A report on Xinjiang, Taklamakan Desert, Tarim Basin and Silk Road

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tarim basin ancient boats; they were used for burials

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

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

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

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

Map including the Taklamakan Desert (1917)

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

Old Uyghur/Yugur art from the Bezeklik murals

The Molcha (Moleqie) River forms a vast alluvial fan at the southern border of the Taklamakan Desert, as it leaves the Altyn-Tagh mountains and enters the desert in the western part of the Qiemo County. The left side appears blue from water flowing in many streams. The picture is taken in May, when the river is full with the snow/glacier meltwater.

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

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

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".

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

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)

Central Asia during Roman times, with the first Silk Road

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Islamic cemetery outside the Afaq Khoja Mausoleum in Kashgar

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

Scene from the 1828 Qing campaign against rebels in Altishahr

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

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

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

19th-century Khotan Uyghurs in Yettishar

Marco Polo's caravan on the Silk Road, 1380

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

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

Governor Sheng Shicai ruled from 1933 to 1944.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ürümqi is a major industrial center within Xinjiang.

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.

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

Two-Storeyed Caravanserai, Baku, Azerbaijan

Bridge in Ani, capital of medieval Armenia

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

Medieval fortress of Amul, Turkmenabat, Turkmenistan

Temple of the Great Buddha in Midong, Ürümqi

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

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

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

Id Kah mosque in Kashgar, largest mosque in China

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

Erkin Tuniyaz, the incumbent Chairman of the Xinjiang Government

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 Taklamakan Desert (, Xiao'erjing: تَاكْلامَاقًا شَاموْ, ; تەكلىماكان قۇملۇقى, Täklimakan qumluqi; also spelled Taklimakan and Teklimakan) is a desert in Southwestern Xinjiang in Northwest China.

- Taklamakan Desert

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

The Taklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin.

- Tarim Basin

The most well-known route of the historic Silk Road ran through the territory from the east to its northwestern border.

- Xinjiang

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 desert is part of the Tarim Basin, which is 1000 km long and 400 km wide.

- Taklamakan Desert

It is crossed at its northern and at its southern edge by two branches of the Silk Road, by which travellers sought to avoid the arid wasteland.

- Taklamakan Desert

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.

- Silk Road

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.

- Silk Road

Dzungaria is a dry steppe and the Tarim Basin contains the massive Taklamakan Desert, surrounded by oases.

- Xinjiang

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.

- Silk Road

Recent research with help of GIS database have provided a fine-grained analysis of the ancient oasis of Niya on the Silk Road.

- Tarim Basin

5 related topics with Alpha

Hotan

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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.

An important station on the southern branch of the historic Silk Road, Hotan has always depended on two strong rivers—the Karakash River and the White Jade River to provide the water needed to survive on the southwestern edge of the vast Taklamakan Desert.

Yarkant County

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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.

The county, usually referred to as Yarkand in English, was the seat of an ancient Buddhist kingdom on the southern branch of the Silk Road and the Yarkand Khanate.

Uyghurs

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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.

During the late-19th and early-20th centuries, scientific and archaeological expeditions to the region of Xinjiang's Silk Road discovered numerous cave temples, monastery ruins, and wall paintings, as well as miniatures, books, and documents.

Kucha

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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.

Tian Shan

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Large system of mountain ranges located in Central Asia.

Kyrgyzstan (borders marked in red) The indentation on the west is the Fergana Valley

In the Karakol valley (Issyk-Kul Region, Kyrgyzstan)

Snow-capped peaks of the Tian Shan seen from an Issyk Kul Lake beach

Tian Shan is north and west of the Taklamakan Desert and directly north of the Tarim Basin in the border region of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Xinjiang in Northwest China.

The plant then made its way to Turkey via the Silk Road and became a symbol of the Ottoman Empire.