peculiar shapes. Some of the remaining frescoes and stone inscriptions of ancient kuci are found in the caves. Precious cultural relics such as Tang Dynasty coins, Persian silver coins and relic boxes with music and dance images were also found in the site.

In 1978, a tomb was excavated in the central tower base of the West Temple. The female corpse and its accompanying objects are now stored in the Kuqa Museum. It is still a mystery why the female corpse was buried at the bottom of the pagoda.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a relic box was excavated in the West Temple by a Japanese expedition, and it is now stored in the Tokyo Museum of Japan. In 1907, a circular relic box was also found in boshihe, France. In 1958, Mr. Huang Wenbi of Peking University found a large number of pottery, copper coins, iron ware, wooden slips, and scriptures in the West Temple Hall.

The protection project of the SUBASHI Buddhist temple site in Xinjiang is approved by the Chinese government

The construction started in April 2011. Soon, the steel fence will form a barrier around the site to help the ancient temple, which has been eroded by wind and sand for thousands of years, refuse to be disturbed by uninvited visitors. According to turhong Sulaiman, head of the Cultural Relics Bureau of Kuqa County in Xinjiang, the more than 8.9 million yuan invested by the state and local finance will be used for the infrastructure construction of the site of SUBASHI Buddhist temple, including the construction of cultural relics exhibition hall, road construction and protective fence. The whole project is expected to be completed within this year.

In order to speed up the development of coal resources in Kuche County of Aksu region, improve the coal transportation capacity of okhobluk coal mine, and further accelerate the pace of economic development in ethnic minority areas, a coal mine is planned to be built from May 2008 to October 2009 with the attention and support of the people's Government of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the Ministry of railways Che huobulak coal mine railway branch line

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Cultural relics protection

In the preliminary design plan of the Kurdistan Russian railway branch line, the railway branch line will pass through the West Temple and the East Temple of the SUBASHI Buddhist temple site, a national key cultural relic protection unit. However, the Department in charge of cultural relics put forward the plan, which will cause serious vibration and landscape impact on the site of SUBASHI Buddhist temple. The construction of the Kurdistan Russian Railway extension involves the protection of the site of the SUBASHI Buddhist temple, which has been highly valued by the main leaders of the Party committee and the people's Government of the autonomous region and the relevant departments. Song Airong, member of the Standing Committee of the Party committee of the autonomous region, made a special visit to the site of the SUBASHI Buddhist temple and asked the railway design department to take effective technical measures to protect cultural relics and historic sites in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations of the state on the protection of cultural relics. Dai Gongxing, vice chairman of the autonomous region, asked the railway construction and design units and the Bureau of cultural relics of the autonomous region to work out a design scheme to ensure the safety of cultural relics and submit it to the relevant state departments for approval.

The State Administration of cultural relics specially organizes experts to revise the reports submitted by the Cultural Relics Bureau of the autonomous region

Chinese PinYin : Zhao Hu Li Da Si