Kafirkala

Kafir-kala ("Fortress of the infidels") is an ancient fortress in the Vakhsh Valley in Tajikistan.

Fortress and Buddhist temple

It consists in a rectangular town surrounded by a wall with towers (360x360 meters), surrounded by a large ditch, and has one citadel (360x360 meters) in one corner, also surrounded by a wall. The citadel (70x70 meters) contained the palace of the rulers.

A Buddhist temple was found in the palace complex of the fortress as well as a Buddhist Vihara with Buddhist paintings, belonging to the "Tokharistan school of art". Inscriptions with apparently Buddhist content have also been found.

A Hephthalite inscription on a wall painting has been found at Kafir-kala.

Turkic royal families, nobility and population of the Western Turks and Tokhara Yabghus were often followers of Hinayana Buddhism in the 8th century and sponsored many of the instances of Buddhist architecture and wall-paintings, including in Kafir-kala, but also in Kala-i Kafirnigan or Ajina Tepe.