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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
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
).. "Our knowledge of the Tocharian languages derives essentially from c. 7600 documents found across about thirty sites in the eastern half of the greater Tarim Basin (Fig. 1). The documents date from c. 400 to 1200 CE"
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 the ''Tókharoi'' (Latin ''Tochari''), who inhabited Bactria
Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...
from the 2nd century BC. This identification is generally considered erroneous, but the name "Tocharian" remains the most common term for the languages and their speakers. Their actual ethnic name is unknown, although they may have referred to themselves as '' Agni'', '' Kuči'' and ''Krorän
Loulan, also called Krorän or Kroraina ( zh, s=, t=, p=Lóulán < ''lo-lɑn'' < '', or ''Agniya'', ''Kuchiya'' as known from Sanskrit texts.
Agricultural communities first appeared in the oases of the northern Tarim circa 2000 BC. Some scholars have linked these communities to the Afanasievo culture found earlier (c. 3500–2500 BC) in Siberia, north of the Tarim or Central Asian BMAC culture. The earliest Tarim mummies date from c. 1800 BC, but it is unclear whether they are connected to the Tocharians of two millennia later.
By the 2nd century BC, these settlements had developed into city-states, overshadowed by nomadic peoples to the north and Chinese empires to the east. These cities, the largest of which was Kucha, also served as way stations on the branch of the
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. The manuscripts are written in two distinct, but closely related, Indo-European languages, conventionally known as Tocharian A and Tocharian B.
Tocharian A (Agnean or East Tocharian) was found in the northeastern oases known to the Tocharians as Ārśi, later Agni (i.e. Chinese Yanqi; modern Karasahr) and Turpan (including
Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
that ran along the northern edge of the Taklamakan desert.
For several centuries, the Tarim basin was ruled by the Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 209 ...
, the Han dynasty, the Tibetan Empire and the Tang dynasty. From the 8th century AD, the Uyghurs – speakers of a Turkic language – settled in the region and founded the Kingdom of Qocho that ruled the Tarim Basin. The peoples of the Tarim city-states intermixed with the Uyghurs, whose Old Uyghur language spread through the region. The Tocharian languages are believed to have become extinct during the 9th century.
Names
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 unknown Indo-European languages, which were easy to read because they used a close variation of the already deciphered IndianMiddle-Brahmi script
Brahmi (; ; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such ...
. These languages were designated in similar fashion by their geographical neighbours:
* 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").
* Manichean texts in several languages of neighbouring regions used the expression "the land of the Four Toghar" (''Toγar''~''Toχar'', written ''Twγr'') to designate the area "from Kucha and Karashar to Qocho and Beshbalik
Beshbalik () is an ancient archaeological site, now located in Jimsar County, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. The ancient city was initially called Beiting () or Ting Prefecture (), and was the headquarters of the Beiting Protec ...
."
Friedrich W. K. Müller
Friedrich W. K. Müller (January 21, 1863 in Dębno, Neudamm – April 18, 1930 in Berlin) was a German scholar of oriental cultures and languages. He is best remembered for his decipherment of manuscript fragments collected on the German Turf ...
was the first to propose a characterization for the newly discovered languages. Müller called the languages " Tocharian" (German ''Tocharisch''), linking this ''toxrï'' (Tωγry, "Togari") with the ethnonym ''Tókharoi'' () applied by Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
to one of the " Scythian" tribes "from the country on the other side of the Iaxartes
The Syr Darya (, ),, , ; rus, Сырдарья́, Syrdarjja, p=sɨrdɐˈrʲja; fa, سيردريا, Sirdaryâ; tg, Сирдарё, Sirdaryo; tr, Seyhun, Siri Derya; ar, سيحون, Seyḥūn; uz, Sirdaryo, script-Latn/. historically known ...
" that overran the Greco-Bactrian kingdom
The Bactrian Kingdom, known to historians as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom or simply Greco-Bactria, was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Hellenistic Greece, Greek state, and along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom, the easternmost part of the Helleni ...
(present day Afghanistan) in the second half of the 2nd century BC. This term also appears in Indo-Iranian languages ( Sanskrit ''Tushara
The kingdom of Tushara according to Ancient Indian literature, such as the epic ''Mahabharata'' was a land located beyond north-west India. In the ''Mahabharata'', its inhabitants, known as the Tusharas, are depicted as ''mlechchas'' ("barbarians" ...
''/''Tukhāra'', Old Persian
Old Persian is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan language, Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native ...
''tuxāri-'', Khotanese ''ttahvāra''), and became the source of the term "Tokharistan
Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix ''-stan'' meaning "place of" in Persian) is an ancient Early Middle Ages name given to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources.
In the 7th and 8th century CE, Tokharistan c ...
" usually referring to 1st millennium Bactria
Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...
, as well as the Takhar province of Afghanistan. The ''Tókharoi'' are often identified by modern scholars with the Yuezhi of Chinese historical accounts, who founded the Kushan Empire
The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...
.
Müller's identification became a minority position among scholars when it turned out that the people of Tokharistan
Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix ''-stan'' meaning "place of" in Persian) is an ancient Early Middle Ages name given to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources.
In the 7th and 8th century CE, Tokharistan c ...
(Bactria
Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...
) spoke Bactrian, an Eastern 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. A few scholars argue that the Yuezhi were originally speakers of Tocharian who later adopted the Bactrian language.
The name of Kucha in Tocharian B was ''Kuśi'', with adjectival form ''kuśiññe''. The word may be derived from Proto-Indo-European *keuk "shining, white".
The Tocharian B word ''akeññe'' may have referred to people of Agni, with a derivation meaning "borderers, marchers". One of the Tocharian A texts have ''ārśi-käntwā'' as a name for their own language, so that ''ārśi'' may have meant "Agnean", though "monk" is also possible.
Tocharian kings apparently gave themselves the title ''Ñäktemts soy'' (in Tocharian B), an equivalent of the title ''Devaputra'' ("Son of God") of the Kushans.
Languages
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. The manuscripts are written in two distinct, but closely related, Indo-European languages, conventionally known as Tocharian A and Tocharian B.
Tocharian A (Agnean or East Tocharian) was found in the northeastern oases known to the Tocharians as Ārśi, later Agni (i.e. Chinese Yanqi; modern Karasahr) and Turpan (including Khocho
Khocho (russian: Хочо; sah, Хочо, ''Xoço'') is a rural locality (a '' selo''), the only inhabited locality, and the administrative center of Nakharinsky 2-y Rural Okrug of Megino-Kangalassky District in the Sakha Republic, Russia, lo ...
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.
Tocharian B (Kuchean or West Tocharian) was found at all the Tocharian A sites and also in several sites further west, including Kuchi (later Kucha). It appears to have still been in use in daily life at that time.
Over 3200 manuscripts have been studied in detail.
The languages had significant differences in phonology, morphology and vocabulary, making them mutually unintelligible "at least as much as modern Germanic or Romance languages".
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.
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. Common Indo-European vocabulary retained in Tocharian includes words for herding, cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, horses, textiles, farming, wheat, gold, silver, and wheeled vehicles.
Prakrit documents from 3rd century Krorän
Loulan, also called Krorän or Kroraina ( zh, s=, t=, p=Lóulán < ''lo-lɑn'' < , Andir and Niya on the southeast edge of the Tarim Basin contain around 100 loanwords and 1000 proper names that cannot be traced to an Indic or Iranian source.
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.
Burrow's theory is widely accepted, but the evidence is meagre and inconclusive, and some scholars favour alternative explanations.
Origins
J. P. Mallory
James Patrick Mallory (born October 25, 1945) is an American archaeologist and Indo-Europeanist. Mallory is an emeritus professor at Queen's University, Belfast; a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and the former editor of the ''Journal of Ind ...
and Victor H. Mair wrote that the Tarim was first settled by Proto-Tocharian
Proto-Tocharian, also spelled Proto-Tokharian ( or ), is the reconstructed proto-language of the extinct Tocharian branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Tocharian is the unattested reconstructed ancestor of an Indo-European eponymous ...
-speakers from an eastern offshoot of the Afanasevo culture to the north, who migrated to the south and occupied the northern and eastern edges of the Tarim Basin. The Afanasevo culture itself resulted from an eastern offshoot of the Yamnaya culture, originally based in the Pontic steppe north of the Caucasus Mountains. 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 specifically Indo-Iranian-associated Andronovo culture
The Andronovo culture (russian: Андроновская культура, translit=Andronovskaya kul'tura) is a collection of similar local Late Bronze Age cultures that flourished 2000–1450 BC,Grigoriev, Stanislav, (2021)"Andronovo ...
(c. 2000–900 BC). The early eastward expansion of the Yamnaya culture circa 3300 BC is enough to account for the isolation of the Tocharian languages from Indo-Iranian linguistic innovations like satemization
Languages of the Indo-European family are classified as either centum languages or satem languages according to how the dorsal consonants (sounds of "K", "G" and "Y" type) of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) developed. An e ...
. 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 of Proto-Samoyedic in South Siberia. Among others, this might explain the merger of all three-stop series (e.g., *t, *d, *dʰ > *t), which must have led to a huge amount of homonyms, as well as the development of an agglutinative case system.
Settlement of the Tarim basin
The Taklamakan 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. 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 mild microclimates and supporting intensive agriculture. On the northern edge of the basin, these oases occur in small valleys before the gravels. On the southern edge, they occur in alluvial fans on the edge of the sand zone. Isolated alluvial fan oases also occur in the gravel deserts of the Turpan Depression to the east of the Taklamakan. From around 2000 BC, these oases supported Bronze Age settled agricultural communities of steadily increasing sophistication. The necessary irrigation technology was first developed during the 3rd millennium BC in the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) to the west of thePamir mountains
The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia and Pakistan. It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world ...
, but it is unclear how it reached the Tarim. The staple crops, wheat and barley, also originated in the west.
Tarim mummies
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. They seem to be Caucasoid types with light-colored hair. A genetic study of remains from the oldest layer of theXiaohe Cemetery
The Xiaohe Cemetery (), literally "Little River Cemetery" and also known as Ördek’s Necropolis, is a Bronze Age site located in the west of Lop Nur, in Xinjiang, Western China. It contains about 330 tombs, about 160 of which were looted by gr ...
found that the maternal lineages were a mixture of east and west Eurasian types, while all the paternal lineages were of west Eurasian type.
It is unknown whether they are connected with the frescoes painted at Tocharian sites more than two millennia later, which also depict light eyes and hair color.
The mummies were found with plaid-woven tapestries that are notably similar to the weaving pattern of the "tartan" style of the Hallstatt culture
The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European Archaeological culture, culture of Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe ...
of central Europe, associated with Celts; the wool used in the tapestries was found to come from sheep with European ancestry.
A 2021 genetic study demonstrated the Tarim mummies are remains of locals descending from Ancient North Eurasians and Northeast Asians, and instead suggested that " Tocharian may have been plausibly introduced to the Dzungarian Basin by Afanasievo migrants" -i.e. "the Afanasievo herders of the Altai–Sayan region in southern Siberia (3150–2750 BC), who in turn have close genetic ties with the Yamnaya (3500–2500 BC) of the Pontic–Caspian steppe located 3,000 km to the west"- before being recorded in 500–1000 CE's Buddhist scriptures.
Later immigrants
Later, groups of nomadic 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
The Wusun (; Eastern Han Chinese *''ʔɑ-suən'' < (140 BCE < 436 BCE): *''Ɂâ-sûn'') were an ancient semi- and Yuezhi.
It is thought that at least some of them spoke Iranian languages,
but a minority of scholars suggest that the Yuezhi were Tocharian speakers.
During the 1st millennium BC, a further wave of immigrants, the Saka speaking Iranian languages, arrived from the west and settled along the southern rim of the Tarim.
They are believed to be the source of Iranian loanwords in Tocharian languages, particularly related to commerce and warfare.
Most of the Tocharian inscriptions are based on Buddhist monastical texts, which suggests that the Tocharians largely embraced Buddhism. The pre-Buddhist beliefs of the Tocharians are largely unknown, but several Chinese goddesses are similar to the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European sun goddess and the dawn 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. Tocharian B has a noun derived from the name of the Proto-Indo-European sun goddess, while Tocharian A has , a loanword etymologically connected to the Turkic sun goddess Gun Ana. Besides this, they might have also worshipped a lunar deity () and an earth one ().
The murals found in the Tarim Basin, especially those of the Kizil Caves, mostly depict Jataka stories, avadanas, and legends of the Buddha, and are an artistic representation in the tradition of the Hinayana school of the Sarvastivadas. When the Chinese Monk Xuanzang visited Kucha in 630 CE, he received the favours of the Tocharian king Suvarnadeva, the son and successor of
The first record of the oasis states is found in Chinese histories.
The '' Book of Han'' lists 36 statelets in the Tarim basin in the last two centuries BC.
These oases served as waystations on the trade routes forming part of the
The
Kucha, the largest of the oasis cities, was ruled by royal families sometimes autonomously and sometimes as vassals of outside powers. The Chinese named these Kuchean kings by adding the prefix ''Bai'' (白), meaning "White", probably pointing to the fair complexion of the Kucheans.
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.
The '' Book of Jin'' says of the city:
The inhabitants grew
In the late 5th century AD the Hephthalites, based in
The early Turks of the 
In 618, king
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"
4) "There are about one hundred convents (saṅghārāmas) in this country, with five thousand and more disciples. These belong to the Little Vehicle of the school of the
5) "About 40 li to the north of this desert city there are two convents close together on the slope of a mountain".
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.
Ashina She'er continued to capture Kucha, and made it the headquarters of the Tang Protectorate 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.
The Tocharian cities never recovered from the Tang conquest.
The Tang lost the Tarim basin to the Tibetan Empire in 670, but regained it in 692, and continued to rule there until it was recaptured by the Tibetans in 792.
The ruling Bai family of Kucha are last mentioned in Chinese sources in 787.
There is little mention of the region in Chinese sources for the 9th and 10th centuries.
The Uyghur Khaganate took control of the northern Tarim in 803.
After their capital in Mongolia was sacked by the Yenisei Kyrgyz in 840, they established a new state, the Kingdom of Qocho with its capital at Gaochang (near Turfan) in 866.
Over centuries of contact and intermarriage, the cultures and populations of the pastoralist rulers and their agriculturalist subjects blended together.
The Uighurs abandoned their state religion of Manichaeism in favour of Buddhism, and adopted the agricultural lifestyle and many of the customs of the oasis-dwellers.
The Tocharian language gradually disappeared as the urban population switched to the Old Uyghur language.
"Tocharian Buddhism in Kucha: Buddhism of Indo-European Centum Speakers in Chinese Turkestan before the 10th Century C.E."
''Sino-Platonic Papers'' 85. * Xu, Wenkan 1995 "The Discovery of the Xinjiang Mummies and Studies of the Origin of the Tocharians" ''The Journal of Indo-European Studies'', Vol. 23, Number 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 1995, pp. 357–369. * Xu, Wenkan 1996 "The Tokharians and Buddhism" In: ''Studies in Central and East Asian Religions'' 9, pp. 1–17
at omniglot.com
* A dictionary of Tocharian B by Douglas Q. Adams (Leiden Studies in Indo-European 10), xxxiv, 830 pp., Rodopi: Amsterdam – Atlanta, 1999
{{Historical Non-Chinese peoples in China Ethnic groups in Chinese history Cannabis and religion Extinct ethnic groups Indo-European peoples
Religion
Most of the Tocharian inscriptions are based on Buddhist monastical texts, which suggests that the Tocharians largely embraced Buddhism. The pre-Buddhist beliefs of the Tocharians are largely unknown, but several Chinese goddesses are similar to the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European sun goddess and the dawn 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. Tocharian B has a noun derived from the name of the Proto-Indo-European sun goddess, while Tocharian A has , a loanword etymologically connected to the Turkic sun goddess Gun Ana. Besides this, they might have also worshipped a lunar deity () and an earth one ().
The murals found in the Tarim Basin, especially those of the Kizil Caves, mostly depict Jataka stories, avadanas, and legends of the Buddha, and are an artistic representation in the tradition of the Hinayana school of the Sarvastivadas. When the Chinese Monk Xuanzang visited Kucha in 630 CE, he received the favours of the Tocharian king Suvarnadeva, the son and successor of Suvarnapushpa
Suvarṇapuṣpa (सुवर्णपुष्प ''Suvarnapushpa'', "Gold Flower" in Sanskrit, ''Swarnabūspe'' in Tocharian, or directly translated as '' Ysāṣṣa a Pyāpyo'' "Golden Flower", Chinese: 苏伐勃𫘝 ''Sufaboshi'') was a King ...
, whom he described as a believer of Hinayana Buddhism. In the account of his travel to Kucha (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 the Little Vehicle of the school of the Sarvāstivādas
The ''Sarvāstivāda'' (Sanskrit and Pali: 𑀲𑀩𑁆𑀩𑀢𑁆𑀣𑀺𑀯𑀸𑀤, ) was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (3rd century BCE).Westerhoff, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy ...
(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).", also available in:
Oasis states
The first record of the oasis states is found in Chinese histories.
The '' Book of Han'' lists 36 statelets in the Tarim basin in the last two centuries BC.
These oases served as waystations on the trade routes forming part of the Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
passing along the northern and southern edges of the Taklamakan desert. Zhang Qian travelled the area westward to visit Central Asia, during the 2nd century BC.
The largest were Kucha with 81,000 inhabitants and Agni (Yanqi or Karashar) with 32,000. Chinese histories give no evidence of ethnic changes in these cities between that time and the period of the Tocharian manuscripts from these sites. Situated on the northern edge of the Tarim, these small urban societies were overshadowed by nomadic peoples to the north and Chinese empires to the east. They conceded tributary relations with the larger powers when required, and acted independently when they could.
Xiongnu and Han empires
In 177 BC, theXiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 209 ...
drove the Yuezhi from western Gansu, causing most of them to flee west to the Ili Valley and then to Bactria
Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...
.
The Xiongnu then overcame the Tarim statelets, which became a vital part of their empire.
The Chinese Han dynasty was determined to weaken their Xiongnu enemies by depriving them of this area.
This was achieved in a series of campaigns beginning in 108 BC and culminating in the establishment of the Protectorate of the Western Regions in 60 BC under Zheng Ji.
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 of Luntai (80 km east of Kucha) when they resisted.
During the Later Han Later Han (後漢) may refer to two dynastic states in imperial China:
*Eastern Han (25–220), the second period of the Han dynasty, also called Later Han
* Later Han (947–951), a dynasty during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period
See al ...
(25–220 AD), the whole Tarim Basin again became a focus of rivalry between the Xiong-nu to the north and the Chinese to the east. In 74 AD, Chinese troops started to take control of the Tarim Basin with the conquest of Turfan. During the 1st century AD, Kucha resisted the Chinese invasion, and allied itself with the Xiong-nu and the Yuezhi against the Chinese general Ban Chao
Ban Chao (; 32–102 CE), courtesy name Zhongsheng, was a Chinese diplomat, explorer, and military general of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was born in Fufeng, now Xianyang, Shaanxi. Three of his family members—father Ban Biao, elder brother ...
. Even the Kushan Empire
The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...
of Kujula Kadphises sent an army to the Tarim Basin to support Kucha, but they retreated after minor encounters.
In 124, Kucha formally submitted to the Chinese court, and by 127 China had conquered the whole of the Tarim Basin. China's control of the Silk Road facilitated the exchange of art and the progation of Buddhism from Central Asia. The Roman Maes Titianus is known to have visited the area in the 2nd century AD, as did numerous great Buddhist missionaries such as the Parthian An Shigao, the Yuezhis Lokaksema and Zhi Qian, or the Indian Chu Sho-fu (竺朔佛). The Han controlled the Tarim states until their final withdrawal in 150 AD.
Kushan Empire (2nd century AD)
The Kushan Empire
The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, i ...
expanded into the Tarim during the 2nd century AD, bringing Buddhism, Kushan art, Sanskrit as a liturgical language and Prakrit as an administrative language (in the southern Tarim states). With these Indic languages came scripts, including the Brahmi script (later adapted to write Tocharian) and the Kharosthi
The Kharoṣṭhī script, also spelled Kharoshthi (Kharosthi: ), was an ancient Indo-Iranian script used by various Aryan peoples in north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely around present-day northern Pakistan and ...
script.
From the 3rd century, Kucha became a centre of Buddhist studies. Buddhist texts
Buddhist texts are those religious texts which belong to the Buddhist tradition. The earliest Buddhist texts were not committed to writing until some centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts a ...
were translated into Chinese by Kuchean monks, the most famous of whom was Kumārajīva (344–412/5). Captured by Lü Guang of the Later Liang Later Liang may refer to the following states in Chinese history:
* Later Liang (Sixteen Kingdoms) (後涼; 386–403), one of the Sixteen Kingdoms
* Western Liang (555–587), also known as Later Liang (後梁), a state during the Southern and Nor ...
in an attack on Kucha in 384, Kumārajīva learned Chinese during his years of captivity in Gansu. In 401, he was brought to the Later Qin capital of Chang'an, where he remained as head of a translation bureau until his death in 413.
The Kizil Caves lie 65 km west of Kucha, and contain over 236 Buddhist temples. Their murals date from the 3rd to the 8th century.
Many of these murals were removed by Albert von Le Coq
Albert von Le Coq (; 8 September 1860 Berlin, Prussia – 21 April 1930 Berlin, Germany) was a Prussian/German brewery owner and wine merchant, who at the age of 40 began to study archaeology.''Schatzjagd an der Seidenstraße.'' A film by Susanne ...
and other European archaeologists in the early 20th century, and are now held in European museums, but others remain in their original locations.
An increasingly dry climate in the 4th and 5th centuries led to the abandonment of several of the southern cities, including Niya and Krorän, with a consequent shift of trade from the southern route to the northern one.
Confederations of nomadic tribes also began to jostle for supremacy.
The northern oasis states were conquered by Rouran
The Rouran Khaganate, also Juan-Juan Khaganate (), was a tribal confederation and later state founded by a people of Proto-Mongolic Donghu origin.*Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (2000)"Ji 姬 and Jiang 姜: The Role of Exogamic Clans in the Organizati ...
in the late 5th century, leaving the local leaders in place.
Flourishing of the oasis states
Kucha, the largest of the oasis cities, was ruled by royal families sometimes autonomously and sometimes as vassals of outside powers. The Chinese named these Kuchean kings by adding the prefix ''Bai'' (白), meaning "White", probably pointing to the fair complexion of the Kucheans.
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.
The '' Book of Jin'' says of the city:
The inhabitants grew red millet
''Panicum miliaceum'' is a grain crop with many common names, including proso millet, broomcorn millet, common millet, hog millet, Kashfi millet, red millet, and white millet. Archaeobotanical evidence suggests millet was first domesticated abou ...
, wheat, rice, legumes, hemp
Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...
, grapes and pomegranates, and reared horses, cattle, sheep and camels.
They also extracted a wide range of metals and minerals from the surrounding mountains.
Handicrafts included leather goods, fine felts and rugs.
In the Kizil Caves appear portraits of Royal families, composed of the King, Queen and young Prince. They are accompanied by monks, and men in caftan.References BDce-888、889, MIK III 8875, now in the Hermitage Museum. 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".
Kucha ambassador are known to have visited the Chinese court of Emperor Yuan of Liang in his capital Jingzhou in 516–520 AD, at or around the same time as the Hepthalite
The Hephthalites ( xbc, ηβοδαλο, translit= Ebodalo), sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in Iranian as the ''Spet Xyon'' and in Sanskrit as the ''Sveta-huna''), were a people who lived in Central Asia during th ...
embassies there. An ambassador from Kucha is illustrated in '' Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang'', painted in 526–539 AD, an 11th-century Song copy of which as remained.
Hephthalite conquest (circa 480–550 AD)
In the late 5th century AD the Hephthalites, based in Tokharistan
Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix ''-stan'' meaning "place of" in Persian) is an ancient Early Middle Ages name given to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources.
In the 7th and 8th century CE, Tokharistan c ...
(Bactria
Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwe ...
), expanded eastward through the Pamir Mountains
The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia and Pakistan. It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world ...
, which are comparatively easy to cross, as did the Kushans before them, due to the presence of convenient plateaus between high peaks. They occupied the western Tarim Basin (Kashgar
Kashgar ( ug, قەشقەر, Qeshqer) or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of Southern Xinjiang. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan ...
and Khotan), taking control of the area from the Ruanruan
Ruanruan (; also called Rouran) is an unclassified extinct language of Mongolia and northern China, spoken in the Rouran Khaganate from the 4th to the 6th centuries AD, considered a likely early precursor to Mongolic.
Peter A. Boodberg claime ...
s, who had been collecting heavy tribute from the oasis cities, but were now weakening under the assaults of the Chinese Wei dynasty
Wei or WEI may refer to:
States
* Wey (state) (衛, 1040–209 BC), Wei in pinyin, but spelled Wey to distinguish from the bigger Wei of the Warring States
* Wei (state) (魏, 403–225 BC), one of the seven major states of the Warring States per ...
. In 479 they took the east end of the Tarim Basin, around the region of Turfan. In 497–509, they pushed north of Turfan to the Urumchi region. In the early years of the 6th century, they were sending embassies from their dominions in the Tarim Basin to the Wei dynasty
Wei or WEI may refer to:
States
* Wey (state) (衛, 1040–209 BC), Wei in pinyin, but spelled Wey to distinguish from the bigger Wei of the Warring States
* Wei (state) (魏, 403–225 BC), one of the seven major states of the Warring States per ...
. The Hephthalites continued to occupy the Tarim Basin until the end of their Empire, circa 560 AD.
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 as Sogdiana, Bamiyan
Bamyan or Bamyan Valley (); ( prs, بامیان) also spelled Bamiyan or Bamian is the capital of Bamyan Province in central Afghanistan. Its population of approximately 70,000 people makes it the largest city in Hazarajat. Bamyan is at an alti ...
or Kucha in the Tarim Basin ( Kizil Caves, Kumtura Caves
The Kumtura Thousand Buddha Caves ( zh, t=庫木吐喇千佛洞, s=, p=Kùmùtǔlǎ Qiānfódòng) (also Qumtura) is a Buddhist cave temple site in the Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, China. The site is located some 25 km west of Kucha, Kuqa Co ...
, Subashi reliquary). 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. The paintings from the Kucha region, particularly the swordmen in the Kizil Caves, appear to have been made during Hephthalite rule in the region, circa 480–550 AD. The influence of the art of Gandhara
The Greco-Buddhist art or Gandhara art of the north Indian subcontinent is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between Ancient Greek art and Buddhism. It had mainly evolved in the ancient region of Gandhara.
The s ...
in some of the earliest paintings at the Kizil Caves, dated to circa 500 AD, is considered as a consequence of the political unification of the area between Bactria and Kucha under the Hephthalites.
Göktürks suzerainty (560 AD)
The early Turks of the First Turkic Khaganate
The First Turkic Khaganate, also referred to as the First Turkic Empire, the Turkic Khaganate or the Göktürk Khaganate, was a Turkic khaganate established by the Ashina clan of the Göktürks in medieval Inner Asia under the leadership of Bumin ...
then took control of the Turfan and Kucha areas from around 560 AD, and, in alliance with the Sasanian Empire
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...
, became instrumental in the fall of the Hepthalite Empire.
The Turks then split into Western and Eastern Khaganates by 580 AD. Tocharian royal families continued to rule Kucha, as vassals of the Western Turks, to whom they provided tribute and troops. Many surviving texts in Tocharian date from this period, and deal with a wide variety of administrative, religious and everyday topics. They also include travel passes, small slips of poplar wood giving the size of the permitted caravans for officials at the next station along the road.
In 618, king Suvarnapushpa
Suvarṇapuṣpa (सुवर्णपुष्प ''Suvarnapushpa'', "Gold Flower" in Sanskrit, ''Swarnabūspe'' in Tocharian, or directly translated as '' Ysāṣṣa a Pyāpyo'' "Golden Flower", Chinese: 苏伐勃𫘝 ''Sufaboshi'') was a King ...
of Kucha sent an embassy to the court of the Tang dynasty acknowledging vassalship."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" in
The Chinese Monk Xuanzang in 630 AD visited the cities of the Tarim Basin, and described in many details the characteristics of Kucha (屈支国, in "大唐西域记" "Tang Dynasty Account of the Western Regions"):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"
4) "There are about one hundred convents (saṅghārāmas) in this country, with five thousand and more disciples. These belong to the Little Vehicle of the school of the
Sarvāstivādas
The ''Sarvāstivāda'' (Sanskrit and Pali: 𑀲𑀩𑁆𑀩𑀢𑁆𑀣𑀺𑀯𑀸𑀤, ) was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (3rd century BCE).Westerhoff, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy ...
(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".
Tang conquest and aftermath
In the 7th century, Emperor Taizong of Tang China, having overcome theEastern Turks The Eastern Turks may refer to the following polities and their people:
* Eastern Turkic Khaganate
The Eastern Turkic Khaganate () was a Turkic khaganate formed as a result of the internecine wars in the beginning of the 7th century (AD ...
, sent his armies west to attack the Western Turks and the oasis states.
The first oasis to fall was Turfan, which was captured in 630 and annexed as part of China.
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.
Ashina She'er continued to capture Kucha, and made it the headquarters of the Tang Protectorate 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.
The Tocharian cities never recovered from the Tang conquest.
The Tang lost the Tarim basin to the Tibetan Empire in 670, but regained it in 692, and continued to rule there until it was recaptured by the Tibetans in 792.
The ruling Bai family of Kucha are last mentioned in Chinese sources in 787.
There is little mention of the region in Chinese sources for the 9th and 10th centuries.
The Uyghur Khaganate took control of the northern Tarim in 803.
After their capital in Mongolia was sacked by the Yenisei Kyrgyz in 840, they established a new state, the Kingdom of Qocho with its capital at Gaochang (near Turfan) in 866.
Over centuries of contact and intermarriage, the cultures and populations of the pastoralist rulers and their agriculturalist subjects blended together.
The Uighurs abandoned their state religion of Manichaeism in favour of Buddhism, and adopted the agricultural lifestyle and many of the customs of the oasis-dwellers.
The Tocharian language gradually disappeared as the urban population switched to the Old Uyghur language.
Epigraphy
Most of the texts known from the Tocharians are religious, except for one known love poem in Tocharian B (manuscript B-496, found in Kizil):Known rulers
Names of the rulers of Kucha are known mainly from Chinese sources. * Hong(洪, 弘), circa 16 CE * Chengde (丞德), circa 36 CE * Zeluo (则罗), circa 46 CE * Shen Du(身毒), circa 50 CE * Bin (宾), circa 72 CE * Jian (建), circa 73 CE * Youliduo 尤利多, circa 76 CE * Bai Ba(白霸), circa 91 CE * Bai Ying(白英), circa 110-127 CE * Bai Shan (白山), circa 280 CE * Long Hui(龙会), circa 326 CE * Bai Chun Chinese: 白纯 ''Baichun'', ruled circa 383 CE * Bain Zhen Chinese: 白震 ''Baizhen'', ruled circa 383 CE * Niruimo Zhunashen Chinese: 尼瑞摩珠那胜 '' Niruimo Zhunashen'', ruled circa 520 CE * Tottika (ruled in Kucha in the end of the 6th century), Chinese: 托提卡 ''Tuotika'' * Bai Sunidie Chinese: 白苏尼咥 ''Bai Sunidie'', circa 562 CE *Suvarnapuspa
Suvarṇapuṣpa (सुवर्णपुष्प ''Suvarnapushpa'', "Gold Flower" in Sanskrit, ''Swarnabūspe'' in Tocharian, or directly translated as '' Ysāṣṣa a Pyāpyo'' "Golden Flower", Chinese: 苏伐勃𫘝 ''Sufaboshi'') was a King ...
(ruled in Kucha, 600-625 CE), Chinese: 白苏伐勃𫘝 ''Bai Sufaboshi''
* Suvarnadeva (ruled in Kucha before 647), Chinese: 白蘇伐疊 ''Bai Sufadie''
* Haripushpa (ruled in Kucha from 647), Chinese: 白訶黎布失畢 ''Bai Helibushibi''
* Bai Yehu (白叶护)(648)
* Bai Helibushibi(白诃黎布失毕)650
* Bai Suji 白素稽 (659)
* Yan Tiandie 延田跌(678)
* Bai Mobi 白莫苾(708)
* Bai Jijie 白孝节(719)
* Bai Huan (ruled 731–789) Chinese: 白环, last ruler to be mentioned by Chinese sources.
See also
*List of Tocharian (Agnean-Kuchean) peoples
This is a list of the peoples that are called “Tocharians” (although now most scholars think it is a misnomer for them) also known by the name Agnean-Kuchean, a now extinct Indo-European group of peoples that were speakers of a distinct Ind ...
* Tocharian clothing
* Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves
* Sogdia
Sogdia (Sogdian language, Sogdian: ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also ...
* Takhar Province ( Afghanistan)
Notes
References
Works cited
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Further reading
Note: Recent discoveries have rendered obsolete some of René Grousset's classic ''The 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. * Baldi, Philip. 1983. ''An Introduction to the Indo-European Languages.'' Carbondale. Southern Illinois University Press. * Barber, Elizabeth Wayland. 1999. ''The Mummies of Ürümchi''. London. Pan Books. * Beekes, Robert. 1995. ''Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction.'' Philadelphia. John Benjamins. *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" in ''American Journal of Physical Anthropology'' vol. 125 pp 199ff. * Lane, George S. 1966. "On the Interrelationship of the Tocharian Dialects," in ''Ancient Indo-European Dialects'', eds. Henrik Birnbaum andJaan Puhvel
Jaan Puhvel (born 24 January 1932) is an Estonian comparative linguist and comparative mythologist who specializes in Indo-European studies.
Born in Estonia, Puhvel fled his country with his family in 1944 following the Soviet occupation o ...
. Berkeley. University of California Press.
* 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
* Walter, Mariko Namba 199"Tocharian Buddhism in Kucha: Buddhism of Indo-European Centum Speakers in Chinese Turkestan before the 10th Century C.E."
''Sino-Platonic Papers'' 85. * Xu, Wenkan 1995 "The Discovery of the Xinjiang Mummies and Studies of the Origin of the Tocharians" ''The Journal of Indo-European Studies'', Vol. 23, Number 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 1995, pp. 357–369. * Xu, Wenkan 1996 "The Tokharians and Buddhism" In: ''Studies in Central and East Asian Religions'' 9, pp. 1–17
External links
at omniglot.com
* A dictionary of Tocharian B by Douglas Q. Adams (Leiden Studies in Indo-European 10), xxxiv, 830 pp., Rodopi: Amsterdam – Atlanta, 1999
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