Kafir-kala (Tajikistan)

Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal
UNESCO World Heritage Site
	Interactive map of Cultural Heritage Sites of Ancient Khuttal
Criteria	ii, iii
Reference	1627-007
Inscription	2025 (47th Session)

Kafir-kala
(Tajikistan)

Ruins of citadel of Kafir-kala.

Kafir-kala

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Location of Kafir-kala

Kafir-kala

Kafir-kala (Bactria)

Kafir-kala

Kafir-kala (Tajikistan)

37°35′20″N 68°38′47″E / 37.588861°N 68.646444°E / 37.588861; 68.646444

Kafir-kala ("Fortress of the infidels") is an ancient fortress in the Vakhsh Valley in Tajikistan.^[1]

Fortress and Buddhist temple

It consists in a rectangular town surrounded by a wall with towers (360x360 meters), surrounded by a large ditch, and has one citadel (360x360 meters) in one corner, also surrounded by a wall. The citadel (70x70 meters) contained the palace of the rulers.^[1]

A Buddhist temple was found in the palace complex of the fortress as well as a Buddhist Vihara with Buddhist paintings, belonging to the "Tokharistan school of art".^[1]^[2] Inscriptions with apparently Buddhist content have also been found.^[3]

A Hephthalite inscription on a wall painting has been found at Kafir-kala.^[4]

Turkic royal families, nobility and population of the Western Turks and Tokhara Yabghus were often followers of Hinayana Buddhism in the 8th century and sponsored many of the instances of Buddhist architecture and wall-paintings, including in Kafir-kala, but also in Kala-i Kafirnigan or Ajina Tepe.^[5]

Artefacts

King with child and musician, Kafyr Kala, Tajikistan, 7th century CE. National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan.^[6]
Buddha head, Kafyr Kala, Tajikistan, 7th century CE. National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan
Hunting scene, Kafyr Kala, Tajikistan, 7th century CE. National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan
Hunting scene, Kafyr Kala, Tajikistan, 7th century CE. National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan

Sources

LITVINSKY, BORIS; SOLOV'EV, VIKTOR (1990). "The Architecture and Art of Kafyr Kala (Early Medieval Tokharistan)" (PDF). Bulletin of the Asia Institute. 4: 61–75. ISSN 0890-4464. JSTOR 24048351.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Dani, Ahmad Hasan; Litvinsky, B. A. (January 1996). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750. UNESCO. p. 150. ISBN 978-92-3-103211-0.
^ UNESCO Collection of History of Civilizations of Central Asia : Online chapter.
^ "A fragment of birchbark manuscript bearing a text of apparently Buddhist content has been found at Kafyr-kala in the Vakhsh valley." in Dani, Ahmad Hasan (1999). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 387. ISBN 978-81-208-1540-7.
^ Соловьев, Сергей (19 January 2020). Attila Kagan of the Huns from the kind of Velsung. ЛитРес. ISBN 978-5-04-227693-4. a poorly preserved inscription on a wall painting in the Kafir-kala settlement (Vakhsh valley)
^ Baumer, Christoph (18 April 2018). History of Central Asia, The: 4-volume set. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 203–204. ISBN 978-1-83860-868-2. After the destruction wrought by the Sassanid campaigns of the third and fourth centuries and the Hephthalite invasion, Buddhism in Tocharistan experienced a veritable renaissance under Western Turkic rule. Xuanzang's account of Tocharistan's many monasteries but also the archaeological evidence indicate that Buddhism flourished again under the Turks, who were tolerant in matters of belief and unconcerned to impose a state religion. Among the outstanding examples of seventh-century Buddhist temple architecture and wall-paintings discovered in the Tajik part of Tocharistan are the monasteries of Kala-i Kafirnigan, Kafyr Kala, Khisht Tepe and especially Ajina Tepe, whose Turkic royal family, nobility and population were all followers of Hinayana Buddhism in the eighth century.
^ Tadjikistan: au pays des fleuves d'or (PDF). Gand : Paris: Édition Snoeck ; Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet. 2021. pp. 226–227. ISBN 9791090262638.

[UNE-1] Dani, Ahmad Hasan; Litvinsky, B. A. (January 1996). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750. UNESCO. p. 150. ISBN 978-92-3-103211-0.

[2] UNESCO Collection of History of Civilizations of Central Asia : Online chapter.

[3] "A fragment of birchbark manuscript bearing a text of apparently Buddhist content has been found at Kafyr-kala in the Vakhsh valley." in Dani, Ahmad Hasan (1999). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 387. ISBN 978-81-208-1540-7.

[4] Соловьев, Сергей (19 January 2020). Attila Kagan of the Huns from the kind of Velsung. ЛитРес. ISBN 978-5-04-227693-4. a poorly preserved inscription on a wall painting in the Kafir-kala settlement (Vakhsh valley)

[5] Baumer, Christoph (18 April 2018). History of Central Asia, The: 4-volume set. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 203–204. ISBN 978-1-83860-868-2. After the destruction wrought by the Sassanid campaigns of the third and fourth centuries and the Hephthalite invasion, Buddhism in Tocharistan experienced a veritable renaissance under Western Turkic rule. Xuanzang's account of Tocharistan's many monasteries but also the archaeological evidence indicate that Buddhism flourished again under the Turks, who were tolerant in matters of belief and unconcerned to impose a state religion. Among the outstanding examples of seventh-century Buddhist temple architecture and wall-paintings discovered in the Tajik part of Tocharistan are the monasteries of Kala-i Kafirnigan, Kafyr Kala, Khisht Tepe and especially Ajina Tepe, whose Turkic royal family, nobility and population were all followers of Hinayana Buddhism in the eighth century.

[6] Tadjikistan: au pays des fleuves d'or (PDF). Gand : Paris: Édition Snoeck ; Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet. 2021. pp. 226–227. ISBN 9791090262638.

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