Qiu Ci ruins
5 min readQiu Ci ruins are located in Pilang village about lkm to the west of the current Kuche County，which is the capital of Qiu Ci-a large kingdom of the thirty six kingdoms in the Western Regions.It was called Yancheng in the han Dynasty and Yilulu in the tang Dynasty，as the location of anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty and an important place on the Silk road.In 1957，there stillremained wall in the east，south and north in the shape of slightly square and with a circumference of about 7km.The wall was built with tamped earth：the eastern wall is 1，680m long，7.6m of the residual height and 15m wide；the southern wall is 1，809m long，3.5m of the residual height and 2.8m wide；and the northern wall is 2，075m long，3.8m of the residual height and 8-16m wide There remained 6 high rammed earth platforms and people found wedge black bricks，lotus pattern tiles of Tang，cylindrical tiles，pottery jars and pottery basin as well as Kaiyuan Reign and Jianzhong reign of the tang Dynasty and relics of bronze/iron wares.There are over 10 ruins in the city and around it Near the eastern wall there are ruins of houses and buildings where used to excavate pottery pieces，iron pieces，brass pieces，jade eardrop，edge cut Wuzhu coin and small coins of Qiuci
Near Kuche River and Weigan River there spread ancient city Dahei Tideqin Queli Mahavihara and ashelier gia lam and other ruins.these ruins not only feature distinctive characteristics of the Qiuci culture，but also show some influence of culture of inland china and the West，so they are the treasure house for studying the ancient culture of Xinjiang and cultural exchanges between the east and the west
At the beginning of the 20th century the ruins and temple relics in Kuche were plundered successively by a Japanese Tesshin Watanabe，a French Pelliot，an English Stein and Germans Grynwedel and Le coq and others.In 1928，Chinese archaeologist Huang Wenbi carried out archaeological research in Kuche and wrote Archaeological Record of the tarim Basin.After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China，Huang Wenbi once again carried out study and excavation of the ruins and temple relics from 1957 until 1958
Ancient city of ruins are located about 7km to the northeast of Kuche, in the gobi highland named mingtian ada between wugia river and ys bash River. The main ruins of the city can be dated back to the period from Tang until Uigur. The city has double walls in the shape of rectangle, about 150m from east to west and about 72m from south to north the wall was built by ramping. There remain two ramping platforms. The eastern platform looks lil the pagoda foundation and incomplete house relics are left near the pagoda base. there spread 17 ramping platforms outside of the western and southern walls of the interior city, including foundations of pagodas or temples. the exterior has only northern wall and eastern wall left built with adobe. the northern wall is about 240m left and the eastern wall about 1, 825m. there are ruins of gate in the north wall. In addition, there are adobe buildings along the northern and eastern walls inside of the exterior wall, 20m square adobe building, 1 and 7 respectively. The relics inside of the city mainly include Chinese buddhist sutras relics, Chinese paper writs, Uigur paper with Chinese on the front and Uigur on back, printed sitting statue and Buddha figure, as ell as wedge black bricks, pottery and wares. On a Chinese writ of the Tang Dynasty there remain such characters as “left lieutenant leads the soldiers of nearly 32,000 people of Guangjifu”Judged by the 8 square buildings and the broad empty land between the inner city and outer city, ancient city of Mingtian Ada can possibly be the army stationing place used to protect Qiuci capital and Anxi Protectorate
Qiuci has long been honored”thousands of Buddhas towers and temple among which Queli mahavihara and ashelier gia lam ruins are the most famous ones
Queli mahavihara is also called Zhao hu temple, whose ruins are located about 23km to the north of Qiu Ci Ruins. It was built on the small hill on both sides of Tongchang river which is located in the north of Subhash the existing ruins are mainly of architecture of Tang. There is one square adobe tower in the northern, middle and southern parts of the hill respectively in the western part of the temple and there are temple ruins and grottos in the south of th hill, there are ruins of a square temple of 318m in circumference and about 1080m of the residual height, and the wall was built by ramping earth the gate is located in the middle of the southern wall and a parapet is built outside of the gate. Centered on the main hall and square pagoda inside of the temple, there still remain some Buddha halls and monk dwellings and other relics In the west of the temple and on the northern ridge, some temple foundations scattered In the river east part of the temple there is one adobe tower in the north, middle and south of the hill respectively. On the side near the river and in the north of the hill, there is a section of earth wall about 78m long. In the eastern ditch of the southern earth pagoda there are 3 grottos in the east west direction. The relics in the temple mainly include sculptures, frescos, writs in Qiuci language, Chinese and Uigur as well as currencies of Kaiyuan, Qianyuan, Dali and Jianzhong of Tang and silver coin of Kavi Haosravah and Sarira Box. Among all the relics, the most delicate ones are those plundered by Pelliot and Tesshin Watanabe. on one box cover, there draws 4 winged boys holding such musical instruments as konghou, pipa and flute; around the box, there draws 7 dancing people in martial attire and 2 of them wear pig’s headmask; the drawing is attractive and vivid. The precious artwork is important material to study the dance and music of qiuci
The ruins of ashelier gia lam are located in the western bank of weiganRiver about 20km to the west of Kuche opposite to Kumtu grottoes to the north. The plane of the temple ruins is in the shape of an irregular square with a circumference of about 380m. The gate is located at the middle of the eastern wall by north. There is a yard at the center of the temple around which there are respectively Buddha hall, stack room”, square foundation pagoda and monk dwellings. There is another rectangular small yard, provided with a Buddha hall and a high pagoda, to the north of this yard the two yards are connected with each other. The prime period of the ruins is about in the Tang Dynasty, mainly including relics such as statues, embossments, woodcarving small Buddha figures, fresco ruins, Chinese Buddha sutras paper as well as Tang coins of Kaiyuan”,”Dali and Jianzhong”reign and so on
