新疆和田地区策勒县达玛沟佛寺遗址发掘报告

EXCAVATIONS OF BUDDHIST TEMPLE-SITES AT DAMAGO IN QIRA COUNTY OF HETIAN PREFECTURE,XINJIANG

新疆和田地区策勒县达玛沟乡所在区域分布着许多重要佛教遗址。20世纪初，沿达玛沟水系从南到北先后发现了喀达里克、克科吉格代、巴拉瓦斯特、老达玛沟、乌宗塔提、喀拉沁、丹丹乌里克等著名佛教遗址，出土大量的珍贵佛教文物。然而，上述佛教遗址全部位于今达玛沟绿洲及其北部地区，达玛沟南部地区基本上没有佛教遗迹被发现。

In March 2000, May to June 2006 and October 2006, the Xinjiang Archaeological Team, IA, CASS, excavated successively the Nos. 1 and 2 Buddhist temple-sites at Topulukdong and the No. 1 Buddhist temple-site at Karadong in Damago of Qira County, Xinjiang. It has been known through studies that Temple Topulukdong-1 may have been built in the 6th to 7th century, Temple Damago Karadong-1, in the 7th century, and Temple Topulukdong-2, in the 8th century; and all of them may have been destroyed in the 10th to 11th century, in flames of the Islamic War launched by the Karakhan Dynasty. Thus the temples reflect an aspect of the developmental course of Buddhist temples in Yutian during the 6th to 8th centuries. The first temple is a square-plan image enshrining and worshiping hall and is the smallest among the medieval temples discovered so far in China and even in the world, as well as the best preserved hall-style Buddhist temple recorded in the Taklimakan Desert up to the present. The Buddhist statues in the temple are in quite a good condition, and the main sculpture and its nimbus and halo are invaluable treasures. The murals are exquisite in workmanship and the largest in remaining size among the wall paintings of Buddhist temples recorded so far across the Taklimakan Desert. Of them the figure of Maitreya Bodhisattva and the early image of Vaisravana are especially valuable. The original building can be completely reconstructed on the basis of the extant structures and murals. Temple Topulukdong-2 is well planned and is precise in layout and quite good in condition, and consists of the eastern gate, anterior hall, eastern side hall, northeastern side room, northern gate, northern side hall and central hall with statues enshrined inside and a corridor winding outside. It is the most complexly structured temple with a winding corridor and Buddhist statues known so far in Hetian Prefecture and can be rated as a large-sized representative of this type of building in this area. Thus its discovery made up a gap in the knowledge of the late form of Buddhist temples in Yutian. The head of the main statue, the remains of the painted thousand-Buddha images in the winding corridor, the Vairocana Buddha painted on a plank, the tsha-tsha and so on unearthed from the site constitute a batch of important achievements. The image of Vairocana Buddha and tsha-tsha along with the remains of the mural of thousand-arm thousand-eye Avalokitesvara well reflect the prevalence of the Esoteric Sect in the Yutian area and its close relationship with Tibetan Buddhism. The numerous cultural elements seen in the three temples demonstrate frequent exchanges of Yutian Buddhist art with aesthetic creation in the Central Plains and Central Asia.