Text: Liu Shuliang **Liu Shuliang Channel
There is a place in southern Xinjiang called Kuqa, when I first entered Kuqa, I read it as a garage, and I was seriously ridiculed by my fellow friends.
Walking all the way through the canyon and grassland from northern Xinjiang, I have hardly seen a bustling city like an inland township, and I wonder if the people here live in **?
Felt and fur bales are scattered in a part of the grassland or where there is river water, which is the way the Uyghurs live.
Kuqa is the seat of the county government, has the scale of a city, and also performs the functions of a city. There are high-rise buildings, and there are shopping malls. We stayed in a star hotel, and there are several hotels of the same size.
Since Kuqa is a city, there is nothing to see, and I think that there will be no more places in the Western Regions that can be called famous than in the mainland. It wasn't until I saw and watched it that I realized that each has its own terroir and its own taste and meaning.
I am accustomed to seeing the beautiful rivers of the Central Plains, and the novelty and surprise of the scenery of the West City, which is a style that will never be found in the mainland. The mountains and rivers here are also like the temperament of the people of the Western Regions, straightforward, frank, not twisted, true and not pretentious, the peaks stretch for hundreds of miles without reducing the momentum, the flat ground is like the green waves of innocence rolling, the momentum makes our people and things seem small, and the pen can hardly describe the kind of surprise and joy.
A landscape painter told me that he was shocked by the magnificence, towering and unique personality of the Tianshan Mountains, and tried to paint a few pictures of the charm of the Tianshan Mountains, but none of them were the Tianshan Mountains imprinted in his heart, and there was no "bone" of the Tianshan Mountains, so he had to give up, for fear of desecrating the mystery and holiness of the Tianshan Mountains.
When you come to Kuqa, you must see the Qianzi Buddha Caves. If you don't look at the Qianzi Buddha Caves, you are embarrassed to say that you have come to Kuqa, which shows the position of the Qianzi Buddha Caves in the hearts of the locals.
Qianzi Buddha Caves are obviously not as good as the style of Dunhuang Buddha Caves, I think half of the success of Dunhuang Buddha Caves is due to the region, many visitors, widely spread, the other half is its huge cultural connotation, this is the shortcomings of Qianzi Buddha Caves. However, the Qianzi Buddha Caves have its unique geography and humanity that Dunhuang does not have.
It is the Silk Road must pass through the place, the cause of the defect is attributed to the war, banditry, even if today we climb high and look far away, the Qianzi Buddha Cave is still the crane in the flock of chickens, independent of the cold and summer, leading the mountains.
The most eye-catching is the endless Tongtian River, this river is famous, "Journey to the West" records the story of Zhu Bajie drinking the water of this river and conceiving a piglet, this story must be a story, because there is no second case in the subsequent historical records.
At the bend of the river is the Buddha cave mountain, which has been carrying hundreds or thousands of years, stretching for several miles. Since this is the only place for Tang Sanzang to take his apprentices to the West Heaven to learn scriptures, that is, the Silk Road through which merchants passed.
The journey is far away and long, mostly sand valleys, Gobi, and the canyon that does not grow an inch of grass, tired of walking, walking tired, a piece of oasis suddenly appears in front of you, the sound of the river flowing is so pleasant, you think it is the attachment of the gods and the sky descends to the sky.
A certain merchant transformed this place into a stopper. Since it is the protection of the gods and Buddhas, the merchants brought the best craftsmen along the road, opened mountains and dug caves, carved Buddha seats, built Buddhist halls, and painted murals.
The effect of imitation will spread, and more merchants will anchor here. Year after year, it has become the largest post station connecting the Western Regions of the Tang Capital.
The lonely hillside is full of incense, and the smoke is entangled in the Buddha cave all day long, forming a unique scenery on the way to the west and the east. The merchants also opened several grottoes to form grottoes. Set up a Buddhist hall, ask someone to pay homage to the Buddha and take care of Buddhist affairs.
With the passage of time, the extremely prosperous Tang Dynasty collapsed into royal politics, and the beacon was full of flames and wolf smoke everywhere. The war broke the Silk Road, and the incense here was gradually extinguished.
The wind blew out the last light of the Buddha hall, there was no merchant camel team under the mountain, the Qianzi Buddha Cave fell silent, the wind and sand swallowed the Foshan, and the Buddha Cave was buried in the dust of the years.
People and animals are gone, the scenery is no longer there, and the bustling city becomes a ghost town. Later, the years were vast, wind, frost, rain and snow, and the thousands of Buddhist caves collapsed, gradually fading out of people's memories, leaving only incomplete and chaotic legends.
Another dynasty has died, China is no longer prosperous, he was defeated by the Western powers, defeated by the strength of their spirit. What was once a friendly country is now a robber.
When the German robbers came, they found local craftsmen and excavated the buried Thousand Buddha Caves here, they know better than us, ** price, the murals are priceless, and the grottoes store the essence of the inheritance of this nation.
Now we can still see the complete wall surface in the National Museum. Now our ** opens the doors here, although it is a ruined wall, but it makes us remember this history.
Now we have walked into the grotto, admired the wisdom of our ancestors, and also felt the era when the country was weak and was bullied, and such days will not return.
The author is a member of the Chinese Writers Association and a well-known reportage writer).