Termez's Buddhist Sites: Fayaz Tepe and Kara Tepe
Uzbekistan had Buddhist monasteries for centuries before it had mosques. What survives at Fayaz Tepe, Kara Tepe and the Zurmala stupa, and how to see it.
On the Amu Darya, at the southern edge of Uzbekistan, with Afghanistan on the far bank, there are the remains of monasteries where monks lived, taught and copied manuscripts while Rome still had emperors.
Termez was a Buddhist city for several centuries. That fact surprises most visitors, and the sites are the main reason to make the long trip south.
Why Buddhism was here
In the first centuries of the common era this region belonged to the Kushan empire, which ran from northern India across Afghanistan into Central Asia. The Kushans controlled the routes that carried goods and ideas between India, Persia and China, and under rulers such as Kanishka, Buddhism spread along them.
Termez sat at a crossing point of the Oxus, today's Amu Darya. Monasteries here received travellers moving north out of India and sent monks and texts onward. The transmission of Buddhism to China passed through this landscape.
It ended gradually. Sasanian pressure, then the arrival of Islam in the 7th and 8th centuries, left the monasteries abandoned, and the desert covered them until Soviet archaeologists began digging in the 20th century.
Fayaz Tepe
This is the site to see. About 15 kilometres northwest of the modern city, Fayaz Tepe is a monastery complex built around a central stupa, dated broadly to the 1st to 3rd centuries AD and occupied later.
Excavation exposed a clear plan: three courtyards with monks' cells, a refectory and a sanctuary, with the stupa standing separately. The main stupa is now protected under a modern shell built to keep the weather off, which looks odd in photographs and is the reason the structure still exists.
The finds were remarkable: wall paintings, clay and gypsum Buddha figures, and pottery inscribed in several scripts, including Bactrian and Kharoshthi. Almost all of it has gone to museums, chiefly in Tashkent and Termez, so what you walk through is the architecture itself: low walls, doorways, the outline of rooms in the dust.
Go early or late. There is no shade whatsoever, and the site is at its best when the sun is low and the walls throw shadows that make the plan legible.
Kara Tepe
A kilometre or so away, Kara Tepe is different in kind: a complex of cave monasteries cut into sandstone hills, combined with built structures, spread over three hills.
It is also harder to see. The site sits close to the border zone, and access requires a permit arranged in advance; the rules change and are not always the same twice. Ask your guesthouse or a Termez agency well before you arrive, and be prepared for the answer to be no.
If you do get in, the interest is the rock-cut cells and corridors, which are unlike anything else in Uzbekistan and directly comparable with Buddhist cave sites in Afghanistan and northern India.
What a Kushan monastery was for
Low walls in the dust do not explain themselves, so it helps to know what the rooms did. A monastery of this period combined three functions, and you can trace all of them in the plan at Fayaz Tepe.
It was a residence. The cells around the courtyards housed monks who lived by a rule, ate together in a refectory and owned almost nothing. The rooms are small, uniform and plain, and the kitchen and store areas are identifiable by their fittings.
It was a shrine. The stupa was the focus of worship, circled by devotees in a fixed direction, and the sanctuary held images that pilgrims came to see. The wall paintings that came out of here showed donors and monks alongside the Buddha, which is how a community recorded who had paid for what.
And it was an inn. Monasteries on trade routes lodged merchants, lent money against goods, and acted as safe points along a road with no police. That is why they were built where the caravans passed and why they grew rich enough to commission sculpture. The relationship between commerce and religion on the Silk Road was not incidental; the monasteries were part of the infrastructure.
The Zurmala stupa
East of the city, in fields, stands a truncated cylinder of mud brick roughly 13 to 16 metres high depending on which measurement you read. This is Zurmala, the remains of a large stupa usually dated to the 1st or 2nd century AD.
Stripped of its facing and its decoration, it looks like an eroded tower, and there is nothing to read on site. Its claim on your attention is chronological: this is plausibly the oldest standing structure in the country.
Fifteen minutes is enough. Combine it with the drive to or from the other sites rather than making a separate trip.
The museum first
Start at the Termez Archaeological Museum in the city. It is a well-funded, modern museum, and it holds the objects that came out of the ground at these sites: Buddha heads, painted fragments, Gandharan-influenced sculpture, coins and Bactrian inscriptions.
Seeing the finds before the ruins is the difference between walking round a set of low walls and understanding what stood there. Entry is modest, and a combined ticket sometimes covers the archaeological sites as well; ask at the desk.
| Site | Distance from Termez | Time | Permit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archaeological museum | In the city | 60–90 min | No |
| Fayaz Tepe | ~15 km northwest | 45 min | No |
| Kara Tepe | ~16 km northwest | 60 min | Yes |
| Zurmala stupa | ~8 km east | 15 min | No |
Getting to Termez
Termez is about 700 kilometres south of Tashkent, and the practical ways in are the flight, roughly an hour and a half, or the overnight train, which is comfortable and takes 12 to 14 hours. By road from Samarkand or Bukhara it is a long day over the mountains.
Once there, the sites are spread out and there is no useful public transport to them. Hire a taxi for a half day, agree the full circuit and the waiting time before you start, and expect it to cost less than you would guess. Our Termez travel guide covers the city itself, including the Islamic monuments at Sultan Saodat and the Al-Hakim at-Termizi complex.
Two practical warnings. This is a border region: carry your passport, do not photograph the river, bridges or military installations, and expect document checks. And it is hot, genuinely hot, with summer temperatures among the highest in the country, so plan for March to May or late September to November.
What the art looked like
The sculpture found around Termez belongs to the wider Gandharan world, the school that developed in what is now northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan, where Hellenistic technique met Indian subject matter. The result is Buddhas with drapery that would not look out of place on a Roman statue, and faces modelled in a way that came west with Alexander's successors.
Local workshops adapted it. Material mattered: with no good stone to hand, sculptors worked in clay and gypsum over armatures, which is fragile and explains why so much survives only in fragments. Colour mattered too, and traces of paint on several pieces in the museum show that these figures were not the plain white-grey objects we tend to picture.
Look also at the inscriptions. Pieces from these sites carry writing in several scripts, and the mix is the point: a monastery where texts arrived in one language, were copied in another and travelled on in a third is the Silk Road doing exactly what it is famous for, in a place almost no visitor associates with it.
Planning a day that works
The mistake people make in Termez is doing the sites in the order they appear on a map. Do them in this order instead: museum first thing, Zurmala on the way out of town, Fayaz Tepe in the late afternoon, and Kara Tepe only if the permit came through, slotted in beside Fayaz Tepe since they are a kilometre apart.
That leaves the middle of the day free, which in this climate is not laziness but necessity. Between noon and four, the ruins are unpleasant and the light is flat and bad for photographs. Eat, sleep, and go out again when the shadows return.
Budget for a driver for the whole day rather than trip by trip. Rates here are low, the distances between sites are awkward, and having the car wait at Fayaz Tepe while you walk the courtyards is worth far more than the saving from haggling each leg separately.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Termez worth the trip for the Buddhist sites alone?
For most travellers, no. The ruins are low walls and foundations, and Uzbekistan has spectacular architecture elsewhere. For anyone interested in Buddhist history, the Silk Road or archaeology, yes, especially combined with the museum and the city's Islamic monuments, which are excellent and almost unvisited.
Do I need a permit?
For Kara Tepe, yes, arranged in advance through a local agency or your accommodation. Fayaz Tepe, Zurmala and the museum need no permit. Rules in the border zone change, so confirm locally rather than relying on older accounts.
How long do I need in Termez?
Two nights. One full day covers the museum and the Buddhist sites; a second takes in Sultan Saodat, the Termizi complex and the fortress ruins, with time to sit out the afternoon heat.
Can I see Afghanistan from Termez?
You can see the far bank of the Amu Darya from various points, and the Friendship Bridge is nearby. Do not photograph the crossing or the border installations, and do not attempt to approach them.
What happened to the finds?
Most are in the Termez Archaeological Museum or in Tashkent, with some material abroad from earlier excavation seasons. Very little is left in situ, which is why the museum visit comes first.
Featured image: Prof. Mortel (CC BY 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons.