Kara Tepe

History

The earliest Buddhist shrines at Kara Tepe date from the 1st century AD. The site peaked in the 1st–3rd centuries, when many temples were built and older ones rebuilt and enlarged, supported by monks and novices, city officials and generous townspeople.

Inscriptions found here preserve the names of monasteries, one translating as the “King’s Monastery”, and of monks such as Buddhashira, Buddhamitra and Jivananda. By the end of the 3rd century Sasanian campaigns against the Kushans had left the communities in decline or abandoned, though parts carried on into the 4th–5th centuries. Some rooms later served as burial chambers, and in the 7th–12th centuries hermits lived in the half-ruined cells.

Layout and research

The complex spreads over several hills: some monasteries consist of cells cut into the hillside, others of courtyards, temples and stupas above ground. The walls retain images of the Buddha and donors and inscriptions in the Indian Kharosthi and Brahmi scripts as well as in Bactrian and Pahlavi.

An expedition of Moscow’s Museum of Oriental Cultures first surveyed Kara Tepe in 1926–1928. Soviet, Uzbek and foreign archaeologists, including Japanese teams, later worked here for many years, and inscriptions of the Hephthalite period have also been found.