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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 |
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folds which the Graeco-Buddhist style of Gandhara derived
from classical models.
That the abandonment of the temple had taken place
centuries before the Tibetan occupation became highly
probable when close to the base of one statue I discovered
a fairly large fragment of a Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscript
in Brahmi characters. The material showed that the manu-
script had been written in India, and the type of the Brahmi
script that its date could not be later than the fourth
century.
But the influence exercised by classical art was revealed
still more impressively when I started exploration at a
cluster of mounds suggesting much decayed Stupas about
a mile to the west of the fort. On clearing the smallest of
these mounds I came upon the remains of a solid structure,
square outside but circular within. It had once carried a
dome and enclosed a small Stupa. Heavy masses of debris
fallen from the vaulting and the upper portion of the ro-
tunda walls completely blocked the circular passage around
the Stupa base. Fragments of painted stucco cropped up
here rapidly. It became evident that the interior walls of the
rotunda had once been adorned with frescoes. Yet when
the digging there reached a level of about four feet above
the floor and a delicately painted dado of winged angels
(Fig. 54) began to show on the wall, I felt completely taken
by surprise. How could I have expected by the desolate
shores of Lop-nor, in the very heart of innermost Asia, to
come upon such classical representations of Cherubim?
As in eager excitement I cleared head after head with
my bare hands, I rapidly convinced myself that the ap-
proach to classical design and colour treatment was closer
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168
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295
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537
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550
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561
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571
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578
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