TheTarim Basin is anendorheic basin inXinjiang, Northwestern China occupying an area of about 888,000 km2 (343,000 sq mi) and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.[1][2] Located in China'sXinjiang region, it is sometimes used synonymously to refer to the southern half of the province, that is,Southern Xinjiang or Nanjiang (Chinese:南疆;pinyin:Nánjiāng), as opposed to the northern half of the province known asDzungaria or Beijiang. Its northern boundary is theTian Shan mountain range and its southern boundary is theKunlun Mountains on the edge of theTibetan Plateau. TheTaklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin. The historical Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin isAltishahr (Traditional Uyghur:آلتی شهر,Chinese:六城), which means 'six cities' inUyghur. The region was also calledLittle Bukhara orLittle Bukharia.
The Tarim Basin is the oval desert in Central Asia.
Xinjiang consists of two main geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct regions with different historical names,Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Altishahr), whichQing China unified intoXinjiang province in 1884.[3] At the time of the Qing conquest in 1759, Dzungaria was inhabited by steppe-dwelling, nomadicMongolic-speaking,Tibetan BuddhistDzungars,[4] while the Tarim Basin (Altishahr) was inhabited by sedentary, oasis-dwelling,Turkic-speakingUyghurMuslim farmers.[5] Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin were each governed separately until the creation of Xinjiang in1884.
The Chinese called this theTien Shan Nan Lu or Tien Shan South Road, as opposed to theBei Lu north of the mountains. Along it runs the modern highway and railroad while the middle Tarim River is about 100 km south. The caravans met inKashgar before crossing the mountains.Bachu or Miralbachi;Uchturpan north of the main road;Aksu on the largeAksu River;Kucha was once an important kingdom;Luntai;Korla, now a large town;Karashar nearBosten Lake;Turpan north of theTurpan Depression and south of theBogda Shan;Hami; then southeast toAnxi and theGansu Corridor.
Most of the basin is occupied by theTaklamakan Desert which is too dry for permanent habitation. TheYarkand,Kashgar andAksu Rivers join to form theTarim River which runs along the north side of the basin. Formerly it continued toLoulan, but some time after 330 AD it turned southeast near Korla towardCharkilik, andLoulan was abandoned. The Tarim ended at the now-dry Lop Nur, which occupied a shifting position east of Loulan. Eastward is the fabledJade Gate which the Chinese considered the gateway to theWestern Regions. Beyond that wasDunhuang with its ancient manuscripts and thenAnxi at the west end of theGansu Corridor.
Settlements include Kashgar;Yangi Hissar, famous for its knives;Yarkand, once larger than Kashgar;Karghalik (Yecheng), with a route to India;Karakash;Khotan, the main source of Chinese jade; eastward the land becomes more desolate;Keriya (Yutian);Niya (Minfeng);Qiemo (Cherchen);Charkilik (Ruoqiang). The modern road continues east to Tibet. There is currently no road east across theKumtag Desert to Dunhuang, but caravans somehow made the crossing through theYangguan pass south of the Jade Gate.
The main road from eastern China reachesÜrümqi and continues ashighway 314 along the north side to Kashgar.Highway 315 follows the south side from Kashgar to Charkilik and continues east to Tibet. There are currently four north–south roads across the desert.218 runs from Charkilik to Korla along the former course of the Tarim, forming an oval whose other end is Kashgar. TheTarim Desert Highway, a major engineering achievement, crosses the center fromNiya toLuntai. The newHighway 217 follows the Khotan River from Khotan to nearAksu. A road follows theYarkant River from Yarkand toBaqu. East of the Korla-Charkilik road, travel continues to be very difficult.
Rivers coming south from the Tien Shan join the Tarim, the largest being theAksu. Rivers flowing north from the Kunlun are usually named for the town or oasis they pass through. Most dry up in the desert; only theHotan River reaches the Tarim in good years. An exception is theQiemo River which flows northeast into Lop Nor. Ruins in the desert imply that these rivers were once larger.
The original caravan route seems to have followed the south side. At the time of the Han dynasty conquest, it shifted to the center (Jade Gate-Loulan-Korla). When the Tarim changed course about 330 AD it shifted north toHami. A minor route went north of the Tian Shan. When there was war on the Gansu Corridor trade entered the basin near Charkilik from theQaidam Basin. The original route to India seems to have started near Yarkand and Kargilik, but it is now replaced by theKarakoram Highway south from Kashgar. To the west of Kashgar via theIrkeshtam border crossing is theAlay Valley, which was once the route to Persia. Northeast of Kashgar theTorugart pass leads to theFerghana Valley. NearUchturpan theBedel Pass leads toLake Issyk-Kul and the steppes. Somewhere near Aksu the difficultMuzart Pass led north to the Ili River basin (Kulja). Near Korla was theIron Gate Pass and now the highway and railway north to Ürümqi. From Turfan the easyDabancheng pass leads to Ürümqi. The route from Charkilik to theQaidam Basin was of some importance when Tibet was an empire.
North of the mountains is Dzungaria with its centralGurbantünggüt Desert, Ürümqi, and theKaramay oil fields. TheKulja territory is the upper basin of theIli River and opens out onto theKazakh Steppe with several roads east. TheDzungarian Gate was once a migration route and is now a road andrail crossing.Tacheng or Tarbaghatay is a crossroads and former trading post.
The Tarim Basin is the result of anamalgamation between an ancientmicrocontinent and the growing Eurasian continent during theCarboniferous toPermian periods, a process which ended in the earliestTriassic with the closure of the Palaeo-Asian Ocean.[7] At present, deformation around the margins of the basin is resulting in the microcontinental crust being pushed underTian Shan to the north, andKunlun Shan to the south.
A thick succession ofPaleozoic,Mesozoic andCenozoic sedimentary rocks occupy the central parts of the basin, locally exceeding thicknesses of 15 km (9 mi). Thesource rocks of oil and gas tend to be mostlyPermian mudstones and, less often,Ordovician strata which experienced an intense and widespread earlyHercyniankarstification.[8] The effect of this event are e.g. paleokarst reservoirs in the Tahe oil field.[9] Below the level enriched with gas and oil is a complex Precambrian basement believed to be made up of the remnants of the original Tarimmicroplate, which accrued to the growingEurasian continent inCarboniferous time.The snow onK2, the second-highest mountain in the world, flows intoglaciers which move down the valleys to melt. The melted water forms rivers which flow down the mountains and into the Tarim Basin, never reaching the sea. Surrounded by desert, some rivers feed the oases where the water is used for irrigation while others flow to salt lakes and marshes.
The Tarim Basin, 2008
Lop Nur is amarshy, saline depression at the east end of the Tarim Basin. TheTarim River ends in Lop Nur.
The Tarim Basin is believed to contain large potential reserves ofpetroleum andnatural gas.[10]: 493 Methane comprises over 70 percent of the natural gas reserve, with variable contents of ethane (<1% – c. 18%) and propane (<0.5% – c. 9%).[11]China National Petroleum Corporation's comprehensive exploration of the Tarim basin between 1989 and 1995 led to the identification of 26 oil- and gas-bearing structures. These occur at deeper depths and in scattered deposits. Beijing aims to developXinjiang into China's new energy base for the long run, supplying one-fifth of the country's total oil supply by 2010, with an annual output of 35 milliontonnes.[12] On June 10, 2010,Baker Hughes announced an agreement to work withPetroChina Tarim Oilfield Co. to supply oilfield services, including bothdirectional andvertical drilling systems,formation evaluation services,completion systems andartificial lift technology for wells drilled into foothills formations greater than 7,500 meters (24,600 feet) deep with pressures greater than 20,000 psi (1,400 bar) and bottom-hole temperatures of approximately 160 °C (320 °F).Electrical submersible pumping (ESP) systems will be employed to dewater gas and condensate wells. PetroChina will fund any joint development.[13]
In 2015, Chinese researchers published the finding of a vast, carbon-rich underground sea beneath the basin.[14]
It is speculated that the Tarim Basin may be one of the last places in Asia to have become inhabited: It is surrounded by mountains and irrigation technologies might have been necessary.[15]
TheNorthern Silk Road on one route bypassed the Tarim Basin north of theTian Shan mountains and traversed it on three oases-dependent routes: one north of theTaklamakan Desert, one south, and a middle one connecting both through theLop Nor region.
The middle Tarim route, the shortest of the four, connectedKorla on the northern Tarim route throughLoulan and across the Lop Nor region andDunhuang on the southern Tarim route. The Lop Nor region became uninhabitable in the 4th century and the middle route has been deserted since the 6th century.
In the early period, beginning around 2000 BC, there were six different cultural zones in the Tarim Basin, and bronze began to appear. One of these cultures was the Xintala culture (c. 1700–1500 BC), near the site of Yanqi, also known asKarashar, to the north and east of the Tarim, at theKaidu river.[16]: p.343 Structures made of mud bricks were found atXintala, showing building techniques similar to those seen in early oasis sites in western Central Asia, as well as inYanbulake. There were no burials in Xintala culture, and its settlements were small.[16]: p.344
Autosomal genetic evidence suggests that the earliest Tarim people arose from locals of primarilyAncient North Eurasian descent with significantNortheast Asian admixture. TheTarim mummies have been found in various locations in the eastern Tarim Basin such asLoulan, theXiaohe Tomb complex, andQäwrighul. These mummies have previously been suggested to be ofTocharian origin, but recent evidence suggests that the mummies belonged to a distinct population unrelated to later Indo-European pastoralists, such as Afanasievo.[17]
In theIron Age, the Chawuhu culture (c. 1000–400 BC) flourished in the Yanqi (Karashar) oasis, and also reached the Alagou sites near theTurfan basin, and north to the region close toÜrümqi.[16]: p.348
Earlier diggings in the southern Tarim Basin, in the 1990s, suggested that Yuansha (Djoumbulak Koum) in theKeriya river valley was the earliest fortified urban site, from around 400 BC, but new surveys and excavations between 2018 and 2020, showed that the site Kuiyukexiehai'er (Koyuk Shahri), located in the northern Tarim Basin, is actually the earliest fortified urban settlement in the entire region, covering 6 hectares, and developed in four phases between c. 770 BC and 80 AD. Spouted jars were found at this site, similar to those of Chawuhu culture, and buckles and moulds with animal motifs resemble steppe traditions.[18]
Another people in the region besides these Tarim people were theIndo-IranianSaka people, who spoke variousEastern IranianKhotanese Scythian or Saka dialects. In theAchaemenid eraOld Persian inscriptions found atPersepolis, dated to the reign ofDarius I (r. 522–486 BC), the Saka are said to have lived just beyond the borders ofSogdiana.[22] Likewise, an inscription dated to the reign ofXerxes I (r. 486–465 BC) has them coupled with theDahae people of Central Asia.[22] The contemporaryGreek historianHerodotus noted that the Achaemenid Persians called all Indo-IranianScythian peoples "Saka".[22] They were known as the Sai (塞, sāi,sək in archaic Chinese) in ancient Chinese records.[23] These records indicate that they originally inhabited theIli andChu River valleys of modernKazakhstan. In the ChineseBook of Han, the area was called the "land of the Sai", i.e. the Saka.[24] A people believed to be Saka has also been found in various locations in the Tarim Basin, for example in theKeriya region at Yumulak Kum (Djoumboulak Koum, Yuansha) around 200 km east of Khotan, with a tomb dated to as early as the 7th century BC.[25][26]
According to theSima Qian'sShiji, the nomadic Indo-EuropeanYuezhi originally lived between Tengri Tagh (Tian Shan) andDunhuang inGansu, China.[27] However, the Yuezhi were assaulted and forced to flee from theHexi Corridor of Gansu by the forces of theXiongnu rulerModu Chanyu, who conquered the area in 177–176 BC (decades before theHan Chinese conquest and colonization of western tip of Gansu or the establishment of theProtectorate of the Western Regions).[28][29][30][31] In turn the Yuezi attacked and pushing the Sai (i.e. Saka) west into Sogdiana, where in the mid-2nd century BC the latter crossed theSyr Darya intoBactria, but also into theFergana Valley where they settled inDayuan, south towards northern India, and eastward as well, where they settled in some of the oasis city-states of the Tarim Basin.[24]: 13–14 Whereas the Yuezhi continued westward and conqueredDaxia around 177–176 BC, the Sai (i.e. Saka), including some alliedTocharian peoples, fled south to thePamirs before heading back east to settle in Tarim Basin sites like Yanqi (焉耆,Karasahr) and Qiuci (龜茲,Kucha).[24]: 21–22 The Saka are recorded as inhabiting Khotan by at least the 3rd century and also settled in nearbyShache (莎車), a town named after its Saka inhabitants (i.e.saγlâ).[32] Although the ancient Chinese called KhotanYutian (于闐), its more native Iranian names during the Han period wereJusadanna (瞿薩旦那), derived from Indo-IranianGostan andGostana, the names of the town and region around it, respectively.[33]
Around 200 BCE, the Yuezhi were overrun by theXiongnu. The Xiongnu then tried to invade the western region of China, but ultimately failed and lost control of the region to the Chinese. The Han Chinese wrested control of the Tarim Basin from the Xiongnu at the end of the 1st century under the leadership of GeneralBan Chao (32–102 CE), during theHan-Xiongnu War.[34] The Chinese administered the Tarim Basin as theProtectorate of the Western Regions. The Tarim Basin was later under many foreign rulers, but ruled primarily by Turkic, Han, Tibetan, and Mongolic peoples.
The powerfulKushans, who conquered the last vestiges of theIndo-Greek Kingdom, expanded back into the Tarim Basin in the 1st–2nd centuries CE, where they established a kingdom inKashgar and competed for control of the area withnomads and Chinese forces. TheYuezhi orRouzhi (Chinese:月氏;pinyin:Yuèzhī;Wade–Giles:Yüeh4-chih1,[ɥê ʈʂɻ̩́]) were an ancient people first reported in Chinese histories asnomadic pastoralists living in an aridgrassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province ofGansu during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat by the Xiongnu, in the 2nd century BC, the Yuezhi split into two groups: theGreater Yuezhi (Dà Yuèzhī 大月氏) andLesser Yuezhi (Xiǎo Yuèzhī 小月氏). They introduced theBrahmi script, the IndianPrakrit language for administration, andBuddhism, playing a central role in theSilk Road transmission of Buddhism to Eastern Asia.
Three pre-Han texts mention peoples who appear to be the Yuezhi, albeit under slightly different names.[35]
The philosophical tractGuanzi (73, 78, 80 and 81) mentionsnomadic pastoralists known as theYúzhī 禺氏 (Old Chinese: *ŋʷjo-kje) orNiúzhī 牛氏 (OC: *ŋʷjə-kje), who suppliedjade to the Chinese.[36][35] (TheGuanzi is now generally believed to have been compiled around 26 BC, based on older texts, including some from theQi state era of the 11th to 3rd centuries BC. Most scholars no longer attribute its primary authorship toGuan Zhong, a Qi official in the 7th century BC.[37]) The export of jade from the Tarim Basin, since at least the late 2nd millennium BC, is well-documented archaeologically. For example, hundreds of jade pieces found in theTomb of Fu Hao (c. 1200 BC) originated from theKhotan area, on the southern rim of the Tarim Basin.[38] According to theGuanzi, the Yúzhī/Niúzhī, unlike the neighbouring Xiongnu, did not engage in conflict with nearby Chinese states.
TheYi Zhou Shu (probably dating from the 4th to 1st century BC) makes separate references to theYúzhī 禺氏 (OC: *ŋʷjo-kje) andYuèdī 月氐 (OC: *ŋʷjat-tij). The latter may be a misspelling of the nameYuèzhī 月氏 (OC: *ŋʷjat-kje) found in later texts, composed of characters meaning "moon" and "clan" respectively.[35]
After the Han dynasty, the kingdoms of the Tarim Basin began to have strong cultural influences on China as a conduit between the cultures of India and Central Asia and China. Indian Buddhists had previously travelled to China during the Han dynasty, but the Buddhist monkKumārajīva fromKucha, who visited China during theSix Dynasties period was particularly renowned. Music and dances from Kucha were also popular in the Sui and Tang periods.[39]
Map of Taizong's campaigns against the Tarim Basin oasis states, allies of the Western Turks.
The expansion into Central Asia continued under Taizong's successor,Emperor Gaozong, whodispatched an army in 657 led bySu Dingfang against the Western Turk qaghanAshina Helu.[42] Ashina was defeated and the khaganate was absorbed into the Tang empire.[43] The Tarim Basin was administered through theAnxi Protectorate and theFour Garrisons of Anxi. Tang hegemony beyond thePamir Mountains in modernTajikistan andAfghanistan ended with revolts by the Turks, but the Tang retained a military presence in Xinjiang. These holdings were later invaded by theTibetan Empire to the south in 670. For the remainder of the Tang dynasty, the Tarim Basin alternated between Tang and Tibetan rule as they competed for control of Central Asia.[44]
As a consequence of theHan–Xiongnu War from 133 BC to 89 AD, the Tarim Basin region of Xinjiang in Northwest China, including the Saka-founded oasis city-state of Khotan and Kashgar, fell underHan Chinese influence, beginning with the reign ofEmperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC) of theHan dynasty.[45][46] Much like the neighboring people of theKingdom of Khotan, people of Kashgar, the capital of theShule Kingdom, spokeSaka, one of theEastern Iranian languages.[47] As noted by the Greek historian Herodotus, the contemporary Persians labelled all Scythians "Saka".[22] Indeed, modern scholarly consensus is that the Saka language, ancestor to thePamir languages innorthern India and Khotanese inXinjiang, belongs to theScythian languages.[48]
Suggestive evidence of Khotan's early link to India are minted coins from Khotan dated to the 3rd century, bearing dual inscriptionsin Chinese andGandhari Prakrit in theKharosthi script.[54] Although Prakrit was the administrative language of nearbyShanshan, 3rd-century documents from that kingdom record the titlehinajha (i.e. "generalissimo") for the king of Khotan, Vij'ida-simha, a distinctively Iranian-based word equivalent to theSanskrit titlesenapati, yet nearly identical to the Khotanese Sakahīnāysa attested in contemporary documents.[54] This, along with the fact that the king's recorded regnal periods were given in Khotanese askṣuṇa, "implies an established connection between the Iranian inhabitants and the royal power", according to the late Professor of Iranian Studies Ronald E. Emmerick (d. 2001).[54] He contended that Khotanese-Saka-language royal rescripts of Khotan dated to the 10th century "makes it likely that the ruler of Khotan was a speaker ofIranian."[54] Furthermore, he elaborated on the early name of Khotan:
The name of Khotan is attested in a number of spellings, of which the oldest form ishvatana, in texts of approximately the 7th to the 10th century AD, written in an Iranian language itself calledhvatana by the writers. The same name is attested also in two closely related Iranian dialects,Sogdian andTumshuq...Attempts have accordingly been made to explain it as Iranian, and this is of some importance historically. My own preference is for an explanation connecting it semantically with the name Saka, for the Iranian inhabitants of Khotan...[55]
Coin ofGurgamoya, king of Khotan. Khotan, 1st century CE. Obv:Kharosthi legend, "Of the great king of kings, king of Khotan, Gurgamoya. Rev: Chinese legend: "Twenty-four grain copper coin".British Museum
The Karakhanids became the first Islamic Turkic dynasty in the tenth century whenSultan Satuq Bughra Khan converted to Islam in 966 while he controlled Kashgar.[59] Satuq Bughra Khan and his son directed endeavors to preach Islam among the Turks and engage in conquests.[60] Satok Bughra Khan's nephew or grandson Ali Arslan was slain by the Buddhists during the war. Buddhism lost territory to the Turkic Karakhanid Satok Bughra Khan during the Karakhanid reign around Kashgar.[61] The Tarim Basin became Islamicized over the next few centuries.
Turkic-Islamic Kara-Khanid conquest of Iranic Saka Buddhist Khotan
In the tenth century, the Buddhist Iranic SakaKingdom of Khotan was the only city-state that was not conquered yet by the Turkic Uyghur (Buddhist) and the Turkic Karakhanid (Muslim) states. The Buddhist entitites of Dunhuang and Khotan had a tight-knit partnership, with intermarriage between Dunhuang and Khotan's rulers and Dunhuang's Mogao grottos and Buddhist temples being funded and sponsored by the Khotan royals, whose likenesses were drawn in the Mogao grottoes.[62] Halfway in the 10th century Khotan came under attack by the Karakhanid ruler Musa, a long war ensued between the Turkic Karakhanid and Buddhist Khotan which eventually ended in the conquest of Khotan by Kashgar by the Karakhanid leader Yusuf Qadir Khan around 1006.[62][63]
Accounts of the Muslim Karakhanid war against the Khotanese Buddhists are given inTaẕkirah of the Four Sacrificed Imams written sometime in the period from 1700 to 1849 which told the story of four imams from Mada'in city (possibly in modern-day Iraq) who traveled to help the Islamic conquest of Khotan, Yarkand, and Kashgar by Yusuf Qadir Khan, the Karakhanid leader.[64] The "infidels" were defeated and driven towards Khotan by Yusuf Qadir Khan and the four Imams, but the Imams were assassinated by the Buddhists prior to the last Muslim victory. After Yusuf Qadir Khan's conquest of new land in Altishahr towards the east, he adopted the title "King of the East and China".[64]
In 1006, the Muslim Kara-Khanid ruler Yusuf Kadir (Qadir) Khan of Kashgar conquered Khotan, ending Khotan's existence as an independent state. The Islamic conquest of Khotan led to alarm in the east and Dunhuang's Cave 17, which contained Khotanese literary works, was closed shut possibly after its caretakers heard that Khotan's Buddhist buildings were razed by the Muslims, the Buddhist religion had suddenly ceased to exist in Khotan.[60] The Karakhanid Turkic Muslim writerMahmud al-Kashgari recorded a short Turkic language poem about the conquest:
The Buddhist Uyghurs of the Kingdom of Qocho and Turfan embraced Islam after conversion at the hands of the Muslim Chagatai Khizr Khwaja.[62]
Kara Del was a Mongolian ruled and Uighur populated Buddhist Kingdom. The Muslim Chagatai Khan Mansur invaded and used the sword to make the population convert to Islam.[69]
After being converted to Islam, the descendants of the previouslyBuddhist Uyghurs in Turfan believed that the "infidel Kalmuks" (Dzungars) were the ones who built Buddhist monuments in their area, in opposition to the current academic theory that it was their own ancestral legacy.[70]
The eastern regions of theChagatai Khanate in the early 14th century had been inhabited by a number of Mongol nomadic tribes. These tribes resented the conversion of khanTarmashirin to Islam and the move of the khan to the sedentary areas ofTransoxiana. They were behind the revolt that ended in Tarmashirin's death. One of the khans that followed Tarmashirin,Changshi, favored the east and was non-Muslim.[71] In the 1340s as a series of ephemeral khans struggled to hold power in Transoxiana, little attention was paid by the Chagatayids to the eastern regions. As a result, the eastern tribes there were virtually independent. The most powerful of the tribes, theDughlats, controlled extensive territories inMoghulistan and the western Tarim Basin. In 1347 theDughlats decided to appoint a khan of their own, and raised the ChagatayidTughlugh Timur to the throne.[72]
In 1509 the Dughlats, vassal rulers of the Tarim basin, rebelled against theMoghulistan Khanate and broke away. Five years laterSultan Said Khan, a brother of the Khan of Moghulistan inTurfan, conquered the Dughlats but established his ownYarkent Khanate instead.[73] By the early 17th century, theNaqshbandi SufiKhojas, descendants ofMuhammad, had replaced the Chagatayid Khans as rulers of the Tarim Basin. There was a struggle between two Khoja factions: the Afaqi (White Mountain) and the Ishaqi (Black Mountain). The Ishaqi defeated the Afaqi and theAfaq Khoja invited the5th Dalai Lama (the leader of theTibetans) to intervene on his behalf in 1677. The Dalai Lama then called on his Dzungar Buddhist followers in the Dzungar Khanate to act on the invitation. The Dzungar Khanate conquered the Tarim Basin in 1678, during theDzungar conquest of Altishahr, after which they set upAfaq Khoja as their puppet ruler.[74][70]
Xinjiang did not exist as one unit until 1884 under Qing rule. It consisted of the two separate political entities of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Eastern Turkestan).[75][76][77][78] Dzungharia or Ili was called Zhunbu 準部 (Dzungar region) Tianshan Beilu 天山北路 (Northern March), "Xinjiang" 新疆 (New Frontier),[79] or "Kalmykia" (La Kalmouquie in French).[80][81] It was formerly the area of theDzungar (or Zunghar) Khanate 準噶爾汗國, the land of theDzungar people. The Tarim Basin was known as "Tianshan Nanlu 天山南路 (southern March), Huibu 回部 (Muslim region), Huijiang 回疆 (Muslim frontier),Chinese Turkestan, Kashgaria, Little Bukharia,East Turkestan", and the traditional Uyghur name for it wasAltishahr (Uyghur:التى شهر,romanized: Altä-shähär,Алтә-шәһәр).[82] It was formerly the area of the EasternChagatai Khanate 東察合台汗國, land of theUyghur people before being conquered by the Dzungars.
According to census figures, the Tarim Basin is dominated by theUyghurs.[84] They form the majority population in cities such asKashgar,Artush, andHotan. There are however large pockets of Han Chinese in the region, such asAksu andKorla. There are also smaller numbers ofHui and other ethnic groups, for example, theTajiks who are concentrated atTashkurgan in theKashgar Prefecture, theKyrgyz inKizilsu, and theMongols inBayingolin.[85]
The language spoken by the earliest Tarim residents is unclear; however it is widely agreed upon that they would eventually be Indo-European speakers.[86] The mummies have been described as being both "Caucasoid" and "Mongoloid" and mixed-race individuals are also observed,[87] and genetics analysis also indicate that the population was of mixed ancestry in the bronze and iron age periods. Professor James A. Millward described the original Uyghurs as physicallyMongoloid, giving as an example the images inBezeklik at Temple 9 of the Uyghur patrons, until they began to mix with the Tarim Basin's original Tocharian and eastern Iranian inhabitants.[88] However, according to a genetic study of early Uyghur remains from theUyghur Khaganate in Mongolia, most Uyghur-period individuals exhibit a high but variable degree of west Eurasian ancestry. The east–west admixture in the Uyghur Khaganate was said to have taken place around the year 500 AD.[89]
Althougharchaeological findings are of interest in the Tarim Basin, the prime impetus for exploration waspetroleum and natural gas. Recent research with help ofGIS database have provided a fine-grained analysis of the ancientoasis ofNiya on theSilk Road. This research led to significant findings; remains of hamlets withwattle and daub structures as well as farm land, orchards, vineyards, irrigation pools and bridges. The oasis atNiya preserves the ancient landscape. Here also have been found hundreds of 3rd and 4th century wooden accounting tablets at several settlements across the oasis. These texts are in theKharosthi script native to today'sPakistan andAfghanistan. The texts are legal documents such as tax lists, and contracts containing detailed information pertaining to the administration of daily affairs.[90]
Additional excavations have unearthed tombs withmummies,[91] tools,ceramic works, paintedpottery and other artistic artifacts. Such diversity was encouraged by the cultural contacts resulting from this area's position on theSilk Road.[92] Early Buddhist sculptures and murals excavated atMiran show artistic similarities to the traditions ofCentral Asia andNorth India[93] and stylistic aspects of paintings found there suggest that Miran had a direct connection with the West, specificallyRome and its provinces.[94]
^Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, China." Hydrological Processes 20.10 (2006): 2207–2216. (onlineArchived 2016-05-01 at theWayback Machine 426 KB)
^Boliang, H. (1992). "Petroleum Geology and Prospects of Tarim (Talimu) Basin, China". In Halbouty, M. T. (ed.).Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade, 1978–1988. AAPG Memoir. Vol. 54. Tulsa, Oklahoma: American Association of Petroleum Geologists.ISBN0891813330.
^Zhang, Fan; Ning, Chao; Scott, Ashley; Fu, Qiaomei; Bjørn, Rasmus; Li, Wenying; Wei, Dong; Wang, Wenjun; Fan, Linyuan; Abuduresule, Idilisi; Hu, Xingjun (November 2021)."The genomic origins of the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies".Nature.599 (7884):256–261.Bibcode:2021Natur.599..256Z.doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04052-7.ISSN1476-4687.PMC8580821.PMID34707286.Using qpAdm, we modelled the Tarim Basin individuals as a mixture of two ancient autochthonous Asian genetic groups: the ANE, represented by an Upper Palaeolithic individual from the Afontova Gora site in the upper Yenisei River region of Siberia (AG3) (about 72%), and ancient Northeast Asians, represented by Baikal_EBA (about 28%) (Supplementary Data 1E and Fig. 3a). Tarim_EMBA2 from Beifang can also be modelled as a mixture of Tarim_EMBA1 (about 89%) and Baikal_EBA (about 11%).
^Hansen, Valerie (2012).The Silk Road: A New History. Oxford University Press. p. 98.ISBN978-0-19-993921-3.
^abcdBailey, H. W. (1996). "Khotanese Saka Literature". In Ehsan, Yarshater (ed.).The Cambridge History of Iran. Vol. III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods (reprint ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Part 2, p. 1230.
^abcYu Taishan (June 2010).Mair, Victor H. (ed.). "The Earliest Tocharians in China".Sino-Platonic Papers. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations: 13.
^Debaine-Francfort, C.; Idriss, A. (2001).Keriya, mémoires d'un fleuve. Archéologie et civilations des oasis du Taklamakan (in French). Electricité de France.ISBN978-2868050946.
^Torday, Laszlo (1997).Mounted Archers: The Beginnings of Central Asian History. Durham: The Durham Academic Press. pp. 80–81.ISBN978-1-900838-03-0.
^Yü, Ying-shih (1986). "Han Foreign Relations". In Twitchett, Denis; Loewe, Michael (eds.).The Cambridge History of China. Vol. I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 377–388, 391.ISBN978-0-521-24327-8.
^Chang, Chun-shu (2007).The Rise of the Chinese Empire. Vol. II: Frontier, Immigration, & Empire in Han China, 130 B.C. – A.D. 157. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. pp. 5–8.ISBN978-0-472-11534-1.
^Di Cosmo, Nicola (2002).Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 174–189,196–198,241–242.ISBN978-0-521-77064-4.
^Ebrey, Patricia Buckley (2010).The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge University Press. p. 111.ISBN978-0-521-12433-1.
^Twitchett, Denis; Wechsler, Howard J. (1979). "Kao-tsung (reign 649-83) and the Empress Wu: The Inheritor and the Usurper". In Denis Twitchett; John Fairbank (eds.).The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China Part I. Cambridge University Press. p. 228.ISBN978-0-521-21446-9.
^abSkaff, Jonathan Karem (2009). Nicola Di Cosmo (ed.).Military Culture in Imperial China. Harvard University Press. pp. 183–185.ISBN978-0-674-03109-8.
^Skaff, Jonathan Karam (2012).Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors: Culture, Power, and Connections, 580–800. Oxford University Press. p. 190.ISBN978-0-19-973413-9.
^Millward, James A. (2007).Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. Columbia University Press. pp. 33–42.ISBN978-0-231-13924-3.
^Loewe, Michael. (1986). "The Former Han Dynasty," in The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220, 103–222. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 197–198.ISBN978-0-521-24327-8.
^Yü, Ying-shih. (1986). "Han Foreign Relations," inThe Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220, 377–462. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 410–411.ISBN978-0-521-24327-8.
^Xavier Tremblay, "The Spread of Buddhism in Serindia: Buddhism Among Iranians, Tocharians and Turks before the 13th Century", inThe Spread of Buddhism, eds Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacker, Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 2007, p. 77.
^Kuz'mina, Elena E. (2007).The Origin of the Indo Iranians. Edited by J.P. Mallory. Leiden, Boston: Brill, pp 381–382.ISBN978-90-04-16054-5.
^Xue, Zongzheng (薛宗正). (1992). History of the Turks (突厥史). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, pp. 596–598.ISBN978-7-5004-0432-3; OCLC 28622013
^Beckwith, Christopher. (1987). The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp 36, 146.ISBN0-691-05494-0.
^Wechsler, Howard J.; Twitchett, Dennis C. (1979). Denis C. Twitchett; John K. Fairbank, eds.The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part I. Cambridge University Press. pp. 225–227.ISBN978-0-521-21446-9.
^Scott Cameron Levi; Ron Sela (2010).Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources. Indiana University Press. pp. 72–.ISBN0-253-35385-8.
^Ahmad Hasan Dani; B. A. Litvinsky; Unesco (1 January 1996).History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750. UNESCO. pp. 283–.ISBN978-92-3-103211-0.
^abcdEmmerick, R. E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater (ed),The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Part 1 (reprint edition) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 265.
^Emmerick, R. E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater (ed),The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Part 1 (reprint edition) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 265–266.
^abBailey, H.W. (1996) "Khotanese Saka Literature", in Ehsan Yarshater (ed),The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Part 2 (reprint edition), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 1231–1235.
^abGolden, Peter. B. (1990), "The Karakhanids and Early Islam", in Sinor, Denis (ed.),The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Cambridge University Press, p. 357,ISBN978-0-521-2-4304-9
^abHamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb; Bernard Lewis; Johannes Hendrik Kramers; Charles Pellat; Joseph Schacht (1998).The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Brill. p. 677.Archived from the original on 1 January 2016. Retrieved10 July 2015.
^Toops, Stanley W. (2004). Starr, S. Frederick (ed.).Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland. Routledge. pp. 254–255.ISBN978-0765613189.
^Dai, Shan-Shan; Sulaiman, Xierzhatijiang; Isakova, Jainagul; Xu, Wei-Fang; Abdulloevich, Najmudinov Tojiddin; Afanasevna, Manilova Elena; Ibrohimovich, Khudoidodov Behruz; Chen, Xi; Yang, Wei-Kang; Wang, Ming-Shan; Shen, Quan-Kuan; Yang, Xing-Yan; Yao, Yong-Gang; Aldashev, Almaz A; Saidov, Abdusattor; Chen, Wei; Cheng, Lu-Feng; Peng, Min-Sheng; Zhang, Ya-Ping (1 September 2022)."The Genetic Echo of the Tarim Mummies in Modern Central Asians".Molecular Biology and Evolution.39 (9): msac179.doi:10.1093/molbev/msac179.PMC9469894.PMID36006373.
^Shuicheng, Li (2003).Bulletin. Stockholm: Fälth & Hässler. p. 13.Biological anthropological research indicates that the physical characteristics of those buried at Gumugou cemetery along the Kongque River near Lop Nur in Xinjiang are very similar to those of the Andronovo culture and Afanasievo culture people from Siberia in Southern Russia. This suggests that all of these individuals belong to the Caucasian physical type. Additionally, excavations in 2002 by Xinjiang archaeologists at the site of Xiaohe cemetery, first discovered by the Swedish archaeologist Folke Bergman, uncovered mummies and wooden human effigies that clearly have Europoid features. According to the preliminary excavation report, the cultural features and chronology of this site are said to be quite similar to those of Gumugou. Other sites in Xinjiang also contain both individuals with Caucasian features and ones with Mongolian features. For example, this pattern occurs at the Yanbulark cemetery in Xinjiang, but individuals with Mongoloid features are clearly dominant. The above evidence is enough to show that, starting around 2,000 B.C., some so-called primitive Caucasians expanded eastward to the Xinjiang area as far as the area around Hami and Lop Nur. By the end of the second millennium, another group of people from Central Asia started to move over the Pamirs and gradually dispersed in southern Xinjiang. These western groups mixed with local Mongoloids resulting in an amalgamation of culture and race in middle Xinjiang east to the Tianshan. (internal cross references omitted)
^Jeong, Choongwon; Wang, Ke; Wilkin, Shevan; Taylor, William Timothy Treal (November 2020)."A Dynamic 6,000-Year Genetic History of Eurasia's Eastern Steppe".Cell.183 (4). Figure 4, pp. 890–904.doi:10.1016/j.cell.2020.10.015.PMC7664836.PMID33157037.The high genetic heterogeneity of the Early Medieval period is vividly exemplified by 12 individuals from the Uyghur period cemetery of Olon Dov (OLN; Figure 2) in the vicinity of the Uyghur capital of Ordu-Baliq. Six of these individuals came from a single tomb (grave 19), of whom only two are related (OLN002 and OLN003, second-degree; Table S2D); the absence of closer kinship ties raises questions about the function of such tombs and the social relationships of those buried within them. Most Uyghur-period individuals exhibit a high but variable degree of west Eurasian ancestry—best modeled as a mixture of Alans, a historic nomadic pastoral group likely descended from the Sarmatians and contemporaries of the Huns (Bachrach, 1973), and an Iranian-related (BMAC-related) ancestry—together with Ulaanzuukh_SlabGrave (ANA-related) ancestry (Figure 3E). The admixture dates estimated for the ancient Türkic and Uyghur individuals in this study correspond to ca. 500 CE: 8 ± 2 generations before the Türkic individuals and 12 ± 2 generations before the Uyghur individuals (represented by ZAA001 and Olon Dov individuals).
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Wikimedia Commons has media related toTarim Basin.
Downloadable article: "Evidence that a West-East admixed population lived in the Tarim Basin as early as the early Bronze Age" Li et al.BMC Biology 2010, 8:15.[4]
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