In the middle part of the Tuyugou Canyon, the Thousand-Buddha Cave is one of the top three Buddhism Grottoes in Xinjiang. It started to build at the Jin Dynasty (265-420). It is among the first list of protected cultural relics in Xinjiang autonomous region. In the Jin Dynasty, the Tuyugou Grottoes are important for the hierarchy in Gaochang Kingdom in Xinjiang. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), there were great progresses on Buddhism wall paintings in the Tuyugou Grottoes. It was into a new era. The book ‘Xizhou Paintings’ in the Tang Dynasty recorded that the Tuyugou Grottoes at the time was a fairy land. The describes at the book are as followed：There are numerous temples in the Tuyugou Crayon. Back in the temples are usually steep peaks. In front of the temples are always clean waters. Big green trees are around the temples and monasteries. More than 1700 years can be divided into two periods. The first period is that the Tuyugou Grottoes were destroyed by human movements. The second period is that the grotto was ruined by natural disasters. Nowadays there are 96 Grottoes with only eight of them keeping wall paintings. There existed paintings show ancient civilization to the public and still attract experts and scholars from different countries to visit the Tuyugou Canyon and do researches. There researches and fruits provide immeasurable vales of history and art. The ancient name for the Thousand-Buddha Cave was Dinggu Temple which is the earliest temple in the Turpan area. The Tuyugou Grottoes’ most prosperous time was between the year 443 and 450. 90 percent of the wall paintings were robbed and taken when imperialism countries invaded China. The No.1, No.2, No.3 and No.4 Grottoes still keep the wall paintings of Uighur scripts.
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