Kalai Kafirnigan

Kalai Kafirnigan

Kala-i Kafirnigan
Kalai Kafirnigan Shown within West and Central Asia Show map of West and Central Asia Kalai Kafirnigan Kalai Kafirnigan (Bactria) Show map of Bactria Kalai Kafirnigan Kalai Kafirnigan (Tajikistan) Show map of Tajikistan
Location	Tajikistan
Coordinates	37°53′51″N68°15′46″E / 37.897429°N 68.262701°E / 37.897429; 68.262701
Type	Buddhist cloister

Kalai Kafirnigan, also Kala-i Kafirnigan was a Buddhist temple in the region of Tokharistan (Classical Bactria), dated to the 7th-8th century CE. Buddhism in Tokharistan is said to have enjoyed a revival under the Western Turks (known as Tokhara Yabghus in Tokharistan). Several monasteries of Tokharistan dated to the 7th-8th centuries display beautiful Buddhist works of art, such as Kalai Kafirnigan, Ajina Tepe, Khisht Tepe or Kafyr Kala, around which Turkic nobility and populations followed Hinayana Buddhism. ^{[1] [2]}

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  Buddhist mural from Kalai Kafirnigan, Museum of National Antiquities, Dushanbe, Tajikistan. 7th-early 8th century. ^{[1] [3]}
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  Female devotee in Kalai Kafirnigan. 7th-early 8th century. ^[1]
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  Mural of a male figure

References

1. Baumer, Christoph. History of Central Asia, The: 4-volume set. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 203–204. ISBN   978-1-83860-868-2.
2. Zaleski, Valérie (2019). "À propos de quelques traces de la diffusion du bouddhisme au Tadjikistan". Monuments et mémoires de la Fondation Eugène Piot. 98 (1): 234. doi:10.3406/piot.2019.2164. Cette peinture pourrait être emblématique du milieu bouddhiste tokharien au moment de l'hégémonie des Turks sur la région, illustrant peut-être le rôle des sogdiens dans la propagation du bouddhisme chez les Turks.
3. Litvinskij, B. A. (1981). "Kalai-Kafirnigan Problems in the Religion and Art of Early Mediaeval Tokharistan" (PDF). East and West. 31 (1/4): 35–66. ISSN   0012-8376.