Kizil Cave 48

CHINA, Xinjiang, Aksu

This great Buddha cave is situated in the west valley and consists of a main chamber, side corridors, and a rear corridor. The main chamber is square with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. It measures 4.5 m wide, 8.48 m high, and 4.03 m deep. The side corridors have flat ceilings, and the rear corridor is rectangular with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, measuring 5.88 m wide, 4.02 m high, and 2.68 m deep.
The Great Buddha, now missing, at one time stood against the back wall of the main chamber. The side walls were adorned with murals and painted statues, now heavily damaged or absent entirely. The side corridors contain niches on the inner walls, and statue platforms along the outer walls. The platforms connect to the nirvana platform in the rear corridor; however, almost all of the statues are missing. In the right corridor, there is one standing Buddha statue, amidst illustrations of a pagoda, flowers, and pearls on the outer wall. A niche with a barrel-vaulted ceiling is found in the center of the inner wall. It has a small seated Buddha statue on the left inside the niche, and a heavenly being on the right outside the niche. Several small seated Buddha images surround the head of the heavenly being.
Painted on the outer wall of the left corridor are two standing Buddha images and two columns of small seated Buddhas, along with images of flowers and jewels. The niche in the center of the inner wall has a barrel-vaulted ceiling and is now bereft of statues. A single remaining Buddha image stands on the inner wall, at the end of the corridor.
The reclining Buddha statue that once rested on the parinirvana platform of the rear corridor is missing. Images of Mahakasyapa and two other disciples in mourning are found on the wall to the right of the platforms, and a niche is placed at the bottom of the inner wall. Attendant Bodhisattvas which once flanked the now absent central Buddha line the niches on each side. Eight apsaras, descending from the sky with flowing stoles, decorate the barrel-vaulted ceiling of the rear corridor.