The kneeling, praying figures on the bottom left were identified as "Persian" people (see Plate 20) by Albert von Le Coq. However, they were likely Eastern-Iranian-speaking Sogdians who maintained an ethnic minority community in medieval Turpan. Modern scholarship has identified the Caucasian-looking men in Scene No. 6 of Temple No. 9 (the same temple as the scene shown above) as ethnic Sogdians, as outlined in the following source:
For information on the Sogdians of Turpan under the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and Uyghur Kingdom of Qocho (856-1335 AD), see the following source:
For Sogdian influence on contemporary Uyghur religious life, including transmission of Manichaeism, Buddhism, and Nestorian Christianity, see:
Albert von Le Coq, in his Facsimile-Reproductions of More Important Findings of the First Royal Prussian Expedition to Turfan in East Turkestan (German: CHOTSCHO: FACSIMILE-WIEDERGABEN DER WICHTIGEREN FUNDE DER ERSTEN KÖNIGLICH PREUSSISCHEN EXPEDITION NACH TURFAN IN OST-TURKISTAN), published in Berlin in 1913 by Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), "by Order of General Management of the Royal Museums, From the Funds of the Baessler Institutes," (German: "IM AUFTRAGE DER GENERALVERWALTUNG DER KÖNIGLICHEN MUSEEN AUS MITTELN DES BAESSLER-INSTITUTES"), provided a cursory yet lengthy analysis (p. 28) of Praṇidhi scene No. 14 in Temple No. 9 of the Bezeklik caves. He called the kneeling figures on the left: "die augenscheinlich der iranischen Rasse angehören" (English: "apparently belonging to the Iranian race"). On the figure to the right wearing a green, fur-trimmed coat and presenting a bowl, which von Le Coq said perhaps contained bags of gold dust (German: "goldstaub"), he said that his facial features were Europoid (German: "das gesicht zeigt europäischen typus") and had bright green eyes (German: "die augen sind hellgrün") and black hair and beard (German: "der Bart und die Haare aber schwarz"). Of particular interest to von Le Coq was the man's head cap, which he found reminiscent of the headgear worn by earlier Sasanian Persian princes (German: "bemerkenswert ist die mütze, deren form am meisten an die mancher Adlerfittich-Mützen sassanidischer fürsten erinnert") He also noted the donkey and Bactrian camel in the foreground, loaded with tributary goods.
Это произведение находится в общественном достоянии в тех странах, где срок охраны авторского права равен жизни автора плюс 70 лет и менее.
