Khisht Tepe
Khisht Tepe | |
Khisht Tepe Shown within West and Central Asia Khisht Tepe Khisht Tepe (Bactria) Khisht Tepe Khisht Tepe (Tajikistan) | |
| Location | Tajikistan |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°18′41″N 70°01′29″E / 38.311457°N 70.024593°E |
| Type | Buddhist monastery |
Khisht-tepe, or Khisht-tepa (“Brick hill” in Persian) is a Buddhist archaeological site located in a mountainous area on the left bank of the Obimazar-Yakshu river (tributary of the Pyandj river), in Eastern Tajikistan near the village of Khovaling.[1][2] The site has the remains of a Buddhist monastery, dated to the 7th-8th centuries CE. The monastery has a square plan with a central courtyard, and small stupas inside several rooms. Clay tablets with Buddhist texts were also found.[3]
Khisht-tepe is part of a number of Buddhist monasteries of the 7th-8th centuries such as Kafir-kala, Kala-i Kafirnigan or Ajina Tepe, which were sponsored by Turkic royal families, nobility and population of the Western Turks and Tokhara Yabghus, who were often followers of Hinayana Buddhism.[4][5] The sites are characterized by Buddhist architecture and wall-paintings.[4][1] A devotional tablet in Brahmi was also found, suggesting Gupta influences, as well as very degraded mural paintings.[1]
The area was visited by Xuanzang in 631, who did not find any Buddhists there, suggesting that it developed after this date.[6] The Korean Buddhist monk Hui Chao reported that when he visited circa 730, the population was Turkic and followed Hinayana Buddhism.[6]
References
- ^ a b c Zaleski, Valérie (2019). "À propos de quelques traces de la diffusion du bouddhisme au Tadjikistan". Monuments et mémoires de la Fondation Eugène Piot. 98 (1): 230–231. doi:10.3406/piot.2019.2164.
- ^ Tadjikistan: au pays des fleuves d'or (PDF). Gand : Paris: Édition Snoeck ; Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet. 2021. p. 12 (map). ISBN 9791090262638.
- ^ DEOM, J.-M. BUDDHIST SITES OF AFGHANISTAN AND WEST CENTRAL ASIA (III BC-VIII AD) (PDF).
- ^ a b Baumer, Christoph (18 April 2018). History of Central Asia, The: 4-volume set. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 203–204. ISBN 978-1-83860-868-2.
After the destruction wrought by the Sassanid campaigns of the third and fourth centuries and the Hephthalite invasion, Buddhism in Tocharistan experienced a veritable renaissance under Western Turkic rule. Xuanzang's account of Tocharistan's many monasteries but also the archaeological evidence indicate that Buddhism flourished again under the Turks, who were tolerant in matters of belief and unconcerned to impose a state religion. Among the outstanding examples of seventh-century Buddhist temple architecture and wall-paintings discovered in the Tajik part of Tocharistan are the monasteries of Kala-i Kafirnigan, Kafyr Kala, Khisht Tepe and especially Ajina Tepe, whose Turkic royal family, nobility and population were all followers of Hinayana Buddhism in the eighth century.
- ^ Zaleski, Valérie (2019). "À propos de quelques traces de la diffusion du bouddhisme au Tadjikistan". Monuments et mémoires de la Fondation Eugène Piot. 98 (1): 234. doi:10.3406/piot.2019.2164.
Cette peinture pourrait être emblématique du milieu bouddhiste tokharien au moment de l'hégémonie des Turks sur la région, illustrant peut-être le rôle des sogdiens dans la propagation du bouddhisme chez les Turks.
- ^ a b Tadjikistan: au pays des fleuves d'or (PDF). Gand : Paris: Édition Snoeck ; Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet. 2021. pp. 205–206. ISBN 9791090262638.