The tradition & historical record
2 min read · 2 sourcesKafir-kala ("Fortress of the infidels") is an ancient fortress in the Vakhsh Valley in Tajikistan. 1
Fortress and Buddhist temple
It consists in a rectangular town surrounded by a wall with towers (360x360 meters), surrounded by a large ditch, and has one citadel (360x360 meters) in one corner, also surrounded by a wall. The citadel (70x70 meters) contained the palace of the rulers. A Buddhist temple was found in the palace complex of the fortress as well as a Buddhist Vihara with Buddhist paintings, belonging to the "Tokharistan school of art". Inscriptions with apparently Buddhist content have also been found. A Hephthalite inscription on a wall painting has been found at Kafir-kala. Turkic royal families, nobility and population of the Western Turks and Tokhara Yabghus were often followers of Hinayana Buddhism in the 8th century and sponsored many of the instances of Buddhist architecture and wall-paintings, including in Kafir-kala, but also in Kala-i Kafirnigan or Ajina Tepe. 1
The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Kafir-kala (Tajikistan)”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. 1
Kafirkala is archaeological site in the medieval province of Vakhsh, in southern Tajikistan, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 2
The source record links this tradition to 4 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. 2