The latest edition of the International Conference on Turfan Studies, with the theme of "New Progress in Jingjiao Studies," concluded on Sunday in Turpan, Xinjiang.
The event brought together scholars from nine countries and regions including Germany, Britain and Japan, who shared views on the archaeological project at Xipang (Shüi-pang) Jingjiao Monastery and discussed further collaboration in Turfan studies.
Jingjiao, also known as the Nestorian Church, is a branch of Christianity introduced to China in ancient times. In 1905, a German expedition team excavated a large number of Christian manuscripts at the Xipang Jingjiao site in Turpan. In 1909, a Russian expedition also visited the site.
For nearly a century afterwards, the site received no further attention until November 2004, when Wang Ding, a professor at the School of History of Beijing Foreign Studies University, together with the local cultural relic authorities, re-identified the site based on archives from the German expedition.
The site was subsequently jointly excavated in 2021 and 2023 by Sun Yat-sen University, Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and the Xinjiang Academia Turfanica, during which a large number of paper fragments of Jingjiao, Buddhist and Taoist texts were unearthed. This discovery has attracted widespread attention of scholars from home and abroad.
One feels like at home when one thinks of the grapes and impressive nature and flaming mountains in Turpan, Peter Zieme, a senior researcher with the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Science and Humanities, told Xinhua.
"There are many religions in history, like Manichaeism and Buddhism and Christianity. In recent years, there were new excavations undertaken by Chinese archaeologists in Xipang, which is very impressive," said Zieme.
Turpan has a climate that is hot, dry and receives little rainfall. These unique climatic conditions have allowed for the preservation of cultural relics.
For almost a century, the subject of Turfan studies has attracted international scholars in disciplines such as paleography, archaeology, history, linguistics and paleontology.
"Turpan connects," said Erica C. D. Hunter, a scholar from the University of Cambridge. "I am sure that we will all return to our respective abodes with much greater understanding of the role of Jingjiao in Turpan."
