Flaming mountains
The Flaming Mountains ( Chinese 火焰山 , Pinyin Huǒyàn Shān ) are arid, eroded red sandstone hills of the Tian Shan Mountains , in the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in northwest China . They are located east of the city of Turpan , in the intramontane Turpan Basin . The trenches cut into the red sandstone by the erosion give the slopes a flaming appearance at certain times of the day and thus gave the mountains their name.
The mountains are 98 kilometers long and nine kilometers wide, they stretch from east to west. The average height of the Flaming Mountains is 500 meters. The climate is inhospitable; In summer it can get hotter than 50 ° C in parts, which is the hottest point in the country. One of the largest thermometers in China - a popular attraction among tourists - is located next to a mountain and shows the current ambient temperature.
Silk road
In the past, the Taklamakan Desert was avoided by commercial travelers on the Silk Road, so oasis cities such as Gaochang were built at the foot of the Flaming Mountains, which served as intermediate and mountain pass stations for traveling traders.
Buddhist missionaries often accompanied traders on international trade routes, and during the heyday of the Silk Road, Buddhist monasteries and temples were built at its junctions and near mountain passes.
The Thousand Buddha Caves of Bäzäklik , a complex of 70 Buddhist cave temples from the fifth to ninth centuries, are located in a gorge under the cliffs of the Flaming Mountains near the Gaochang Pass. Many of the temples are decorated with thousands of cave paintings.
Literary fame
The Flaming Mountains got their name because of a Buddhist monk who was accompanied by the king of the monkeys . This monkey king had magical powers and ran into a wall of flames during his pilgrimage to India . This story is told in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West .
The novel is the ornate description of the journey of the monk Xuanzang to India in the year 627, which led over a pass in the Tian Shan after he left Gaochang.
Legends
An old Han legend has it that the King of the Monkeys knocked on a stove and dropped ashes on the spot where the Flaming Mountains now stand. According to a Uighur legend, a dragon lived in the mountains of Tian Shan and ate small children. After a Uighur hero defeated the dragon, he cut it into eight pieces and the blood turned into a red mountain, the eight valleys of which symbolize the pieces of the dragon.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Flaming Mountain, Turpan . chinahighlights.com. Archived from the original on November 11, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 19, 2007.
- ^ John Keay: India: A History . Grove Press, New York 2000, pp. 103, 124-127, ISBN 0-8021-3797-0 .
- ↑ Patricia Ebrey: The Cambridge Illustrated History of China . Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 106-7, 202, ISBN 0-521-43519-6 .
- ↑ Bizaklik Thousand Buddha Caves . showcaves.com. Retrieved September 19, 2007.
- ↑ Bizaklik Thousand Buddha Caves . travelchinaguide. Retrieved September 19, 2007.
- ↑ Patricia Ebrey: The Cambridge Illustrated History of China . Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 202, ISBN 0-521-43519-6 .
- ^ The Third Cross-Strait Conference - Post-conference Tour to the Flaming Mountains . University of Massachusetts.edu. Archived from the original on February 20, 2007. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
- ↑ The Flaming Mountains (Huo Yan Shan) . travelchinaguide.com. Retrieved September 21, 2007.
