Adjina-tepa, a Buddhist monastery of theseventh century, provides important evidencefor the history of Buddhism and its arts inCentral Asia on the eve of the Arab conquest.The site is located in southern Tajikistan in thevalley of the Vakhsh River, one of the maintributaries of the Panj. This part of the VakhshValley has a long history of human settlement:prehistoric man lived on the upper (fourth andfifth) terraces of the valley. Beginning in thefourth-third centuries BCE, the extensivedevelopment of irrigation, especially along theeastern side of the valley, made intensiveagriculture possible. The evidence of substantialsettlement and prosperity continues through theKushan period and on down to the time of theMongol invasion in the 13th century. For the mostpart life was concentrated on the third terrace,where it attained its maximum width of some18–20 km in the region of the city of Kurgan-Tyube (Qurghonteppa). Adjina-tepa stands onthat terrace.

It is a modest elongated hill, which risesamong cotton fields 12 km from Kurgan-Tyube

[Fig. 1] and is surrounded on three sides byabandoned irrigation ditches. As Boris A.Litvinskii and Tat’iana I. Zeimal’, who supervisedthe excavations of the site, wrote, “from theroad it is an unattractive place — formlessmounds, some ditches, thickly overgrown withthorn bushes... Only when one climbs to thetop of the hill can one understand that Adjina-tepa is the remains of a complex set ofstructures. What appears from the road as aformless accumulation of earth reveals whenseen from above a rather regular rectangularshape (50 x 100 m), consisting of two equalsquares divided by a partitioning wall” (Litvinskiiand Zeimal’ 1971, p. 14).

In 1960 the archaeologists dug two trencheshere which showed that the buildings whoseremains form the hill existed in the seventh-eighth centuries. Serious excavations wereundertaken beginning in 1961. The features ofthe architectural layout exposed by theexcavations and the remains of painting andsculpture discovered in various parts of the

building show that the ruinsof Adjina-tepa constituted asingle ensemble of the livingquarters and religiousstructures of a Buddhistmonastery [Fig. 2, facingpage]. The southeastern halfof the monument is themonastery part itself,consisting of structures builtin a square around a court (19x 19 m), which prior toexcavation looked like a cup-shaped depression. In thecenter of the courtyard of thenorthwest half was a largestupa. The rooms surroundingit had primarily a religiouspurpose; among them wereones containing small stupas.As the evidence of the floorsbeing on the same levelsuggests, the two major parts

The Buddhist Monuments of Adjina-tepaVera FominikhState Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Fig. 1. Map of Southern Tajikistan showing Vakhsh River and thelocation of Kurgan-Tyube, to the east of which is located Adjina-tepa.Adapted from: <http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/tajikist.pdf>.

The Silk Road 6/1 (2008), pp. 38-43 38

of the complex probably were built atapproximately the same time.

The basis for dating Adjina-tepa is the findsof money: seven years of excavation yieldedsome 300 coins. The collection containedprimarily cast copper coins quite similar to theissues of Samarkandian Sogdia in the secondhalf of the seventh to first half of the eighthcenturies. The construction of the monasteryseems to have occurred in the middle of theseventh century. The functioning of the site asa Buddhist monastery then lasted about acentury, during which time renovations andrepairs of the buildings and their decorationoccurred. The Arab conquest of the region,which extended over many years up to themiddle of the eighth century, led to theabandonment of the monastery, after which thebest-preserved part of the buildings wasreoccupied primarily as a production center bycraftsmen. Coins found in the layer identified

with that final period of its use include Arabdirhams from 741/2, 751/2, and 779/780 CE.

The architecture of the monastery embodiedthe achievements and experiments of CentralAsian architects intertwined with theachievements of the architectural schools ofneighboring regions and countries. Constructionmaterials included foundations made of largeclay blocks, above which were layers of unbakedbrick. Baked brick was used on floors andfacings. Gypsum plaster was used extensivelyto cover surfaces such as that of the stupa. Boththe stupa court and that of the monastery arefaced on all four sides by eywan vestibules.Apart from the eywans, the architecture featuresvaulted ceilings of corridors and domes oversome of the smaller rooms, with squiches atthe transition zone connecting the square wallswith the round dome. Such features here areamongst the earliest found in Central Asianarchitecture and probably point toward a closeconnection between the architecture of Buddhiststructures and early Islamic period forms suchas those found in domed mausolea andmadrasas. The small arched galleries are aninnovation designed in part to relieve pressurescreated by the vaults and domes. In general,one can speak of a creative mastery ofarchitectural forms which looks both back toearlier developments and forward to the Islamicperiod.

While for the most part the artistic decorationof Adjina-tepa has been preserved only in afragmentary state, the site yielded more than500 works of art: sculptures, reliefs, and muralpaintings. At one time, the walls and ceilingsof almost every room forming the perimeter ofthe stupa were decorated, as were severalrooms in the monastery half of the site. Thepainting was done soon (or immediately) afterthe construction of the whole building. In thesubsequent stages of renovation during thecentury the monastery was active, the paintingin general was not renewed but simply paintedover with different compositions.

The painting fragments include specificallyreligious imagery, donor images and decorativemotifs. It is difficult to reconstruct iconography,except to note that there were scenes of theBuddha and disciples and “thousand Buddha”compositions with rows of seated Buddhas withnimbuses and mandorlas [Fig. 3, next page].

Fig. 2. Plan of Adjina-tepa.

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Possibly here were illustrations to the LotusSutra. The artists’ skill in depicting Buddhistimages can be seen in the variation of themultiple Buddha images, which do not simply

reiterate a single pattern. Preserved among thepaintings are parts of a composition depictingan elegant female head in three-quarter view[Fig. 4], her hair elaborately coiffed and wearingelaborate gold jewelry. It seems as though theartists were less skilled when depicting thedonors, where the models may well have beenmembers of the local population of Tokharistan.In the rubble under the floor was a sizeablefragment showing two male figues in whiteclothes in a pose of deep genufluction [Fig. 5].Their hands extended forward and to the righthold gifts in gold and silver bowls. A pearl-decorated band can be seen above the heads,separating them from whatever the now lostfigures were in the upper register.

The rubble with sculptured remains andfragments of murals covers the floor of the roomin the sanctuary in a thick layer as much as 75cm deep. The compactness of the rubble andits richness allows one to posit that it wasintentionally formed: sculptures which stood onpedestals were toppled onto the floor andbroken. All that remained of figures at one timearrayed on pedestals were parts of the folds ofgarments which draped over the walls of thefacade of the sanctuary. In the southern cornerof the room (between two pedestals) was foundthe upper part of the head of a large sculptedfigure with appliqué curls of hair in spirals,painted in blue. The diameter of the head wasabout 90 cm. Apparently a huge statue of adivinity was in this room. Judging from the size

Fig. 3. A seated Buddha. Mural paintingfrom room 28.

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Fig. 4. A female head. Mural paintingfrom room 1.

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Fig. 5. Two donors. Mural painting from room 31.

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of the head, ifthis statuewas a seatedone, its heightwould havebeen about 4m; if a stand-ing figure, itwould havem e a s u r e dabout 7 m.M o r e o v e r ,there wereother lesss i z e a b l es cu l p tu re s :the head of aBuddha, thehead of aBodhisat tva[Fig. 6], etc.,all of whichprovide im-p o r t a n t

evidence that Buddhist art in Central Asia onthe eve of the Arab invasions was flourishing.As Litvinskii and Zeimal’ emphasize, one canspeak here of a Tokharistan “school” combiningelements of Central Asian and Indian tradition(Litvinskii and Zeimal’ 1971, pp. 107-109).Among its more noteworthy elements areelegant sylistic features which remind one of

the renowned sculptures from the Monasteryof Fondukistan in Afghanistan [cf. Figs. 7, 8].

The best known archaeological discovery atAdjina-tepa was the clay statue of the Buddhain Nirvana. The excavation in 1966 of thecircumambulation corridor (room 23) uneartheda larger than life-size clay statue of a ParinirvanaBuddha, whose lower parts from the waist downand left arm and hand (extending down alongthe body) were largely well preserved [Figs. 9,10, next page]. Only fragments of the upperbody, head and right hand were found. Theoriginal length of the figure was approximately12 m. The robe was draped over the body inartfully sculpted folds and painted red, with theexposed skin of the face, hands and feet paintedwhite.

The statue was removed in 72 pieces andpreliminary conservation undertaken initiallyunder the supervision of and primarily followingmethods developed by P. I. Kostrov forpreserving paintings and clay sculpture atPanjikent. The restoration work was continuedby L. P. Novikova. When the statue wasremoved, the underlying support structure ofbrick was left in place: that is, it was the layersof moulded clay which were saved forreassembly.

There was a long hiatus in the reconstructionwork, which was resumed in the year 2000under the supervision of the author of this article

(Fominikh 2003). Since thedrying out of the fragmentsover more than three decadeshad led to distortion of theoriginal shape, and since theprocesses used to preservethe paint had resulted indifferential coloring of variouspieces, the restorationprocess was extremelycomplicated. The sculptedlayers were re-mounted on a

Fig. 6. Head of a Bodhisattva.Moulded clay. From room 27.

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Fig. 7 (left). Torso of aBodhisattva. Moulded clay. Fromroom 25.

Fig. 8 (right). A Naga king. Moul-ded clay. Ghorband Valley, Af-ghanistan, Fondukistan Monas-tery, Niche D, 7th century CE.Musée Guimet, Paris.

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wooden frame, the missingsections filled in with anapproximate reproduction,and the seams then smoothedover. As Maurizio Taddeinoted, the “most significantcomparison, in terms of bothtypology and chronology” forthe Adjina-tapa Buddha is withthe somewhat later one foundat Tapa-Sardar in Afghanistan(Taddei 1974, p. 114). Despitethe fact that the latter is lessfully preserved, it helpedconsiderably in the recon-struction of the Adjina-tepaBuddha. The restored statue

may be seen today in the NationalMuseum of Antiquities inDushanbe [Fig. 11].

The architecture, painting andsculpture of Adjina-tepa bearwitness to the high level ofdevelopment of these arts inCentral Asia in the region ofsouthern Tajikistan in the earlyMiddle Ages. Its architecturecontains innovations whichanticipate buildings in the Islamicperiod. The painting and sculpturebear witness to the flourishingBuddhist culture of southernTajikistan on the eve of the Arab

Fig. 9 (top). The Parinirvana Bud-dha — drawing reconstructing itsoriginal appearance and location.

Fig. 10 (middle). The ParinirvanaBuddha in situ during excavation.

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conquests. The monumental Parinirvana Buddhais a particularly important example of Buddhistsculpture which deserves to be better known.

Acknowledgements

This article was translated from Russian byDaniel C. Waugh. The author wishes to thankTat’iana Zeimal’ for permission to usephotographs and drawings from her jointlyauthored publication of Adjina-tepa.

About the author

Vera A. Fominikh has worked as an artist-restorer in the the Laboratory for the ScientificRestoration of Monumental Paintings in theState Hermitage Museum since 1983, where sheis now the lead senior restoration specialist.For 17 years she participated in the CentralAsian expeditions of Boris Marshak, working inPanjikent, Paikent, Samarkand and Dushanbe.Since 1994 she is a member of the St.Petersburg Union of Artists.

ReferencesFominikh 2003Vera A. Fominikh. “Restavratsionnaiarekonstruktsiia monumental’noi glinianoi statuiBuddy v nirvane iz Adzhina-tepa (Tadzhikistan)”(The restoration and reconstruction of themonumental clay sculpture of the Buddha inNirvana from Adjina-tepa, Tajikistan).Rossiiskaia arkheologiia 2003, No. 1: 134-144.

Litvinskii and Zeimal’ 1971Boris A. Litvinskii and Tat’iana I. Zeimal’.Adzhina-tepa. Arkhitektura, Zhivopis’,Skul’ptura (Adjina-tepa. Architecture, Painting,Sculpture) Moscow: Izd-vo. “Iskusstvo,” 1971.(Note: The book contains an extensive summaryin English, pp. 219-244.)

Taddei 1974Maurizio Taddei. “A Note on the ParinirvanaBuddha at Tapa Sardar (Ghazni, Afghanistan).”In: South Asian Archaeology 1973. Ed. by J. E.van Lohuizen-de Leeuw and J. M. M. Ubaghs.Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974, pp. 110-115 and pls.58-59.

Fig. 11. The reconstructed Parinirvana Buddha, ondisplay in the National Museum of Antiquities,Dushanbe.

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