Ruins of the Rawak Buddhist Temple

Ruins of the Rawak Buddhist Temple

The ruins of the Rawak Buddhist Temple are a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Guide The ruins of the Rawak Buddhist Temple are located in the Kulakansiman Desert, 40 kilometers from Yulongkashi Town, Luopu County, Hotan. The surrounding area is an endless expanse of sand dunes with few signs of human presence. "Rawak" means pavilions and towers in Uyghur. It earned its name because a earthen stupa stands prominently in the temple complex. It is also transliterated as Luowake, Yaowake, or Lawake. Introduction The Rawak ruins consist of a temple complex centered around a stupa, comprising a square courtyard with the stupa and surrounding temple structures. The temple stupa faces south, with two gate-like gaps on the central southern end and the western corner. Each side of the courtyard wall is 45 meters long. Outside the eastern wall lies a small temple, with parts of its walls still remaining. The interior walls were coated with gypsum, and the eastern inner wall of the small temple features a domed niche, with the wall covered in regularly and smoothly carved, progressively smaller dome-patterned lines. It is said that there used to be a standing Buddha inside this niche. This small temple is now almost completely destroyed.

Both inside and outside the courtyard walls, remnants of clay Buddhist statues can be found, mostly on the western and eastern walls. Some of these statues are buried in the sand dunes, some are exposed, and others have been destroyed. The statues are about 3 meters tall, with one every 0.6 meters. On the non-eroded walls, murals can be seen, including images of worshippers, cloud patterns, and decorative motifs interspersed among the Buddha figures. The colors are relatively monotonous, dominated by dark reddish-brown tones. The clay Buddha statues exhibit clear Gandharan stylistic influences.

In the center of the courtyard stands the stupa. The stupa is built from adobe bricks and has been damaged in many places by excavation. The base is roughly square, about 6–7 meters high, and the body of the stupa is in the shape of a dome, with the remaining height being about 3 meters—representing a typical Indian-style dome stupa. Scattered both inside and outside the temple are fragments of pottery in red, black, and a small amount of polychrome glaze, as well as human bones, broken remains of clay Buddha statues, and clipped-edge Wu Zhu coins scattered across the surface. Nearby, traces of building structures can be found.

There are no historical records regarding the history and timeline of the rise and fall of Rawak. Scholars, based on unearthed artifacts, the style of the Buddha statues and murals, as well as the temple’s architecture primarily centered around the stupa, infer that it was built during the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty. The ruins of the Rawak Buddhist Temple are a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.　

Hotan, Xinjiang

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units