Brief information on Kumutula Grottoes  

Kumutula Grottoes, located some 30 kilometers southwest of Kuqa County, are Buddhist caves and have another name Kumutula Thousand Buddha Grottoes. Those grottoes were first chiseled in the 4th century and abandoned in the 11th century or so.

Currently, the grotto complex consists of the south and north regions, around 5 kilometers from south to north and 1.5 kilometers from east to west. The coded grottoes have 112; the existing murals reach thousands of square meters, mainly depicting the Mahayana, with strong Tang mural art style. In addition, small amounts of statues and lots of inscriptions written in Kuchean, Chinese and Uyghur script, which are the important references to study Qiuci culture, are left as well.

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

   

Chinese Name: 库木吐喇石窟
Address: 30 kilometers southwest of Kuqa County