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| 0291 |
Innermost Asia : vol.2 |
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CHAPTER XXIII
KUCHĀ AND SOME OF ITS ANCIENT SITES
Section I.—THE OASIS IN ITS GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS AND THE
POSITION OF ITS ANCIENT CAPITAL
Before I proceed to describe the surveys and other work which detained me for nearly three Importance
weeks within and around the main oasis of Kuchā, I may with advantage offer some general remarks of Kuchā.
concerning the importance, political as well as cultural, that has attached to the territory throughout
historical times. This importance is abundantly attested on the one hand by the notices of Kuchā
(Ch'iu-tzŭ 龜 茲¹) contained in the dynastic annals and other Chinese texts from Han to
T'ang times, and on the other by the number and extent of the Buddhist sacred sites to be found
in the district. There is no need for me to review here the records that throw light on the great
part played by the territory of Kuchā in the history of the Tārīm basin ever since this first passed
within the sphere of China's Central-Asian policy and relations. All the data in Chinese historical
texts and Buddhist works bearing upon Kuchā have been collected and critically discussed by
Professor Sylvain Lévi; they will be found in the same masterly paper by which he established the
identity of the language spoken at Kuchā throughout the Buddhist period with the remarkable
Indo-European tongue first discovered through local finds of manuscripts and designated by other
scholars as 'Tokhārī B'.²
Nor can I attempt to describe here all those numerous, and even in their ruined state impressive, Buddhist
remains which illustrate the flourishing conditions of Buddhist religious establishments in Kuchā remains of
and the ample resources of the population that maintained them. The conspicuous ruins of Buddhist Kuchā.
temples and monasteries at the sites of Su-bāshi and Duldul-okur, the extensive series of cave-shrines,
decorated with fine wall-paintings, to be found at Simsin above Kīrish, at Kizil-kāghe, and at the
'Ming-ois' of Kum-tura and Kizil had already been systematically explored by German and
French expeditions under Professors Grünwedel and von Lecoq and M. Pelliot respectively, before
my first visit to Kuchā in 1908. Archaeological work on a lesser scale had also been carried on in
the district by M. Berezowsky under the auspices of the Russian Imperial Academy. I made as
full an inspection of these interesting sites, both on my second and third journeys, as the short time
I could spare for Kuchā rendered possible. But for an account of them and of the numerous and
varied remains, of archaeological, artistic, or philological interest, that have been brought to light
there, I must refer to the important publications of Professors Grünwedel and von Lecoq and to
the comprehensive report which may be hoped for of M. Pelliot's carefully conducted excavations.³
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