National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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 Turfán 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 Astána, 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

Astána 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-khója, Toyuk, Bezeklik, 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.' 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 Maháyána 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-khója 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 Tang 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 )(. 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 Turfán shrines generally, most of which cover a

I See my Catalogue of Wall Paintings. Delhi, 1933.

d2   XXV