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ever since the
Western Han Dynasty, more than 2,000 years ago,
Turpan has been the hub of communications between Central
China and its western frontiers, and from an early stage was
deeply influenced by the politics, economy and culture of
the Central Plains. This has been verified by a great deal
of ancient literature and numerous archaeological finds. Turpan
is the deepest basin in China, and worldwide ranks second
only to the Dead Sea. It is surrounded by mountains rising
over 1,000 meters, and to its north towers the grand and imposing
snow-capped Mount Bogda, 5,000 meters above sea level. A southward
drive from Urumqi takes one across the Tianshan Range to the
plateau overlooking the Turpan Depression, from where the
view unfolds of a broad expanse of green oases intermingled
with yellow patches of desert. The Turpan Depression covers
an area of 10,300 square kilometers, half of it lying below
sea level. Lake Aydingkol is situated in the lowest part of
the basin, and its waters lie 154 meters lower than the level
of the Yellow Sea to the east. Not far from the lake looms
a jagged mountain range extending more than one hundred kilometers.
Lying sprawled at the center of the basin like a huge whale,
it appears in the famous ancient novel Journey to the West
as the "Flaming Mountains." As a result of erosion,
not a blade of grass grows on this mountain, and the bare
reddish-brown sandstone is full of folds and wrinkles which
shimmer under the refraction of the blazing sun and hot air
vapor, so that it looks as if flames are dancing and leaping
up to the sky. This is one of the fascinating sights of the
Turpan Depression. Turpan in summer is the hottest place in
China, which explains its name of "Fire Prefecture."
From June to August every year the averag
Te temperature
is thirty degrees centigrade, the highest in the
country, and for more than forty days in the year
the temperature exceeds forty degrees. At the height of summer,
hot gusts blow and the surface temperature of the gravelly
ground reaches seventy degrees centigrade, with the highest
record at 82.3 degrees. People say they can cook eggs by burying
them in the sand and bake pancakes by putting them on the
wall.
For ten months of the year no rain or snow falls in
Turpan. Annual rainfall is less than sixteen millimeters whereas
evaporation exceeds three thousand millimeters per year. The
air is so dry that mosquitoes and other insects cannot breed
and survive. In this kind of climate people have to drink
a lot of water, but evaporation rapidly dries up any sweat,
and tourists will not experience the discomfort of the sultry
weather typical of southern China. Although it is very hot
at noon, a cool breeze blows in the morning and evening, and
a blanket is necessary if one sleeps out in the open at night.
The dry climate has helped preserve many ancient relics, such
as the 1,000-year-old corpses found at the ancient Astana
tombs at the foot of the Flaming Mountains, ancient mural
paintings, earthen figurines, painted pottery and books, all
of which have contributed greatly to the study of ancient
Xinjiang and exchanges between Chinese and Western cultures.
Turpan's unique environment is highly favorable to cultivation.
Records from the past say Turpan was a noted producer of wheat
and other food, grapes, melons and other fruit, as well as
cotton 1,000 years ago. Envoys, monks and men of letters who
visited Turpan in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties
have left behind quite a number of such accounts. Living in
exile in Xinjiang, the national hero Lin Zexu toured Turpan
and wrote in his diary: "This is a fertile place, which
produces great quantities of cotton each year." Since
liberation, Turpan has been transformed. The local people
have expanded their underground irrigation system, sunk more
than
3,000 new wells, dug ten irrigation canals and built
eighteen reservoirs. Tree-planting drives have added shelterbelts
which crisscross new and old oases, while poplar, elm, jujube,
mulberry, peach, apricot, pear and apple trees grow everywhere.
Large numbers of new vineyards and farms planting water melons
and muskmelons have sprung up, and Turpan is now a center
for long-fiber cotton, Hami melons and seedless grapes in
Xinjiang.The county seat of Turpan has been
rebuilt as a political,
economic and cultural center, and has been opened
to foreign tourists in recent years. In the town the local
Tourism Department has built an elegant garden-like hotel
in typical Uygur style. Summer and fall are the best seasons
for visiting Turpan.
Grape Valley
Most tourists who come to Turpan do not want to miss
a visit to Grape Valley, a mere thirty-minute drive from the
Turpan County seat. Grape Valley nestles in the western slopes
of the Flaming Mountains, northeast of the county seat. Like
a silvery chain, a stream of water rushes down for fifteen
kilometers irrigating the whole valley, and the slopes on
both sides are covered with luxuriant vines as well as mulberry,
elm, peach and willow trees scattered here and there. Chatting,
laughing and singing, gaily-dressed Uygur girls move about
in the green foliage with their wicker baskets picking grapes.
While it is sweltering hot at the foot of the Flaming Mountains,
a cool breeze blows all day in Grape Valley. In the depths
of the valley lies a guesthouse, where tourists can relax
and enjoy the scenery from elegant pavilions and corridors
under the shady grape trellises, where clusters of ripening
grapes hang. On one side of the guesthouse rises a steep cliff
closely covered with intertwined creeping wild vines. Springwater
oozes from crevices in the cliff and drips into a pool, where
fish swim. Nearby the hosts lay tables spread with every variety
of grape, muskmelons and their own wine for the enjoyment
of their guests. The scene brings to mind the story about
the Monkey King in the ancient novel Journey to the West,
who stayed at the Flower and Fruit Mountain in a cave screened
by a curtain of water.After relaxing, guests may pay a visit
to the Flaming Mountains. On the denuded slopes are rows of
honeycombed earthen towers in which the local people hang
up bunches of grapes to dry. Hot gusts from the Flaming Mountains
sweep through the perforations and rapidly dry the grapes,
turning them into raisins. A short climb further up, affords
tourists a bird's-eye view of the entire Grape Valley below
resembling a picture superbly embroidered on a velvet
carpet in the sun. Grape Valley has a population of
more than 5,000 Uygur, Hui and Han people, who have been growing
grapes and melons generation after generation. The story goes
that when Monk Xuan Zang of the Tang Dynasty traveled west
to seek scriptures, he and his disciples passed through here.
Stopping to rest, they drank from the mountain spring and
ate grapes that they had brought from far away, spitting the
seeds out on the ground. Later the seeds sprouted, grew into
vines, and bore the first grapes of the valley. As time went
by they spread and turned the valley into "The Land of
Grapes." Of course, this is only a fairy tale, but ancient
Chinese literature claims that people around the Flaming Mountains
were growing grapes 1,000 years ago. Before Xinjiang was liberated,
all the land in Grape Valley was owned by seven landlord households,
and most of the peasants who cultivated the vines had to pay
exorbitant rents. They led a miserable life. After liberation,
the fruit growers became masters of Grape Valley, and supported
by the people's government which sent horticulturists to instruct
them on how to improve seed and increase output, they have
expanded grape production. Today Grape Valley has a total
of 210 hectares of vineyards, most of which is sown with the
well-known seedless green grape variety, although red grapes,
black grapes and other kinds are also grown. Grape Valley
produces 6,000 metric tons of grapes and more than 300 metric
tons of raisins per year, or three times the total output
before liberation. The Turpan Fruit Winery in the valley turns
out a number of grape wines which sell well across China.
The Flaming Mountains
In the ancient novel Journey to the West, the tale
is told of how the Monkey King borrowed a magic palm-leaf
fan from Princess Iron Fan and fanned the flames of the Flaming
Mountains to put them out, so that his master the Tang monk
Sanzang could safely cross the mountain on his way to seek
Buddhist scriptures. Nowadays visitors to Turpan are eager
to visit the scene of this adventure. Driving alongside the
Flaming Mountains, tourists can feel hot gusts blowing on
their faces, while the ground temperature may reach eighty
degrees centigrade. Geologists say that the Flaming Mountains
were formed 50-180 million years ago, by magma bursting forth
from under the sea during movement of the earth's crust, while
the ravines and gullies crisscrossing the slopes are the result
of erosion since those times. Under the blazing sun, the russet
sandstone sparkles, and hot vapor rises and coils like flames
from a great fire, which is how the mountains got their name.
Although the Journey to the West says "The mountain of
flames extend for 800 Ii" (about 400 kilometers), the
Flaming Mountains are in fact only one hundred kilometers
long, running east-west, and nine kilometers wide. They range
between 400 and 500 meters in height, the highest peak being
851 meters above sea level. In the local Uygur language, the
Flaming Mountains are called Kiziltag meaning "Red Mountains."
A local legend complements the story in the Journey to the
West. The legend goes as follows:
In ancient times there was once an evil dragon which
lived in the Tianshan Mountains. Every so often it flew over
to Turpan and demanded a little boy and girl from the people
there for its food. If the people refused to give up their
children, the dragon would fly into a rage and lay waste to
houses and farms, killing people and livestock. One day, however,
a young man named Karakhoja went to Turk Bughrahan and offered
to rid the people of this evil dragon. Sword in hand, he fought
the dragon for three days and three nights, and finally managed
to cut the dragon in two at Qijiaojing. The dying dragon tossed
and rolled, its whole body stained red with blood, while Karakhoja
struck at it with his sword again and again until it stopped
moving. The dead dragon turned into a red mountain, and the
ten sword cuts turned into ten valleys .... Today the ten
"sword cuts" valleys .... are fertile fruit growing
areas, each with a flowing stream which irrigates the luxuriant
vines and trees. There are also ancient relics in these valleys
grottoes, mural paintings to name a few. Shengjinkou Valley,
which runs across the highest peak of the Flaming Mountains,
provides a scene of sheer precipices and strange craggy rocks,
winding streams and green meadows blooming with wild flowers.
A natural stone pillar stands on the top of the valley, where
the local Uygurs say the Tang monk Sanzang tethered his horse
when he stopped here to rest on his way to seek Buddhist scriptures.
Not far from the valley are the ruins of the famed ancient
city of Gaochang. Ancient men of letters described the area
around the Flaming
Mountains as barren waste under the control of the God of
Fire, but today it is a land Of vigor and vitality. The local
people have built canals and ditches to bring water from the
melted ice on the Tianshan Mountains, so that they can expand
the area of oases around the Flaming Mountains.
Lake Aydingkol
Lying at the foot of the Qoltag Mountains on the borders
of three counties (Turpan, Shanshan and Toksun), forty kilometers
from the Turpan County seat, Lake Aydingkol stretches forty
kilometers east-west and measures eight kilometers north-south,
covering an area of 152 square kilometers. With its water
level at 154.43 meters below the level of the Yellow Sea off
the eastern China coast, Aydingkol is the lowest lake in China
and the second lowest lake in the world after the Dead Sea.
Scientists have discovered a great quantity of freshwater
lake to Turk Bughrahan and offered to rid the people of this
evil dragon. Sword in hand, he fought the dragon for three
days and three nights, and finally managed to cut the dragon
in two at Qijiaojing. The dying dragon tossed and rolled,
its whole body stained red with blood, while Karakhoja struck
at it with his sword again and again until it stopped moving.
The dead dragon turned into a red mountain, and the ten sword
cuts turned into ten valleys .... Today the ten "sword
cuts" valleys .... are fertile fruit growing areas, each
with a flowing stream which irrigates the luxuriant vines
and trees. There are also ancient relics in these valleys
grottoes, mural paintings to name a few. Shengjinkou Valley,
which runs across the highest peak of the Flaming Mountains,
provides a scene of sheer precipices and strange craggy rocks,
winding streams and green meadows blooming with wild flowers.
A natural stone pillar stands on the top of the valley, where
the local Uygurs say the Tang monk Sanzang tethered his horse
when he stopped here to rest on
his way to seek Buddhist scriptures. Not far from
the valley are the ruins of the famed ancient city of Gaochang.
Ancient men of letters described the area around the
Flaming Mountains as barren waste under the control of the
God of Fire, but today it is a land Of vigor and vitality.
The local people have built canals and ditches to bring water
from the melted ice on the Tianshan Mountains, so that they
can expand the area of oases around the Flaming Mountains.
Lake Aydingkol
Lying at the foot of the Qoltag Mountains on the borders
of three counties (Turpan, Shanshan and Toksun), forty kilometers
from the Turpan County seat, Lake Aydingkol stretches forty
kilometers east-west and measures eight kilometers north-south,
covering an area of 152 square kilometers. With its water
level at 154.43 meters below the level of the Yellow Sea off
the eastern China coast, Aydingkol is the lowest lake in China
and the second lowest lake in the world after the Dead Sea.
Scientists have discovered a great quantity of freshwater
lake sediment and spiral shell fossils of the Pliocene epoch
around the lake, showing that 10,000 years ago Aydingkol was
a vast freshwater lake, a thousand .times the size of the
present lake. Today only the southwestern part of the lake
is covered with shallow water, while the remainder of the
lake has dried up, exposing a rippling salt-covered bed. Seen
from afar, the lake is a large expanse of silvery white salt
crystals sparkling in the sun. Looking like moon- light on
a winter night, the local Uygur people call it Moon Lake.
Mirages are common here, and they have aroused the curiosity
of tens of thousands of people who come to explore this place
each year. Since Lake Aydingkol lies very low, it is well
supplied with water from melted ice and snow on the surrounding
mountains and plains. In spite of this, however, the atmosphere
at Lake Aydingkol is extremely dry, and hot winds blow frequently.
In summer the temperature rises to fifty degrees centigrade,
causing the lake water to evaporate quickly. It is estimated
that annual evaporation tops 200 million cubic meters, dozens
of times the volume of water the lake obtains from melted
ice and snow. As agriculture and industry expand in Turpan,
more water is needed and this mainly comes from melted ice
and snow around. Consequently less and less water flows into
Lake Aydingkol, and today water covers only twenty-two square
kilometers, or one seventh of the area of the lake bed, while
the water level continues to fall so that the average depth
is only 0.8 meter. It is expected that Lake Aydingkol will
one day totally run dry and disappear from the map. The salt
content of Lake Aydingkol is so high that people have calculated
that it could provide a year's supply of table salt for the
entire nation of one billion people. Under the lake lie deposits
of
coal and petroleum, and a modern chemical works now
stands on the lakeside. The largest plant in Turpan, it uses
salt, alum and saltpeter from the lake as raw materials to
make quality products at low cost for Xinjiang and other provinces
and even for the world market.
Subterranean Canals
Endowed with a very dry climate, Turpan has been named
the
"Fire Prefecture" and "Home of Winds."
Nevertheless, there are vast luxuriant and green oases around.
The secret lies in the networks of wells and irrigation channels
spreading underground like vascular nets, which provide the
lifeblood of Turpan.
This underground water system was built by the local
people in accordance with local weather and hydrological conditions.
Xinjiang has a total of 1,600 underground canals irrigating
the Turpan Depression and Hami Basin, as well as the counties
of Pishan (Guma), Kuqa, Qitai, Mori and Fukang. Turpan has
the largest number totaling 1,000 running to a length of 5,000
kilometers.Some people say Xinjiang's subterranean canals
rival the Great Wall and Grand Canal as a feat of ancient
engineering, and they certainly evoke much admiration from
visitors Visitors on the way to Turpan's county seat, will
notice crater-like holes on the mountain slopes leading to
the oases. These are the vertical shafts leading down to the
underground wells and canals. The Turpan Depression is banked
by Mount Bogda in the north and the Karawuquntag Mountains
in the west. When summer sets in, ice and snow on these mountains
melt and.great quantities of water flow down the slopes toward
Turpan. When the water~ reaches the foot of the mountains,
however, it seeps through wide tracts of sand and gravel into
the ground and forms subterranean currents. Year after year
a rich reservoir of underground water builds up, making it
possible to construct a large network of underground irrigation
canals. How it works can be seen by looking at the geographical
configuration of the area. Mount Bogda to the north rises
to 5,445 meters while the water level of Lake Aydingkol at
the center of the Turpan Depression is 161 meters below sea
level. Although the horizontal distance between the foot of
Mount Bogda
and the lake is only sixty kilometers, the difference
in height between the two is 1,400 meters, giving an average
gradient of 1/40 which facilitates the subterranean irrigation
system. The canals do not collapse easily for deep underground
lies a good solid building material of gravel and clay. Another
reason for the subterranean system is that surface irrigation
is unsuitable for Turpan's hot arid climate, where evaporation
is tremendous. During the windy season, dust and sand fill
the sky, and by the time the wind dies down, sand has buried
any irrigation ditches. Underground canals and wells, however,
are not affected by evaporation nor by sandstorms, so they
are able to maintain a steady supply of water all year round.The
underground irrigation system is made up of vertical shafts,subterranean
canals, surface ditches and small ponds. The higher the slope
of the shaft the deeper it is, creating a greater distance
between two shafts. So, at high levels the distance between
two
shafts ranges from thirty to seventy meters, while
further down- stream the shafts grow shorter and shorter with
the distance
be-tween them measuring between ten and twenty meters.
These shafts are for ventilation and for the removal of earth
when new under-ground canals are built or repairs carried
out. The subterranean canals flow into surface irrigation
ditches.
The underground water system has a long history. During
the Han Dynasty, people began to dig such a system in the
central
Shaanxi plain. Some historians say this method was
introduced to Xinjiang in the Western Han Dynasty. Finding
the subterranean canals very helpful, the people in Xinjiang
have applied the method extensively and have made further
improvements. Encouraged by the government, the residents
of Turpan began to construct their underground canals in the
Qing Dynasty. Some people believe it was the national hero
Lin Zexu who invented the underground water system while living
in exile. Although this is uncorroborated, nevertheless, it
is true that Lin did praise the underground canals when he
saw them. While passing through Turpan County in 1845, he
wrote in his diary that he had seen many shafts and canals
carrying water to farms. "It is something beyond what
one can imagine," he wrote. Although today the people
of Turpan have built many reservoirs and surface canals, the
subterranean canals still play an important role in the drive
for modernization.
The Ruins of Gaochang
City
The ruins of the ancient city of Gaochang with its
high imposing walls stand forty kilometers east of the Turpan
County seat. Since 1961 it has been a major historical site
under state protection.Looking down from high ground nearby,
the visitor can see that the ancient city is in the shape
of a rough square surrounded by a deep moat, the outline of
which is still clearly visible. It is made up of an outer
wall, an inner wall and palace walls. With a twelve-meter
thick base, the outer wall is 11.5 meters tall and 5.4 kilometers
in circumference. Built with layers of rammed earth, each
layer of the wall ranges from eight to twelve centimeters
in thickness. Some reliefs of horseheads still remain intact.
There were probably three gates in the southern wall, while
the remaining three sides had two gates each. The best preserved
gates stand on the northern and
western sides. Outside the gates are walled enclosures
for defense. The inner city wall, of which the southern and
western parts are still intact, was also built with rammed
earth at an earlier date than the outer wall. The palace walls
stand in the northern part of the city, pressed between the
inner and outer walls.After the city of Gaochang had been
abandoned, the area was turned over to farmland and most of
the buildings were destroyed.Among the ancient relics still
standing today is a temple covering an area of 10,000 square
meters in the southwestern corner of the outer wall, consisting
of gates, courtyards, a scripture-preaching hall, a library
for scriptures, a main hall and living quarters for the monks.
The architecture of the building and designs of surviving
mural paintings show that the temple was built during the
reign of the Qu family at Gaochang 1,400 years ago. Near the
temple are ruins of handicraft workshops and a marketplace.
There is anothe temple in the southeastern corner of the outer
wall, containing a polygonal pagoda and a cave. Inside the
cave are to be found the largest number of intact murals left
in the ancient city. The style of the paintings and the shape
of the pagoda point to more than a thousand years ago during
the period of Huihu rule in Gaochang,when it was also known
as the State of Karakhoja. In the northern part of the inner
city stands a small roughly square-shaped fortress. Inside
on a platform towers a fifteen-meter-high pagoda-shaped structure.
A little to the west is a one-story building of which only
the basement remains today, with wide staircases leading into
the fortress to the north, south and west. The architecture
of the fortress matches that of the splendid yamen dating
from the Tang Dynasty discovered in the ancient city of Jiaohe,
indicating that this was once a palace. Before Xinjiang was
liberated, a German exploration team unearthed a stone tablet
in the southeastern corner of the fortress, which showed that
this fortress was part of a palace built in the Northern Liang
reign (401-439) during the time of the Sixteen Kingdoms (317-439).
The temples of the royal family stand nearby. Many traces
of the foundations of a palace have been discovered in the
northern part of the city about 3.5 to 4 meters high, and
built of 35 to 48 centimeter thick layers of rammed earth.
These foundations show that the palace was originally four
stories high.Garrison troops of the Western Han Dynasty began
the construction of the city of Gaochang in the first century
B.C., and the succeeding governments of the Han, Wei and Jin
dynasties sent subordinate officers to garrison the city and
manage army land reclamation there. In 327, Zhang Jun from
the Early Liang reign established a Gaochang Prefecture and
farming counties, later controlled successively by the rulers
of Early Qin, Later Liang,Western Liang and Northern Liang.
In 442, remnant forces of theNorthern Liang reign led by Juquwuhui
moved west and instituted a government-in-exile here. In 450,
Juquanzhou, king of Northern Liang, attacked and captured
the city of Jiaohe, subjugating the State of Early Cheshi,
and as a result, the political, economic and cultural center
of the Turpan Depression moved from the city of Jiaohe to
the city of Gaochang. In 460, the Rouran (Avars) people killed
King Juquanzhou and elected Kanbozhou the first king of Gaochang.
Later members of the Zhang, Ma and Qu families made themselves
kings of Gaochang one after the other, with the rule of the
Qu family lasting the longest from 499 to 640. All these kings
of Gaochang had titles bestowed on them by the emperor of
the Central Plains. King Qu Boya himself traveled to Chang'an,
capital of the Sui Dynasty, to have an audience with the emperor,
and was given the Sui princess Hua Rong as a bride.~In
640, Hou Junji, Chancellor of Board of Civil Service of the
Tang Dynasty, led an army in conquering Gaochang.
He established a Western Prefecture administering the five
counties of Gaochang,Jiaohe, Liuzhong, Puchang and Tianshan,
with a joint population of 37,000. In the middle of the eighth
century, the Tubo (Tibetan) people occupied Gaochang for some
time, but after the Huihu Khanate in the northern grasslands
declined in the middle of the ninth century, some of its troops
marched west and took Gaochang, founding the State of Huihu
Gaochang (also known as Karakhoja).In the heyday of its rule,
this state expanded its territory to include a vast area of
Tang possessions the Western Prefecture, Yi Prefecture, Ting
Prefecture and the land under the Yanqi and Qiuci military
viceroy offices. It also ruled the people living in Lop Nur
and other tribes, and its territory extended far beyond the
area of the present Turpan Depression.
In 1209 the State of Gaochang of the Huihu people
pledged allegiance to Mongolia. Genghis Khan adopted the king
of Gaochang as his fifth son and gave a princess to him as
wife. In the middle of the thirteenth century nobles of the
nomadic Mongolian tribes controlling vast areas north of the
Tianshan Mountains rebelled under the leadership of Haidu
and Duwa. Time after time they swept south and invaded the
territory of the State of Gaochang, which had. pledged obedience
to the Yuan Dynasty, and in 1275 they sent 120,000 troops
who laid siege to Gaochang for six months. Later Koqkar Tegin,
king of Gaochang, was killed in action in the war waged by
Haidu and Duwa for more than forty years, and ended in the
total destruction of the city of Gaochang. In I316-1318, Koqkar
Tegin's son succeeded his father as king of Gaochang by order
of the Yuan Emperor Renzong, and tried to rebuild Gaochang
with the support of the dynasty. As the previous city had
been completely destroyed, he rebuilt it at a new site west
of the original city. Later the rule of the Yuan Dynasty fell
apart, and Gaochang proclaimed itself independent again. Both
ancient literature and present-day observations have shown
that the inner city of Gaochang existed during the Northern
Liang period, while the outer wall was probably built under
the administration of the Qu family. Texts discovered in the
Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang say "There is a holy pagoda
in the northeastern corner of the inner city," which
is evidence of the existence of an inner city at the time
of the Tang Dynasty. The early palace stood inside the fortress
of the city, but later when the outer wall was constructed,the
Qu family moved the palace further north, building it to face
south in the Chinese manner. The layout of the city of Gaochang
was similar to the City of Chang'an, capital of the Sui and
Tang dynasties. Later when the Huihu people governed Gaochang,
they extended the palace buildings. ,
Built in the first century B.C., the ancient city
of Gaochang survived more than 1,300 years until it was destroyed
at the end of the thirteenth century. Its "sister city,"
Jiaohe, stands west of Turpan County seat. Different in architectural
style, both cities are famous historic sites in Xinjiang.
The Ancient City of
Jiaohe
In a valley about ten kilometers west of the Turpan
County seat
nestles the ancient city of Jiaohe, capital of the
State of Early Cheshi, one of the thirty-six states in the
Western Region in ancient times. In 1961 the State Council
of China placed Jiaohe on a list of key historical sites under
state protection.
Yarnaz Valley is a gorge carved out by floods in remote
antiquity.Torrents and erosion over tens of millions of years
have left an islet in the shape of a willow leaf, 1,650 meters
long and 300 meters wide, in the middle of the valley. All
around are precipitous banks and a valley thirty meters deep
and one hundred meters wide. Three thousand years ago, primitive
people built their homes here to avoid the attack of wild
animals and hostile tribes. They dug caves in the hard yellow
earth to live in, and hewed a path leading down to the river
to fetch water. Their tools stone scrapers, knives and drills
as Well as pieces of painted pottery have been discovered
around.According to The Historical Records, these early inhabitants
of the islet were the Gushi (Cheshi) people of ancient western
China. At the time of the Warring States (475-221 B.C.) the
Gushi people, inhabiting the eastern part of Xinjiang, had
developed into a class society. The river islet was one of
their important bases. In 109 B.C. they were conquered by
Zhao Ponu and their territory was broken up into the State
of Early Cheshi and Late Cheshi, and six other states, with
Jiaohe becoming the capital of the State of Early Cheshi.
In 448, Cheyiluo, king of the State of Early Cheshi, led an
army to help Wan Dugui of the Northern Wei Dynasty put down
rebellions in the Western Region. Leaving for Yanqi, he left
his son Chexie behind to defend Jiaohe. However, at this point,
remnant troops of the Northern Liang occupying Gaochang to
the east seized the opportunity to attack Jiaohe. Chexie failed
to defend the city and fled to his father in Yanqi in 450,
and so the State of Early Cheshi was subdued. The islet acted
as the administrative office of the Jiaohe Prefecture under
the State of Gaochang up to the early Tang Dynasty, according
to inscriptions of tombstones dating from the Northern and
Southern Dynasties.In 640 Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty
sent Hou Junji to conquer the State of Gaochang, and he established
a Jiaohe County under the administration of the Western Prefecture.
Subsequently the highest military and political organ in the
Western Region--the Anxi Military Viceroy's Office ~ was first
established in Jiaohe (640-658), and became the headquarters
for the Tang Dynasty to-unify the vast Western Region.~As
the area under its administration grew, the Anxi Military
Viceroy's Office moved west to Qiuci (Kuqa today). Between
the middle of the eighth century and the middle of the ninth
century, Jiaohe was attacked and occupied by the Tubo (Tibetan)
people, but later the city became part of the territory of
the State of Huihu Gaochang (Karakhoja), and a Jiaohe Prefecture
was established. Since the size of the islet on which it was
based restricted development, the city of Jiaohe gradually
fell into a decline. At the end of the thirteenth century,
Haidu and Duwa, nobles of
nomadic Mongolian tribes living north of the Tianshan
Mountains, revolted and from time to time invaded areas under
the control of the Yuan Dynasty. The city of Jiaohe was destroyed
in the ravages of war. Archaeological investigations in the
ruins of the city have revealed no trace of the Chagatai language
and the later old Uygur language, which were popular after
the end of the Yuan Dynasty.Nor is there anything related
to the later period among the relics of coins, pottery, porcelain
and bricks. In the early Ming Dynasty when Chen Cheng, an
official from the Board of Civil Service, came to the Western
Region as an envoy and passed by this place, he wrote a poem
about how the city of Jiaohe had been reduced to ruins. Nobody
knows when the city was finally abandoned. The view presented
by the ruins of Jiaohe now shows the layout of the city as
it was in the Tang Dynasty at the peak of its prosperity.
The city had no surrounding walls although there were gates
on the southern and eastern sides. The ancient buildings were
concentrated in a one-thousand-meter area in the southeastern
part of the city, while in the northwest lay an ancient graveyard
which had been plundered. One feature of the architecture
in the city is that most of the buildings, as well as the
wide streets, were dug out from the earth. Cave dwellings
were directly excavated from the soil while single-story houses
were built by cutting away the earth to leave four walls and
then placing timber on top for the roof. Sometimes they were
built on top of cave dwellings. Only a few buildings were
erected with wood-and-clay walls. Running north-south through
the city was a broad road, which divided the city into eastern
and western parts, and at the northern end of the road stood
a grand temple, which formed the center of an area full of
temples. In the south of the eastern district loomed an imposing
two-story mansion covering more than 3,000 square meters,
with wide staircases leading to the upper floor and enclosed
by a high thick wall. The only square in the city stood outside
the wall. Archaeological investigations have shown that this
building was erected in the early Tang Dynasty, and it probably
housed the administration of the Anxi Military Viceroy and
then the yamen of Tianshan County. The western district was
dotted by many handicraft workshops, and the ruins of several
pottery kilns, blackened by fire, have been found there. The
temple at the northern end of the road was laid out in a rectangle
covering an area of 5,000 square meters, composed of a gate,
a main hall, living quarters for the monks, courtyards and
a well. The architecture and surviving clay sculptures reveal
that the temple was built at the time of the Northern and
Southern Dynasties, and eave tiles with the lotus flower design
of the Tang Dynasty have also been discovered there, evidence
of repairs made during that dynasty.In the northern part of
the city there is a group of magnificent pagodas, with a huge
Buddhist pagoda at the center. At each of its four corners
are twenty-five small pagodas arranged in a square with five
on each side, and 101 pagodas in total. On both sides of the
central road run high, thick, windowless walls, while streets
and lanes leading off the central road divide the city into
a number of districts. This layout is similar to that of cities
prior to the Song Dynasty, and shows that the city of Jiaohe
was rebuilt according to a plan at the time of the Tang Dynasty.
No Vestige of the older city remains today. Thanks to the
dry climate and the city's distance from water, the ancient
official yamen, temples, Buddhist pagodas, roads and streets,
and buildings have been well preserved, and tourists today
can walk through the ancient streets and wander into houses
over a thousand years old. Jiaohe is one of the rare ancient
cities in China with a long and intact history. The Tombs
of Astana and Karakhoja A forty-kilometer drive eastward from
the Turpan County seat brings tourists to Shengjinkou, from
where a southerly bend of the road takes them to a tract of
desert and gobi full of ancient tombs. These are the tombs
of Astana and Karakhoja, known as an "underground museum."
Astana and Karakhoja are the names of two neighboring villages
in the area of the Flaming Mountains. "Astana" means
"capital" in Uygur, after the ancient city of Gaochang
to the east of the village, while it is said that "Karakhoja"
was the name of a general of an ancient Uygur kingdom. After
he died, the local people named his garrison place after him.
The inhabitants of this area used to bury their dead in this
vast expanse of desert and gobi north of the city of Gaochang.
Extending five kilometers east-west, the cemetery is two kilometers
wide, covering an area of ten square kilometers, and was possibly
the burial ground of the Gaochang royal family. After the
city of Gao-chang was abandoned at the end of the thirteenth
century, the villagers of Karakhoja Village north of the city
divided the cemetery into eastern and western parts. To pinpoint
the location of the graves, Karakhoja tombs denote those east
of Karakhoja Village,
while Astana tombs refer to those near the village
of the same name. Altogether they are known as the ancient
Astana-Karakhoja tomb complex.The climate in this area is
extremely dry, and the water table lies twenty meters below
the surface. Such natural circumstances coupled with the fact
that the ancient burial chambers go only three to five meters
deep, have allowed the thousand-year-old corpses and relics
to remain intact, although grave robbers have on occasions
removed valuable objects in the past. Starting from the Qing
Dynasty archaeologists began to make a study of the ancient
objects unearthed from these tombs. After the People's Republic
of China was founded in 1949, Chinese archaeologists conducted
fourteen excavations at the Astana-Karakhoja tombs between
1959 and 1979, digging up 400 graves and collecting huge numbers
of ancient objects including manuscripts, silk, cotton, wool,
hemp, epitaphs, coins, clay sculptures, wooden figurines,
household utensils made of pottery and wood, paintings, fruit,
melons and other agricultural products, all of great value.
Dates on inscribed wooden slips unearthed here indicate that
between the third and eighth centuries the vast cemetery was
in use.Painstaking restoration has rendered 2,000 of the manuscripts
readable, and they include land deeds, contracts of employment,
loans and sales, census registers, accounts, debts,
records of trials,orders of conferment, official documents,
almanacs, medical prescriptions, and private letters, providing
information on just about every aspect of life in the society
of that time. In 1975 the National Cultural Relics Bureau
organized a group of scholars to engage in restoring the documents
unearthed at Turpan. Headed by the well-known historian Tang
Changru, the group has compiled the ancient documents into
ten volumes in chronological order. They are being published
one by one under the title of "Unearthed Turpan Documents."
Nearly 1,000 silk, wool, cotton and hemp fabrics have
been found in the ancient tombs, and they make valuable specimens
for studying the history of textiles in Xinjiang and China.
Professor Xia Nai, the noted Chinese archaeologist, and other
scholars have conducted a great deal of research into these
ancient textiles. Gaochang was an key city on the Silk Road
and finds of silk include brocade, figured woven silk, tough
silk, thin satin, silk gauze, batik designs, and embroideries
in a wide variety of bright colors and novel patterns,reminding
us of the prosperity on the ancient Silk Road. Most of these
silk fabrics came from Central China, a few hailed from Persia
while others were produced locally in Xinjiang. Excavated
documents mention brocade from Qiuci, Gaochang and Shule indicating
that the art of silk-making had developed in Xinjiang sometime
between the Jin and Tang dynasties.The tombs have
also disclosed mural paintings, woodcuts, and paintings on
paper, silk and linen, portraying human figures, flowers,
birds and celestial bodies. Clay sculptures and wooden figurines
in different poses and with different expressions have also
been found, as well as silk flowers and painted pottery jars
with their own
special characteristics. Quite a number of studies
of these ancient artifacts have been produced by Chinese archaeologists.
In addition, thousand-year-old mummies have been excavated
from the tombs, and they serve as rare human specimens for
studying the characteristics of races in Xinjiang
and the process of their merging.Elegant coffin chambers are
to be found in some of the tombs, for instance, those belonging
to high officials such as Qiequfengdai, a general and prefect
of Gaochang, and Zhang Xiong, a famous general of the State
of Gaochang, during the rule of the Qu family.
Others, however, are less elaborate with narrow, simple
coffin chambers containing bodies wrapped in tattered felt
and straw.
These finds indicate that the cemetery was a public
one providing eternal rest for high officials and the ordinary
people of Gaochang alike. Unfortunately, no trace of the mausoleum
of the king of Gaochang has been found so far.
Most of the unearthed literature is written in the
Han language. Thirteen wooden tablets discovered in two fifth
century tombs are inscribed in Chinese and an ancient Turkic
languages written in the Sogdian script. It appears that most
of the graves belonged to the Han people, but other nationalities
also buried there included Cheshi, Hun, Di, Xianbei and Gaoche.
Chinese was the common written language of this area in those
times, although Sogdian and other minority languages were
also used.
Most of the occupants of the tombs were husband and
wife,although one man together with two or
three women were found in
some cases, while a few tombs contained only one body.
Burying the dead of one clan in close proximity came into
vogue for a time, and there are vestiges of square gravel
yards containing dozens of graves arranged in order of the
seniority of the dead. Inside the coffin chambers, most of
the dead were directly placed on reed mats, while others had
wooden coffins, and in one tomb a paper coffin was unearthed.
The Astana-Karakhoja tomb complex is an "underground
museum" worthy of its name, and in 1957 it was added
to the list of key cultural relics under the protection of
the government of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
The Bizaklik Thousand-Buddha
Grottoes
The Bizaklik Grottoes nestle in a valley in the Flaming
Mountains southeast of the Turpan County seat, twenty-two
kilometers from the ancient city of Gaochang. A sparkling
stream winds through the valley with sheer ocher cliffs on
either side, and in the western part of the valley perch neat-rows
of caves hollowed out of the cliff. A total of seventy-seven
grottoes have been opened up, and among them forty contain
murals which cover a total area of 1,200 square meters. In
the Turpan area the greatest number of grottoes and mural
paintings are concentrated in Bizaklik, and in I982' the State
Council of China proclaimed this place a key cultural
site under state protection. The earliest of these grottoes
were built during the reign of the Qu family in Gaochang in
the sixth century, and from that time on Bizaklik was an important
Buddhist center throughout the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties,
the Song and Yuan dynasties right up to the thirteenth century.
The Bizaklik Grottoes reached their height of popularity during
the rule of the Huihu people in the Western Prefecture. When
the Huihus who were Buddhists established a kingdom in Gaochang
in the middle of the ninth century, they turned this place
into a temple of the royal family. Most of the present grottoes
were built or expanded at this time, and it can be said that
the Bizaklik Grottoes are a treasure-house of Huihu
culture and arts. The Bizaklik Grottoes come in a variety
of shapes. Most of them are rectangular caves with vertical
vaulted ceilings, while others are square with horizontal
vaulted ceilings. There are also square caves with dome ceilings
built at the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties.
Among the grottoes, some were set aside for monks to sit in
meditation and practice physiognomy, others were places for
believers to worship Buddha, and still others were shrines
for the relics of eminent monks. Some caves even served as
living quarters for monks.
Many of the caves are decorated with magnificent mural
paintings. Covering the ceiling of Grotto I8 is a painting
dating from the Northern Dynasties. With a large lotus blossom
at the center, the painting is filled with designs of triangles,
four-leaf patterns and other geometrical figures, painted
in the mineral colors of blue and green as well as white with
simple and powerful strokes. This style of painting using
light colors is typical of minority art. Most of the murals
were painted by tile Huihu people after the middle of the
ninth century. They are characterized by portrayals of the
deeds of Buddha, with a large figure of Buddha in the center
of the painting. Fine examples of this are to be found in
Grottoes 15, 18, 31, 33, 38 and 42. Their ceilings are filled
with thousand- Buddha designs, while some are painted with
rosette designs separated by cloud patterns. The walls of
the grottoes are covered with narrative paintings of the deeds
of Buddha. In the center of one such painting stands a three-meter-tall
Buddha dressed in red robes with jeweled necklaces, strings
of ornaments and a pair of straw sandals on his feet. Inclining
his head to one side, the Buddha is painted with his hands
and fingers in various mystic positions as he stands on a
lotus. Surrounding him are devas, bodhisattvas, Buddhist
monks, Brahmans and kings, while in some paintings are drawings
of city walls, temples and pagodas above the central Buddha.Each
painting tells a story, and they follow one another around
the walls of the grottoes, framed with designs of
entwining vines and blossoms and acanthus patterns. On the
back wall of Grotto 33 is a rare masterpiece of art: a painting
of the story of Nirvana, portraying mourning disciples and
monks. The images are vividly drawn and characterized by individuality
of expression. Stories about the "Pure Land of the West"
appear in the mural paintings from the end of the tenth century
and the beginning of the eleventh century. They highlight
images of deva-musicians, pavilions, kiosks, towers, ponds,
lotus blossoms and swimming ducks. Displaying vivid imagination
and artistic talent, painters have depicted Sukhavati, the
Pure Land that all Buddhists aspire to. Grotto 16 contains
a mural painting of deva-musicians executed in easy flowing
lines and subtle colors. They have plump cheeks and hands.
In another grotto built at a later date in honor of an eminent
monk is a wall painting featuring a vast grassy, tree-covered
land- scape, scattered with blossoms and fruit hanging on
entwining vines.Butterflies flutter and phoenixes
and other bird's hover in the sky. White cranes wade through
weeds while a couple of boys quietly draw their bows. A lively
picture demonstrating the painter's keen observation and love
of nature, it is typical of the style of landscape painting
popular at the time.This rich treasury of
mural paintings suggests that the ancient
Huihu painters used techniques similar to those used
in the Dunhuang mural paintings. These painters also developed
the Xinjiang traditional technique of color shading to give
a three-dimensional effect creating rare pieces of art. Featuring
sedate and graceful Buddhas and bodhisattvas, strong and resolute
lokapalas and guardians, they are primarily vehicles for religious
ideas. But they also present images of kings and queens and
people from all levels of society in the ancient Huihu Kingdom,
as well as portraying the way of life of the Uygur people
in ancient times through pictures of pavilions, terraces and
towers, fruit and melons, costumes andornaments. Paintings
of deva-musicians provide data for studying,ancient Xinjiang
music and dances, while the inscriptions on the murals in
the Huihu, Han and Pahlavi languages are also valuable
data for studying the language, history and culture
of the various nationalities, especially the Uygur people,
of Xinjiang.
Sugong Pagoda
The Sugong Pagoda, also called~the Turpan Pagoda,
stands two kilometers southeast of the Turpan County seat.
Built more than 200 years ago, it is the biggest ancient pagoda
left standing in Xinjiang, and its name appeared on the first
list of key cultural relics under the protection of the Xinjiang
government published in 1957. In the shape of a huge cylinder,
the pagoda rises to a height of thirty-seven meters from a
base measuring ten meters in diameter. Built entirely of brick,
the outer layer was laid and set in fifteen decorative traditional
Uygur designs, including diamond, hill, wave and four-petaled
blossom patterns. There~are fourteen windows in the pagoda,
and inside, a seventy-two-step spiral staircase leads to
the top. The pagoda stands near by a domed mosque
with a spire which faces east. The mosque, which can seat
1,000 people, has two huge domed shrines facing each other
on either side of the main hall. Built of adobe, the mosque
is typical of Turpan architecture. The local Uygur people
say the mosque and the pagoda were designed by Ibrahim, a
famous Uygur architect in the Qing Dynasty. It is said that
there is no other pagoda built in this style anywhere else
in China. A stone tablet stands at the entrance of the pagoda,
each side carrying an inscription recording the reason for
building the pagoda, one in the Uygur language and the other
in Chinese characters. The inscriptions say that Prince Sulayman
of Turpan Prefecture built this
pagoda in honor of his father Emil Hoja, who had accepted
the title of Zhazak conferred by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing
Dynasty for his help in unifying the country. In 1732-33 Zhazak
Emil Hoja had led the Turpan people in migrating to,the area
around Dunhuang and reclaiming wasteland there. Later he did
meritorious service in putting down the Junggar rebellions
and the uprisings of the Greater and Lesser Hojas. In recognition
of his services he received a noble title from the Qing emperor,
and subsequently was made prefectural commandant. His sons
also contributed to the unification of China and Emperor Qianlong
issued an imperial edict allowing his descendants to inherit
his title generation by generation. As a result, six generations
of his family held the title of prefectural commandant, ruling
for 178 years altogether. The inscriptions read, "With
the blessing of God, there has been no natural disaster and
the people have lived in happiness since Emin Hoja was awarded
the commission. To repay God's kindness, we have built this
pagoda at a cost of 7,000 taels of silver. We erect this stone
tablet so that he may live on in the minds of people for ever."
The inscription in Chinese says the pagoda was built in 1778,
whereas the Uygur inscription says it was built eleven years
earlier. This is a question awaiting the answer of archaeologists.
The Ruins of the Ancient Gaochang Huihu Temple in
Jimsar In the summer of 1979, a team from the Archaeological
Research
Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
excavated the ruins of an ancient Gaochang Huihu (Karakhoja)
Buddhist temple twelve kilometers north of the Jimsar County
seat, about one kilometer east of the ancient city of Beshbalik.
The ruins were once a large Buddhist temple, measuring
70.5 meters long north to south, and 43.8 meters wide east
to west, with a foundation of rammed earth and adobe walls.
The south-facing temple consisted of a gate, courtyards, a
main
hall, side halls, living quarters for monks and storehouses.
Entering the temple, tourists see the main hall on the northern
side of a vast courtyard. The gate has been destroyed and
no vestige of. it remains today, and the upper part of the
main hall has collaps'ed. Inside sits a huge six-meter-tall
clay sculpture of Buddha, which has lost its head. On the
outside of the northern, eastern and western walls of the
main hall are two rows of niches. On each wall the upper row
has seven niches, every niche containing an altar on which
sits a small Buddha, while in some, there are colored mural
paintings. Each of the eight niches in the lower rows holds
one or three altars with Buddhas sitting on them. There are
also colored paintings of Buddhas on the walls and ceilings
of the niches. Three side halls stand at either side of the
courtyard, each one contains between six and twenty statues
of Buddha (sitting or standing), bodhisattvas, arhats and
lokapalas. All of them have suffered damage. In one of the
eastern side halls is the statue of a huge Buddha attaining
Nirvana. The frame of the sculpture was made of wood and reeds,
which were then plastered with clay, a thin layer of fine
clay was spread over the statue before it was whitewashed
and painted in bright colors. Most of the statues are adorned
with colorful robes and tinkling bells, and the colors are
as fresh as if the statues had been newly painted.There are
mural paintings in all the side hails, and one large well-preserved
mural in one of the eastern side halls features a king sitting
cross-legged on a 'white elephant. Clad in armoi' and with
an aureole behind his head, his left hand lies on his left
leg while his right hand with two fingers extended is raised.
The white elephant is festooned with a harness and a howdah,
and around the king and elephant throngs a crowd of armor-clad
horsemen with daggers, bows and arrows at their waists, and
long umbrellas or banners and flags in their hands. The long
procession extends over hills and meadows.
Part of the foreground of the painting is devoted
to a picture depicting an attack on a walled city. The city
walls rise high with battlements and a tower on top. In the
middle of one wall there is a gate, where a Brahman stands,
one hand holding an alms-bowl in front of him and the other
hand lifted to his shoulder. Outside the wall are attacking
horsemen and foot warriors, who charge forward with swords,
draw their bows to shoot upward, or hold shields to keep off
the arrows. The defenders on the wall strike down with long
spears, shoot arrows at the attackers or hold shields to protect
themselves.
The portraits of a Buddhist couple occupy the center
of the foreground of the large mural painting. Both tl~,e
man and the
woman have round faces, curved eyebrows, almond-shaped
eyes handsome noses, small mouths, red lips and large drooping
ears with earrings. Each of them holds a big blossom in their
hands. The man wears a high peach-shaped hat, a long gown
with narrow sleeves and a round collar, and a leather belt
round his waist, while the woman is dressed in a phoenix coronet,
a long dress with a turndown collar and narrow sleeves, and
strings of ornaments. There is an inscription in the Huihu
language beside the head of each one. Other mural paintings
that can be made out depict defenders of the Buddhist, faith
holding dragon pennants, Brahmans beating drums, portraits
of Avalokitesvara, thousand-Buddha designs and
Buddhist supporters. Gold foil remains on some of
the statues and mural paintings, suggesting that the huge
temple must have been a magnificent sight in ancient times.
The large numbers of inscriptions in the Huihu language and
portraits of Buddhist believers or supporters dressed in Huihu
costumes on the walls of the temple, as well as the Huihu
inscriptions beside the Buddhist couple described above, which
read "Portrait of Holy Yiduhu" (title of the king
of the State of Huihu
Gaochang) and "Portraits of the Superior Officer
and the Princess, all indicate that this temple must have
been built at the time of the State of Huihu Gaochang, probably
in the tenth century. The State of Huihu Gaochang lasted from
the ninth century to the thirteenth century, during which
their capital was located in the present ruins of the ancient
city of Gaochang. The ancient city of Beshbalik near the temple
m Jimsar was also part of the territory of the State of Huihu
Gaochang.
The discovery and excavation of the temple has provided
important material for the study of ancient
Huihu history and the development of Buddhist art and culture
at that time.
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