Kizil Grottoes/ Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves
Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves is the earliest Buddhist art treasure trove in China, even one century earlier than the famous Mogao Grottoes. As fundamental historical remains of West Region art or Chinese Buddhist art, Kizil Thousand-Buddha Grottoes is situated at the Kizil Township which is 67 kilometers southeast of Baicheng County and 73 kilometers west of Kuqa city. It is the largest grottoes located in the west part of China which was started excavating in the 3rd century (at the end of Eastern Han Dynasty) and lasted for 500 years. The Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves are considered to be art crystallization of the local tradition and of the central Chinese culture as well as foreign ones. This priceless encyclopedia of Qiuci culture depicted in the caves surely is surely worthwhile reading!
Now there are 236 existing caves in Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves, among which 135 caves are well preserved and 80 caves have murals and sculptures with a total area of 10,000 square meters. The frescos and sculptures in the cave are of high value for artists and researchers. Although most of the sculptures in the cave have been destroyed, the frescos are well preserved. The frescos are mainly created in the theme of Nidanakatha which well expressed the life of Buddha; karma mainly depicted how people show their worship to the Buddha and how powerful the Buddha is; and Jataka stories related to the Buddha s past lives. Besides frescos on Buddhism theme, there are also many frescos which vividly depict the life, production and folk customs of that period. Kizil Grottoes provides researchers with very precious materials of the history and culture of Quici and the Buddha culture at the period.
The Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves are corridors of murals surpassing other existing caves in China in its abundance in content, quantity and long duration. The Caves are significant in Buddhism as well as in the history of Qiuci. Baicheng County, where the Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves are located, used to be under the reign of ancient Qiuci (today's Kuqa). As a communication hub of the ancient Silk Road, Qiuci was the political and economic center of the West Region as well as the focal point of Central Asian and Indo-European cultures. Several facts support these in the Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves. The earlier caves took the shape similar to Bamian Caves and the murals suggested the influence of Gandhara arts, a Buddhist visual art prevailing in today's Northwestern Pakistan and Eastern Afghanistan in First Century B.C. and Seventh Century A.D. The written documents from the Kizil Thousand-Buddha Cave were composed in Tocharian B language, a branch of the Indo-European language family that originated in central Asia during the first millennium.