A report on Xinjiang, Tarim Basin, Turpan 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

Buddhist Uyghur king from Turpan attended by servants. Depicted in Dunhuang Mogao Caves, Western Xia Dynasty.

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.

"Mughal embassy", seen by the Dutch visitors in Beijing in 1656. According to Lach & Kley (1993), modern historians (namely, Luciano Petech) think that the emissaries portrayed had come from Turpan, rather than all the way from the Moghul India.

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

A model of the Turpan water system, (karez) in the Turpan Water Museum: Water is collected from mountains and channeled underground to grape vinyaards.

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)

Youth Road (QingNianLu), a Turpan street shaded by grapevine trellises

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

Wall painting from a Christian church, Qocho (Gaochang) 683–770 CE

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

Turpan (also known as Turfan or Tulufan,, تۇرپان) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China.

- Turpan

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

Historically, many settlements in the Tarim Basin have been given a number of different names.

- Turpan

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

- Xinjiang

It was historically located along the Silk Road.

- Turpan

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 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 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

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

141–87 BC) wrested the western Tarim Basin away from its previous overlords (the Xiongnu), it was inhabited by various peoples who included the Indo-European speaking Tocharians in Turfan and Kucha, the Saka peoples centered in the Shule Kingdom and the Kingdom of Khotan, the various Tibeto-Burmese groups (especially people related to the Qiang) as well as the Han Chinese people.

- Xinjiang

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

The northern route travelled northwest through the Chinese province of Gansu from Shaanxi Province and split into three further routes, two of them following the mountain ranges to the north and south of the Taklamakan Desert to rejoin at Kashgar, and the other going north of the Tian Shan mountains through Turpan, Talgar, and Almaty (in what is now southeast Kazakhstan).

- Silk Road

5 related topics with Alpha

Karasahr

2 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.

Ārśi was bordered by related Tocharian cultures, many of which also spoke related languages: Kuča (or Kucha), Gumo (later Aksu) to the west, Turfan (Turpan) to the east and to the south, Krorän (Loulan).

Uyghurs

2 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.

Loulan and Khotan were some of the many city-states that existed in the Xinjiang region during the Han Dynasty; others include Kucha, Turfan, Karasahr and Kashgar.

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

1 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.

In 74 CE, Chinese troops started to take control of the Tarim Basin with the conquest of Turfan.

Ürümqi

1 links

Map including Ürümqi (labeled as WU-LU-MU-CH'I) and nearby areas from the International Map of the World (1975)

Outer Ring Road viaducts in Ürümqi at night

Buildings in Ürümqi CBDs near People's Square

Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics.

Ürümqi ( also spelled Ürümchi or without umlauts), formerly known as Dihua (also spelled Tihwa), is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China.

Although Ürümqi is situated near the northern route of the Silk Road, the present city is relatively new.

Ürümqi remained a small town of lesser importance than the oasis and Silk Road trade center Turpan 200 km to the southeast.

The Uyghurs were introduced into the Ürümqi area in the 18th century by the Dzungars who moved them from the west Tarim region to be taranchis or farmers in Ürümqi.

A carved wooden beam from Loulan in the British Museum, 3rd-4th century. The patterns show influences from ancient western civilizations.

Loulan Kingdom

0 links

The Tarim Basin in the 3rd century, showing two sites of the town of Loulan, the Shanshan kingdom, and the related states

Krořän/Loulan and several other Indo-European oases kingdoms as Western Region Protectorate of the Han.

Oxhide boots from Loulan. Former Han dynasty 220 BCE-8 CE.

Fragment of carpet discovered by Aurel Stein in a refuse pit at Loulan. 3rd–4th century.

Felt and feather hat from Loulan. Early Han dynasty 202 BCE–8 CE

Winged male figure, with Hellenistic influences, from the mural paintings signed Tita in the Loulan site of Miran (Xinjiang), 3rd century CE

Male face with a caduceus 200–400 AD. The staff suggests the Greek deity Hermes.

Kharosthi document found in Loulan by Aurel Stein

Loulan, also called Krorän or Kroraina ( < Eastern Han Chinese lo-lɑn < Old Chinese rô-rân; كروران, USY: Кроран), was an ancient kingdom based around an important oasis city along the Silk Road already known in the 2nd century BCE on the northeastern edge of the Lop Desert.

The ruins of Loulan are near the now-desiccated Lop Nur in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang and they are now completely surrounded by desert.

By the 2nd century BC, Loulan had grown to dominate the region around the Tarim Basin.

Sogdians, an Eastern Iranian people, maintained minority communities in various places in China at the time, especially Dunhuang in Gansu and Turfan in the Tarim Basin.