The reclining Buddha of Ajina Tepa
A giant clay Buddha sleeps in the 'hill of demons'
In the 7th–8th centuries a Buddhist monastery in southern Tajikistan held a clay statue of the Buddha entering nirvana, 12–13 metres long. Locals called the mound Ajina Tepa, 'hill of demons'; found in 1966, the statue was cut into pieces and moved to Dushanbe, the largest Buddha in Central Asia.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 7th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 680 Battle of Ongal — 20 years earlier
- 711–718 Umayyad conquest of Hispania — 11 years later
- 717–718 Second Arab siege of Constantinople — 17 years later
Middle East
- 680 Battle of Karbala — 20 years earlier
- 691 Dome of the Rock — 9 years earlier
Africa
- 698 Fall of Carthage and the Arab conquest of the Maghreb — 2 years earlier
- c. 700 The rise of the Kanem Empire — same year
Alive at the time
- Wu Zetian (aged 76)
- Lady Six Sky (aged 18)