IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
320 DISCOVERY OF DATED DOCUMENTS [CHAP..xx.
recovered from what we may briefly call the refectory of the ` Hu-kuo ' monastery. The paintings of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas
which they contain must prove of exceptional interest for the study of the history of Buddhist art in Central Asia. For, apart from the high opinion which their good drawing, graceful composition, and free execution must give us of the merits of the Indian art transplanted to Khotan, these paintings also strikingly illustrate the early development of the elaborate conventional details in emblems, poses, &c., which are so characteristic for all representations of the Buddhist Pantheon in Tibetan art. As the latter is so far known to us only from comparatively late specimens, and as scarcely any remains exist of early Indian paintings illustrating Buddhist worship of the Northern or so-called Mahayana type, the value can scarcely be over-rated of such well-preserved and approximately dateable pictures treating subjects thoroughly familiar ' to that system of worship.
But to . me perhaps even more curious, because certainly less expected, are the traces of the influence of Persian art which appear unmistakably in the treatment of face and dress on some of these and subsequently discovered paintings. The evidence of this remarkable fact will be duly furnished by means of proper illustrations in my scientific publication. In the meantime, however, I may point out that this connection with later Iranian art finds its exact parallel in the still more remarkable influence of classical art imported from the Far West, of which my subsequent discoveries have revealed such tangible proofs for a much earlier period.
The description so far given of the structures I excavated during the first part of my stay at Dandan-Uiliq will suffice to indicate the
general character and contents of the ruins of this site. The
survey and excavation of other detached shrines and dwelling-places scattered amidst the dimes kept me for another week busy from
morning till evening. It brought the number of buildings that were thoroughly cleared and examined up to a total of fourteen. But though the results of these excavations helped to confirm and
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