Kumutula thousand Buddha cave

Kumutula thousand Buddha cave

Kumtula thousand Buddha Cave: a Buddhist grotto temple in the 5th-11th century. Excavated on the East Bank of the Weigan River Valley, 30 kilometers northwest of Kuqa County, Xinjiang, it is the largest group of ancient Kucha Grottoes next only to Kizil Grottoes. Kumutura is a Uighur translation, which means "beacon tower in the desert". There are 112 caves, which are divided into three parts: south area, north area and dinggushan gorge area. The excavation of kumtula thousand Buddha cave lasted from Jin Dynasty to Song Dynasty.

There are 80 caves in the north area and 32 caves in the south area. There are only a few caves in dinggu mountain gorge area. The grottoes were excavated in the 5th century A.D. until the 7th century A.D. the whole appearance of the Grottoes is close to that of the same period in Kizil, with a distinctive local style of kuci.

Development history

There is no exact record of the time when the caves were first excavated and along the time when they were excavated. According to the current situation, they belong to three different cultural systems: the kuci series from the 5th to the mid-8th century; the Han caves in the Central Plains from the 7th to the 9th century; and the Uighur caves from the middle and late 9th century to the 10th century or later. This group of grottoes clearly reflects the coexistence of different cultural systems and their mutual influence and substitution, which is of great value to the study of the evolution, development and decline of religious art in Xinjiang.

In the 1830s, Xie Jishi of Qing dynasty recorded the situation of kumutu Grottoes at that time. In the early 19th century, it was also recorded in Xu Song's waterways of the western regions. At the beginning of the 20th century, explorers from Japan, Germany, Russia, France and other countries, during their activities in Xinjiang, once touched the kumutu grottoes, cleaned up, excavated, cut and stole many precious cultural relics. Before and after 1949, Chinese scholars have made investigations here, but they have not yet carried out a comprehensive investigation and research. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, the kumutu grottoes were managed by the Kuqa County Cultural Relics Management Institute, and in 1984 they were managed by the kuci Grottoes Research Institute. In 1961, the State Council of the people's Republic of China announced it as a national key cultural relics protection unit.

In 1965, Weigan River water diversion project and power station project were built near the grottoes. After the completion of storage in October 1970, 32 caves were destroyed, accounting for 44% of the total, and almost all the caverns were destroyed. In order to protect the grottoes, the state allocated funds for three times, and built the Chenji dike in 1978. But up to now, the water leakage inside the grottoes, the siltation of the river outside the grottoes, and the overflow of the river still pose a threat to the grottoes, which remains to be solved.

Protection of cultural relics in 1961, the State Council of the people's Republic of China announced that it was a national key cultural relics protection unit.

In order to protect the grottoes, the state allocated funds for three times and built the Chenji dike in 1978. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, the water leakage inside the grottoes, the siltation of the river outside the grottoes and the flood of the river still pose a threat to the grottoes.

Since 2000, UNESCO has inspected its restoration and protection work for many times, and formulated a maintenance and protection plan.

In July 2012, the state invested 16 million yuan to implement the emergency reinforcement project, which is expected to be completed in October 2013. This is the largest reinforcement and maintenance of kumtula thousand Buddha cave since 2000.

geographical environment

Kumutula thousand Buddha cave is a Buddhist grotto temple from 5th to 11th century. Excavated on the East Bank of the Weigan River Valley, 30 kilometers northwest of Kuqa County, Xinjiang, it is the largest group of ancient Kucha Grottoes next only to Kizil Grottoes. Kumutura is a Uighur translation, which means "beacon tower in the desert". It is also known as "Han cave", which is a miniature of the history of traditional friendly relations between the Central Plains and Qiuci.

The grottoes are excavated on the cliff on the East Bank of muzati River (Weigan River). There are 112 cave kilns with serial numbers in the early 21st century. There are thousands of square meters of murals in the early 21st century. The murals mainly depict the content of Mahayana Buddhism. The mural art "Tang style" is strong, and there are a small number of sculptures, which are divided into three parts: south area, north area and dinggu mountain canyon area. The mural works of Qianfo cave and numerous inscriptions of various nationalities in different times are not only an epic of Xinjiang painting art, but also provide image materials for the study of the development history of economy, writing, architecture, music, dance, clothing and arts and crafts in Xinjiang.

artistic characteristics

The Tang Dynasty is the heyday of Buddhism in Qiuci area, so there are many caves excavated in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. The artistic characteristics of the murals in kumutura grottoes are as follows: in terms of time, they are the pioneers of Buddhist art in the central plains; in terms of space, they are at the hub of the North Road of the Silk Road, and they are the world's oldest birthplace of culture, and the meeting point of cultural and artistic exchanges among China, India, Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome.

The murals in kumtula thousand Buddha cave not only have the influence of western culture and Central Plains culture, but also have a unique local artistic style. There are a large number of monks' inscriptions and inscriptions, as well as parallel inscriptions in Uighur language and ancient Kucha language, both inside and outside the cave. This is an extremely valuable material for studying the history, culture and art of gukuci.

Historical sites

The grottoes are cut on the cliff on the East Bank of muzati River (Weigan River). The cliff is composed of gravel and sand, with loose structure. According to the division number of Kuqa County Cultural Relics Management Office in 1984, there are 32 caves in the south of gukou District, which are distributed in the East Bank of the river and several valleys. There are less than 10 well preserved caves. The northern grottoes are distributed near a tributary of muzati river. There are more than 80 caves, and only half of them are well preserved. In kumutula grottoes, Buddhist temples account for the largest proportion, lecture halls and monk rooms account for a very small proportion, and there are more funeral halls for eminent monks, with obvious differences of size, honor and inferiority.

Shape characteristics

The early caves of kumtula grottoes are similar to the Kizil thousand Buddha Grottoes in shape, mainly composed of central pillar grottoes and square grottoes. The plan of the Buddhist hall in the central column cave is rectangular, and the top of the main chamber cave is vertical. A large niche is chiseled in the center of the main wall, and the left and right sides are the ticket shaped passageways, which lead to the posterior chamber or the posterior passage through the passage. Some square pillars are chiseled with a niche on each wall. Most of the murals are similar to the Kizil Grottoes in theme, that is, the sky map is painted on the middle ridge of the main chamber, and the story of Buddha's birth or karma is painted on the side wall of the top of the main chamber.

The walls on both sides of the main room are mainly painted with the Buddhist biography of karma, and the Buddhist biography with Nirvana as the center is painted after the path. The plane of the square cave Buddha Hall is square or rectangular, and some have a Buddha altar in the center of the back, with a dome shaped roof. The mural theme, the side wall is mostly the story of Buddha, and the dome is painted with the vertical images of Buddha and Bodhisattva.

In the middle period, the main forms of caves were central pillar caves and square caves, but most of the square caves were vertical. In this period, in addition to using the themes of the early caves, there also appeared themes similar to those of Tang caves in the Central Plains, which obviously showed the style of Han painting which was quite different from kuci style and had distinct Buddhist artistic characteristics in the Central Plains. This change is shown in the following aspects: 1) the emergence of large-scale classic paintings. This kind of theme reflecting Mahayana classics as the main content is different from the Mahayana Buddhism popular in kuci area. In the square grottoes, they are mainly painted on the main wall or the left and right side walls, and all of them have the titles written in Chinese. ② The Han style statues take the place of the common relic pagodas in kuci grottoes, the Buddhist stories related to Nirvana, the statues of kuci offering people, and the statues of standing Buddha. Most of the pictures are composed of Buddha statues and Bodhisattvas, which appear in groups on the side walls of the left and right footpaths and the back footpaths of the central pillar grottoes, with Chinese inscription on the side of the statues. ③ The theme of Thousand Buddhas appears in large numbers. The composition is simple, the color is the same, and it is not enough for the background. It is significantly different from the Thousand Buddhas in kuci grottoes. ④ There are the portraits of Han people in non Kucha costume. ⑤ There are Chinese decorative patterns in the Central Plains. In addition, there was a popular theme of Tantric school in the Central Plains at that time.

In the later period, there were portraits of Uighur people supporting them, but it can be seen that they were influenced by the Han culture in the Central Plains. It is unprecedented for cave 79 in the North District to write a list of the dependents in Kucha, Chinese and Uighur. The caves in the Uighur period are the continuation and development of the local Han style caves. However, the scale of the caves in this period gradually became smaller, showing signs of decline. By about the 11th century, it was almost extinct.

style of art

The artistic characteristics of the murals in kumutura grottoes are as follows: in terms of time, they are the pioneers of Buddhist art in the central plains; in terms of space, they are at the hub of the North Road of the Silk Road, and they are the world's oldest birthplace of culture, and the meeting point of cultural and artistic exchanges among China, India, Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome. The murals in kumtula thousand Buddha cave not only have the influence of western culture and Central Plains culture, but also have a unique local artistic style.

In addition to murals, there are a large number of monk inscriptions, Kucha inscriptions in Chinese and Uighur, ancient Kucha inscriptions in kumutula thousand Buddha grottoes and on the cliff outside the grottoes, which are also extremely valuable materials for studying the history, culture and art of ancient Kucha.

Early style

It is equivalent to the fifth century to the seventh century A.D., and its whole appearance is close to that of the Kizil Grottoes in the same period, with a distinctive kuci local style.

The "transformation of conquering demons" in cave 24 is bold and unconstrained, which shows the spirit of the people of kuci.

In the original painting of yingzi in cave 46, the outline is drawn with thick lines, and the interior is painted with ochre, showing a strong three-dimensional feeling. Based on his own life practice, kuci painters let Buddhas and Bodhisattvas put on turtles

Chinese PinYin : Ku Mu Tu La Qian Fo Dong