Kumtura Grotto

The Kumtura Grotto was built in 4 AD century and finished in 11AD century,30km far away from the southwest area of the Kuche County. The process of digging the caves can be separated into three periods: the first period was in the East and West Jin Dynasties, the second period was from the Northern and Southern Dynasties to Sui Dynasty and the third period wasfrom the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Song Dynasty.

There are 112 caves with numbers and thousands of square meters of paintings which mainly describe Mahayana. The art of the paintings are full of “Tang style”, with some sculptures. The paintings of the Kumtura Grotto are affected by both the western and Chinese cultures. It also has its local unique art style. In the caves, there are also many prefaces in the language of Qiuci, China and Uighur which are important reference materials to study Qiuci culture. The content and style in the caves are similar to the art of Buddhism in the central plain, including a large amount of lively and graceful sutra story paintings such as “West Paradise”,”Pharmacist of the East”,”The Lotus Sutra”and “Maitreya”.

The Kumtura Grotto has been identified as national key culture relic protection site.

hancheng

See author's posts