About 48 kilometers northeast of the Turpan urban area, The Bizaklik Thousand Buddha Caves are located in the Flaming Mountains' MuTou valley. As Buddhism was the first religion from abroad introduced to this area, Xinjiang witnessed the earliest development of Buddhist cave art in China. With the establishment of the religion in this area, Turpan became the Buddhist center on the ancient Silk Road owing to its geographic location. Among the Buddhist caves found in Turpan, Bizalkik Thousand Buddha Caves are considered most valuable.

They were called the ningrong grottoes in the Tang Dynasty. There are 77 numbered grottoes, about 40 of which still have murals in them. The group of grottoes in Bizaklik, with a total of 1,200 square meters of murals, has the most grottoes, most diversified architectural styles and the richest mural content in the Turpan area. Among them, the oldest grottoes were hewn in the period of qushi gaochang. And from the Tang Dynasty in the thirteenth century was the most important Buddhist gathering place. Its most prosperous period was under the reign of the xizhou huigu government, which built the royal temple of the king of huigu on this site. Most of the existing grottoes were extended or reconstructed during the huigu period.

Bizaklik Caves was the royal temple of Huihu (the predecessor of today's Uygur) State and the existing caves were enlarged or renovated during that time. With the murals, which could take us back to the ancient Huihu State, where we can see the King and Queen and people from all walks of life. The inscriptions were written in ancient Uygur, Chinese and other languages, provide authentic reference for valuable historic research.

Bizaklik Caves No. 16 and 17 are considered as the most exceptionally rare mural topics. Cave No.16 depicts a musician playing Xiao Hu Lei-- a lute-like instrument originating from southern China's Yunnan province. This strengthens the belief that cultural exchange between northern and southern China was unprecedented during Tang Dynasty.

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