This article is about ancient people speaking the Tocharian languages in the Tarim Basin. For the Tochari of Greco-Roman geography, seeTokharistan. For the ancient Indian tribe sometimes identified as "Tocharians" (Tukharas), seeTushara. For the ancient Central Asian people in Chinese records controversially identified with the Tocharians, seeYuezhi.
TheTocharians orTokharians (US:/toʊˈkɛəriənˌ-ˈkɑːr-/toh-KAIR-ee-ən, -KAR-;[5]UK:/tɒˈkɑːriən/to-KAR-ee-ən)[6] were speakers of theTocharian languages, a group ofIndo-European languages known from around 7,600 documents from the 6th and 7th centuries, found on the northern edge of theTarim Basin (modern-dayXinjiang,China).[7][8] The name "Tocharian" was given to these languages in the early 20th century by scholars who identified their speakers with a people known in ancient Greek sources as theTókharoi (Latin:Tochari), who inhabitedBactria from the 2nd century BC. This identification is now generally considered erroneous, but the name "Tocharian" remains the most common term for the languages and their speakers. Theirendonym is unknown, although they may have referred to themselves as theAgni,Kuči, andKrorän or as theAgniya andKuchiya known fromSanskrit texts.[9][clarification needed]
By the 2nd century BC, these settlements had developed intocity-states, overshadowed by nomadic peoples to the north and Chinese empires to the east. These cities, the largest of which wasKucha, also served as way stations on the branch of theSilk Road that ran along the northern edge of theTaklamakan Desert.
For several centuries, the Tarim basin was ruled by theXiongnu, theHan dynasty, theTibetan Empire, and theTang dynasty. From the 8th century AD, theUyghurs – speakers of aTurkic language – settled in the region and founded theKingdom of Qocho that ruled the Tarim Basin. The peoples of the Tarim city-states intermixed with the Uyghurs, whoseOld Uyghur language spread through the region. The Tocharian languages are believed to have become extinct during the 9th century.
Around the beginning of the 20th century, archaeologists recovered a number of manuscripts from oases in the Tarim Basin written in two closely related but previously unknownIndo-European languages, which were easy to read because they useda close variation of the already deciphered IndianMiddle-Brahmi script. These languages were designated in similar fashion by their geographical neighbours:[11]
A Buddhist work inOld Turkic (Uyghur), included acolophon stating that the text had been translated fromSanskrit viatoxrï tyly (Tωγry tyly, "The language of the Togari").[12][11][9]
Manichean texts in several languages of neighbouring regions used the expression "the land of the Four Toghar" (Toγar~Toχar, writtenTwγr) to designate the area "fromKucha andKarashar toQocho andBeshbalik."[11]
Müller's identification became a minority position among scholars when it turned out that the people ofTokharistan (Bactria) spokeBactrian, anEastern Iranian language, which is quite distinct from the Tocharian languages. Nevertheless, "Tocharian" remained the standard term for the languages of the Tarim Basin manuscripts and for the people who produced them.[7][17] A few scholars argue that the Yuezhi were originally speakers of Tocharian who later adopted the Bactrian language.[18]
The name of Kucha in Tocharian B wasKuśi, with adjectival formkuśiññe. The word may be derived fromProto-Indo-European *keuk "shining, white".[19]The Tocharian B wordakeññe may have referred to people of Agni, with a derivation meaning "borderers, marchers".[20] One of the Tocharian A texts hasārśi-käntwā as a name for their own language, so thatārśi might have meant "Agnean", though "monk" is also possible.[21]
Tocharian kings apparently gave themselves the titleÑäktemts soy (in Tocharian B), an equivalent of the titleDevaputra ("Son of God") of theKushans.[22][23]
The Tocharian languages are known from around 7600 documents dating from about 400 to 1200 AD, found at 30 sites in the northeast Tarim area.[24] The manuscripts are written in two distinct, but closely related,Indo-European languages, conventionally known as Tocharian A and Tocharian B.[25] According to glotto-chronological data, Tocharian languages are closest to Western Indo-European languages such as proto-Germanic or proto-Italian, and being devoid ofsatemization predate the evolution of eastern Indo-European languages.[26]
Tocharian A (Agnean or East Tocharian) was found in the northeastern oases known to the Tocharians asĀrśi, later Agni (i.e. Chinese Yanqi; modern Karasahr) andTurpan (includingKhocho or Qočo; known in Chinese as Gaochang).Some 500 manuscripts have been studied in detail, mostly coming from Buddhist monasteries.Many authors take this to imply that Tocharian A had become a purely literary and liturgical language by the time of the manuscripts, but it may be that the surviving documents are unrepresentative.[8]
Tocharian B (Kuchean or West Tocharian) was found at all the Tocharian A sites and also in several sites further west, includingKuchi (later Kucha). It appears to have still been in use in daily life at that time.[27]Over 3200 manuscripts have been studied in detail.[8]
The languages had significant differences in phonology, morphology and vocabulary, making them mutually unintelligible "at least as much as modern Germanic or Romance languages".[28][29]Tocharian A shows innovations in the vowels and nominal inflection, whereas Tocharian B has changes in the consonants and verbal inflection. Many of the differences in vocabulary between the languages concern Buddhist concepts, which may suggest that they were associated with different Buddhist traditions.[28]
TheTocharian script is very similar to the IndianBrahmi script from theKushan period, with only slight variations in calligraphy. Tocharian language inscription:Se pañäkte saṅketavattse ṣarsa papaiykau "This Buddha was painted by the hand of Sanketava",[30][31] on a paintingcarbon dated to 245-340 AD.[32]
The differences indicate that they diverged from a common ancestor between 500 and 1000 years before the earliest documents, that is, sometime in the 1st millennium BC.[33] Common Indo-European vocabulary retained in Tocharian includes words for herding, cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, horses, textiles, farming, wheat, gold, silver, and wheeled vehicles.[34]
Prakrit documents from 3rd centuryKrorän, Andir andNiya on the southeast edge of the Tarim Basin contain around 100 loanwords and 1000 proper names that cannot be traced to anIndic or Iranian source.[35]Thomas Burrow suggested that they come from a variety of Tocharian, dubbed Tocharian C or Kroränian, which may have been spoken by at least some of the local populace.[36]Burrow's theory is widely accepted, but the evidence is meagre and inconclusive, and some scholars favour alternative explanations.[24]
Tocharian Prince mourning the Cremation of the Buddha, ina mural from Maya Cave (224) inKizil. He is cutting his forehead with a knife, a practice of self-mutilation also known among theScythians.[37]
Most of the Tocharian inscriptions are based onBuddhist monastic texts, which suggests that the Tocharians largely embracedBuddhism. The pre-Buddhist beliefs of the Tocharians are largely unknown, but several Chinese goddesses are similar to the reconstructedProto-Indo-Europeansun goddess and thedawn goddess, which implies that the Chinese were influenced by the pre-Buddhist beliefs of the Tocharians when they traveled on trade routes which were located in Tocharian territories.[38] Tocharian B has a nounswāñco derived from the name of the Proto-Indo-European sun goddess, while Tocharian A haskoṃ, a loanword etymologically connected to the Turkic sun goddessGun Ana. Besides this, they might have also worshipped alunar deity (meñ-) and an earth one (keṃ-).[39]
The murals found in theTarim Basin, especially those of theKizil Caves, mostly depictJataka stories,avadanas, and legends of the Buddha, and are an artistic representation in the tradition of theHinayana school of theSarvastivadas.[40] When the Chinese MonkXuanzang visitedKucha in 630 AD, he received the favours of the Tocharian king Suvarnadeva, the son and successor ofSuvarnapushpa, whom he described as a believer ofHinayana Buddhism.[41] In the account of his travel toKucha (屈支国) he stated that "There are about one hundred convents (saṅghārāmas) in this country, with five thousand and more disciples. These belong to theLittle Vehicle of the school of theSarvāstivādas (zhuyiqieyoubu). Their doctrine (teaching of Sūtras) and their rules of discipline (principles of the Vinaya) are like those of India, and those who read them use the same (originals)."[42][43][44]
The route by which speakers of Indo-European languages reached the Tarim Basin is uncertain.A leading contender is theAfanasievo culture, who occupied the Altai region to the north between 3300 and 2500 BC.
The Afanasievo culture resulted from an eastern offshoot of theYamnaya culture, originally based in thePontic steppe north of theCaucasus Mountains.[47] The Afanasevo culture (c. 3500–2500 BC) displays cultural and genetic connections with the Indo-European-associated cultures of the Central Asian steppe yet predates the specificallyIndo-Iranian-associatedAndronovo culture (c. 2000–900 BC).
J. P. Mallory andVictor H. Mair argued that the Tarim Basin was first settled byProto-Tocharian-speakers from an eastern offshoot of the Afanasievo culture, who migrated to the south and occupied the northern and eastern edges of the basin.[48] The early eastward expansion of the Yamnaya culture circa 3300 BC is enough to account for the isolation of the Tocharian languages fromIndo-Iranian linguistic innovations likesatemization.[49] Michaël Peyrot argues that several of the most striking typological peculiarities of Tocharian are rooted in a prolonged contact of Proto-Tocharian-speaking Afanasievans with speakers of an early stage ofProto-Samoyedic in South Siberia. Among others, this might explain the merger ofall three-stop series (e.g., *t, *d, *dʰ > *t), which must have led to a huge amount ofhomonyms, as well as the development of anagglutinative case system.[50]
Chao Ning et al. (2019) found in burials from around 200 BC at theShirenzigou site on the eastern edge ofDzungaria 20–80% Yamnaya-like ancestry, lending support to the hypothesis of a migration from Afanasievo into Dzungaria, which is just north of the Tarim Basin.[51]
According to archaeologist Alexey Kovalev, theChemurchek culture (2750-1900 BCE), an Altaic culture with many similarities with cultures of Western Europe and especially Southern France in burial and statuary styles, may have been associated with the Proto-Tokharians.[26] According to glotto-chronological data, proto-Tokharians must have migrated to the east around the same period, and their Western Indo-European language is closest to proto-Germanic and proto-Italic, corresponding to the broad geographical area encompassing southern France where the style most similar to those of the Chemurchek culture have been identified.[26] The language of the Chemurchek/Proto-Tokharians may have originated from the same general location in Western Europe, as did their burial and statuary styles.[26]
TheTaklamakan Desert is roughly oval in shape, about 1,000 km long and 400 km wide, surrounded on three sides by high mountains.The main part of the desert is sandy, surrounded by a belt of gravel desert.[52]The desert is completely barren, but in the late spring the melting snows of the surrounding mountains feed streams, which have been altered by human activity to create oases with mildmicroclimates and supporting intensive agriculture.[52]On the northern edge of the basin, these oases occur in small valleys before the gravels.[52]On the southern edge, they occur inalluvial fans on the edge of the sand zone.Isolated alluvial fan oases also occur in the gravel deserts of theTurpan Depression to the east of the Taklamakan.[53]From around 2000 BC, these oases supported Bronze Age settled agricultural communities of steadily increasing sophistication.[54]
The necessary irrigation technology was first developed during the 3rd millennium BC in theBactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) to the west of thePamir mountains, but it is unclear how it reached the Tarim.[55][56] The staple crops, wheat and barley, also originated in the west.[57]
The oldest of the Tarim mummies, bodies preserved by the desert conditions, date from 2000 BC and were found on the eastern edge of the Tarim Basin.The mummies have been described as being both "Caucasoid" and "Mongoloid", and mixed-race individuals are also observed.[58]A genetic study of remains from the oldest layer of theXiaohe Cemetery found that thematernal lineages were a mixture of east and west Eurasian types, while all thepaternal lineages were of west Eurasian type.[59]It is unknown whether they are connected with the frescoes painted at Tocharian sites more than two millennia later, which also depict some figures with light hair color. However, genetic studies have failed to find a direct link between the mummies and the Tocharians.[10]
The mummies were found with plaid-woven tapestries that are notably similar to the weaving pattern of the "tartan" style of theHallstatt culture of central Europe, associated withCelts; the wool used in the tapestries was found to come from sheep with European ancestry.[60]
A 2021 genetic study demonstrated that the Tarim mummies were unrelated to Afanasievo populations and instead were a genetic isolate descending mainly fromAncient North Eurasians.[61]
Later, groups ofnomadic pastoralists moved from the steppe into the grasslands to the north and northeast of the Tarim.They were the ancestors of peoples later known to Chinese authors as theWusun andYuezhi.[62]It is thought that at least some of them spokeIranian languages,[62]but a minority of scholars suggest that the Yuezhi were Tocharian speakers.[63][64]
During the 1st millennium BC, a further wave of immigrants, theSaka speaking Iranian languages, arrived from the west and settled along the southern rim of the Tarim.[65]They are believed to be the source of Iranian loanwords in Tocharian languages, particularly related to commerce and warfare.[66] TheSubeshi culture is a candidate for the Iron Age predecessors of the Tocharians.[67]
The Tocharians and contemporary Asian polities c. 500 AD.
The first record of the oasis states is found in Chinese histories. TheBook of Han lists 36 statelets in the Tarim basin in the last two centuries BC.[68] These oases served as waystations on the trade routes forming part of theSilk Road passing along the northern and southern edges of the Taklamakan desert.[69]
The largest wereKucha with 81,000 inhabitants andAgni (Yanqi or Karashar) with 32,000.[70] Next was theLoulan Kingdom (Krorän), first mentioned in 126 BC. Chinese histories give no evidence of ethnic changes in these cities between that time and the period of the Tocharian manuscripts from these sites.[71] Situated on the northern and southern edges of the Tarim, these small urban societies were overshadowed bynomadic peoples to the north and Chinese empires to the east. They became the object of rivalry between the Chinese and the Xiongnu. They conceded tributary relations with the larger powers when required, and acted independently when they could.[72]
In 177 BC, theXiongnu drove theYuezhi from western Gansu, causing most of them to flee west to theIli Valley and then toBactria. The Xiongnu then overcame the Tarim statelets, which became a vital part of their empire.[73]The ChineseHan dynasty was determined to weaken their Xiongnu enemies by depriving them of this area.[74]This was achieved in a series of campaigns beginning in 108 BC and culminating in the establishment of theProtectorate of the Western Regions in 60 BC underZheng Ji.[75]The Han government used a range of tactics, including plots to assassinate local rulers, direct attacks on a few states (e.g. Kucha in 65 BC) to cow the rest, and the massacre of the entire population ofLuntai (80 km east of Kucha) when they resisted.[76]
During theLater Han (25–220 AD), the wholeTarim Basin again became a focus of rivalry between theXiong-nu to the north and the Chinese to the east.[77] In 74 AD, Chinese troops started to take control of the Tarim Basin with the conquest ofTurfan.[78] During the 1st century AD, Kucha resisted the Chinese invasion, and allied itself with theXiong-nu and theYuezhi against the Chinese generalBan Chao.[79] Even theKushan Empire ofKujula Kadphises sent an army to the Tarim Basin to support Kucha, but they retreated after minor encounters.[79]
In 124,Kucha formally submitted to the Chinese court, and by 127 China had conquered the whole of the Tarim Basin.[80] China's control of the Silk Road facilitated the exchange of art and the progation ofBuddhism from Central Asia.[81] The RomanMaes Titianus is known to have visited the area in the 2nd century AD,[82] as did numerous great Buddhist missionaries such as theParthianAn Shigao, theYuezhisLokaksema andZhi Qian, or the Indian Chu Sho-fu (竺朔佛).[83] The Han controlled the Tarim states until their final withdrawal in 150 AD.[84][85]
TheKushan Empire expanded into the Tarim during the 2nd century AD, bringingBuddhism, Kushan art,Sanskrit as a liturgical language andPrakrit as an administrative language (in the southern Tarim states).[87] With these Indic languages came scripts, including theBrahmi script (later adapted to write Tocharian) and theKharosthi script.[88]
From the 3rd century, Kucha became a center of Buddhist studies.Buddhist texts were translated into Chinese by Kuchean monks, the most famous of whom wasKumārajīva (344–412/5).[89][84] Captured byLü Guang of theLater Liang in an attack on Kucha in 384, Kumārajīva learned Chinese during his years of captivity in Gansu. In 401, he was brought to theLater Qin capital ofChang'an, where he remained as head of a translation bureau until his death in 413.[90][91]
TheKizil Caves lie 65 km west of Kucha, and contain over 236 Buddhist temples. Their murals date from the 3rd to the 8th century.[92]Many of these murals were removed byAlbert von Le Coq and other European archaeologists in the early 20th century, and are now held in European museums, but others remain in their original locations.[93]
An increasingly dry climate in the 4th and 5th centuries led to the abandonment of several of the southern cities, includingNiya and Krorän, with a consequent shift of trade from the southern route to the northern one.[94]Confederations of nomadic tribes also began to jostle for supremacy.The northern oasis states were conquered byRouran in the late 5th century, leaving the local leaders in place. The nearby area ofGaochang and theJushi Kingdom were alternatively ruled as a Chinese Prefecture, taken over by theNorthern Liang in 442 CE, conquered by theRouran Khaganate in 460, and conquered by theGaoju Turks in 488.
Kucha, the largest of the oasis cities, was ruled by royal families sometimes autonomously and sometimes as vassals of outside powers.[95] The Chinese named these Kuchean kings by adding the prefixBai (白), meaning "White", probably pointing to the fair complexion of the Kucheans.[96] The government included some 30 named posts below the king, with all but the highest-ranking titles occurring in pairs of left and right. Other states had similar structures, though on a smaller scale.[97]TheBook of Jin says of the city:
They have a walled city and suburbs. The walls are threefold. Within are Buddhist temples and stupas numbering a thousand. The people are engaged in agriculture and husbandry. The men and women cut their hair and wear it at the neck. The prince's palace is grand and imposing, glittering like an abode of the gods.
Monks from the Cave of the Painters circa 500 AD,Kizil Caves.
The inhabitants grewred millet, wheat, rice, legumes,hemp, grapes and pomegranates, and reared horses, cattle, sheep and camels.[99]
They also extracted a wide range of metals and minerals from the surrounding mountains.[100]Handicrafts included leather goods, fine felts and rugs.[100]
In theKizil Caves appear portraits of Royal families, composed of the King, Queen and young Prince. They are accompanied by monks, and men in caftan.[1] According to Historian of Art Benjamin Rowland, these portraits show "that the Tocharians were European rather than Mongol in appearance, with light complexions, blue eyes, and blond or reddish hair, and the costumes of the knights and their ladies have haunting suggestions of the chivalric age of the West".[101]
Kucha ambassador are known to have visited the Chinese court ofEmperor Yuan of Liang in his capitalJingzhou in 516–520 AD, at or around the same time as theHepthalite embassies there. An ambassador from Kucha is illustrated inPortraits of Periodical Offering of Liang, painted in 526–539 AD, an 11th-century Song copy of which as remained.
In the late 5th century AD theHephthalites, based inTokharistan (Bactria), expanded eastward through thePamir Mountains, which are comparatively easy to cross, as did theKushans before them, due to the presence of convenient plateaus between high peaks.[102] They occupied the westernTarim Basin (Kashgar andKhotan), taking control of the area from theRourans, who had been collecting heavy tribute from the oasis cities, but were now weakening under the assaults of the ChineseWei dynasty.[103] In 479 they took the east end of the Tarim Basin, around the region ofTurfan. In 497–509, they pushed north of Turfan to theUrumchi region. In the early years of the 6th century, they were sending embassies from their dominions in the Tarim Basin to theWei dynasty. The Hephthalites continued to occupy the Tarim Basin until the end of their Empire, circa 560 AD.[104]
As the territories ruled by the Hephthalites expanded into Central Asia and the Tarim Basin, the art of the Hephthalites, with characteristic clothing and hairstyles, also came to be used in the areas they ruled, such asSogdiana,Bamiyan orKucha in theTarim Basin (Kizil Caves,Kumtura Caves,Subashi reliquary).[105][106][107] In these areas appear dignitaries with caftans with a triangular collar on the right side, crowns with three crescents, some crowns with wings, and a unique hairstyle. Another marker is the two-point suspension system for swords, which seems to have been an Hephthalite innovation, and was introduced by them in the territories they controlled.[105] The paintings from theKucha region, particularly the swordmen in theKizil Caves, appear to have been made during Hephthalite rule in the region, circa 480–550 AD.[105][108] The influence of theart of Gandhara in some of the earliest paintings at theKizil Caves, dated to circa 500 AD, is considered as a consequence of the political unification of the area between Bactria andKucha under the Hephthalites.[109]
TheTurks then split intoWestern andEastern Khaganates by 580 AD.[111] Tocharian royal families continued to rule Kucha, as vassals of theWestern Turks, to whom they provided tribute and troops.[111] Many surviving texts in Tocharian date from this period, and deal with a wide variety of administrative, religious and everyday topics.[112] They also include travel passes, small slips ofpoplar wood giving the size of the permitted caravans for officials at the next station along the road.[113]
In 630, theChineseBuddhistmonkXuanzang visited the cities of the Tarim Basin on his pilgrimage to India. He later described the characteristics of Kucha (屈支国) in great detail in hisRecords of the Western Regions:[116][43][44] 1) "The style of writing is Indian, with some differences" 2) "They clothe themselves with ornamental garments of silk and embroidery. They cut their hair and wear a flowing covering (over their heads)" 3) "The king is of Kuchean race"[117] 4) "There are about one hundred convents (saṅghārāmas) in this country, with five thousand and more disciples. These belong to theLittle Vehicle of the school of theSarvāstivādas (Shwo-yih-tsai-yu-po). Their doctrine (teaching of Sūtras) and their rules of discipline (principles of the Vinaya) are like those of India, and those who read them use the same (originals)." 5) "About 40 li to the north of this desert city there are two convents close together on the slope of a mountain".[42]
In the 7th century,Emperor Taizong ofTang China, havingovercome theEastern Turks, sent his armies west to attack the Western Turks and the oasis states.[118]The first oasis to fall wasTurfan, which was captured in 630 and annexed as part of China.[119]
Emperor Taizong's campaign against the oasis states
Next to the west lay the city of Agni, which had been a tributary of the Tang since 632.Alarmed by the nearby Chinese armies, Agni stopped sending Tribute to China and formed an alliance with the Western Turks.They were aided by Kucha, who also stopped sending tribute.The Tang captured Agni in 644, defeating a Western Turk relief force, and made the king of Kucha Suvarnadeva (Chinese: 蘇伐疊Sufadie) resume tribute.When that king was deposed by a relative named Haripushpa (Chinese: 訶黎布失畢Helibushibi) in 648, the Tang sent an army under the Turk general Ashina She'er to install a compliant member of the local royal family, a younger brother of Haripushpa.[120]Ashina She'er continued to capture Kucha, and made it the headquarters of the TangProtectorate General to Pacify the West.Kuchean forces recaptured the city and killed protector-general, Guo Xiaoke, but it fell again to Ashina She'er, who had 11,000 of the inhabitants executed in reprisal for the killing of Guo.[121] It was also recorded about other cities that "he destroyed five great towns and with them many myriads of men and women... the lands of the west were seized with terror."[122]The Tocharian cities never recovered from the Tang conquest.[123]
The Tang lost the Tarim basin to theTibetan Empire in 670, but regained it in 692, and continued to rule there until it was recaptured by the Tibetans in 792.[124]The ruling Bai family of Kucha are last mentioned in Chinese sources in 787.[125]There is little mention of the region in Chinese sources for the 9th and 10th centuries.[126]
TheUyghur Khaganate took control of the northern Tarim in 803.After their capital in Mongolia was sacked by theYenisei Kyrgyz in 840, they established a new state, theKingdom of Qocho with its capital atGaochang (near Turfan) in 866.[127]Over centuries of contact and intermarriage, the cultures and populations of the pastoralist rulers and their agriculturalist subjects blended together.[128] Modern Uyghurs are the result of admixture between the Tocharians and the Orkhon Uyghurs from the 8th century CE.[129] Many Uyghurs converted to the Tocharian Buddhism or Nestorian Christianity,[130] and adopted the agricultural lifestyle and many of the customs of the oasis-dwellers.[131] The Tocharian language gradually disappeared as the urban population switched to theOld Uyghur language.[132]
I. ... for a thousand years however, Thou wilt tell the story Thy (...) I announce, Heretofore there was no human being dearer to me than thee; likewise hereafter there will be no one dearer to me than thee. Love for thee, affection for thee—breath of all that is life—and they shall not come to an end so long as there lasts life. III. Thus did I always think: "I will live well, the whole of my life, with one lover: no force, no deceit." The god Karma alone knew this thought of mine; so he provoked quarrel; he ripped out my heart from thee; He led thee afar; tore me apart; made me partake in all sorrows and took away the consolation thou wast.
^"Most of the Scythians, beginning from theCaspian Sea, are calledDahae Scythae, and those situated more towards the eastMassagetae andSacae; the rest have the common appellation of Scythians, but each separate tribe has its peculiar name. All, or the greatest part of them, are nomads. The best known tribes are those who deprived the Greeks ofBactriana, the Asii, Pasiani, Tochari, and Sacarauli, who came from the country on the other side of theIaxartes, opposite the Sacae andSogdiani" (Strabo,11-8-2)
^"The images of donors in Cave 17 are seen in two fragments with numbers MIK 8875 and MIK 8876. One of them with halo may be identified as king of Kucha." inGhose, Rajeshwari (2008).Kizil on the Silk Road: Crossroads of Commerce & Meeting of Minds. Marg Publications. p. 127, note 22.ISBN978-81-85026-85-5. "The panel of Tocharian donors and Buddhist monks, which was at the MIK (MIK 8875) disappeared during World War II and was discovered by Yaldiz in 2002 in the Hermitage Museum" page 65,note 30
^abZhang 2021 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFZhang2021 (help): "Our results do not support previous hypotheses for the origin of the Tarim mummies, who were argued to be Proto-Tocharian-speaking pastoralists descended from the Afanasievo, or to have originated among the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex or Inner Asian Mountain Corridor cultures. Instead, although Tocharian may have been plausibly introduced to the Dzungarian Basin by Afanasievo migrants during the Early Bronze Age, we find that the earliest Tarim Basin cultures appear to have arisen from a genetically isolated local population that adopted neighbouring pastoralist and agriculturalist practices, which allowed them to settle and thrive along the shifting riverine oases of the Taklamakan Desert."
^abWaugh, Daniel (Historian, University of Washington)."Kizil".depts.washington.edu. Washington University. Retrieved30 December 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Peyrot, M. (2019). The deviant typological profile of the Tocharian branch of Indo-European may be due to Uralic substrate influence, Indo-European Linguistics, 7(1), 72-121. doi:https://doi.org/10.1163/22125892-00701007
^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.¹² Additionally, excavations in 2002 by Xinjiang archaeologists at the site of Xiaohe cemetery, first discovered by the Swedish archaeologist Folke Bergman,¹³ uncovered mummies and wooden human effigies that clearly have Europoid features [Figure 6.1]. According to the preliminary excavation report, the cultural features and chronology of this site are said to be quite similar to those of Gumugou.¹⁴ 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.¹³ 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 Mongoloids¹⁶ resulting in an amalgamation of culture and race in middle Xinjiang east to the Tianshan.
^Fortson, Benjamin W. 2004.Indo-European Language and Culture. Blackwell Publishing. Page 352: "Adding to the various mysteries surrounding the Tocharians is the existence of extremely well-preserved mummies in the Takla Makan desert that have striking Europoid features and often red hair; some are nearly 4,000 years old. The mummies were found with tapestries woven in plaids that are similar in weaving style and pattern to tartans from the Hallstatt culture of central Europe, which was ancestral to the Celts... the wool used in weaving the tapestries comes from sheep of European ancestry..."
^"On the lunette of the front wall is painted a scene of the preaching of the Buddha in the Deer Park. On the left of the Buddha are painted the king and his wife; on the halo of the king is inscribed the dedication, which was interpreted by Pinault in his paper of 1994, 'Temple Constructed for the Benefit of Suvarnapousa by His Son' (this material is referred to in Kezier shiku neirong zonglu p. 2). From Chinese historical records it is known that this king reigned between the years 600 and 625, and his three sons died before 647: to date, this is the most accurate dating for the cave" inVignato, Giuseppe (2006)."Archaeological Survey of Kizil: Its Groups of Caves, Districts, Chronology and Buddhist Schools".East and West.56 (4): 405, note 71.ISSN0012-8376.JSTOR29757697.
^Li, Hui; Cho, Kelly; Kidd, Judith R.; Kidd, Kenneth K. (December 2009)."Genetic Landscape of Eurasia and "Admixture" in Uyghurs".The American Journal of Human Genetics.85 (6):934–937.doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2009.10.024.PMC2790568.PMID20004770.Historical records indicate that the present Uyghurs were formed by admixture between Tocharians from the west and Orkhon Uyghurs (Wugusi-Huihu, according to present Chinese pronunciation) from the east in the 8th century CE
^Hong, Sun-Kee; Wu, Jianguo; Kim, Jae-Eun; Nakagoshi, Nobukazu (25 December 2010).Landscape Ecology in Asian Cultures. Springer. p. 284.ISBN978-4-431-87799-8. p.284: "The Uyghurs mixed with the Tocharian people and adopted their religion and their culture of oasis agriculture (Scharlipp 1992; Soucek 2000)."
Chen, Kwang-tzuu; Hiebert, Fredrik T. (1995), "The late prehistory of Xinjiang in relation to its neighbors",Journal of World Prehistory,9 (2):243–300,doi:10.1007/bf02221840,JSTOR25801077,S2CID161858422.
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Hulsewé, A.F.P. (1979),China in Central Asia, the Early Stage: 125 B.C.–A.D. 23: An Annotated Translation of Chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty, Leiden: E.J. Brill,ISBN978-90-04-05884-2.
Li, Chunxiang; Li, Hongjie; Cui, Yinqiu; Xie, Chengzhi; Cai, Dawei; Li, Wenying; Mair, Victor H.; Xu, Zhi; Zhang, Quanchao; Abuduresule, Idelis; Jin, Li; Zhu, Hong; Zhou, Hui (2010), "Evidence that a West-East admixed population lived in the Tarim Basin as early as the early Bronze Age",BMC Biology,8 (15): 15,doi:10.1186/1741-7007-8-15,PMC2838831,PMID20163704.
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Note: Recent discoveries have rendered obsolete some of René Grousset's classicThe Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia, published in 1939, which, however, still provides a broad background against which to assess more modern detailed studies.
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Barber, Elizabeth Wayland. 1999.The Mummies of Ürümchi. London. Pan Books.
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Hemphill, Brian E. and J.P. Mallory. 2004. "Horse-mounted invaders from the Russo-Kazakh steppe or agricultural colonists from Western Central Asia? A craniometric investigation of the Bronze Age settlement of Xinjiang" inAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology vol. 125 pp 199ff.
Lane, George S. 1966. "On the Interrelationship of the Tocharian Dialects," inAncient Indo-European Dialects, eds. Henrik Birnbaum andJaan Puhvel. Berkeley. University of California Press.
Mair, Victor H.; Zhang, Shuheng; Adams, Douglas Q.; Blažek, Václav; Comsa, Alexandra; Haarmann, Harald; Joseph, Brian D.; Malzahn, Melanie; Poruciuc, Adrian; Ringe, Don; Wells, Peter S. (2024).Tocharica et archeologica: A Festschrift in Honor of J. P. Mallory. Washington DC: The Institute for the Study of Man, Inc.ISBN978-0-9983669-6-8.
Ning, Chao, Chuan-Chao Wang, Shizhu Gao, Y. Yang and Yinqiu Cui. "Ancient Genomes Reveal Yamnaya-Related Ancestry and a Potential Source of Indo-European Speakers in Iron Age Tianshan". In:Current Biology 29 (2019): 2526–2532.e4.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.044
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