One of the most important early medieval Uyghur Buddhist art centers, the Bezeklik monastery is located in the Murtuq River gorge of the Flaming Mountains (Yalqun Tagh), about forty kilometers east of Turpan. One can still see the traces of the performance stage, though it is ruined. The monastery consists of caves spaced for one kilometer along the cliffs on the west side of the gorge. There are eighty-three surviving caves, of which about forty are decorated with wall paintings totaling approximately twelve hundred square meters. The surviving caves date mostly to the Uyghur Idi'qut Khanate period. Researchers have examined some typical wall paintings from the caves, and their analysis shows that Uyghur Buddhist art was an important feature in medieval Uyghur culture.
The German archaeologist A. von Le Coq cut out many wall paintings, shipping them back in several hundred cases to Berlin. The world was surprised by the esthetics of Uyghur Buddhist art. The consensus is that the art of the Bezeklik Buddhist Monastery is the most representative, important, and numerous as well as the best preserved of Uyghur Buddhist art objects. The British archaeologist Aurel Stein, who visited Bezeklik at the end of 1914, indicated that, in terms of richness and artistry, no other finds from similar sites in the Turpan Basin can match those of Bezeklik, which parallel the rich ancient paintings of the Dunhuang Thousand Buddha Caves. Professor Albert Griinwedel (1856-1935) writes in a letter dated April 2, 1906: "'For years I have been endeavoring to find a credible thesis for the development of Buddhist art. and primarily to trace the ancient route by which the art of imperial Rome, etc. reached the Far East. What I have seen here goes beyond my wildest dream. If only I had hands enough to copy it all, [for] here in the Kizil are about 300 caves, all containing frescoes, some of them very old and fine."
