Charklik or Charkhlik () is an archaeological site named after the town of
Charkhlik (Qakilik), in
Ruoqiang (Qakilik) County,
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. Together with the nearby
Miran site, they correspond to two ancient capitals of
Shanshan, Wuni () and Yixun (). However, it is as yet unclear which site correspond to which capital.
History
Charklik was the name for an ancient settlement of the kingdom of
Kroraina (Chinese: Loulan; later
Shanshan) from at least as far back as the 1st century BCE.
During the latter part of the
Former Han and throughout the
Later Han the capital of the kingdom of Shanshan was known as Yüni (), thought to have been located near the present town of
Ruoqiang at Charklik.
The explorer and archaeologist
Aurel Stein visited the small oasis of Charklik in 1906, where he found a little village that was the official headquarters of a very large district, almost entirely desert, and which included the
salt lake known as
Lop Nor. The district contained only about five hundred households, even including the semi-nomadic herders and fishermen called 'Lopliks'.
The Buddhist monk
Xuanzang
Xuanzang (; ; 6 April 6025 February 664), born Chen Hui or Chen Yi (), also known by his Sanskrit Dharma name Mokṣadeva, was a 7th-century Chinese Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making ...
passed through a town called ''Na-Fu-Bo'' () on his way home to China in 645 CE, and
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...
in the 13th century passed through a place he called the town of ''Lop'', Both of these were suggested by Aurel Stein to be Charklik. Stein wrote that there was "conclusive evidence" that Charklik was already the chief centre of the region when Xuanzang passed through it.
[Hill (2015) Vol. I, p. 84.]
Description
At various times in history Charklik was the last stop on the difficult Southern
Silk Road
The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...
from
Khotan
Hotan (also known by #Etymology, other names) is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region in Northwestern China. The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become an ...
before it crossed the much-feared salt pans of Lop Nor to
Dunhuang
Dunhuang () is a county-level city in northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Sachu (Dunhuang) was ...
. An alternate route from modern Charklik heads south through the
Qaidam Desert then turns northeast to Dunhuang, or south to
Lhasa
Lhasa, officially the Chengguan District of Lhasa City, is the inner urban district of Lhasa (city), Lhasa City, Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwestern China.
Lhasa is the second most populous urban area on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining ...
. There is also an ancient route leading north across the
Taklamakan Desert
The Taklamakan Desert ( ) is a desert in northwest China's Xinjiang region. Located inside the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang, it is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains to the west, the Tian Shan range to the ...
to
Korla. Northeast of the town of Ruoqiang is the important archaeological site of
Miran.
The modern town of Ruoqiang is described as "small, busy place" with only very basic accommodation available. It is a convenient jumping-off place to visit the ruins of Miran.
South of Charklik are the imposing
Altun Mountains where at a large nature reserve the wild horse,
Przewalski's horse
Przewalski's horse (''Equus ferus przewalskii'' or ''Equus przewalskii''), also called the takhi, Mongolian wild horse or Dzungarian horse, is a rare and endangered wild horse originally native to the steppes of Central Asia. It is named after t ...
(Equus przewalski), now extinct in the wild, is being reintroduced from stocks bred in zoos.
See also
*
Tarim mummies
The Tarim mummies are a series of Mummy, mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from Tarim Basin#Early periods, 1800 BCE to the first centuries BCE, with a new group of individuals recently dated to betw ...
*
Loulan Kingdom
*
Miran
References
External links
* A tourism Guide to Charklik
{{Coord, 39, 02, N, 88, 00, E, display=title, type:landmark_region:CN-65_source:GNS-enwiki
Central Asian Buddhist kingdoms
Former countries in Chinese history
History of Xinjiang
Sites along the Silk Road
Ruoqiang County