A report on Tarim Basin, Xinjiang and Kashgar

The Tarim Basin is the oval-shaped desert in Central Asia.

Physical map showing the separation of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Taklamakan) by the Tien Shan Mountains

Dzungaria (Red) and the Tarim Basin or Altishahr (Blue)

Kashgar in the Kushan Empire under Kanishka the Great

Tarim basin ancient boats; they were used for burials

Northern Xinjiang (Junggar Basin) (Yellow), Eastern Xinjiang- Turpan Depression (Turpan Prefecture and Hami Prefecture) (Red) and Altishahr/the Tarim Basin (Blue)

Camels traversing the old silk road in 1992

Physical map showing the separation of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Altishahr) by the Tien Shan Mountains

The Chinese Tang dynasty during its greatest extension, controlling large parts of Central Asia.

Map of Han Dynasty in 2 CE. Light blue is the Tarim Basin protectorate.

Old Uyghur/Yugur art from the Bezeklik murals

Tarim mummies, found in westernmost Xinjiang, within the Tarim Basin.

Fragmentary painting on silk of a woman playing the go boardgame, from the Astana Cemetery, Gaochang, c. 744 AD, during the late period of Tang Chinese rule (just before the An Lushan Rebellion)

A Sogdian man on a Bactrian camel. Sancai ceramic statuette, Tang dynasty

Kalmyk Archer, Kashgar Army in the 1870s

Map of Taizong's campaigns against the Tarim Basin oasis states, allies of the Western Turks.

Mongol states from the 14th to the 17th centuries: the Northern Yuan dynasty, Four Oirat, Moghulistan and Kara Del

Night interview with Yakub Beg, King of Kashgaria, 1868

A document from Khotan written in Khotanese Saka, part of the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, listing the animals of the Chinese zodiac in the cycle of predictions for people born in that year; ink on paper, early 9th century

The Dzungar–Qing Wars, between the Qing Dynasty and the Dzungar Khanate

Uyghur princes from the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves near Turpan, Kingdom of Qocho, 8th-9th centuries

The Battle of Oroi-Jalatu in 1756, between the Manchu and Oirat armies

Colonel Mannerheim at the Russian Consulate in Kashgar, 1906

An Islamic cemetery outside the Afaq Khoja Mausoleum in Kashgar

Sign marking previous Russian Consulate in Kashgar

Scene from the 1828 Qing campaign against rebels in Altishahr

Map of Kashgar (labeled as SU-FU (KASHGAR)) and surrounding region from the International Map of the World (1966)

Northern Xinjiang (Dzungar Basin) (yellow), Eastern Xinjiang - Turpan Depression (Turpan Prefecture and Hami Prefecture) (red), and the Tarim Basin (blue)

Map including Kashgar (labeled as Kashi K'a-shih (Kashgar)) (DMA, 1983)

19th-century Khotan Uyghurs in Yettishar

Cafe built on site of old British Consulate-General. Kashgar. 2011

Fresco, with Hellenistic influences, from a stupa shrine, Miran

Painting of a Christian woman, Khocho (Gaochang), early period of Chinese Tang rule, 602–654 AD

Governor Sheng Shicai ruled from 1933 to 1944.

The Soviet-backed Second East Turkestan Republic encompassed Xinjiang's Ili, Tarbagatay and Altay districts.

Uyghur family with two calves for sale at Kashgar market.

Black Irtysh river in Burqin County is a famous spot for sightseeing.

Map of the region including Kashgar (1893)

Nur Bekri, Chairman of the Xinjiang Government between 2007 and 2015

The distribution map of Xinjiang's GDP per person (2011)

Ürümqi is a major industrial center within Xinjiang.

Mao statue in the city square of Kashgar.

This flag (Kök Bayraq) has become a symbol of the East Turkestan independence movement.

"Heroic Gesture of Bodhisattvathe Bodhisattva", example of 6th-7th-century terracotta Greco-Buddhist art (local populations were Buddhist) from Tumxuk, Xinjiang

Sogdian donors to the Buddha, 8th century fresco (with detail), Bezeklik, Eastern Tarim Basin

People engaging in snow sports by a statue of bodhisattva Guanyin in Wujiaqu

Temple of the Great Buddha in Midong, Ürümqi

Taoist Temple of Fortune and Longevity at the Heavenly Lake of Tianshan in Fukang, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture

Id Kah mosque in Kashgar, largest mosque in China

Erkin Tuniyaz, the incumbent Chairman of the Xinjiang Government

Kashgar (قەشقەر) or Kashi is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of Southern Xinjiang.

- Kashgar

Located in China's Xinjiang region, it is sometimes used synonymously to refer to the southern half of the province, or Nanjiang, as opposed to the northern half of the province known as Dzungaria or Beijiang.

- Tarim Basin

Xinjiang is divided into the Dzungarian Basin in the north and the Tarim Basin in the south by a mountain range, and only about 9.7% of Xinjiang's land area is fit for human habitation.

- Xinjiang

The northern Tarim route ran from Kashgar over Aksu, Kucha, Korla, through the Iron Gate Pass, over Karasahr, Jiaohe, Turpan, Gaochang and Kumul to Anxi.

- Tarim Basin

In the Kashgar region on 12 November 1933, the short-lived First East Turkestan Republic was self-proclaimed after debate about whether it should be called "East Turkestan" or "Uyghuristan".

- Xinjiang

20 related topics with Alpha

Uyghurs

12 links

The Uyghurs ( or ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia.

Uyghur man in traditional clothing, playing a tambur, a traditional Uyghur instrument.

A possible Tocharian or Sogdian monk (left) with an East Asian Buddhist monk (right). A fresco from the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, dated to the 9th or 10th century (Kara-Khoja Kingdom).

Uyghur princes from Cave 9 of the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, Xinjiang, China, 8th–9th century AD, wall painting

Uyghur Khaganate in geopolitical context c. 820 AD

Map showing the distribution of ethnicities in Xinjiang according to census figures from 2000, the prefectures with Uyghur majorities are in blue.

Protesters Amsterdam with the Flag of East Turkestan

Leaf from an Uyghur-Manichaean version of the ‘‘Arzhang’’.

Wall painting at Bezeklik caves in Flaming Mountains, Turpan Depression.

Doppa Maker, traditional Uyghur hats, Kashgar

A Uyghur man having his head shaved in a bazaar. Shaving of head is now seen mostly among the older generation.

Uyghur girl in clothing made of fabric with design distinctive to the Uyghurs

Uyghur women on their way to work, Kashgar. 2011

The Uyghurs are recognized as native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China.

The Uyghurs have traditionally inhabited a series of oases scattered across the Taklamakan Desert within the Tarim Basin.

These groups of peoples often identify themselves by their originating oasis instead of an ethnicity; for example those from Kashgar may refer to themselves as Kashgarliq or Kashgari, while those from Hotan identity themselves as "Hotani".

Hotan

7 links

Kanishka's Empire (2nd century AD) including Khotan

Bronze coin of Kujula Kadphises found in Khotan.

Map of Central Asia (1878) showing Khotan (near top right corner) and the Sanju Pass, Hindutash, and Ilchi passes through the Kunlun Mountains to Leh, Ladakh. The previous border of the British Indian Empire is shown in the two-toned purple and pink band.

Amban Ch´ê Ta-jên's guests festing on a terrace in Nar-Bagh, 1912

Collecting jade in the White Jade River near Hotan in 2011

Map of Hotan (labeled as HO-TIEN (HO-T'IEN) (KHOTAN)) and surrounding region from the International Map of the World (USATC, 1971)

Light coloured or "Mutton fat" jade for sale at Hotan Jade Market

Entrance to the Khotan Jade Market Center

Local jade displayed in the Hotan Cultural Museum lobby.

Map of the region including Khotan (Ilchi) (1893)

Map including Hotan (Ho-t'ien, Khotan) (DMA, 1983)

Ambassador from Khotan (于闐國 Yutian) to the Tang dynasty, in Wanghuitu (王會圖) circa 650 CE.

Hotan (also known as Gosthana, Gaustana, Godana, Godaniya, Khotan, Hetian, Hotien) is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an autonomous region in Western China.

With a population of 408,900 (2018 census), Hotan is situated in the Tarim Basin some 1500 km southwest of the regional capital, Ürümqi.

The town suffered severely during the Dungan Revolt (1862–77) against the Qing dynasty and again a few years later when Yaqub Beg of Kashgar made himself master of Kashgaria, ruling the newly founded Turkic state known at the time as Yettishar.

Woven silk textile from Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province, China, dated to the Western Han Era, 2nd century BCE

Silk Road

7 links

Network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century.

Chinese jade and steatite plaques, in the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes. 4th–3rd century BCE. British Museum.

Achaemenid Persian Empire at its greatest extent, showing the Royal Road.

Soldier with a centaur in the Sampul tapestry, wool wall hanging, 3rd–2nd century BCE, Xinjiang Museum, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.

A ceramic horse head and neck (broken from the body), from the Chinese Eastern Han dynasty (1st–2nd century CE)

Bronze coin of Constantius II (337–361), found in Karghalik, Xinjiang, China

The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism: Mahayana Buddhism first entered the Chinese Empire (Han dynasty) during the Kushan Era. The overland and maritime "Silk Roads" were interlinked and complementary, forming what scholars have called the "great circle of Buddhism".

Central Asia during Roman times, with the first Silk Road

A Westerner on a camel, Northern Wei dynasty (386–534)

Map showing Byzantium along with the other major silk road powers during China's Southern dynasties period of fragmentation.

Coin of Constans II (r. 641–648), who is named in Chinese sources as the first of several Byzantine emperors to send embassies to the Chinese Tang dynasty

A Chinese sancai statue of a Sogdian man with a wineskin, Tang dynasty (618–907)

The empires and city-states of the Horn of Africa, such as the Axumites were important trading partners in the ancient Silk Road.

After the Tang defeated the Gokturks, they reopened the Silk Road to the west.

Marco Polo's caravan on the Silk Road, 1380

Map of Eurasia and Africa showing trade networks, c. 870

The Round city of Baghdad between 767 and 912 was the most important urban node along the Silk Road.

A lion motif on Sogdian polychrome silk, 8th century, most likely from Bukhara

Yuan Dynasty era Celadon vase from Mogadishu.

Map of Marco Polo's travels in 1271–1295

Port cities on the maritime silk route featured on the voyages of Zheng He.

Plan of the Silk Road with its maritime branch

The Nestorian Stele, created in 781, describes the introduction of Nestorian Christianity to China

Fragment of a wall painting depicting Buddha from a stupa in Miran along the Silk Road (200AD - 400AD)

A blue-eyed Central Asian monk teaching an East-Asian monk, Bezeklik, Turfan, eastern Tarim Basin, China, 9th century; the monk on the right is possibly Tocharian, although more likely Sogdian.

Bilingual edict (Greek and Aramaic) by Indian Buddhist King Ashoka, 3rd century BCE; see Edicts of Ashoka, from Kandahar. This edict advocates the adoption of "godliness" using the Greek term Eusebeia for Dharma. Kabul Museum.

A statue depicting Buddha giving a sermon, from Sarnath, 3000 km southwest of Urumqi, Xinjiang, 8th century

Iconographical evolution of the Wind God. Left: Greek Wind God from Hadda, 2nd century. Middle: Wind God from Kizil, Tarim Basin, 7th century. Right: Japanese Wind God Fujin, 17th century.

Two-Storeyed Caravanserai, Baku, Azerbaijan

Bridge in Ani, capital of medieval Armenia

Medieval fortress of Amul, Turkmenabat, Turkmenistan

Sogdian man on a Bactrian camel, sancai ceramic glaze, Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907)

The ruins of a Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) Chinese watchtower made of rammed earth at Dunhuang, Gansu province

A late Zhou or early Han Chinese bronze mirror inlaid with glass, perhaps incorporated Greco-Roman artistic patterns

A Chinese Western Han dynasty (202 BCE – 9 CE) bronze rhinoceros with gold and silver inlay

Han dynasty Granary west of Dunhuang on the Silk Road.

Green Roman glass cup unearthed from an Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE) tomb, Guangxi, southern China

The southern stretches of the Silk Road, from Khotan (Xinjiang) to Eastern China, were first used for jade and not silk, as long as 5000 BCE, and is still in use for this purpose.

The Tarim mummies, mummies of non-Mongoloid, apparently Caucasoid, individuals, have been found in the Tarim Basin, in the area of Loulan located along the Silk Road 200 km east of Yingpan, dating to as early as 1600 BCE and suggesting very ancient contacts between East and West.

There are indications that he may have led expeditions as far as Kashgar on the western edge of the Taklamakan Desert, leading to the first known contacts between China and the West around 200 BCE.

Karasahr

6 links

This 17th-century map shows Cialis (Karashar) as of one of the cities in the chain stretching from Hiarcan to Sucieu

The Tarim Basin in the 3rd century, showing the so-called Tocharian and related states.

Turkish dignitaries visiting king Varkhuman in Samarkand. One of them is labeled as coming from Argi (Karashahr in modern Xinjiang). Afrasiab mural, probably painted between 648 and 651 CE.

Karasahr or Karashar (قاراشەھەر), which was originally known, in the Tocharian languages as Ārśi (or Arshi) and Agni or the Chinese derivative Yanqi, is an ancient town on the Silk Road and the capital of Yanqi Hui Autonomous County in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang.

The city, referred to in classical Chinese sources as Yanqi, was located on the branch of the Silk Route that ran along the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin.

In the early 17th century, the Portuguese Jesuit lay brother Bento de Góis visited the Tarim Basin on his way from India to China (via Kabul and Kashgar).

The empire during the reign of Wu Zetian, circa 700

Tang dynasty

6 links

Imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705.

Portrait painting of Emperor Gaozu (born Li Yuan, 566–635), the first Tang Emperor.

Empress Wu (Wu Zetian), the sole officially recognized empress regnant of China in more than two millennia. She first ruled through her husband and sons for almost three decades, then became emperor herself and ruled in her own right for another fifteen years.

The Leshan Giant Buddha, 71 m high; begun in 713, completed in 803

Nanchan Temple (Wutai), built during the late 8th century

A late Tang mural commemorating the victory of General Zhang Yichao over the Tibetans in 848 AD, from Mogao cave 156

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang wearing the robes and hat of a scholar

Tang tomb figure of an official dressed in Hanfu, with a tall hat, wide-sleeved belted outer garment, and rectangular "kerchief" in front. A white inner gown hangs over his square shoes. He holds a tablet to his chest, a report to his superiors.

Civil service exam candidates gather around the wall where results had been posted. Artwork by Qiu Ying.

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang giving audience to Zhang Guo, by Ren Renfa (1254–1327)

Emperor Taizong (r. 626–649) receives Gar Tongtsen Yülsung, ambassador of the Tibetan Empire, at his court; later copy of an original painted in 641 by Yan Liben (600–673)

Chinese officer of the Guard of Honour. Tomb of Princess Chang-le (长乐公主墓), Zhao Mausoleum, Shaanxi province. Tang Zhenguan year 17, i.e. 644 CE

A 10th-century mural painting in the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang showing monastic architecture from Mount Wutai, Tang dynasty; Japanese architecture of this period was influenced by Tang Chinese architecture

Tomb figure of mounted warrior similar to the one unearthed from the tomb of Crown Prince Li Chongrun

Tomb guardian (wushi yong), early 8th century

A bas relief of a soldier and the emperor's horse, Autumn Dew, with elaborate saddle and stirrups, designed by Yan Liben, from the tomb of Emperor Taizong c. 650

Illustration of Byzantine embassy to Tang Taizong 643 CE

Tang dynasty Kai Yuan Tong Bao (開元通寳) coin, first minted in 621 in Chang'an, a model for the Japanese 8th-century Wadōkaichin

Tomb figure of a horse with a carefully sculpted saddle, decorated with leather straps and ornamental fastenings featuring eight-petalled flowers and apricot leaves.

A contract from the Tang dynasty that records the purchase of a 15-year-old slave for six bolts of plain silk and five Chinese coins. Found in the Astana Cemetery in Turfan.

Tomb Figure of a Sogdian merchant, 7th-century

A mural depicting a corner tower, most likely one of Chang'an, from the tomb of Prince Yide (d. 701) at the Qianling Mausoleum, dated 706

The bronze Jingyun Bell cast 711, height 247 cm high, weight 6,500 kg, now in the Xi'an Bell Tower

A Tang dynasty era copy of the preface to the Lantingji Xu poems composed at the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, originally attributed to Wang Xizhi (303–361 AD) of the Jin dynasty

A poem by Li Bai (701–762 AD), the only surviving example of Li Bai's calligraphy, housed in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Calligraphy of Emperor Taizong on a Tang stele

A Tang dynasty sculpture of a Bodhisattva

An 8th-century silk wall scroll from Dunhuang, showing the paradise of Amitabha

A timber hall built in 857, located at the Buddhist Foguang Temple of Mount Wutai, Shanxi

A Tang sancai-glazed carved relief showing horseback riders playing polo

A late Tang or early Five Dynasties era silk painting on a banner depicting Guanyin and a female attendant in silk robes, from the Dunhuang caves, now in the British Museum

Palace ladies in a garden from a mural of Prince Li Xian's tomb in the Qianling Mausoleum, where Wu Zetian was also buried in 706

Tang era gilt-gold bowl with lotus and animal motifs

A Tang sancai-glazed lobed dish with incised decorations, 8th century

Tomb figure of a lady attendant, 7th- to 8th-century; during the Tang era, female hosts prepared feasts, tea parties, and played drinking games with their guests.

A rounded "offering plate" with design in "three colors" (sancai) glaze, 8th-century

A square bronze mirror with a phoenix motif of gold and silver inlaid with lacquer, 8th-century

The Diamond Sutra, printed in 868, is the world's first widely printed book to include a specific date of printing.

The Dunhuang map, a star map showing the North Polar region. c. 700. The whole set of star maps contains over 1,300 stars.

"Great Tang" (Dà Táng) in seal characters.

A Tang Dynasty sancai statuette of Sogdian musicians riding on a Bactrian camel, 723 AD, Xi'an.

Some of the kingdoms paying tribute to the Tang dynasty included Kashmir, Nepal, Khotan, Kucha, Kashgar, Silla, Champa, and kingdoms located in Amu Darya and Syr Darya valley.

There was a long string of conflicts with Tibet over territories in the Tarim Basin between 670 and 692, and in 763 the Tibetans even captured the capital of China, Chang'an, for fifteen days during the An Shi Rebellion.

In fact, it was during this rebellion that the Tang withdrew its western garrisons stationed in what is now Gansu and Qinghai, which the Tibetans then occupied along with the territory of what is now Xinjiang.

Dzungaria

4 links

Dzungaria (red) and the Tarim Basin (blue)

Northern Xinjiang - Dzungarian Basin (yellow), Eastern Xinjiang - Turpan Depression (Turpan Prefecture and Hami Prefecture) (red), Southern Xinjiang - Tarim Basin (blue)

A map of the Dzungar Khanate, by a Swedish officer in captivity there in 1716-1733, which include the region known today as Zhetysu

Dzungaria (also transliterated as Zungaria; Dzungharia or Zungharia; Dzhungaria or Zhungaria; Djungaria or Jungaria; or literally züüngar, Mongolian for "left hand") is a geographical subregion in Northwest China that corresponds to the northern half of Xinjiang—hence it is also known as Beijiang.

Although geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct from the Turkic-speaking Tarim Basin area, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and subsequent Chinese governments integrated both areas into one province, Xinjiang.

One of the earliest mentions of the Dzungaria region occurs when the Han dynasty dispatched an explorer to investigate lands to the west, using the northernmost Silk Road trackway of about 2600 km in length, which connected the ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an to the west over the Wushao Ling Pass to Wuwei and emerged in Kashgar.

Kucha

4 links

Location of Kucha within Xinjiang with the county of Kucha in pink and the prefecture of Aksu in yellow

Kuchean monks and lay devotees circa 300 CE, in the paintings of the Cave of the Hippocampi (Cave 118), Kizil Caves.

The "Peacock Cave", in the Kizil Caves near Kucha, built circa 400 CE.

Kucha ambassador at the Chinese court of Emperor Yuan of Liang in his capital Jingzhou in 516–520 CE, with explanatory text. Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang, 11th century Song copy.

Royal family of the oasis city-state of Kucha (King, Queen and young Princes), Cave 17, Kizil Caves. Circa 500 CE, Hermitage Museum.

Bust of a bodhisattva from Kucha, 6th-7th century. Guimet Museum.

Wooden plate with inscription in a Tocharian language. Kucha, 5th-8th century. Tokyo National Museum.

A "Han Gui bilingual Wu Zhu coin" (漢龜二體五銖錢) produced by the Kingdom of Kucha with both a Chinese and what is presumed to be a Kuśiññe inscription.

King Suvarnapushpa of Kucha, from Cave 69, Kizil Caves.

Kucha, or Kuche (also: Kuçar, Kuchar; كۇچار, Кучар; also ; कूचीन), was an ancient Buddhist kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the northern edge of what is now the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin and south of the Muzat River.

The area lies in present-day Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, China; Kuqa town is the county seat of that prefecture's Kuqa County.

The kingdom bordered Aksu and Kashgar to the west and Karasahr and Turpan to the east.

Yarkant County

4 links

Map showing the rivers of the Tarim Basin and Yarkand River

Yarkand ambassador at the Chinese court of Emperor Yuan of Liang in his capital Jingzhou in 516–520 CE, with explanatory text. Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang, 11th century Song copy.

Yarkand (周古柯 Zhouguke) in Wanghuitu, circa 650 CE

Andijani Taifurghis of the Yarkand Governor's Guard. 1870s

Kanishka's Empire (2nd century AD) including Yarkand

Yarkand, 1868, showing city walls and gallows

Tombs of Yarkand Khans (near the Altyn Mosque)

Map including Yarkant (labeled as SHACHE (SHA-CH'E) (DMA, 1980)

Map including Yarkant (labeled as SO-CH'E (YARKAND)) (AMS, 1966){{efn|From map: "DELINEATION OF INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES MUST NOT BE CONSIDERED AUTHORITATIVE"}}

From the Operational Navigation Chart; map including Yarkant (labeled as SHACHE (SO-CH'E)) (DMA, 1980){{efn|From map: "The representation of international boundaries is not necessarily authoritative."}}

Map including Yarkant (labeled as SHACHE (SO-CH'E)) (DMA, 1984){{efn|From map: "The representation of international boundaries is not necessarily authoritative"}}

Yarkant County, also Shache County, also transliterated from Uyghur as Yakan County, is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, located on the southern rim of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin.

In 130 CE, Yarkand, along with Ferghana and Kashgar, sent tribute and offerings to the Chinese Emperor.

Tarim Basin in the 3rd century AD (the territory of Shule is colored purple)

Shule Kingdom

4 links

The capital of the Shule Kingdom, Kashgar, is marked

The Shule Kingdom (Chinese: 疏勒) was an ancient Iranian oasis kingdom of the Taklamakan Desert that was on the Northern Silk Road, in the historical Western Regions of what is now Xinjiang in Northwest China.

Its capital was Kashgar, the source of Kashgar's water being a river of the same name.

The Northern Silk Road that passed through Kashgar split off into the northern Tarim Basin route which ran from Kashgar over Aksu, Kucha, Korla, through the Iron Gate Pass, over Karasahr, Jiaohe, Turpan, Gaochang and Kumul to Anxi.

Yuezhi

3 links

Ancient people first described in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat at the hands of the Xiongnu in 176 BC, the Yuezhi split into two groups migrating in different directions: the Greater Yuezhi and Lesser Yuezhi (Xiǎo Yuèzhī 小月氏).

Figures in one of the embroidered carpets of the Xiongnu Noin-Ula burial site, a luxury item probably imported from Bactria. They are thought to represent Yuezhis. 1st century BC - 1st century AD.

A later mural (c. 618–712 AD) from the Mogao Caves, depicting the Chinese mission of Zhang Qian to the Yuezhi in 126 BC.

Watershed of the Oxus River (modern Amu Darya)

The first self-declared Kushan ruler Heraios (1–30 AD) in Greco-Bactrian style Obv: Bust of Heraios, with Greek royal headband. Rev: Horse-mounted King, crowned with a wreath by the Greek goddess of victory Nike. Greek legend: TVPANNOVOTOΣ HΛOV – ΣΛNΛB – KOÞÞANOY "The Tyrant Heraios, Sanav (meaning unknown), of the Kushans"

Possible Yuezhi king and attendants, Gandhara stone palette, 1st century AD

Buddhist art c. 300 AD, depicting (left to right) a Kushan lay Buddhist, Maitreya, Buddha, Avalokitesvara, and a Kushan Buddhist monk.

Yuezhi horseman on the coinage of Heraios.

Nomadic figure, typically with a long nose, on a Bactrian camel. Southern Ningxia, 4th century BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bunker |first1=Emma C. |title=Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes: The Eugene V. Thaw and Other Notable New York Collections |date=2002 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |pages=120–121, item 92 |url=https://archive.org/details/NomadicArtoftheEasternEurasianSteppesTheEugeneVThawandOtherNotableNewYorkCollection/page/n133/mode/2up |language=English}}</ref>

Harness ornament in the shape of a coiled wolf, characteristic of nomadic artifacts of southern Ningxia and southeastern Gansu, 5th-4th century BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bunker |first1=Emma C. |title=Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes: The Eugene V. Thaw and Other Notable New York Collections |date=2002 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |page=45, item 7 |url=https://archive.org/details/NomadicArtoftheEasternEurasianSteppesTheEugeneVThawandOtherNotableNewYorkCollection/page/n59/mode/2up |language=English}}</ref>

Belt plaque in the shape of a standing wolf, characteristic of nomadic artifacts of southern Ningxia and southeastern Gansu, and related to the Scythian styles of Pazyryk. 4th century BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bunker |first1=Emma C. |title=Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes: The Eugene V. Thaw and Other Notable New York Collections |date=2002 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |page=122, item 94 |url=https://archive.org/details/NomadicArtoftheEasternEurasianSteppesTheEugeneVThawandOtherNotableNewYorkCollection/page/n137/mode/2up |language=English}}</ref>

The subsequent Kushan Empire, at its peak in the 3rd century AD, stretched from Turfan in the Tarim Basin in the north to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain of India in the south.

They have thus placed the original homeland of the Yuezhi 1,000 km further northwest in the grasslands to the north of the Tian Shan (in the northern part of modern Xinjiang).

This included a campaign with the Chinese general Ban Chao against the Sogdians in 84 CE, when the latter were trying to support a revolt by the king of Kashgar.