Ruins of the Rawak Buddhist Temple

　　Guide       The ruins of the Rawak Buddhist Temple are located in the Kulakansiman Desert, 40 kilometers from Yulongkashi Town, Luopu County, Hotan. The area is surrounded by endless sand dunes and is rarely visited by people. “Rawak” means pavilions and towers in Uyghur. It got its name because of the prominent earthen stupa in the temple, and is also translated as Luowak, Yaowak, or Lawak.   Introduction        Rawak is a group of Buddhist temple structures centered around a stupa, consisting of a square courtyard with a stupa and temples outside the courtyard. The temple stupa faces south, with two gate-like gaps in the middle of the southern end and the western corner. Each side of the courtyard wall is 45 meters long. Outside the eastern wall is a small temple, with some parts of the walls still remaining. The inner walls are coated with gypsum, and the inner eastern wall has a domed niche with regularly and smoothly carved concentric dome patterns. It is said that there used to be standing Buddha statues inside, but this temple is now almost completely destroyed.

　　      Remains of clay Buddhist statues can be found on the inner and outer walls of the courtyard on all four sides, mostly on the western and eastern walls. Some statues are buried in the sand dunes, some are exposed, and others are damaged or missing. The statues are about 3 meters tall, with one every 0.6 meters. On the unweathered walls, there are murals, donor figures, cloud patterns, and decorative motifs interspersed among the Buddha statues. The colors are monotonous, mainly reddish-brown. The clay Buddhist statues show clear Gandharan stylistic influences.

　　      In the center of the courtyard is the stupa. The stupa is built with adobe bricks and has been damaged in many places by excavation. The base is roughly square, about 6–7 meters high, and the body is a bulbous stupa with a remaining height of 3 meters, representing a typical Indian bulbous stupa style. Scattered around the temple are fragments of red, black, and a small amount of polychrome pottery, as well as human bones, broken clay Buddha statues, and clipped-edge five-zhu coins scattered on the surface. There are also traces of building foundations nearby.

　　      There are no historical records regarding the history and rise and fall of Rawak. Scholars, based on unearthed artifacts, the style of the Buddha statues and murals, and the architectural layout 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