In 1896, Sven Hedin equipped a camel caravan and led the expedition team eastward into the Taklamakan Desert, known as the "Sea of Death", and as they advanced along the ancient riverbed of the Kriya River, the ruins of two ancient civilizations were slowly stripped of their mysterious veils. The first site is called Dandan Urik and the second site is called Karadun.
At dusk on January 23, they found Dandan Urik, meaning "ivory house", a lifeless place abandoned in the Tang Dynasty, with dead branches, completely dried up like foam, bursting at the touch. The ruins of about two kilometers wide from east to west and about ten kilometers long from north to south are distributed along the dry Kriya River, and the cultural landscapes such as castles, houses, temples, farmland, and irrigation ditches can be blurred.
Strong winds and quicksand are the biggest threats to the site, and nearly half of the more than 20 excavated buildings belong to Buddhist temples, showing that this small city in the desert hinterland is a Buddhist country (but it is actually a town). Among them is a gokoku-ji temple, which is decorated with a large number of Buddhist murals and sculptures, as well as murals that show stories.
Several wooden planks were placed under a statue of a deity in the ruins of Dandan Urik, probably as tributes, and the patterns were visible at detail. One of the wooden panels depicts a bust of a rat's head wearing a crown, with an oval halo on its back, sitting between two waiters. The painting was discovered by Stein, who later traveled thousands of miles to China, and named "Rat God Diagram", it caused a sensation in the world art world and caused a lot of controversy in the interpretation of the story.
Stein's explanation is that in Xuanzang's "Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang Dynasty", a mythical story called "Legend of the Rat Soil Grave" is recorded, saying that there is a sandbag called the rat soil tomb in the western suburbs of Khotan, and the rats living here are as large as hedgehogs, and the leader of which is a giant rat with gold and silver coat. Once the Xiongnu army was stationed at the place of the Rat Lomb Tomb, intending to attack Khotan. The kings, ministers, and people of Khotan were all afraid, and the king usually knew that there were sacred rats in the rat mound, but he did not pray. In the presence of the great enemy, "the sick rushed to the doctor", they set up an altar and prayed for the use of the power of the divine rat to repel the enemy. That night the king dreamed of the divine mouse and said to him: You respect me, I am willing to help you, and when the dawn comes, send troops, and will win the battle." So at dawn the next day, he ordered troops to raid the camp of the Xiongnu army. When the Xiongnu army learned that the Khotanese army was coming, they hurried to meet the battle, but they did not expect that the saddle, uniform, bowstring and other ties were bitten off by rats. In this way, the Khotanese army won, and in order to show his gratitude to the gods and rats, the king built a shrine to sacrifice to ask for blessings.
Historical documents have records that "there are rat countries in the western region, the big ones are like dogs, the middle ones are like rabbits, and the small ones are as usual", "the golden rat crown of the king of Khotan", "there are sand moraines in western Khotan, rats are as big as hedgehogs, gold in color, and rats in and out of the group are from". These records coincide with the Legend of the Rat Tomb in the Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the "Rat God Diagram" shows the "Legend of the Rat Soil Grave", which should be able to explain it.
There are also many magical stories here in the form of frescoes or woodblock paintings, with Sven Hedin discovering Dandan Urik and Stein excavating it extensively. They opened up a picture of the social life of Khotan in ancient Times, and also confirmed some of the written records in the Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty.
As for their great explorers or thieves in the history of western Chinese civilization, it is a matter of benevolence and wisdom, and the next article we introduce the ruins of Karadun, welcome to continue to pay attention.
Beijing Maggie Ami Tibet travel, focusing on niche travel routes, more Tibetan areas or Xinjiang travel niche routes, no man's land crossing, travel information Welcome to pay attention to the WeChat public number: Sichuan-Tibet Line (on the Sichuan-Tibet Line, these three words, plus yellow V certification, the same as the head of this subscription number), we set off together to see the beauty of western China that others can't see.