China: The Buddha giving a sermon. Mural from the Kumtura Thousand Buddha Caves, Xinjiang, 8th century CE. The Kumtura Thousand Buddha Caves (also Qumtura) is a Buddhist temple site in Xijiang, some 25 km west of Kucha on the ancient Silk Road. Around 112 cave temples still stand, dating back from the fifth to eleventh centuries. Kumtura was visited by a series of early foreign expeditions to Chinese Central Asia at the turn of the 20th century, such as Le Coq's expedition which detached several wall paintings and smuggled them back to Berlin.

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