Niya

CHINA, Xinjiang, Hotan

The Niya ruins are located on a hill to the north of Niya, 50 km north of Minfeng. Scholars have verified that these are the ruins of the Jingjue Kingdom. There are no records of the temple’s founding, but it is thought to have been built before the Jin dynasty (265–420) based on inscribed bamboo slips, which have been excavated there. One of the wooden strips refers to the year 269, which suggests that the temple was already prospering by then. The Niya Ruins were listed as a National Cultural Heritage Site in 1996.
These ruins consist of five groups of structures. The gate is located to the east of the temple. The Buddha Hall is in the south, the monastic quarters and the lecture hall are in the west, while the foundations of houses fronted by verandas are located to the north. At the center of the temple there is a courtyard of approximately 500 sq m.
The main building, the Buddha Hall, stands on a mound above the other structures in the temple. Its walls are constructed with mud cladding over wood. The hall is square, with each side measuring approximately 5 m. The building is 3.5 m high. In the center of the Buddha Hall is a square platform measuring 2 m on each side. Between the platform and the walls there is a circumambulation passage. Fragments of murals from the collapsed wall were found on the floor of the passage. Piecing them together showed that the murals depicted images of a Buddha and a Bodhisattva.
The foundations of the houses located to the north of the temple were probably those of a reception area or office. Numerous bamboo inscriptions in Chinese and Kharosthi were unearthed. Some of these inscriptions wrote about the affairs of the country and provided evidence that the kingdom of Jingjue was similar to Kucha in its system of having the king or ministers consult with the high monks before announcing any important decisions. It is thought that the temple at Niya played a significant role in its time.