Abylaikit Monastery
KazakhstanPermanent Delegation of Kazakhstan to UNESCO
East-Kazakhstan Region, Ulan District
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Description
The Buddhist monastery of Abylaikit (Abylai-kit) was a fortified group of constructions situated in 53 km south from the city of Oskemen on the territory of Ulan District of the East-Kazakhstan Region. The name of the site is composed of two words: “Abylai” – the name of one of the local Zhungar rulers and “kit” (or “khit”) – monastery. It was built in the Tibetan-Mongolian style in the eastern part of modern Kazakhstan in middle XVII century (beginning of the 1650s) during the period of Zhungar or Oirat expansion and was taken and devastated around 1671 during one of the internal conflicts inside the Zhungarian State. After that, the site was rebuilt and continued to exist until the 1720s.
The site remained in the good state of conservation. It was a religious complex, which consisted of a temple, court, living space and fortified wall. After the construction of the monastery, its wall had 3-5 m in height and around 3 m in width and more than 2 km in length. The temple complex was situated on the area of 80x45 m in size, while the main temple had the size of 45x20 m. This construction was heavily damaged by numerous robbers.
During the second half of XVII – the beginning of XVIII centuries the monastery of Abylaikit was one of the biggest religious and cultural centres of Zhungarian State and the place of storage of numerous Buddhist manuscripts. The tangible archaeological objects of the highest scientific interest are the remains of birchbark texts with the valuable information on the history and the most important events on the territory of Eastern Kazakhstan. Currently, these texts require reconstruction and interpretation works for their further use as part of the historiography studies. At that time, this huge collection of Buddhist relics and library was one of the biggest collections of Buddhist texts in the region.
Justification of Outstanding Universal Value
The remains of the Buddhist monastery of Abylaikit testify a series of the following disappeared cultural traditions and practices: political, diplomatic and religious life of the Zhungarian State that disappeared in the middle of XVIII century, and expansion of the Buddhist religion in the Central Asian Region.
Criterion (iii): The Abylaikit Monastery (and its unique collection of Buddhist relics and texts) were having an active exchange of correspondence with numerous states and religious centres in the central part of Eurasia, China, Middle East and Europe. The letters from Abylaikit may be found in numerous archive and museum collections of the World. Through this correspondence, Abylaikit had a massive contribution to the studies of the history and culture of the Zhungarian State, as well as the studies of the Buddhist tradition of Vajrayana. In fact, in the European countries, the texts coming from Abylaikit were the initial stage for studies of the region, which was totally unknown. A modern research area of Tibetan Studies is a direct successor of the studies of the Buddhist relics and texts of the Abylaikit Monastery.
Statements of authenticity and/or integrity
Authenticity
Since the begging of the 2010s the property is actively studied by local researchers under the auspices of regional authority (Akimat of the administrative region). The archaeological studies of the site confirmed its conformity to the factor of authenticity and its relatively good state of conservation.
Integrity
The site has a relatively small size limited by the walls of the monastery, as well as the mountain on the north-eastern side and a river-flow surrounding the property from the east and the west. The territory of the property is free of solid modern constructions and any forms of the economic exploitation of the soil. These factors guarantee its integrity within its historical borders and natural environment.
Comparison with other similar properties
Similar cultural heritage sites are known in Mongolia and China (Inner Mongolia Region). However, Abylaikit has several following particularities that make him very special: numerous written sources of the XVII-XVIII centuries with information on the site and images of its original state; good state of conservation of the archaeological remains on the territory of the site; large number of tangible heritage objects that were taken from the site and exposed in the museums of St Petersburg; location of the site in the proximity of the big city Oskemen – administrative centre of the East-Kazakhstan Region.