Beiting West Grand Temple

　　Beiting West Grand Temple is located in Beiting Town, Jimusaer County.

　　Beiting West Grand Temple, also known as the Gaochang Uyghur Buddhist Temple, is located one kilometer west of the ruins of the Beiting Protectorate, bordering the Xihébà River to the west and a pond to the east. The surrounding area is flat and has mostly been developed into farmland. The ancient temple was the royal monastery of the Gaochang Uyghur Kingdom, dedicated to the worship of Buddha by the royal family. The remains of the temple form a rectangular layout, approximately 70.5 meters long from north to south and 43.8 meters wide from east to west. The above-ground structure is entirely built with earthen bricks, while the foundation below ground consists of rammed earth. The entire building is divided into southern and northern sections: the southern part includes remnants of courtyards, side halls, monks’ quarters, and storerooms, with heights ranging from 0.2 to 0.4 meters; the northern part is the main hall, surrounded by caves. These two sections are connected to form a unified whole. Currently, on the eastern side, there are remnants of caves with seven levels above and eight below, inside which some murals from the Gaochang Uyghur period remain. 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 conquest.

　　Today, most of the outer structure of the West Grand Temple is in ruins. Between 1979 and 1980, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted rescue excavations here. They uncovered parts of the southern side halls and the eastern Buddhist caves. In 1988, after the West Grand Temple, along with the ruins of the Beiting Protectorate, was listed as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit, 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 many Buddhist temples were built, including the “Yingyun Taining Temple,” “Gaotai Temple,” “Longxing Temple,” and the “West Grand 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. Originally, when the Uyghurs lived in the northern steppes, they practiced Manichaeism. However, after the establishment of the Gaochang Uyghur regime in 866 AD, they converted to Buddhism. The murals in the West Grand Temple still feature images 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 Tughlugh Timur’s son as the Khan of Chagatai, a “crackdown” was carried out in the Gaochang region (now Turpan), where Buddhist temples were destroyed, monks were killed, and Gaochang residents were forced to convert to Islam. Due to this “crackdown” and the enforced religious conversion, the West Grand Temple is believed to have been destroyed around this time.

　　Currently, remnants of Buddha statues, bodhisattvas, arhats, and heavenly kings can be found in the temple caves. The mural content mainly features thousand Buddhas, bodhisattvas, [possibly other deities], sutra transformation stories, along with inscriptions in Uyghur and Chinese scripts. These provide extremely valuable physical materials for the study of the ancient religion, culture, art, language, and architectural techniques of the Uyghur people.

　　The West Grand 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.