Rawak Temple

It is located inside the desert northwest of Jiya township of Lop county .Rawak temple is about 70kms far from Hotan city. The Rawak temple is the only the temple in Hotan which has a Gadara style, condition of the ruins is good preserved. Rawak Temple is belong to 2th century to 10th century.

The meaning of rawak in Uyghur is pavilion. The Buddhist temple is located in the center of a group of Buddhist pagodas. The temple was surrounded by a courtyard wall. Outside and inside courtyard there are large numbers of frescos, clay sculptures and Buddha figures scattered around. Also some wall paintings were found. The clay sculptures and Buddha figures were attached on two sides of the wall. Inside and outside of the temple is large number of red and grey pottery pieces and some broken pieces of Buddha figures were scattered around. Aural Stein inspected and excavated this ancient city twice, first was in 1901, and second was in 1906. He excavated large number of relics and took it away. Chinese Archeologist Huang Wen Bi inspected and excavated the ruins in 1929.He excavated Buddha figures, frescos and also Wu Zhu coins, Buddhist pearls and different kinds of pottery pieces. The Rawak temple ruins is under the preservation of the Autonomous Regional Cultural Relics.