A report on Uyghurs, Xinjiang and Taklamakan Desert

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

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

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

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).

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

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

Map including the Taklamakan Desert (1917)

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.

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

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

Uyghur Khaganate in geopolitical context c. 820 AD

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

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

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

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

Scene from the 1828 Qing campaign against rebels in Altishahr

19th-century Khotan Uyghurs in Yettishar

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

Governor Sheng Shicai ruled from 1933 to 1944.

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

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

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

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

Uyghur women on their way to work, Kashgar. 2011

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.

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

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

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

- Uyghurs

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

- Uyghurs

It is home to a number of ethnic groups, including the Turkic Uyghur, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, the Han, Tibetans, Hui, Chinese Tajiks (Pamiris), Mongols, Russians and Sibe.

- Xinjiang

The present population consists largely of Turkic Uyghur people and ethnic Han people.

- Taklamakan Desert

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

- Xinjiang

6 related topics with Alpha

Tarim Basin

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Endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about 888,000 km2 and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.

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

Tarim basin ancient boats; they were used for burials

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)

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

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

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

An Islamic cemetery outside the Afaq Khoja Mausoleum in Kashgar

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

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

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.

The Taklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin.

At the time of the Qing conquest in 1759, Dzungaria was inhabited by steppe dwelling, nomadic Mongolic speaking, Tibetan Buddhist Dzungars, while the Tarim Basin (Altishahr) was inhabited by sedentary, oasis dwelling, Turkic speaking Muslim farmers, now known as the Uyghur people.

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.

The town, located southeast of Yarkant County and populated almost exclusively by Uyghurs, is a minor agricultural center.

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.

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

Silk Road

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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.

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.

The Uyghur Nestorian Christian diplomat Rabban Bar Sauma, who set out from his Chinese home in Khanbaliq (Beijing) and acted as a representative for Arghun (a grandnephew of Kublai Khan), traveled throughout Europe and attempted to secure military alliances with Edward I of England, Philip IV of France, Pope Nicholas IV, as well as the Byzantine ruler Andronikos II Palaiologos.

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.

Today, Yarkant is a predominantly Uyghur settlement.

Tocharians

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The geographical spread of the Indo-European languages, with Tocharian in the east.

Female donor with label in Tocharian, Kizil Caves.

The Tocharian script is very similar to the Indian Brahmi script from the Kushan period, with only slight variations in calligraphy. Tocharian language inscription: Se pañäkte saṅketavattse ṣarsa papaiykau "This Buddha was painted by the hand of Sanketava", on a painting carbon dated to 245-340 AD.

Tocharian Prince mourning the Cremation of the Buddha, in [[:File:Maya Cave 224, mural 3.jpg|a mural]] from Maya Cave (224) in Kizil. He is cutting his forehead with a knife, a practice of self-mutilation also known among the Scythians.

Major oasis states of the ancient Tarim Basin

Tocharian kneeling devotees circa 300 AD, in the paintings of the Cave of the Hippocampi (Cave 118), Kizil Caves.

The Buddhist Cave with the Ring-Bearing Doves (Cave 123) at the Kizil Caves near Kucha, built circa 430-530 CE.

Monks from the Cave of the Painters circa 500 AD, Kizil Caves.

Ambassador from Kucha (龜茲國 Qiuci-guo), one of the main Tocharian cities, visiting the Chinese Southern Liang court in Jingzhou circa 516–520 AD at the time of Hephthalite domination over the region, with explanatory text. Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang, 11th century Song copy.

King Suvarnapushpa of Kucha is historically known and ruled 600–625 AD. Cave 69, Kizil Caves.

Tocharian knights from Kizilgaha caves (Cave 30). Circa 600 CE

Emperor Taizong's campaign against the oasis states

The Tocharians, or Tokharians ( US : or ; UK : ), were speakers of Tocharian languages, Indo-European languages known from around 7600 documents from around 400 to 1200 AD, found on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang, China).

These cities, the largest of which was Kucha, also served as way stations on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the northern edge of the Taklamakan desert.

A Buddhist work in Old Turkic (Uighur), included a colophon stating that the text had been translated from Sanskrit via toxrï tyly (Tωγry tyly, "The language of the Togari").

China

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Country in East Asia.

China (today's Guangdong), Mangi (inland of Xanton), and Cataio (inland of China and Chequan, and including the capital Cambalu, Xandu, and a marble bridge) are all shown as separate regions on this 1570 map by Abraham Ortelius

10,000 years old pottery, Xianren Cave culture (18000–7000 BCE)

Yinxu, the ruins of the capital of the late Shang dynasty (14th century BCE)

China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, is famed for having united the Warring States' walls to form the Great Wall of China. Most of the present structure, however, dates to the Ming dynasty.

Map showing the expansion of Han dynasty in the 2nd century BC

The Qing conquest of the Ming and expansion of the empire

The Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China to defeat the anti-foreign Boxers and their Qing backers. The image shows a celebration ceremony inside the Chinese imperial palace, the Forbidden City after the signing of the Boxer Protocol in 1901.

Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of Republic of China, one of the first republics in Asia.

Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong toasting together in 1945 following the end of World War II

Mao Zedong proclaiming the establishment of the PRC in 1949.

The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests was ended by a military-led massacre which brought condemnations and sanctions against the Chinese government from various foreign countries.

Satellite image of China from NASA WorldWind

Köppen-Geiger climate classification map for mainland China.

A giant panda, China's most famous endangered and endemic species, at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.

Earliest known written formula for gunpowder, from the Wujing Zongyao of 1044 CE

Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen. Huawei is the world's largest telecoms-equipment-maker and the second-largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world.

Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, one of the first Chinese spaceports

Internet penetration rates in China in the context of East Asia and Southeast Asia, 1995–2012

The Duge Bridge is the highest bridge in the world.

The Beijing Daxing International Airport features the world's largest single-building airport terminal.

The Port of Shanghai's deep water harbor on Yangshan Island in the Hangzhou Bay is the world's busiest container port since 2010.

A 2009 population density map of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. The eastern coastal provinces are much more densely populated than the western interior.

A trilingual sign in Sibsongbanna, with Tai Lü language on the top

Map of the ten largest cities in China (2010)

Beijing's Peking University, one of the top-ranked universities in China

Chart showing the rise of China's Human Development Index from 1970 to 2010

Geographic distribution of religions in China.
Chinese folk religion (including Confucianism, Taoism, and groups of Chinese Buddhism)
Buddhism tout court
Islam
Ethnic minorities' indigenous religions
Mongolian folk religion
Northeast China folk religion influenced by Tungus and Manchu shamanism; widespread Shanrendao

Fenghuang County, an ancient town that harbors many architectural remains of Ming and Qing styles.

The stories in Journey to the West are common themes in Peking opera.

Map showing major regional cuisines of China

Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players, in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent and was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago.

Long March 2F launching Shenzhou spacecraft. China is one of the only three countries with independent human spaceflight capability.

The Tang dynasty at its greatest extent and Tang's protectorates

Lihaozhai High School in Jianshui, Yunnan. The sign is in Hani (Latin alphabet), Nisu (Yi script), and Chinese.

China topographic map with East Asia countries

China's landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts in the arid north to the subtropical forests in the wetter south.

The Han Chinese – the world's largest single ethnic group – outnumber other ethnic groups in every provincial-level division except Tibet and Xinjiang.

Significant faiths specifically connected to certain ethnic groups include Tibetan Buddhism and the Islamic religion of the Hui, Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and other peoples in Northwest China.