A New Sogdian Fragment of the Avalokitesvaraikadasamukhadharani from the Tuyoq Grottoes in Turfan.

• Author: Hu, Xiaodan
• Position: Turfan City, China

The Tuyoq Grottoes are located in Shanshan County, Turfan City, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, with the GPS coordinates of 89[degrees]33T6"E and 42[degrees]51T0"N. The grottoes are divided by the Tuyoq River into a west zone and an east zone. According to the distribution of the caves, the east zone can be divided into northern and southern sections, and the west zone can be divided into a northern section, the middle platform with a small Uyghur Buddhist temple, and a southern section. The caves in each area are far apart and relatively independent.

From 2015 to 2016 a joint archaeological team led by the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Academia Turfanica excavated the west zone. One of the authors of this paper, Xia Lidong, presided over the archaeological excavation of the independent Buddhist temple complex on the platform in the middle. A total of fifty caves, a stupa, a courtyard, and some other remnants were cleared. A large number of mural fragments, statue fragments, fragments of manuscripts, and printed books in various languages such as Chinese, Old Turkish, Sogdian, Tibetan, and Mongolian were unearthed, along with wooden sticks, silk paintings, textiles, ceramics, objects made of wood, bronze, iron, and stone, and the remains of animals and plants.

The Sogdian fragment in question was unearthed in cave 63 (see Fig. 1). This image shrine cave and the adjoining cave 64, a vihara cave, constitute a dual cave, located on the lower part of the Buddhist temple complex. Above the dual cave are caves 22, 24, 26, and cave 62 with the front courtyard. On the southern side a passage in front of the combination is connected with the climbing path to other caves.

Judging from the location of cave 63 and cave 64, this group of caves should be an expansion of the temple under the rule of the Xizhou Uyghur kingdom (ninth-thirteenth centuries). Cave 63 has undergone two stages of construction. In the later stage, in order to support caves 22, 24, 26, and 62 and to prevent the collapse of the top of the cave, a T-shaped load-bearing wall was built in the middle. Thus, cave 63 was divided into a front room and a back room. The Sogdian fragment in question was unearthed at the south end of the back room, on which there were collapsed accumulation layers such as silt topsoil and adobe debris. This fragment was piled up in a disorderly way with several Chinese Buddhist scrolls, silk paintings, small clay sculptures, and other objects, all of which were intentionally burned, leaving a large amount of ash and red burnt soil remains.

The transliteration and translation of the Sogdian fragment are given below. (1) In addition to the use of [square brackets] for restorations and (parentheses) for doubtful readings...