Ajina-Tepe

Ruins of a 7th-8th century Buddhist monastery that yielded a 13-metre reclining Buddha

Ajina-Tepe (meaning "devil's hill" in Tajik — locals gave it the name without knowing what it was) is the site of a 7th–8th century Buddhist monastery complex, 12 kilometres east of Bokhtar. The monastery was active during a period when Buddhism was flourishing in the Sogdian and Bactrian regions of what is now Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, before the Arab conquest brought the religion to an abrupt end.

Soviet archaeological excavations in the 1960s uncovered a double-monastery complex — one half for monks, one half as a temple — with remarkably well-preserved remains of wall paintings, clay sculptures, and architectural decoration. The jewel of the find was a 13-metre reclining Buddha figure, found in thousands of fragments. The reassembled statue is now in the National Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan in Dushanbe, and is one of the most important Buddhist artworks in the world.

The site itself today is an extensive mound of excavated ruins with limited interpretation on the ground. A visit is more rewarding if you have read about the monastery and seen photographs of the artefacts beforehand. Getting there requires a taxi from Bokhtar; the road is reasonable.

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A story
When Soviet archaeologists excavated Ajina-Tepe in the 1960s, they found the remains of a 13-metre reclining Buddha — one of the largest Buddha sculptures ever found in Central Asia. It had been smashed into over 20,000 fragments by iconoclasts, probably in the 8th century when the Umayyad Arab conquest brought Islam to the region. The archaeologists spent years reassembling the pieces; the restored figure now occupies an entire room in the National Museum in Dushanbe.