page_title: Por-Bazhyn
section_title: Results of fieldwork 2007–2008
hierarchical_section_title: Por-Bazhyn / Results of fieldwork 2007–2008
caption_attribution_description: English: Finial for roof tiles in Chinese style, found at Por-Bazhyn during excavations in 2007
context_page_description: Por-Bazhyn is a ruined structure on a lake island high in the mountains of southern Tuva. The name derives from Tuvinian, meaning 'clay house'. Excavations suggest that it was built as an Uyghur palace in the 8th century AD, converted into a Manichaean monastery soon after, abandoned after a short occupation, and finally destroyed by an earthquake and subsequent fire. Its construction methods show that Por-Bazhyn was built within the Tang Chinese architectural tradition.
context_section_description: Geophysicists found that the island is essentially a plug of permafrost in a shallow lake. This island seems to have risen from the lake several centuries before the fortress was built on it. The clay for the walls of the fortress may have been taken from the lake bed around the island. Geomorphological fieldwork also revealed traces of at least two earthquakes. The first of these seems to have already happened during the construction of the fortress in the 8th century. In the late Middle Ages, another catastrophic earthquake led to fires and to the collapse of the southern and eastern enclosure walls and of the northwestern corner bastion.
  The outer wall of the enclosure was built using the Chinese hangtu technique (rammed-earth layers in a wooden frame) and was originally 11 m (36 ft)  high. The excavation of the northern bastion on the eastern wall revealed traces of a wooden fighting platform running along the top of the curtain wall and bastions. The main gate was found to have three gateways of heavy timber construction, much of it burnt. It opened into two successive courtyards which were connected by a small gate. The outer courtyard was devoid of all structures.
   
  The inner courtyard held the main complex which consisted of a two-part central structure and two flanking galleries. The two buildings of the central structure, one behind the other, stood on square platforms which had been built up of clay layers and faced with bricks which were coated with lime plaster. The larger building was subdivided by wattle-and-daub panels into two halls and a series of smaller rooms. Walls and panels were covered with lime plaster which was painted with geometric designs and horizontal red stripes; the presence of two layers of plaster of different quality suggests repairs. The tiled roof had been supported by 36 wooden columns resting on stone bases. The building appeared to be of post-and-beam construction characteristic of Chinese T’ang architecture; this is indicated by burnt timber fragments of interlocking wooden brackets in the Chinese style called dougong. The decorative eave end-tiles recovered from the site are broadly analogous to those found in Tang contexts, however recent studies indicate they form part of a distinctive Uyghur stylistic typology.
  A series of small enclosed courtyards ran along the interior of the northern, western and southern curtain walls; these courtyards were connected to one another by small gates in their walls. Each courtyard held a one- or two-chamber building of similar lay-out and building method.
caption: Finial for roof tiles in Chinese style, found at Por-Bazhyn during excavations in 2007 (scale: cm)
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