The Subashi Temple, also known in Chinese as Subashi Fosi Yizhi (苏巴什佛寺遗址) is a ruined

Buddhist 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 ...

temple near

Kucha Kucha or Kuche (also: ''Kuçar'', ''Kuchar''; , Кучар; zh, t= 龜茲, p=Qiūcí, zh, t= 庫車, p=Kùchē; ) was an ancient Buddhist kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the northern edge of what is now the Taklam ...

in the

Taklamakan Desert The Taklamakan Desert ( ) is a desert in northwest China's Xinjiang region. Located inside the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang, it is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains to the west, the Tian Shan range to the ...

, on the ancient

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 ...

, in

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' ...

, Western

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 ...

. The city was partly excavated by the Japanese archaeologist Count Otani. Other famous sites nearby are the Ah-ai Grotto, Kizilgaha caves, the

Kumtura Caves The Kumtura Thousand Buddha Caves ( zh, t=庫木吐喇千佛洞, s=, p=Kùmùtǔlǎ Qiānfódòng) (also Qumtura; Uyghur: ) is a Buddhist cave temple site in the Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, China. The site is located some 25 km west of Kuc ...

, the

Kizil Caves The Kizil Caves (also romanized as Qizil or Qyzyl; ; zh, s=克孜尔千佛洞, l=Kizil Caves of the Thousand Buddhas) are a set of Buddhist rock-cut caves located near Kizil Township ( zh, s=克孜尔乡, p=Kèzī'ěr Xiāng, labels=no) in Ba ...

and the Simsim caves. These sites and others along the

were inscribed in 2014 on the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

as the Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor World Heritage Site. A sarira, a

relic box of the 6th–7th century, discovered in Subashi shows

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

n men in long tunics, reminiscent of friezes produced by the

Tocharians The Tocharians or Tokharians ( ; ) were speakers of the Tocharian languages, a group of Indo-European languages known from around 7,600 documents from the 6th and 7th centuries, found on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin (modern-day Xinj ...

. The "Witch of Subashi" is another famous archaeological artifact, the mummy of a woman with a huge pointed hat, thought to be a representative of early Caucasian populations who lived in the region around the beginning of our era. File:Subashi Buddhist Temple Ruins - East.jpg, Subashi Buddhist Temple Ruins - East Area File:Subashi Buddhist Temple Ruins - West.jpg, Subashi Buddhist Temple Ruins - West Area Image:SariraCasket.jpg, Sarira casket from Subashi. Wood covered with hemp and painted. 6th-7th century. Otani Collection.

Tokyo National Museum The or TNM is an art museum in Ueno Park in the Taitō wards of Tokyo, ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the four museums operated by the , is considered the oldest national museum and the largest art museum in Japan. The museum collects, prese ...

. Subashi reliquary men in caftan.jpg, Central Asian men, detail of Sarira box. Image:BoxDetail6.jpg, Central Asian men, detail of Sarira box. File:Subashi painting, 6th-7th century CE.jpg, Subashi painting, 6th-7th century CE. File:Male torso, Subashi (western area), Xinjiang, China, end of 6th-early 7th century CE, Guimet Museum (MG 23751).jpg, Male torso, Subashi (western area), Xinjiang, China, end of 6th-early 7th century CE,

Guimet Museum The Guimet Museum (full name in ; ''MNAAG''; ) is a Parisian art museum with one of the largest collections of Asian art outside of Asia that includes items from Cambodia, Thailand, Viet Nam, Tibet, India, and Nepal, among other countries. Found ...

(MG 23751)

References

External links

Painted Sarira Casket
Tokyo National Museum Buddhist temples in China Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Xinjiang Sites along the Silk Road Buddhist temples in Aksu Prefecture Archaeological sites in China {{Xinjiang-geo-stub