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The ruins of a Buddhist templedating back 1,500 years ago have been discovered in China's largestdesert, offering valuable research material for historians studyingBuddhism's spread from India to China. The temple's main hall, with a rare structure based around threesquare-shaped corridors and a huge Buddha statue, has beenuncovered after two months of hard work in Xinjiang Uygurautonomous region, Dr. Wu Xinhua, the leading archaeologist of theexcavation project, said Monday. "The hall is the largest of its kind found in the TaklimakanDesert since the first archaeologist came to work in the area inthe 20th century," said Wu, also head of the Xinjiangarcheological team of the Chinese Academy of Social Science. The ruins are located in the south of the Taklimakan Desert, in theTarim Basin, known as the Damago Oasis in the ancient kingdom ofKhotan, a Buddhist civilization believed to date back to the 3rdcentury BC. Temple halls with square-shaped corridors stemmed from earlyBuddhist architecture in India, and gradually disappeared after theNorthern and Southern Dynasties (420AD-589AD), when Buddhistarchitecture in China began to pick up its own characteristics,according to Xiao Huaiyan, a member of the excavation team and aformer researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Judging from the layout of the ruins, and the artifacts uncoveredat the site, Wu and his colleagues believe the temple dates back tothe Southern and Northern Dynasties. It is so far the best Buddhist site for scholars to study how thereligion arrived in China from India, and its early development inthe country, said Wu. Judging from the size of the pedestal on which it would haverested, the missing Buddha statue should be at least three meterstall, reaching the size limits of the hall when its roof wasintact, he estimates. The innermost corridor extends six meters from both south to northand from east to west, the second corridor is 10 meters long and 10meters wide, while the hall's wall surrounds an area of 256 squaremeters. Still visible on corridor walls are mural paintings of itemsincluding the Buddha's feet, Buddhists and auspicious animals. Theyare painted in a Greco-Buddhist artistic style, which was seldomseen after the 6th century. Ruins of several residential structures were found to the southwestof the main hall, along with some pottery kilns and ancient coins. There is still a scripture hall, a stupa and residential houses forBuddhists to be uncovered, Wu added. The southern end of the ancient Silk Road, a major historical traderoute, went across the 337,000-square-km Taklimakan Desert, and awide variety of cultural heritage items have been buried in what isnow known as the "sea of death." In 1901, British explorer Marc Aurel Stein trekked far out in thedesert and into the ruins of Niya, an ancient Pompeii-like citywith homes, Buddhist stupas, temples, pottery kilns, orchards,tombs, waterways and dams. Since then, more than 10 Buddhist sites have been discovered byarchaeologists from China and abroad in the Damago Oasis. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Cool Bike Bell , China Mini Bike Lights, and more. For more , please visit Mini Bike Lights today!
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