Subashi

Subashi is a lost city located in the Taklamakan Desert, on the ancient Silk Road, near Kucha, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China.

Subashi Temple witnessed the development and the height of splendor of Buddhism in this land. The temple was built in the first century and reached its peak during the sixth to the eighth centuries in the Sui and Tang dynasties. In the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), on passing by on his way to India to obtain Buddhist sutra, the hierarch Xuanzang was so impressed by the splendor of the temple and the popularity of Buddhism in this area that he stayed for more than 2 months. During later years, the temple had over 10 thousand monks and many hierarchs came from the interior of China to promote and develop Buddhism. Unfortunately, wars of the ninth century destroyed the temple, and it never recovered. It was finally abandoned in the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries when Islam was introduced to Xinjiang and began to prevail.

Today only the ruins of this temple remain. The pagodas, murals, walls and archaeological discoveries bear witness to the years of change, the stories of Buddhism and the development of civilization in this vast land.