Zurmala Stupa

History

Zurmala is what remains of the largest Buddhist stupa in the Termez oasis. Built in the 1st–2nd centuries AD under the Kushan empire, it is considered one of the oldest structures in Uzbekistan still standing above ground. Locals long called it a minaret, and the name Zurmala Minaret still appears in some sources.

The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, in Termez in 629–630, wrote of many stupas and more than ten monasteries. The archaeologist A. S. Strelkov, working in 1926–1928 with an expedition of the Museum of Oriental Cultures and the Hermitage, suggested it was a Buddhist stupa; the theory was confirmed only half a century later by excavations under Galina Pugachenkova.

Structure

The stupa is a mud-brick cylinder on a rectangular base of 22 × 16 m, originally crowned by a dome. It now stands about 13 m high with a diameter of 14–14.5 m, and its bricks carry stamps typical of Kushan Bactria. Researchers believe it was faced with red fired brick and stone slabs carved with scenes from Buddhist mythology, and its exterior may have been painted bright red; fragments of fired brick still litter the ground. Today the walls are deeply cracked and the monument needs protection and conservation.