Beiting West Great Temple

The Beiting West Great Temple is located within the territory of Beiting Town, Jimusaer County. The Beiting West Great Temple, also known as the Gaochang Uyghur Buddhist Temple, is situated about 1 kilometer west of the ruins of the Beiting Protectorate, bordered by the Xihébà River to the west and a pond to the east. The surrounding terrain is flat, and most of the area has now been developed into farmland. This ancient temple is the site of a royal monastery of the Gaochang Uyghur Kingdom, dedicated exclusively...

Beiting West Great Temple

The Beiting West Great Temple is a cultural tourism attraction.

Beiting West Great Temple

The Beiting West Great Temple is located within the territory of Beiting Town, Jimusaer County. Also known as the Gaochang Uyghur Buddhist Temple, it lies about 1 kilometer west of the ruins of the Beiting Protectorate, bordered by the Xihébà River to the west and a pond to the east. The surrounding terrain is flat, and most of the area has now been developed into farmland. The ancient temple was the site of a royal monastery of the Gaochang Uyghur Kingdom, exclusively used for the royal family to enshrine Buddha statues. The remains of the temple complex are rectangular in shape, approximately 70.5 meters long from north to south and 43.8 meters wide from east to west. The above-ground parts were built entirely with adobe bricks, while the foundation consists of rammed earth. The entire structure is divided into southern and northern sections: the southern part includes remains such as courtyards, side halls, monks' quarters, and storerooms, with remnants 0.2–0.4 meters high; the northern part is the main hall, surrounded by caves. These two sections form a cohesive whole. Currently, there are remnants of caves on the eastern side, seven above and eight below, with surviving fragments of murals from the Gaochang Uyghur period inside some of them. The building materials used were a combination of wood and earth.

During the early years of the Song Dynasty, the temple flourished. Song envoy Wang Yande once personally visited and "revelled within its grounds." In 1275, as the Gaochang King moved eastward, the temple gradually declined. By the 14th century, it was destroyed during the Islamic—.

Most of the West Great Temple's exterior is now in ruins. Between 1979 and 1980, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted emergency excavations here, uncovering parts of the southern side halls and the eastern Buddhist caves. In 1988, after the West Great Temple was listed as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit together with the ruins of the Beiting Protectorate, it received proper protection.

In the 14th year of the Tang Dynasty’s Zhenguan era (640 AD), the “Tingzhou Prefecture” was established in the former territory of Beiting. In the second year of the Chang’an era under Empress Wu Zetian (702 AD), the “Tingzhou Prefecture” was renamed the “Beiting Grand Protectorate.” During this period, extensive construction took place within its jurisdiction, and numerous Buddhist temples were built, including the “Yingyun Taining Temple,” “Gaotai Temple,” “Longxing Temple,” and “West Great Temple,” leading to a flourishing of Buddhism at the time.

In the fifth year of the Kai Cheng era of Emperor Wenzong of Tang (840 AD), the Uyghur people migrated en masse from the Orkhon River basin to the west, with some settling in the Beiting area. When the Uyghurs were in the northern steppes, they practiced Manichaeism. However, after the establishment of the Gaochang Uyghur regime in 866 AD, they converted to Buddhism. Among the surviving murals of the West Great Temple are portraits of the “Idikut (King of Gaochang),” “Chancellor,” and “Princess.”

In the sixth year of the Zhi Zheng era of Yuan Emperor Huizong (1346 AD), during the reign of the Chagatai Khan (son of Tughlugh Timur), a—was carried out in the Gaochang region (now Turpan), where Buddhist temples were destroyed, monks were killed, and the local Gaochang residents were forced to convert to Islam. Due to this— and the forced religious conversion, the West Great Temple is believed to have been destroyed around this time.

Currently, remnants within the halls and caves include statues of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats, and heavenly kings. The mural content mainly features thousand Buddhas, bodhisattvas, [possibly damaged content], sutra transformation stories, along with inscriptions in Uyghur and Chinese scripts. These provide extremely valuable physical materials for studying the ancient religion, culture, art, language, and architectural techniques of the Uyghur people.

The West Great Temple holds immense historical value due to the large number of Gaochang-period murals and Uyghur inscriptions unearthed there, attracting numerous experts, scholars, and tourists from around the world for visits and research. Additionally, its location on the new northern route of the Silk Road gives it high tourism value and great development potential.