A Newly Discovered Buddhist Temple and Wall Paintings at Dandan-Uiliq in Xinjiang

Abstract

Dandan-Uiliq is situated in the hinterland of the Taklamakan Desert, in Cele County, Khotan Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China, about 90 km north of Domoko, 60 km east of the Khotan Darya river and 30 km west of the Keriya Darya (see Fig. 1). The site was first discovered in 1896 by the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin on his journey through the Taklamakan Desert,1 and was subsequently excavated in 1900-1901 by the British archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein. Stein cleared 17 dwellings and temples,2 and excavated a large number of artefacts including documents in Chinese and Brahmi, woodblock paintings, sculpted figures, and wall paintings. The site was also visited in 1905 by the American geographer Ellsworth Huntington,3 and again in 1928, by the German geographer Emil Trinkler with the Swiss botanist Walter Bosshard.4 For almost seventy years, this desert site remained untouched, until specialists from the Xinjiang Archaeological Research Institute visited Dandan-Uiliq in 1996. In 1998 Christoph Baumer also led an expedition there and made additional discoveries.5 In October 2002, a joint Chinese-Japanese expedition consisting of a team from the Xinjiang Cultural Relics Bureau, the Xinjiang Archaeological Research Institute and the Niya Research Institute of Bukkyo University, Japan (Kyoto) discovered fragments of wall paintings protruding from the site of a Buddhist temple. The following month, the Xinjiang Archaeological Research Institute undertook rescue excavation work. This was the first time that a specialist team from a Chinese cultural relics and archaeological institute had formally excavated at Dandan-Uiliq.