新疆拜城亦狭克沟石窟调查简报

The Survey of the Ishak Valley Grottoes in Baicheng County,Xinjiang

亦狭克沟石窟位于新疆拜城县克孜尔镇东南明屋塔格山亦狭克沟两侧的悬崖上．西北距克孜尔石窟6千米．东北距坦塔木佛寺遗址8千米（图一）。从克孜尔石窟出发．向东沿渭干河行进约5千米即到达亦狭克沟．沿沟谷向北行进约700米到达亦狭克沟石窟第1-4窟．继续前行约1．5千米到达第5、6窟（图二）。

The Ishak Valley Grottoes are opened on the cliffs on the two sides of the Ishak Valley of the Mingiiytagh Mountains in Kizil Town, Baicheng （Bay） County, Xinjiang. The grottoes are 6 km to the southeast of the Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves and 8 km to the southwest of Tantam Buddhist Monastery remains.Ishak Valley Grottoes consist of six grottoes at present, the Grottoes 1 and 2 are viharas （dorm caves）, Grottoes 3 and 4 are image grottoes and the Grotto 5 is meditation grotto. Many inscriptions written in Brahmi and Chagatai scripts are found in these grottoes, as well as one inscription written in an ancient ethnic script. The inscriptions written in Brahmi script are mostly Kuchean language. The Chagatai script had 28 to 32 letters and was written horizontally from right to left. The Ishak Valley Grottoes might be a place for the ancient Buddhist monks to have meditation and self-cultivation; their opening date could not be earlier than the 6th century AD and later than the beginning of the 8th century, but they were continuing to be used to the 10th century or even later.