Sunday, 20 November 2016

The Ruins of Kočo: Traces of Wooden Architecture from the Ancient Silk Road

The Ruins of Kočo: Traces of Wooden Architecture from the Ancient Silk Road

Holzfliese aus Ruine Alpha, Kočo, Xinjiang, China, 11. Jh. © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Asiatische Kunst / Foto: Jürgen Liepe
More than 100 years after the return of the last Berlin researchers from Central Asia (1914), great discoveries are still being made among the finds of that time. Painted wooden beams, some inscribed with Buddhist texts, which Albert Grünwedel brought back with him in 1903, saving them from use as firewood, have now been identified as pieces of a ceiling and door construction. This discovery led members of the museum staff to Xinjiang, to the temple city of Kočo (Chinese: Gaochang) near Turfan, in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China. There they searched for traces of wooden architecture and compared reports and photographs from the three Turfan expeditions with structures still visible at the location today. This project, funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, has led to a new understanding of the monastery buildings, as is demonstrated in this exhibition.
Kloster Beta in der Ruinenstadt Kočo, Foto: Anfang 20. Jh. © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Asiatische Kunst
The documentation of photographic material from yesterday and today and the accounts of researchers from 1902–1907 compared with contemporary observations afford rare glimpses into the work of modern scientists. The exhibition is also a preview of the Humboldt Forum: the unique objects that were found in the three buildings analyzed in Kočo will be shown in this exhibition and then in the Humboldt Forum in their new display context. Paintings, texts and sculptures that came to light in Buddhist and Manichaean monasteries, as well as architectural elements and everyday objects, can speak to us today in new ways.
 Geschnitztes Holzkapitell aus Ruine K, Kočo, Xinjiang, China, 8. Jh. © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Asiatische Kunst / Foto: Jürgen Liepe
Kloster Beta in der Ruinenstadt Kočo, Xinjiang, China im Jahr 2015 © Foto: Lilla Russell-Smith
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1 comment:

  1. suatnarin15 October 2017 at 20:51

    koço ist ein Uighur stadt von gross Yighur, Uighur civilisation.. hauptstadt ist khotan.. heutige Taklamakan wüste, ehemalige Eden Tarim Basin.. eine grosse civilisation mit eigene flora und fauna gehabt hat.. die bekannt kinesiche culture und Artikels.. leider stammen Uighurs seide, seramik, miniature, papier usw..

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