via Russia and West Turkistan, Albert Von Le Coq arrived
in Kashgar in late May. The photographs are from the
Turkish publication of Von Le Coq's article. //
Von Le Coq planned to start his explorations in the south
toward Hotan but the summer heat forced him to start to
the cooler northeast - Aksu and Hoca (Kutcha/Kuqa).
Upon our arrival in Kashgar we were graciously received, as always,
at the English consulate. Mr. Macartney, the consul, had a long talk
with the governor, after which we were provided with Chinese transit
permits and assurances that we could continue our trip into the interior.
Only with some difficulty, though, was Mr. Macartney able to have a
paragraph added to our permits allowing us to conduct archeological
research. Since the rebellion, this sort of permission had been
restricted to local citizens.
It was now the end of May and the heat was quite oppressive. In fact,
in the south, it was nearly impossible to do anything because of the
temperatures. Consequently, I decided to start with a basic search of
the large Hoca (Kutcha/Kuqa) oasis, followed by an investigation of
the ruins at Aksu and Maralbaşı, and finally, in the Fall, travel via
Maralmarşı, Merkiyet and Yarkand to Hotan to look at the ruins there
in the south. In other words, this new program was the exact opposite
of the schedule I had originally envisioned.
"Kizil: the string of temples at the İkinci Çay
pass."
In accordance with this plan, we headed for Hoca and arrived there on
23 June. Right away we saw the beautiful view of the 'Kizil' temple
ruins on the fast-flowing Muzart River (near Kutcha/Kuqa) and we
headed for it on our horses. During our last journey here, we were
forced to leave many valuable wall paintings behind and I was hopeful
that we would find the Sanskrit dramas published by Professor Loder
and other hand-written manuscripts.
After carefully examining many of the temple ruins rocks, we
determined that many of the rocks had been badly damaged by
previous ham-handed efforts to remove the wall paintings.
In any event, most of the damage had been done by earthquakes and
I was sure that in a short time the entire remnants of the temple would
be completely destroyed.
Since there was no other place to excavate at Kizil, at the beginning
of August and the start of Ramazan, I left Bartus and headed for
'Subaşi Lenger' to the north of Hoca, where I found a totally different
setting than the temple ruins at Kizil. This was because there were
mostly large, separate structures here and the condition of the ruins
was particularly dreadful.
"Subaşi Lenger: the stupa on the left bank of
the river."
The ancient city is situated on the western and eastern rocks that rise
on either side of the Hoca river that flows down the mountain. The
river had overflowed and the sound of its great waves could be heard
from afar as it emptied into the valley. It was impossible to pass
to the east side of the ancient city. The most worthwhile thing to see
was a large stupa surrounded by a wall with a number of cells inside
a group of structures. These cells gave the statue a nice backdrop. The
structure was quite magnificent.
Besides a number of large temples among the ruins on the wider west
side, the stout entrance that included a rather large wall remnant gave
the structure the appearance of a fortress. It was hard to discern why
the structure had been built in the first place but there were a number
of places like rooms, in back of, and protected by, the wall. On the
east side, nearer the river, there was very large stupa on a base. The
Frenchman (Paul) Pelliot and his exploration team had spent quite a
lot of time here (in 1908) and discovered various manuscripts. It
seems that these were corrupted writings on the stupa, in particular.
Nevertheless, I had a number of places excavated here.
"Subaşi Lenger: the stupa wall on the left bank of
the river."
//END of PART II//
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