The Qiuci grottoes are scattered on more than 20 sites in the area of ancient Qiuci Kingdom(today's Kuche County and some of its neighboring counties in Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region).Founded in the 3rd century and ended in the 12th century, Qiuci Kingdom was one of the cradles of the Buddhist culture in China. Its grotto murals were mainly devoted to religious subjects and also included such contents as farming, hunting, dancing, and folk customs. On the basis of integrating the Oriental and Western cultures, the murals gradually formed their own artistic style. At present, there are more than 600 Qiuci grotto remains, housing nearly 10,000 square meters of murals. Kzir Grotto, a typical representative of the Qiuci grottoes, is the first Buddhist grotto in Chinese history.
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Kucha or Kuche (also: Kuçar, Kuchar) Uyghur (كۇچار), Chinese Simplified: 库车; Traditional: 庫車; pinyin Kùchē; also romanized as Qiuzi, Qiuci, Chiu-tzu, Kiu-che, Kuei-tzu. Also known in ancient China as: 屈支 屈茨; 龜玆; 丘玆, also Po (bai in pinyin?); was an ancient Buddhist kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin and south of the Muzat River. (The area lies in present day Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, China; Kucha city itself is the county seat of that prefecture's Kuqa County). Its population was given as 74,632 in 1990.
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