Karadong [monastery?], (towards) Keriya, Xinjiang, CN

Raw data

"Keriya Town or Mugala Town (Chinese: 木尕拉镇, Pinyin: Mùgǎlā Zhèn; Ugyhur: كېرىيە / Keriyə), is a town in Keriya County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, on the old Southern Silk Road. […] Lat 36.883333, Long 81.6
[…] The small modern town of Keriya is situated on the western bank of the Keriya River. Approximately 180 km north along the Keriya River is the ancient fortified site of Karadong where the world's oldest Buddhist murals have been found. It was abandoned in the 4th century CE."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keriya_Town

"The Buddhist sanctuary in Karadong is a contemporary [contemporary with Miran site, 3rd century C.E. - tmciolek] or even earlier structure (mid-3rd century CE) with splendid Buddhist paintings that display Greek features and have a similarity to Gandharan art (Keriya, pp. 82-105)." - C. Debaine-Francroft and A. Idriss, eds., Keriya, mémoires d’un fleuve. Archéologie et civilization des oasis du Taklamakan, Paris, 2001. cited in Melikian-Chirvani (n.d.)

Input by: tmciolek, Aug 30, 2010

Final data (and their sources)

Last updated: 14 Jul 2013

Lat/Long coordinates' accuracy:
The monastery in question is assumed to be situated actually no farther than 2 km from the point defined by the coordinates below.

Location of Karadong [monastery?], CN.

General location of the Karadong [monastery?], CN.
Lat 38.43581 Long 81.61039
Mapping & images: Falling Rain Genomics (http://www.fallingrain.com), 2010.


Google Map link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=38.43581+81.61039+(Approx.%20loc.%20of%20the%20Karadong%20[monastery?],%20CN)&ll=38.43581,81.61039&spn=05.0,05.0&t=k&hl=en


Final data - explanatory notes

1. Monastery's name

  • Karadong [monastery?] - Melikian-Chirvani (n.d.)

2. Monastery's modern country & province

  • China:Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu

3. Monastery's alternative/historical names

  • [missing data]

4. Monastery's lat/long coordinates

  • Possible approx. location of the Karadong's ruins - Lat 38.43581 Long 81.61039 - based on the visual inspection of the area, next to a Panoramio photo of the Karadong site (in a spot approx 180 km N of Keriya, along the Keriya river) when superimposed on satellite imagery in maps.google.com - tmciolek, 31 Aug 2010.

5. Other known nearby Buddhist monasteries

  • [missing data]

6. Modern name of the known nearest city, town, or village


7. The settlement's alternative/historical names


8. The settlement's coordinates


9. Monastery's major Buddhist tradition

  • Mahayana - Baumer (2003:46-47)

10. Monastery's Buddhist sub-tradition

  • [missing data]

11. Date-early

  • 3rd century or mid-3rd century CE - Melikian-Chirvani (n.d.)

MBM chrono-tag 0200-32p 0233-66p 0267-99c - tmciolek 14 Jul 2013
0200-32p 0233-66p 0267-99c 0300-32p 0333-66p 0367-99p dated-el


12. Date-intermediate

  • [missing data]

13. Date-late

MBM chrono-tag 0300-32p 0333-66p 0367-99p - tmciolek 14 Jul 2013


14. Details of contacts with other monasteries

  • [missing data]

15. Type of evidence regarding the monastery

  • [missing data]

16. Additional notes

  • [missing data] (incl. details of the size of the monastic population)

17. Corrections & addenda to this page were kindly provided by

  • [missing data]

end of page

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License