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

miniatures. A Gothic character is noticeable also in the scroll-work on the Toyuk

dome in plate x.

PAINTED FRAGMENT FROM KHARA-KHOTO

THE site from which this example comes lies 600 miles to the east of Turfán.

The ancient fortified town of Khara-khoto, the `Black Town', has been identi-

fied as Marco Polo's `City of Etzina'. Its position is such that invaders from the

North found it a convenient stage on their repeated inroads. The Yüeh-chih, `des-

tined to become later the Indo-Scythian rulers of north-west India', the Huns,

and the Uigur Turks `had all passed along this natural highway'.

Unfortunately there is no certainty as to the actual provenance of this finely

preserved piece of wall-painting, and there is no definitely recognizable reference to

it in Stein's Report Innermost Asia. If I rightly identify it, it was found within the

town wall, but was believed by Stein to have been taken from the shrine K. K. II,

which is about two miles west of the town, by members of the Russian party,

under the direction of Colonel Kozloff, who seem to have ransacked this shrine

with less care than vigour, causing considerable destruction and confusion of inter-

esting matter left behind; and that in packing their finds, this piece, temporarily

deposited within the town, was inadvertently overlooked.

K. K. II. 0314

This is probably a small portion of a large subject, perhaps a Buddhist Paradise,

and shows a sacred tree, enthroned, on a palatial terrace approached by a sloping

gangway or steps, protected by a hand-rail and panel between two octagonal newel-

posts, each with a finial in the form of a red lotus rising from the green top surface

of the post. The stairs are coloured in alternate green and buff bands, representing,

perhaps, `tread' and `riser' respectively. From the upper newel-post, panelling and

hand-rail, similar to that of the stairs, extend across the picture, with a band of

mottled pink-buff and green, decorated faintly with a floral pattern below; and

below this again, a band of formal ribbon pattern in buff on black. The bracket-

shape tie in light grey (silver) with red-gold decorative bands above and below,

on the hand-rail, has a distinctly Chinese character. In the foreground stands a

two-headed (jzvajîva) green parakeet. From behind the tree, upward curving bands

of white or buff, green and red, form a halo. The background behind the draped

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