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Dandan Oilik (; Uyghur: ), also Dandān-Uiliq, ''lit.'' "the houses with ivory", is an abandoned historic
oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environmentBuddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
site in the Taklamakan Desert of
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, located to the northeast of Khotan in what is now the autonomous region of
Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
, between the Khotan and Keriya rivers. The central site covers an area of 4.5 km2; the greater oasis extends over an area of 22 km2. The site flourished from the sixth century as a site along the southern branch of the
Silk Road The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...
until its abandonment before the Tibetan advance at the end of the eighth century. Dandan Oilik was rediscovered and partially excavated by a succession of foreign explorers starting in 1896, and has yielded rich finds including manuscripts,
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...
reliefs, painted wooden panels, and murals. A detailed survey was conducted in 2006 although much of the site remains unexcavated. Dandan Oilik is currently off-limits to the public.


Rediscovery

After over a millennium of abandonment to the shifting sands, Dandan Oilik was rediscovered in 1896 by Swedish explorer Sven Hedin. Leaving his baggage in Khotan, Hedin set out on 14 January 1896 with a retinue of four men, three camels, and two donkeys, along with enough provisions to last fifty days. After five days the party left the
White Jade River __NOTOC__ The White Jade River, also known by the native names Baiyu or Yurungkash, is a river in the southern Xinjiang region of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of ...
, heading east between the dunes, which gradually increased to a height of fifty feet. Steering through the or "passes" between the dunes, with live tamarisk or poplar indicating sources of water, ten days after departing Khotan Hedin rode his camel bareback to the "Buried City of Taklamakan". There he found traces of hundreds of wooden houses; a "Temple of Buddha", with walls constructed of bundles of reeds fixed to stakes, and covered in earthen plaster and wall paintings – of kneeling females, moustachioed males in Persian clothing, animals, and boats rocking in the waves; fragments of paper with indecipherable characters; a life-size gypsum foot; and a series of Buddha images. Most of the ruins, extending over an area two to two and a half miles across, were buried under high dunes. Hedin found that excavation was "desperate work", with the sand immediately filling whatever was dug, necessitating the removal of entire dunes; furthermore, and despite their antiquity, the camels and donkeys still "consumed with relish" the reeds once used in construction. Although unable to recover the overall plan of the city, Hedin found traces of gardens, rows of poplars indicating ancient avenues, and remains of ancient apricot and plum trees, concluding that "the walls of this God-accursed city, this second Sodom in the desert, had thus in ancient times been washed by a powerful stream – the Keriya-daria".


Aurel Stein

In December 1900, alerted in Khotan by a "reliable 'treasure-seeker'" who brought fragments of wall painting with
Brahmi script Brahmi ( ; ; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system from ancient India. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as ...
, stucco reliefs, and paper documents from a site known locally as Dandān-Uiliq, Aurel Stein set off in the footsteps of Hedin, accompanied by two of his guides and a team of thirty labourers, to begin excavations. He uncovered a series of structures (labelled by Stein D. I to D. XVII), including dwellings and a number of Buddhist shrines. D. II has a central rectangular platform surmounted by a moulded lotus statue base, on which only the foot of the image survives; the surrounding passage Stein identified as serving for
parikrama Parikrama or Pradakshina is clockwise circumambulation of sacred entities, and the path along which this is performed, as practiced in the Indian religions, Indic religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. In Buddhism, it refers only ...
( ritual circumambulation). In an adjoining smaller building was a headless Buddha which Stein carted off on a mule and is now in the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
; another headless figure, clad in
mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...
, wearing wide boots similar to the soft leather ''chāruks'' of contemporary Turkestan, trampling another figure, and thought to represent Kubera; and wall paintings of a seated monastic, a Buddha, horsemen, and a nude dancing girl in a pool of water against a backdrop of flowering lotus, adorned with jewels and a strategically placed vine leaf. Among the documents discovered, written in a variety of scripts on paper, wooden tablets, and sticks, were Buddhist texts; a petition for the recovery of a donkey after the failure of its two purchasers to pay even ten months later; a petition for exemption from requisitions of grain and forced labour after visitation by bandits; a request for the military of skins for drums and quail feathers for arrows; records of loans; and an important early Judeo-Persian document edited and dated to 718 by David Samuel Margoliouth seemingly concerned predominantly with the sale of sheep, complaints of unfair treatment, and the teaching of a girl. Aurel Stein translated the document into English.


Later expeditions

In 1905 geographer Ellsworth Huntington visited Dandan Oilik, observing that it was once watered by a river that no longer flows through the area. From 1928 and the visit of Emil Trinkler and Walter Bosshard, the site lay untouched for nearly seventy years until an initial inspection in 1996 by the Xinjiang Archaeological Institute. In 1998 Christoph Baumer led an expedition to the site, making further discoveries. In 2002 a joint expedition by teams from the Xinjiang Cultural Relics Bureau, the Xinjiang Archaeological Research Institute, and Niya Research Institute of
Bukkyo University is a private university in Kita-ku, Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. The university began as an organization within the Chion-in, Chion-in Temple for the lecturing and study of Buddhism in 1868. The school's official predecessor was founded in ...
in Japan discovered a new Buddhist temple with wall paintings. This was subsequently excavated and thirty sections of the paintings were detached and removed to
Ürümqi Ürümqi, , is the capital of the Xinjiang, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwestern China. With a census population of 4 million in 2020, Ürümqi is the second-largest city in China's northwestern interior after Xi'an, also the ...
. They include seated Buddhas, serial figures in the Thousand Buddha tradition,
bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, '' bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal nirvana or ''bodhi'' in ...
s, horsemen on dappled mounts and an inscription in the Iranian Saka language. In 2006, in recognition of its significance, Dandan Oilik was listed by State Administration of Cultural Heritage as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.


Gallery

File:Ancient Khotan BLER2 AKV1 FP246 FIG28.jpg, Ancient Khotan BLER2 AKV1 FP246 FIG28 File:Ancient Khotan BLER2 AKV1 FP246 FIG29.jpg, Ancient Khotan BLER2 AKV1 FP246 FIG29 File:Ancient Khotan BLER2 AKV1 FP246 FIG31.jpg, Ancient Khotan BLER2 AKV1 FP246 FIG31 File:Ancient Khotan BLER4 AKV2 PLII PHOT.jpg, Ancient Khotan BLER4 AKV2 PLII PHOT File:Ancient Khotan BLER4 AKV2 PLIII PHOTB.jpg, Ancient Khotan BLER4 AKV2 PLIII PHOTB File:Judeo-Persian letter BLI7 OR8212166R1 1.jpg, Judeo-Persian letter BLI7 OR8212166R1 1


See also

* Kingdom of Khotan * Loulan Kingdom * Niya * Xiaohe Tomb complex * Major national historical and cultural sites (Xinjiang) * List of archaeological sites of the Taklamakan and Lop Desert


References


Further reading

*


External links


Stein - Ancient Khotan: Dandān-Uiliq
( International Dunhuang Project) {{Authority control Former populated places in Xinjiang Defunct Buddhist monasteries Archaeological sites in China Populated places along the Silk Road Oases of China Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Xinjiang