Brief information on Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves  

Kizil Thousand-Buddha Grottoes is situated at the Kizil Township which is 67 kilometers southeast of Baicheng County and 73 kilometers west of Kuqa city. It is the largest grottoes located in the west part of China. It was started excavating in the 3rd century(at the end of Eastern Han Dynasty) and being well developed during 5th-7th centuries, and gradually stopped at the end of 8th century, lasting for 500 years.  
Kizil Grottoes is one of the famous Four Grottoes like Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, and even earlier than Mogao Grottoes. Now there are 236 existed caves, among which 135 caves are well preserved and 80 caves have murals and sculptures with a total area of 10,000 square meters. The frescos and sculptures in the cave are of high value for artists and researchers.
Most of the sculptures in the cave were destroyed, but the frescos are well preserved. The frescos are mainly created in the theme of Nidanakatha which well expressed the life of Buddha; karma mainly depicted how people show their worship to the Buddha and how powerful the Buddha is; and Jataka stories related to the Buddha’s past lives. Only in cave No.17, 38 murals of Bunsen frescos are there.
Besides frescos on Buddhism theme, there are also many frescos which vividly depict the life, production and folk customs of that period. Kizil Grottoes provides researchers with very precious materials of the history and culture of Quici and the Buddha culture at the period.

*You can download the bilingual note to show it to a taxi driver or someone else to find your way to Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves if you plan to visit Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves and have language problems.

   

Address:Kizil Town, east of Baicheng County