Mor Stupa monastery, (towards) Kashi, Xinjiang, CN

Raw data

"In the middle of 10 century A.D., when Islamism was formally introduced into Kashgar, Buddhism staged out of the historical arena. Nowadays. The only traces left was Mor Stupa, which is the last witness of Buddhism of Shule state. […] it was a famous ancient temple site, which is located 29 kilometers northeast of Kashgar city.

The stupa has been identified as a Building of middle or late Tang dynasty. In 1957, it was designated as the autonomous level historical relics protection unit.The padoda faces south. Now it rests on ranges of mountains, facing the wilderness, and oppositing Hannuoyi ancient city over Qiakmak river. The pottery pieces, fragment of coins, grapevine, Karez system and ancient bacon tower proved that the place was once dense-populated and bustling.

Judged from the untreated relics, its scale is very large. Apart from two pagodas, on its southeast part was the site of sitting rooms of monks. Under the slope was one-kilometer Kares System winding across the foot of the hill, from which monks got water and we can see Kares System was not the monopoly of Turpan. All the other buildings had been destroyed. From the timber under the temple, it is predicted that these buildings might well have been burnt down by fire. At present, we can only see two wrecked pagodas standing side by side.
[…]
According to the site and its shape, we can calculate that the pagoda enjoy a high position at that time, which may have been the special temple for the royals in Shule." - Kashgar Prefecture (2005).

"Ancient Hannuoyi city - Hanouy city is located 28 kilometers northeast of Kashgar City, rests on Matag Mountain on the north, faces Kashgar oasis on the south, and circles around the former site of Qiakmak River."
http://kashi.gov.cn/english/Context/History03.htm

"Not far from ancient Hannuoyi city ia the MOr pagoda of Tang Dynasty which stands by an ancient river. The temple(Buddhist) with such a large scale must be not far away from the capital. According to the structure of the ancient city, it is quite possible that it was Jiashi city of the Tang Dynasty […]
The middle part of the Kashgar city at that time was located north of today's Tuman river, that is the sit of today’s Kashi airport. But at that time it was a patch of oasis which was covered by rivers, canals, luxuriant forest on the southern foot on Gumatag mountain instead of Gobi desert. Gumatg mountain was very iimportant to thecapital city of Kalahan Dynasty which was called "Baerhan Mountain". "Baerhan " means "Buddhism" in Turkish. It gained the name because there are a lot of temples and Buddha of Dover in the mountain at that time, among them was "Three Caves of Immotals"."
http://kashi.gov.cn/english/Context/History18.htm

"Sanxian Dong, o Caverne dei tre Immortali, si trovano a 20 chilometri da Kashi, e sono grotte buddiste, scavate dentro la roccia presso il fiume Qiakmak."
http://www.corriereasia.com/cina/viaggi_in_cina.shtml

"The Grottoes of the Three Immortals (Sanxian Dong) date from the Eastern Han period (25-220) and lie 10km/6mi to the north of the town, on the slopes of a steep hill. Each one of the three long interlinking caves is divided into a front and rear section. A badly damaged Buddha statue is kept in the rear section of the middle cave. On the walls of the left-hand cave there are some 70 likenesses of Buddha, dating back 1700 years. One of the Buddhas on the rear wall is depicted with a bare back - an unusual phenomenon in the wall paintings of that period."
http://www.planetware.com/kashgar/grottoes-of-the-three-immortals-chn-xj-kg.htm

" At the end of jarring 35km drive northeast of [Kashgar] town are the ruins of Ha Noi (Hannuoyi Gucheng), a Tang dynasty town built in the 7th century and abandoned in the 12th century. Little remains except a great solid pyramid-like structure and the huge Mor Pagoda (Mu'er Fota) or stupa"
http://books.google.com/books?id=nUxebsEoQoEC&pg=PA792&lpg=PA792
Input by: tmciolek, Sep 2, 2010

Final data (and their sources)

Lat/Long coordinates' accuracy:
The monastery in question is assumed to be situated actually no farther than 20 km from the point defined by the coordinates below.

Location of Mor Stupa monastery, CN.

General location of the Mor Stupa monastery, CN.
Lat 39.5890 Long 76.2025
Mapping & images: Falling Rain Genomics (http://www.fallingrain.com), 2010.


Google Map link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.5890+76.2025+(Approx.%20loc.%20of%20the%20Mor%20Stupa%20monastery,%20CN)&ll=39.5890,76.2025&spn=05.0,05.0&t=k&hl=en

Final data - explanatory notes

1. Monastery's name

  • Mor Stupa monastery - Kashgar Prefecture (2005).

2. Monastery's modern country & province

  • China:Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu

3. Monastery's alternative/historical names

[missing data]

4. Monastery's lat/long coordinates

  • Approx., Lat 39.5890 Long 76.2025 - an arbitrary spot some 30 km NE of Kashi - tmciolek, 2 Sep 2010.

5. Other known nearby Buddhist monasteries

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

10. Monastery's Buddhist sub-tradition

[missing data]

11. Date-early

12. Date-intermediate

[missing data]

13. Date-late

14. Details of contacts with other monasteries

[missing data]

15. Type of evidence regarding the monastery

* Archaeological

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]

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