German Turfan expeditions
The German Turfan expeditions were conducted between 1902 and 1914. The four expeditions to
Many important finds were made, especially on the second expedition, at a number of sites along the ancient northern route around the
Geography
Turfan (also Uighur Turpan, Chin. Tulufan) is in Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan) on the northern Silk Road. It has an area of 170 km2 (66 sq mi) between 42° and 43° north latitude and between 88° and 90° east longitude in a depression 154 m (505 ft) below sea level. This is the archaeological site to which expeditions were mounted by Germans to explore and collect precious art objects and texts written in many languages and scripts.[5]
History
International attention was first drawn to Turfan by Sven Hedin (1865-1952), to European and Japanese archaeologists, as a potential and promising site in Central Asia for field explorations for archaeological finds. He could follow up the work in later years during his last expeditions between 1928 and 1935. His collections of that period are in the Stockholm Ethnographical Museum. After his first suggestion to the archeologist about the archaeological richness of the Turfan site, many Russian expeditions were mounted from September 27 to November 21, 1879 right up to 1914–1915, Finnish expeditions from 1906 to 1908, by Japan between July 1908 and June 1914, and also other explorers from Great Britain, France and America; and from 1928 Chinese archaeological campaigns continued the work of the foreign expeditions. German expeditions from 1902 and 1914 not only to Turfan but also other sites such as Kucha, Qarashahr and Tumshuq [Tumšuq] were most fruitful.[5] Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Germans were impressed by the discoveries and finds reported by Europeans traveling through the Silk Roads and the exposition made at the twelfth international Congress of Orientalists in Rome in the year 1899 prompted them to launch their own expeditions to the area. The finds of the four expeditions (packed and carted to Germany initially) were murals, other artefacts and about 40,000 pieces of texts.[6] The four German expeditions covered Turfan but also Kucha, Qarashahr and Tumshuq [Tumšuq]. The expeditions were:[5][6]
- First Expedition: November 1902 – March 1903 led by Prof. Grünwedel along with the Orientalist scholar, Georg Huth,[7] and Bartus, as fellow participants;
- Second Expedition: November 1904 – August 1905 led by Le Coq along with Bartus;
- Third Expedition: united with the second Expedition, from December 1905 to April 1907 led by Grünwedel and Le Coq, H. Pohrt and Bartus as fellow participants;
- Fourth Expedition: June 1913 – February 1914 led by Le Coq along with Bartus as a participant.
First Expedition
The financing for the expedition involved 36,000 Marks which was provided by the Königliche Museum für Völkerkunde in
Second Expedition
Impressed with the sensational accomplishments of the first expedition, Emperor
Third Expedition
The Third Expedition was also funded by the state. It was undertaken under Albert Grünwedel from December 1905 to April 1907 (as a follow-up to the second expedition).[11] In the middle of 1906 Le Coq had to return home due to illness. Grünwedel and Bartus continued the work and covered the oases to the west of Turfan, including Kizil and its widespread complexes of Buddhist caves. The route followed was initially from Kashgar to Tumshuk and then from Kizil to Kucha to Kumtura and further along Shorchuk—Turfan Oasis—Ürümqi—Hami—Toyuk and back. The collections packed in 118 crates were paintings of grottoes from temples and Buddhist texts. Reports of the second and third expeditions were published as "Gründwedel's Altbuddhistische Kultstätten in Chinesisch-Turkistan" (1912) and Le Coq's book of Auf Hellas Spuren in Ostturkistan (1926).[6]
Fourth Expedition
The Fourth Expedition (March 31, 1913 - March 13, 1914)
Fate of the collections
The collections from the German expeditions were initially kept at the Indian Department of the
Gallery
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Fragment of Buddhist wall painting
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A wall painting
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Turfan Buddhas
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Palm Sunday, mural from the Christian church
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Fragment of Uyghur Manichaean hanging scroll "MIK III 6251"
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Manichaean temple banners "MIK III 6286" and "MIK III 6283"
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Reconstruction of the Light Maiden image on the Manichaean banner "MIK III 6286"
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Reconstruction of the Jesus image on the Manichaean banner "MIK III 6286"
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Leaf from a Manichaean book "MIK III 4959"
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Leaf from a Manichaean book "MIK III 4965"
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Leaf from a Manichaean book "MIK III 4979" recto
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Leaf from a Manichaean book "MIK III 4979" verso
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Leaf from a Manichaean book "MIK III 6368" recto
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Leaf from a Manichaean book "MIK III 6368" verso
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Leaf from a Manichaean book "MIK III 8259" folio 1 recto
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Fragment of a Manichaean textile display "MIK III 6278"
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Fragment of a Turfan Manichaean wall painting "MIK III 6918"
Footnotes
- ^ Hopkirk (1980), p. 114.
- ^ Hopkirk (1980), p. 207.
- ^ Gulácsi, Zsuzsanna (2008). "MANICHEAN ART". iranicaonline.org. Columbia University. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
This fragmentary wall-painting portrays the local Manichean community including a high-ranking elect, who is most likely the "Mozhak of the East" (the head of the community in the region, previously mistakenly identified as Mani), together with rows of male elects, female elects, and laypeople.
- ^ Hopkirk (1980), pp. 118, 122–123.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Turfan Expeditions". Iranica Online. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f "German Collections". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
- ISBN 978-1-60606-013-1. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
- ^ von Le Coq, Albert. (1913). Chotscho: Facsimile-Wiedergaben der Wichtigeren Funde der Ersten Königlich Preussischen Expedition nach Turfan in Ost-Turkistan. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), im Auftrage der Generalverwaltung der Königlichen Museen aus Mitteln des Baessler-Institutes, Tafel 19. (Accessed 3 September 2016).
- ISSN 2191-6411. See also endnote #32. (Accessed 3 September 2016.)
- ISBN 978-0-19-993921-3.
- ^ Turfan Expedition. Encyclopedia Iranica.
- ^ "TURFAN EXPEDITIONS – Encyclopaedia Iranica". iranicaonline.org.
- ^ From the Introduction by Peter Hopkirk in the 1985 edition of Von Le Coq's Buried Treasures of Chinese Turkestan, p. ix-x.
References
- Franz, H. G.: Kunst und Kultur entlang der Seidenstraße. Graz, 1986. (German language)
- Gumbrecht, Cordula: Acta Turfanica: die deutschen Turfan-Expeditionen gesehen in den Archiven von Urumchi und Berlin. Berlin, 2002. (German language)
- Grünwedel, A.: Altbuddhistische Kultstätten in Chinesisch Turkistan, Bericht über archäologische Arbeiten von 1906 bis 1907 bei Kucha, Qaraæahr und in der Oase Turfan. Berlin, 1912. (German language)
- Härtel, H. & Yaldiz, M.: Die Seidenstraße: Malereien und Plastiken aus buddhistischen Höhlentempeln. Aus der Sammlung des Museums für Indische Kunst Berlin. Berlin: Reimer, 1987 (German language)
- ISBN 0-19-281487-7.
- ISBN 0-19-583878-5.
- Le Coq, A. v.: Auf Hellas Spuren in Ostturkistan. Berichte und Abhandlungen der II. und III. Deutschen Turfan-Expedition. Leipzig, 1926. (German language)
- Yaldiz, M.: Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte Chinesisch-Zentralasiens (Xinjiang). Leiden, 1987. (German language)
- Zaturpanskij, Choros: "Reisewege und Ergebnisse der deutschen Turfanexpeditionen", Orientalisches Archiv 3, 1912, pp. 116–127. (German language)