Fayaz Tepe

Discovery

Fayaz Tepe came to light in spring 1968, when a shepherd, Absad Beknayev, found a limestone Buddha among the drifting sands and handed it to the Termez local history museum. L. I. Albaum excavated the site in 1968–1976, and a team led by T. Annayev uncovered it fully in 2004–2006.

The monastery was founded in the 1st century AD, flourished under the Kushans in the 3rd–4th centuries and declined around the 5th. Inscriptions found here suggest it may once have been called Haya-vihara.

Layout and finds

The complex has three parts: a temple in the centre, the monastery with monks’ quarters to the north-west and service rooms to the south-east, linked by a brick-and-stone path across the courtyard. Unusually, the stupa stands outside the courtyard, parallel to the sanctuary, rather than in its centre. The temple courtyard, 33 × 20 m, is ringed by cells.

The sanctuary walls were covered in bright murals, and statues of the Buddha up to 4 m tall lined them; many were painted red and then gilded. On the south wall a Buddha in red robes survives, with Bactrian devotees bowing before him.

Fayaz Tepe’s most celebrated find is the limestone relief of the Buddha seated beneath the Bodhi tree with monks on either side. The original is in the State Museum of History of Uzbekistan in Tashkent; a copy is in the Termez Archaeological Museum.