Ajina-Teppa
Adschina-Teppa ( Tajik Аҷинатеппа ; also: Ajina Tepe, Ajina-Tepa, Adzhina-Tepa ) is a Buddhist monastery ( sarighārāma ) from the 7th and 8th centuries, which is located in southern Tajikistan . To the west of it is the provincial capital Qurghonteppa (once: Kurgan-Tjube ) in the Wachsch valley , to the north the ancient settlement of Chorgul Tepe . In 1999 Adschina-Teppa was put on the tentative list as a UNESCO cultural world heritage site .
Discovery story
Coordinates: 37 ° 47 '52.9 " N , 68 ° 51' 15.7" E
In 1959, archaeologists examined the monument for the first time. Adschina-Teppa was on the old Silk Road and was important as a trading location between China , Europe and Central Asia as well as the Indian seaports . As early as 1961, the site could be archaeologically examined . The research activities, which continued until 1975, were headed by the historian and archaeologist Boris Litvinskiy, member of the Tajik Academy of Sciences . The excavations brought out structural parts that were classified in such a way that they had to be considered as belonging to a Buddhist monastery. Today, the entire complex is exposed, but it suffered considerable damage due to neglect in the conservation work over the decades of Russian colonization , later the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic and finally the Tajik autonomy .
architecture
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Before the excavations began, it was already apparent that the foundation of the complex consisted of two piles of stones up to 100 m wide and around 5 m high, under which right-angled courtyards emerged. Rooms, cells and corridors started from two places. Some sanctuaries, such as a (sleeping) Parinirvanian 12 m high Buddha figure (according to other information, it is 14 m) as well as clay figures were lifted, wall paintings uncovered and finally a stupa was recovered. The architecture and decorations of the Adschina-Teppa were fused with Indian elements and local traditions of ancient Kushana ( Tocharistan ). The large statue of a reclining Buddha, unearthed in 1966, was brought to Dushanbe along with numerous painting fragments and sculptures. The reclining Buddha, restored from many individual parts, has been on view in the National Archaeological Museum in Dushanbe since 2001. After the Taliban blew up the Buddha statues in Bamiyan in Afghanistan in March 2001, this is the largest preserved pre-Islamic Buddha statue in Central Asia.
The two buried places were separated from each other by a wall. The higher south-eastern part of the facility was 19 × 19 meters and had a bowl-shaped depression. This was the actual monastery. The north-western part, on the other hand, was characterized by steep sides and encircling narrow sinks. It housed the stupa and served various religious purposes. The convent was made of rammed earth ( pachsa ) and unfired clay bricks made, the blocks were placed on each other and having the typical time for the sizes of 52 × 26 × 10 cm. Hundreds of found Sogdian copper coins from the second half of the 7th and the beginning of the 8th century allow the time of origin of the complex to be narrowed down even better. It was used for about 100 years. The monastery was destroyed during the Arab campaigns of conquest (737-50) and was henceforth unused. It was not until the late 8th century that the ruins were once again used as dwellings and factory shops. Both parts of the building faced each other, each with an ayvān (portal-like vestibule).
The architectural ideas realized in the Adschina-Teppa proved a high degree of development of the Buddhist monastery building. The baseboard passage of the pradakṣina was repeated later in Paharpur in Bangladesh and at the Bebe Temple and Lemyethna Temple in Sri Ksetra (Myanmar). The four-iwan construction established itself later in particular in Iran .
literature
- Boris A. Litvinsky, Outline History of Buddhism in Central Asia , Moscow, 1968.
- M. Taddei, A Note on the Parinirvana Buddha at Тара Sardar (Ghazni, Afghanistan) // South Asian Archeology, 1973. Leiden, 1974.
- Idem, Archeology in Tajikistan under Soviet Rule , East and West 18 / 1-2, 1968 (Russian).
- Boris A. Litvinskiĭ and TI Zeĭmal, Adzhina-Tepa. Zhivopis', Skul'ptura, Arkhitektura, Moscow, 1971 (with an English summary).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b "CAIS at SOAS" Shapour Suren-Pahlav: Tajikistan Discovers New Giant Buddha - CAIS Archaeological & Cultural Daily News of Iran. In: www.cais-soas.com. June 4, 2001. Retrieved July 23, 2015 .
- ^ Buddhistic cloister of Ajina-Tepa on the tentative list
- ↑ TI Zeĭmal was his deputy
- ↑ The materials used at Ajina Tepe are paḵsa (mostly for the foundation and walls) and unfired brick (25-26 by 50-52 by 10-12 cm); walls are 2.2-2.6 m thick; doorways and arches are surmounted by arches of unfired brick.
- ↑ AJINA TEPE - the present-day name of the mound covering the ruins of an early medieval Buddhist monastery // Entry on Encyclopædia Iranica