Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves

Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves are 77 artificial caves, 40 of them contain murals of thousands of Buddha. Bezeklik means "place where there are paintings" in the Uigur language. At this place is also the Royal Temple of the King of Huigu, which was built by the Xizhou Huigu government of the Gaochang Kingdom. The caves are located in the cliff face of a long ridge of rather soft stone, which once had a monastery at its foot, an important center for Buddhist worship. A steep stairway lead 10m up to a narrow and winding path to the cliff top. The caves were built along this path. Today there is a broad walkway which allows easy access to the caves. 

The caves are often rectangular rooms with a round arch ceiling. This ceiling is divided into quadratic fields, each of them containing the picture of a buddha. So the whole ceiling contains virtually hundreds of buddha. Some larger fields contain a big buddha, surrounded by other figures and scenes. Other murals show people of the area, including Indians, Persians and Caucasians. As often with this kind of religious paintings, some are rather naive, others are artistically stunning, depending on the ability of the artist. Some faces show the individual characteristics and the inner feelings of the figures. 

Some of the thousand year old murals are in superb condition, but unfortunately many others have either been destroyed by local Muslims or by foreign adventurer-explorers. The latter obviously did not destroy them, they removed them and took them to foreign countries, where thy now can be seen in several museum. There are some traces of high quality murals, which are almost completely destroyed. In order to prevent further destructions, some caves are protected by glass walls in front of the walls. 
 

Location

Shengjin Country, Turpan

Main Sights

77 Buddha Caves

Travel Information

Admission Fee: 40 Yuan
Opening Hours: 8:00AM - 8:20PM

Travel Tips 

1. Try to avoid visiting Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves during the summer holidays and Golden Week in October. There are many tour groups and local tourists during national holidays.