001 Grottoes Kumtura Thousand-Buddha Caves On both banks of the Muzat River, the caves of Kumtura spread high and low along the cliffs. Dating of the wooden armature inside the statues of Cave 20 falls between 413 and 571; during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang, Han Chinese monks were still carving pilgrimage vows in the Arhat Cave; and from the late ninth to the early tenth century, Uyghur donors and inscriptions in multiple scripts appeared among the cave complex. By 1906, some antechambers and cave doorways had already slid down with the cliff face; twenty-two years later, Huang Wenbi climbed into the Arhat Cave with a rope tied at his waist and copied out, one by one, such shallow engravings as “the fifth year of Dashun of the Great Tang” and “reverence to the Arhat's bones.” Eastern Jin Dynasty East bank of the Weigan River, Kuqa City, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Kumtura Thousand-Buddha Caves · Kumtura Caves · Kumtula Caves →
002 Architecture Guangsheng Temple Today's Guangsheng Temple is split between the heights and foot of Mount Huo, yet the Tang documents record only one ancient foundation of an Aśoka pagoda. Thereafter buildings arose beside the Huo Spring, a Buddha hall stood at the southern foot of the mountain, and a glazed pagoda was rebuilt on the summit. In the thirteenth year of the Jiajing era, Wang Shilong, leading troops on a relief expedition, took his meal at the foot of the pagoda, and after the revolt was pacified had his poem carved on the pagoda wall; not until the Kangxi era did the names “Upper Temple” and “Lower Temple” appear explicitly in a stele. The extant Feihong Pagoda was built under the monk Dalian between the Zhengde and Jiajing eras. Northern Zhou Dynasty Hongtong County, Linfen, Shanxi Province Buddhist Architecture · Northern Zhou · Yuan Dynasty Architecture →
003 Architecture Small Wild Goose Pagoda The Small Wild Goose Pagoda stands within the Jianfu Temple in Xi'an. Built during the Jinglong era of the Tang dynasty with funds contributed by palace women, it originally had fifteen stories. According to the Shaanxi Tongzhi (Shaanxi Provincial Gazetteer), the Yimao earthquake of the Jiajing era split the pagoda in two, and the Guihai earthquake reunited it. During Wang Fuchen's rebellion the pagoda split again, and after the rebellion was quelled it returned to its former state. The temple buildings were completely destroyed during the Jurchen-era migration, leaving only the brick pagoda standing. Tang Dynasty Xi'an, Shaanxi Province Small Wild Goose Pagoda · Jianfu Temple · Xi'an →