Photo Gallery

Gaochang Ruins (built 2nd century BC - 14th century AD)

Gaochang (Kocho, Kharakhoja or “King City”) long served as an important commercial and cultural center on the northern edge of the Silk Road. It was once the thriving capital of an important kingdom that controlled over twenty other towns, roughly the area of modern Turpan (or Turfan) County in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Gaochang lies approximately 30 mi (46 km) southeast of the city of Turpan and just to the south of the “Flaming Mountains” (Huoyanshan), a spectacular branch range of the Tianshan mountains. Founded as a garrison town in the 2nd century BC, it later served as a capital of the Han Qu family Kingdom of Gaochang. A large Tang army of the Taizong emperor defeated the non-cooperative kingdom in 640, and it was under Tang control until the 9th century—much of the period as a Tang administrative seat. From the 9th to the 14th centuries it served as the capital of the Uygur Kharakhoja Kingdom. It was successfully attacked by the central Asian prince Khizr Khodja and then abandoned in the late 14th century.

At its height Gaochang had a multi-ethnic population of perhaps 30,000 and was doubtless an impressive sight to those on caravans. Its massive rammed earthen walls, occasionally reinforced with adobe, were 38 ft (11.5 m) high and about the same thickness. The area included the roughly square outer city 3.4 mi (5.4 km) long with nine city gates, a rectangular inner city that was 1.86 mi (3 km) long, and the palace city at the northern part that adjoined the northern segment of the inner walls.

Some major sections of the outer walls remain along with outlines of a number of now destroyed buildings. There are remnants of two major temples in the southern part of the outer city, one with some impressive fresco remains; there is also a square adobe Imperial Palace (“Khan’s castle”), once with twelve gates and perhaps guarded by 900 soldiers. The general pattern of the well-ordered streets, similar to those of the Chang-an capital city of the Tang, can still be somewhat seen in the mud-brick ruins.

Gaochang was also an important religious center. Buddhism was firmly established there under the Tang. The monk-traveler, Xuanzang, taught in Gaochang around 630 on his pilgrimage to India in search of Buddhist sutras. The city had numerous monasteries and temples, and at one time there were perhaps 3,000 monks and priests within its environs. There was a Confucian college of the classics. Nestorian Christianity flourished for a period, and there are remains of a Nestorian church outside of the walls of the old city. When an important remnant of the extended Uygur empire established their Kharakhoja kingdom there in the 9th century (c. 860-1284), they brought their Manichaeism with them. Islam doubtless first came in with the mercantile trade; eventually it was to become the dominant religion of the area after it was imposed by Khizr Khdoja around 1390.

Much additional destruction to the city occurred after the collapse of the empire. Muslims attacked the visual depictions of the Buddha and other human and animal forms in the frescos and destroyed manuscripts that might be thought blasphemous; farmers carted off much of the brightly pigmented wall paintings and soil from the walls—thought especially good fertilizer; and the wooden beams and other items from of its various structures served as a ready source of firewood. Gaochang had fundamentally returned to the surrounding desert.

In the late 19th century, archeologists began to discover the riches of the region. A variety of adventurers, explorers and archeologists from Sweden, Germany, British India, Japan, the United States, Russia and, more, recently China have been important in uncovering valuable information about both the region and the ancient city. The German archeologist, Albert von Le Coq, for example, made significant discoveries in 1904 about the Nestorian and Manichean communities. Many of the treasures discovered in the early 20th century, however, now repose in a various libraries and museums in London, St. Petersburg, Berlin and New Delhi and other far-flung cities.

Some of the ruins, such as the Prayer Hall, have been restored. Plans were announced late in 2002 to rebuild elements of Gaochang and a similar city of ruins located six miles west of Turpan, the Jiaohe citadel, near their ruins as tourist attractions. Visitors would be allowed to light ‘war flames’ in its towers. I will doubtless pass on this opportunity.

Text by Professor Robert D. Fiala, Concordia University, Nebraska