国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

much was deposited in the vaults of that building to lie neglected and rotting, a
prey to insects and rodents. In 1910 and 1911 Mr. Tachibani, the Japanese traveller,
visited the sites.
Sir Aurel Stein's explorations in the Turfān depression at the end of 1914 were
mainly geographical and historical, but also very fruitful in archaeological mate-
rial. The rich results of his labours, especially at Toyuk and Astāna, have been
recorded in his great Report, Innermost Asia, wherein he deals exhaustively with
the geography and history of the region. His discoveries in the ancient graves at
Astāna reveal the strength of Chinese culture there, and have been fully described
in the Report. In the course of his investigations he examined cave and structural
shrines at Kara-khōja, Toyuk, Bezeklīk, and other sites, and removed from them
a considerable amount of the painted plaster, which he cut from the walls in small
sections. These sections were carefully packed and sent to India, where they were
reassembled, mounted on aluminium backing, and arranged by me in the Central
Asian Antiquities Museum at New Delhi.¹ During reassembling, selected
examples were photographed for colour and monotone reproduction in anticipa-
tion of their publication in the present work. With few exceptions the paintings
are Buddhist of the Mahāyāna canon with some Tantric intrusions. Manichaean
texts found in the debris of ruins testify to the presence of followers of Mani, and
a few of the painted fragments from the walls of one shrine may relate to that sect.
At Kara-khōja or Idikut-shahri (the 'town of the Idikut or Uigur rulers') the
ruins are of free-standing structures. In one of these, besides a fragment of a
Manichaean manuscript, some Chinese coins, current during the T'ang dynasty,
were found. In a small cave shrine at Toyuk the domed ceiling was elaborately
painted with floral scrolls supporting a series of seated figures emblematic, it is
believed, of the Moon deity with attendants (plate x). Although in a ruinous state,
enough remained to show the general scheme. This dome, reconstructed, is now
in the museum at New Delhi. In the many small fragments of painted plaster
collected, a few of which are reproduced in plate VIII, the importance of clear
contour lines is probably indicative of Chinese influence. But the elements of
design, derived from the flotsam deposited by the various invading waves, and the
manner of treatment are so combined that, except in a few cases, there is no
dominant racial distinction.
Reviewing the paintings of the Turfān shrines generally, most of which cover a