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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
SEPTEMBER, 1917
After rapid visits to smaller sites in the eastern portion of the Turfan Basin I turned, towards the close of November, to the ruins in the picturesque gorge of Toyuk. There numerous rock-cut caves, once occupied by Buddhist priests, honeycomb precipitous cliffs rising above the small stream that waters a flourishing little oasis, famous for its grapes. Where the slopes are less steep, narrow terraces have been built, bearing small Buddhist shrines, now in ruins. At the most conspicuous of these the second German expedition had made important manuscript finds. Stimulated by these in their monkey-like emulation, native searchers for antiques had subsequently wrought terrible havoc among ruins which had before remained more or less untouched. Lower down, however, we succeeded in tracing remains of shrines which had been protected by heavy covering masses of débris, and the employment of large numbers of diggers to clear them was easy. After the difficulties to which my previous work at desert sites far away from habitations and water had accustomed me, conditions of work in the Turfan district seemed, in fact, quite "suburban," as it were. In the end we recovered at Toyuk a considerable quantity of fine frescoes and stucco relievo pieces. Fragments of Chinese and Uigur texts were numerous.
From Toyuk I proceeded by the middle of December to an important Buddhist site below the village of Murtuk, It occupies a conglomerate terrace on the steep west bank of the stream watering the Kara-khoja oasis, where it breaks in a narrow wild gorge through the barren hill range overlooking the main Turfan depression. The extensive series of ruined shrines, partly cut into the rock, had been decorated with frescoes representing scenes of Buddhist legend and worship in a great variety of subject and style. In richness and artistic merit they surpassed any similar remains in the Turfan region, and recalled the pictorial wealth of the "Thousand Buddhas” caves near Tun-huang. In 1906, Professor Grünwedel, with his intimate knowledge of Buddhist iconography and art, had carefully studied these big wall paintings, and a considerable selection of fresco panels was then Temoved to Berlin. For long centuries the frescoes had been liable to suffer casual injury at the hands of iconoclast Muhammadan visitors. During recent years they had been exposed to even greater damage from natives, who, in vandal fashion, cut out small pieces for sale to Europeans. The risk of further destruction in the near future was only too obvious and careful systematic removal presented the only means of saving as much as possible of these fine remains of Buddhist art. Fortunately, I could utilize for this long and difficult task the trained skill and manual experience of Naik Shams Din. Working with devoted energy, and valiantly helped by Afrazgul, he successfully accomplished it in the course of six weeks. Carefully drawn plans had been prepared for their guidance. Meanwhile I was able to pay a rapid visit to Urumchi, the provincial headquarters, where I had the great satisfaction of seeing again my old Mandarin friend, learned Pau Ta-jên, then holding high office as Financial Commissioner of the New Dominion.' As on my former journeys he did his best to help me in my scientific aims.
Early in January 1915, work had progressed sufficiently to allow me to apply myself to the clearing of smaller Buddhist ruins near Murtuk, and then to a task which proved as fruitful as it was to me novel and in some ways unpleasant. Below the debouchure of the gorge which brings down the streams of Murtuk and Sengim, and above the large village of Astana adjoining Kara-khoja from the west, there extends over the gravel-covered waste & vaxt ancient burial-ground. It is marked by small mounds covered with stones and by low lines of embanked gravel which enclose these mounds to furm scattered groupe. The mounds
