The Senmusaimu Thousand Buddha Caves

The Senmusaimu Thousand Buddha Caves

The Senmusaimu Thousand Buddha Caves are a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Senmusaimu Thousand Buddha Caves are located about 40 kilometers northeast of Kuqa County, distributed on the cliffs on both the east and west banks of the gully at the Kuruktag Pass. Most of the caves have been damaged, but 52 relatively well-preserved ones remain. Most of the cave types are chaitya halls, with very few vihara caves. They were initially created around the 3rd century, and most of the murals date back to the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, with the latest belonging to the early Gaochang Uyghur period. 　

The Senmusaimu Grottoes are located in Kuqa County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in northwestern China, and are a site of Buddhist grottoes dating from the Jin Dynasty to the Song Dynasty. Their discovery is of great significance for the study of ancient Buddhist art in the Xinjiang region and cultural exchanges between the East and the West. In 1996, they were designated as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit by the State Council.

"Senmusaimu" means "fine water dripping through" in the Uyghur language. As the name suggests, it was named after the stream that flows out in front of the grottoes. Most of the grottoes have been damaged, but 52 are relatively well-preserved, retaining tangible evidence of the complete caves and murals of the ancient Kingdom of Kucha.

From an architectural perspective, the Senmusaimu Grottoes complex is majestic and grand in scale. Viewed from a distance, it resembles towering buildings rising from the deep mountains. The grottoes can be divided into five zones based on location: east, south, west, north, and central. On the earthen mound in the central zone, there are remains of a ground-level temple site with a length of nearly 80 meters and remnants of tall structures at both ends.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Western exploration teams successively arrived in the Kucha region and carried out large-scale excavations, during which the grottoes were also severely damaged.

Further reading:

· Fourth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units