The Türk Building Plan

Architecture of the Türk khaganates (First [ca. 552-581/603], Western [581-657], and Eastern [682-744]) remains primarily in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan. Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, and perhaps in North Korea, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Excavators are Mongolian, Russian, Kazakh, Japanese, German, Korean, and Turkish. Significant research on material remains at Türk sites has also been conducted by Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Danish, and Finnish scholars. No Türk building stands: understanding and theoretical reconstruction comes from wall pieces, remains of Buddhist monasteries, churches, shrines, and tombs, sculpture, murals, metalwork including coins, and artifacts in other materials.

The talk begins by demonstrating remarkable similarities among the architectural plans of at least one monastery, church, shrine, and tomb. I focus on remains in Ak-Beshim in Kyrgyzstan, Khöshöö-Tsaidam and Shiveet-Ulaan in Mongolia, and Xiaohongnahai in Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. It then turns to the sources for what I will call The Türk Building Plan. Scholars and excavators from across the globe have argued for Chinese sources for all of them. This talk will demonstrate that the associations with Chinese architecture often are superficial. A Türk Building Plan will be proposed, one that presented across the Türk khaganates and resonated in Korea and Japan.