View source for Tocharians

{{Short description|Indo-European ethnic group}}
{{About|ancient people speaking the Tocharian languages in the Tarim Basin|the Tochari of Greco-Roman geography|Tokharistan|the ancient Indian tribe sometimes identified as "Tocharians" (Tukharas)|Tushara|the ancient Central Asian people in Chinese records controversially identified with the Tocharians|Yuezhi}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox ethnic group
|group         = Tocharians
|regions       = [[Tarim Basin]] in 1st millennium AD<br />(modern-day [[Xinjiang]], [[China]])
|image         = [[File:Royal family, Cave 17, Kizil (family detail, retouched).jpg|none|250px]]
|image_caption = Tocharian royal family of the oasis city-state of [[Kucha]] (King, Queen and fair-haired young Princes), [[:Commons:Category:Cave of the Bodhisattva Vault (Cave 17)|Cave 17]], [[Kizil Caves]]. Circa 500 AD, [[Hermitage Museum]].<ref name="sohu.com">References BDce-888、889, MIK III 8875, now in the Hermitage Museum.{{cite web |title=俄立艾爾米塔什博物館藏克孜爾石窟壁畫 |url=https://www.sohu.com/a/369632883_534369 |website=www.sohu.com |language=zh}}</ref><ref>Image 16 in {{cite book |last1=Yaldiz |first1=Marianne |title=Archèaologie unFd Kunstgeschichte Chinesisch-Zentralasiens (Xinjiang) |year=1987 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-07877-2 |page=xv |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MAV83J8cA5MC&pg=PR15 |language=de}}</ref><ref>"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." in {{cite book |last1=Ghose |first1=Rajeshwari |title=Kizil on the Silk Road: Crossroads of Commerce & Meeting of Minds |year=2008 |publisher=Marg Publications |isbn=978-81-85026-85-5 |page=127, note 22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PBnRFQtP7sYC}} "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</ref><ref name="AVLC68">{{cite book |last1=Le Coq |first1=Albert von |last2=Waldschmidt |first2=Ernst |title=Die buddhistische spätantike in Mittelasien, VI |year=1922 |publisher=Berlin, D. Reimer [etc.] |pages=68–70 |url=https://archive.org/details/diebuddhistische00leco_0/page/68/mode/2up}}</ref>
|languages     = [[Tocharian languages]]
|religions     = [[Buddhism]] and others 
|related       = [[Afanasievo culture]]
}}

{{Indo-European topics}}

The '''Tocharians''' or '''Tokharians''' ({{IPAc-en|US|t|oʊ|'|k|ɛər|i|ə|n|,|_|-|ˈ|k|ɑːr|-}} {{respell|toh|KAIR|ee|ən|,_|-|KAR|-}};<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Tocharian |title=Definition of TOCHARIAN|website=www.merriam-webster.com|access-date=2019-10-18}}</ref> {{IPAc-en|UK|t|ɒ|'|k|ɑːr|i|ə|n}} {{respell|to|KAR|ee|ən}})<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/tocharian |title=Tocharian definition and meaning {{!}} Collins English Dictionary|website=www.collinsdictionary.com|access-date=2019-10-18}}</ref> were speakers of the [[Tocharian languages]], a group of [[Indo-European languages]] known from around 7,600 documents from the 6th and 7th centuries, found on the northern edge of the [[Tarim Basin]] (modern-day [[Xinjiang]], [[China]]).<ref name="Tocharian Online"/>{{sfnp|Mallory|2015|p=4}} 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 ''[[Tokharistan|Tókharoi]]'' ({{langx|la|Tochari}}), who inhabited [[Bactria]] 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. Their [[Endonym and exonym|endonym]] is unknown, although they may have referred to themselves as the ''[[Karasahr|Agni]]'', ''[[Kucha|Kuči]]'', and ''[[Krorän]]'' or as the ''Agniya'' and ''Kuchiya'' known from [[Sanskrit]] texts.<ref name="MNW"/>{{clarification needed|date=November 2022|reason=What is the relationship of these two lists to each other, and what precisely are the individual names within each list referring to?}}

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 ({{Circa|3500–2500 BC}}) in Siberia, north of the Tarim or Central Asian [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex|BMAC]] culture. The earliest [[Tarim mummies]] date from {{Circa|1800 BC}}, but it is unclear whether they are connected to the Tocharians of two millennia later. This once theorized ancestry between Tocharians and these mummies is however now largely considered to be discredited by the absence of a genetic connection with Indo-European-speaking migrants, particularly the [[Afanasievo]] or [[Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex|BMAC]] cultures.<ref name="Zhang">{{harvnb|Zhang|2021}}: "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."</ref>

By the 2nd century BC, these settlements had developed into [[city-state]]s, 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 [[Silk Road]] that ran along the northern edge of the [[Taklamakan Desert]].

For several centuries, the Tarim basin was ruled by the [[Xiongnu]], the [[Han dynasty]], the [[Tibetan Empire]], and the [[Tang dynasty]]. From the 8th&nbsp;century&nbsp;AD, the [[Uyghur Khaganate|Uyghurs]] – speakers of a [[Turkic language]] – settled in the region and founded the [[Qocho|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&nbsp;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 [[Tocharian script|a close variation]] of the already deciphered Indian [[Middle-Brahmi script]]. These languages were designated in similar fashion by their geographical neighbours:{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC&pg=PA381 380-381]}}

* A Buddhist work in [[Old Turkic language|Old Turkic]] ([[Uyghurs|Uyghur]]), included a [[colophon (publishing)|colophon]] stating that the text had been translated from [[Sanskrit]] via ''toxrï tyly'' (''Tωγry tyly'', "The language of the Togari").<ref>{{cite web |title=Introduction to Tocharian |url=https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/tokol |website=lrc.la.utexas.edu}}</ref>{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC&pg=PA381 380-381]}}<ref name="MNW"/>
* 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]]."{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC&pg=PA381 380-381]}}

[[Friedrich W. K. Müller]] was the first to propose a characterization for the newly discovered languages.<ref name="Tocharian Online">{{cite web |given1=Todd B. |surname1=Krause |given2=Jonathan |surname2=Slocum |title=Tocharian Online: Series Introduction |publisher=University of Texas at Austin |url=https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/tokol |access-date=17 April 2020 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC&pg=PA381 380-383]}} Müller called the languages "[[Tocharian language|Tocharian]]" (German ''Tocharisch''), linking this ''toxrï'' (Tωγry, "Togari")<ref name="MNW">{{cite journal |last1=Namba Walter |first1=Mariko |title=Tokharian Buddhism in Kucha: Buddhism of Indo-European Centum Speakers in Chinese Turkestan before the 10th Century C.E. |journal=Sino-Platonic Papers |date=1998 |volume=85 |page=2, note 4 |url=http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp085_tokharian_buddhism_kucha.pdf}}</ref> with the ethnonym ''Tókharoi'' ({{Langx|grc|Τόχαροι}}) applied by [[Strabo]] to one of the "[[Saka|Scythian]]" tribes "from the country on the other side of the [[Jaxartes|Iaxartes]]" that overran the [[Greco-Bactrian kingdom]] (present day [[Afghanistan]]) in the second half of the 2nd&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC.{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5jG1eHe3y4EC&pg=PA381 380-383]}}<ref>Also [[Ptolemy]] VI, 11, 6, 2nd&nbsp;century&nbsp;AD</ref>{{efn|1="Most of the Scythians, beginning from the [[Caspian Sea]], are called [[Dahae]] Scythae, and those situated more towards the east [[Massagetae]] and [[Saka|Sacae]]; 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 of [[Bactria]]na, the Asii, Pasiani, Tochari, and Sacarauli, who came from the country on the other side of the [[Jaxartes|Iaxartes]], opposite the Sacae and [[Sogdians|Sogdiani]]" ([[Strabo]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0198%3Abook%3D11%3Achapter%3D8%3Asection%3D2 11-8-2])}} This term also appears in Indo-Iranian languages ([[Sanskrit]] ''[[Tushara]]''/''Tukhāra'', [[Old Persian]] ''tuxāri-'', [[Saka language|Khotanese]] ''ttahvāra''), and became the source of the term "[[Tokharistan]]" usually referring to 1st millennium [[Bactria]], 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]].{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|pp=270–297}}{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=83–84}}

Müller's identification became a minority position among scholars when it turned out that the people of [[Tokharistan]] ([[Bactria]]) spoke [[Bactrian language|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.<ref name="Tocharian Online"/>{{sfnp|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=509}} A few scholars argue that the Yuezhi were originally speakers of Tocharian who later adopted the Bactrian language.{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|p=381}}

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".{{sfnp|Adams|2013|p=198}}
The Tocharian B word ''akeññe'' may have referred to people of Agni, with a derivation meaning "borderers, marchers".{{sfnp|Adams|2013|pp=2–3}} One of the Tocharian A texts has ''ārśi-käntwā'' as a name for their own language, so that ''ārśi'' might have meant "Agnean", though "monk" is also possible.{{sfnp|Adams|2013|p=57}}

Tocharian kings apparently gave themselves the title ''Ñäktemts soy'' (in Tocharian B), an equivalent of the title ''Devaputra'' ("Son of God") of the [[Kushans]].<ref>"According to linguists, the kings of Kucha called themselves "ñäktemts soy" (in Tocharian B), which is equivalent to Devaputra (an epithet commonly used by the Kuşāņa kings) meaning "Son of deva or God" in {{cite book |last1=Pande |first1=Anupa |last2=Sharma |first2=Mandira |title=The Art of Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent in Cross-cultural Perspective |year=2009 |publisher=Aryan Books International |isbn=978-81-7305-347-4 |page=133, note 22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vfZIAQAAIAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Skalmowski |first1=Wojciech |last2=Tongerloo |first2=Alois van |title=Middle Iranian Studies: Proceedings of the International Symposium Organized by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven from the 17th to the 20th of May 1982 |year=1984 |publisher=Peeters Publishers |isbn=978-90-70192-14-3 |pages=197–198 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=41SUliwjYmgC&pg=PA198}}</ref>

==Languages==
{{main article|Proto-Tocharian language|Tocharian languages}}
[[File:Figure of nobility, Cave 17, Kizil.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Figure of Tocharian nobility, [[:Commons:Category:Cave of the Bodhisattva Vault (Cave 17)|Cave 17]], [[Kizil Caves]], circa 500 AD]]
The Tocharian languages are known from around 7600&nbsp;documents dating from about 400 to 1200&nbsp;AD, found at 30&nbsp;sites in the northeast Tarim area.{{sfnp|Mallory|2015|pp=6–7}} The manuscripts are written in two distinct, but closely related, [[Indo-European languages]], conventionally known as Tocharian&nbsp;A and Tocharian&nbsp;B.{{sfnp|Winter|1998|p=154}} According to glotto-chronological data, Tocharian languages are closest to Western Indo-European languages such as proto-Germanic or proto-Italian, and being devoid of [[satemization]] predate the evolution of eastern Indo-European languages.{{sfn|Kovalev|2011|p=17}}

Tocharian&nbsp;A (Agnean or East Tocharian) was found in the northeastern oases known to the Tocharians as [[Karasahr|Ārśi]], later Agni (i.e. Chinese Yanqi; modern Karasahr) and [[Turpan]] (including [[Gaochang|Khocho]] or Qočo; known in Chinese as Gaochang).
Some 500&nbsp;manuscripts have been studied in detail, mostly coming from Buddhist monasteries.
Many authors take this to imply that Tocharian&nbsp;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.{{sfnp|Mallory|2015|p=4}}

Tocharian&nbsp;B (Kuchean or West Tocharian) was found at all the Tocharian&nbsp;A sites and also in several sites further west, including [[Kucha|Kuchi]] (later Kucha). It appears to have still been in use in daily life at that time.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://enlil.ff.cuni.cz/system/files/tocharian.pdf |title=Introduction to Tocharian |author=Kim, Ronald |year=2012 |page=30 |access-date=2014-05-01 |archive-date=2018-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180716165640/http://enlil.ff.cuni.cz/system/files/tocharian.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Over 3200&nbsp;manuscripts have been studied in detail.{{sfnp|Mallory|2015|p=4}}

The languages had significant differences in phonology, morphology and vocabulary, making them mutually unintelligible "at least as much as modern Germanic or Romance languages".{{sfnp|Winter|1998|p=155}}{{sfnp|Mallory|2015|p=7}}
Tocharian&nbsp;A shows innovations in the vowels and nominal inflection, whereas Tocharian&nbsp;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.{{sfnp|Winter|1998|p=155}}

[[File:Se pañäkte saṅketavattse ṣarsa papaiykau.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|The [[Tocharian script]] is very similar to the Indian [[Brahmi script]] from the [[Kushan Empire|Kushan]] period, with only slight variations in calligraphy. Tocharian language inscription: ''Se pañäkte saṅketavattse ṣarsa papaiykau'' "This Buddha was painted by the hand of Sanketava",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Härtel |first1=Herbert |last2=Yaldiz |first2=Marianne |last3=Kunst (Germany) |first3=Museum für Indische |last4=N.Y.) |first4=Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York |title=Along the Ancient Silk Routes: Central Asian Art from the West Berlin State Museums : an Exhibition Lent by the Museum Für Indische Kunst, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany |year=1982 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-0-87099-300-8 |page=107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BLuaphht8XwC&pg=PA107}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Le Coq |first1=Albert von |title=Die Buddhistische Spätantike in Mittelasien : vol.5 |page=10 |url=http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/LFB-2/V-5/page-hr/0014.html.en}}</ref> on a painting [[carbon dated]] to 245-340 AD.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Waugh (Historian, University of Washington) |first1=Daniel C. |title=MIA Berlin: Turfan Collection: Kizil |url=https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/museums/mia/kizil.html |website=depts.washington.edu}}</ref>]]
The differences indicate that they diverged from a common ancestor between 500 and 1000&nbsp;years before the earliest documents, that is, sometime in the 1st&nbsp;millennium&nbsp;BC.{{sfnp|Mallory|2015|pp=7–8}} Common Indo-European vocabulary retained in Tocharian includes words for herding, cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, horses, textiles, farming, wheat, gold, silver, and wheeled vehicles.{{sfnp|Mallory|2015|pp=17–19}}

[[Prakrit]] documents from 3rd&nbsp;century [[Krorän]], Andir and [[Niya (Tarim Basin)|Niya]] on the southeast edge of the Tarim Basin contain around 100 loanwords and 1000&nbsp;proper names that cannot be traced to an [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indic]] or Iranian source.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|pp=277–278}} [[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.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|pp=278–279}}
Burrow's theory is widely accepted, but the evidence is meagre and inconclusive, and some scholars favour alternative explanations.{{sfnp|Mallory|2015|pp=6–7}}

== Religion ==
[[File:Maya Cave 224, Tocharian Prince mourning the Buddha.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Tocharian Prince mourning the Cremation of the Buddha, in [[:File:Maya Cave 224, mural 3.jpg|a mural]] from Maya Cave (224) in [[Kizil Caves|Kizil]]. He is cutting his forehead with a knife, a practice of self-mutilation also known among the [[Scythians]].<ref name="AVLC80">{{cite book |last1=Le Coq |first1=Albert von |last2=Waldschmidt |first2=Ernst |title=Die buddhistische spätantike in Mittelasien, VI |year=1922 |publisher=Berlin, D. Reimer [etc.] |pages=80–81 |url=https://archive.org/details/diebuddhistische00leco_0/page/80/mode/2up}}</ref>]]
Most of the Tocharian inscriptions are based on [[Buddhist]] monastic 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 religion|Proto-Indo-European]] [[sun goddess]] and the [[Hausos|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.{{sfnp|Snow|2002|p={{page needed|date=February 2021}}}} Tocharian B has a noun {{linktext|swāñco}} derived from the name of the Proto-Indo-European sun goddess, while Tocharian A has {{linktext|koṃ}}, a loanword etymologically connected to the Turkic sun goddess [[Gun Ana]]. Besides this, they might have also worshipped a [[lunar deity]] ({{linktext|meñ-}}) and an earth one ({{linktext|keṃ-}}).{{sfnp|Mallory|2015|p={{page needed|date=February 2021}}}}

The murals found in the [[Tarim Basin]], especially those of the [[Kizil Caves]], mostly depict [[Jataka]] stories, [[avadana]]s, and legends of the Buddha, and are an artistic representation in the tradition of the [[Hinayana]] school of the [[Sarvastivada]]s.<ref name="tokharian">{{cite journal |title=Tokharian Buddhism in Kucha: Buddhism of Indo-European Centum Speakers in Chinese Turkestan before the 10th Century C.E |url=http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp085_tokharian_buddhism_kucha.pdf |journal=Sino-Platonic Papers |author=Manko Namba Walter |number=85 |date=October 1998 }}</ref> When the Chinese Monk [[Xuanzang]] visited [[Kucha]] in 630 AD, he received the favours of the Tocharian king Suvarnadeva, the son and successor of [[Suvarnapushpa]], whom he described as a believer of [[Hinayana]] Buddhism.{{sfn|Grousset|1970|p=99}} 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 [[Hinayana|Little Vehicle]] of the school of the [[Sarvāstivādas]] (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)."<ref name="DCW"/><ref name="Psychology Press">{{cite book |last1=Beal |first1=Samuel |title=Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World : Translated from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang (A.D. 629) |year=2000 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-24469-5 |page=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kmISY_Z7bEgC&pg=PA19}}, also available in: {{cite web |title=Kingdom of K'iu-chi (Kucha or Kuche) [Chapter 2] |url=https://www.wisdomlib.org/south-asia/book/buddhist-records-of-the-western-world-xuanzang/d/doc220147.html#note-e-86576 |website=www.wisdomlib.org |access-date=30 December 2020 |date=27 June 2018}}</ref><ref name="屈支国 in 大唐西域记/01 - 维基文库，自由的图书馆">{{cite web |title="屈支国" in 大唐西域记/01 - 维基文库，自由的图书馆 |url=https://zh.m.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E5%A4%A7%E5%94%90%E8%A5%BF%E5%9F%9F%E8%A8%98/01 |website=zh.m.wikisource.org |publisher=Wikisource}}</ref>

==Proposed precursors==
The route by which speakers of Indo-European languages reached the Tarim Basin is uncertain.
A leading contender is the [[Afanasievo culture]], who occupied the Altai region to the north between 3300 and 2500 BC.

===Afanasievo culture===
{{ Annotated image 
| image=Indo-European migrations.jpg
| width=400 | image-width = 400 | image-left=0 | image-top=0| float = right
| annotations =
{{Annotation|text-align=center|260|10|[[Afanasievo culture|Afanasievo<br>culture]]|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=10|color=#FF4500}}
{{Annotation|230|73|Tocharians|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=10|color=#000000}}
{{Annotation|270|56|[[File:Feather-arrows-arrow-down-left.svg|20px]]}}
{{Annotation|text-align=center|205|113|[[Indo-Aryans]]|font-weight=bold|font-style=normal|font-size=7|color=#FF4500}}
| caption=[[Indo-European migrations]], with location of the [[Afanasievo culture]] (genetically identical to the [[Yamnaya culture]] of the [[Pontic steppes]]) and their probable Tocharian descendants.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Narasimhan |first1=Vagheesh M. |last2=Patterson |first2=Nick |last3=Moorjani |first3=Priya |last4=Rohland |first4=Nadin |last5=Bernardos |first5=Rebecca |title=The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia |journal=Science |date=6 September 2019 |volume=365 |issue=6457 |pages=eaat7487 |issn=0036-8075 |doi=10.1126/science.aat7487 |pmid=31488661 |pmc=6822619 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
}}
[[File:Chemurchek statue Khukh uzuuriin dugui I - 1.png|thumb|upright=0.5|Chemurchek statue, Khukh uzuuriin dugui I - 1. [[Bulgan, Khovd]], [[Mongolia]]{{sfn|Kovalev|2012|p=124, statue 55}}]]
The Afanasievo culture resulted from an eastern offshoot of the [[Yamnaya culture]], originally based in the [[Pontic steppe]] north of the [[Caucasus Mountains]].<ref name="Allentoft 2015">{{cite journal |last1=Allentoft |first1=ME |date=June 11, 2015 |title=Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |publisher=[[Nature Research]] |volume=522 |issue=7555 |pages=167–172 |bibcode= 2015Natur.522..167A|doi=10.1038/nature14507 |pmid=26062507 |s2cid=4399103 |url= https://depot.ceon.pl/bitstream/123456789/13155/2/nature14507.pdf}}</ref> The Afanasevo culture (c.&nbsp;3500–2500&nbsp;BC) displays cultural and genetic connections with the Indo-European-associated cultures of the Central Asian steppe yet predates the specifically [[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian]]-associated [[Andronovo culture]] (c.&nbsp;2000–900&nbsp;BC).

[[J. P. Mallory]] and [[Victor H. Mair]] argued that the Tarim Basin was first settled by [[Proto-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.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|pp=314–318}}  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 languages|Indo-Iranian]] linguistic innovations like [[satemization]].{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|pp=294–296, 317–318}} 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 [[Proto-Indo-European language|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 language|agglutinative]] case system.<ref>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</ref>

Chao Ning et al. (2019) found in burials from around 200 BC at the [[Shirenzigou site]] on the eastern edge of [[Dzungaria]] 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.<ref>{{cite journal
|given1=Chao |surname1=Ning |given2=Chuan-Chao |surname2=Wang |given3=Shizhu |surname3=Gao |given4=Yang |surname4=Yang |given5=Xue |surname5=Zhang |given6=Xiyan |surname6=Wu |given7=Fan |surname7=Zhang |given8=Zhongzhi |surname8=Nie
|given9=Yunpeng |surname9=Tang |given10=Martine |surname10=Robbeets |given11=Jian |surname11=Ma |given12=Johannes |surname12=Krause |given13=Yinqiu |surname13=Cui
|title=Ancient Genomes Reveal Yamnaya-Related Ancestry and a Potential Source of Indo-European Speakers in Iron Age Tianshan
|journal=Current Biology |year=2019 |volume=29 |issue=15 |pages=2526–2532.e4
|doi=10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.044 |doi-access=free |pmid=31353181 |bibcode=2019CBio...29E2526N }}</ref>

===Chemurchek culture===
According to archaeologist Alexey Kovalev, the [[Chemurchek 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.{{sfn|Kovalev|2011|p=17}} 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.{{sfn|Kovalev|2011|p=17}} 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.{{sfn|Kovalev|2011|p=17}}

==Tarim Basin==

=== Early settlement ===
The [[Taklamakan Desert]] is roughly oval in shape, about 1,000&nbsp;km long and 400&nbsp;km wide, surrounded on three sides by high mountains.
The main part of the desert is sandy, surrounded by a belt of gravel desert.{{sfnp|Chen|Hiebert|1995|p=247}}
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 [[microclimate]]s and supporting intensive agriculture.{{sfnp|Chen|Hiebert|1995|p=247}}
On the northern edge of the basin, these oases occur in small valleys before the gravels.{{sfnp|Chen|Hiebert|1995|p=247}}
On the southern edge, they occur in [[alluvial fan]]s 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.{{sfnp|Chen|Hiebert|1995|p=248}}
From around 2000&nbsp;BC, these oases supported Bronze Age settled agricultural communities of steadily increasing sophistication.{{sfnp|Chen|Hiebert|1995|pp=250–272}}

The necessary irrigation technology was first developed during the 3rd&nbsp;millennium&nbsp;BC in the [[Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex]] (BMAC) to the west of the [[Pamir mountains]], but it is unclear how it reached the Tarim.{{sfnp|Chen|Hiebert|1995|p=245}}{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|pp=262, 269}} The staple crops, wheat and barley, also originated in the west.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=269}}

===Tarim mummies===
{{main|Tarim mummies}}
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=400|caption_align=center
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| caption1  = One of the [[Tarim mummies]]
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| caption2  = "[[Loulan]] beauty"
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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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shuicheng |first1=Li |title=Bulletin |date=2003 |publisher=Fälth & Hässler |location=Stockholm |page=13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_kzrAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA13 |language=en}} "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.</ref>
A genetic study of remains from the oldest layer of the [[Xiaohe Cemetery]] found that the [[human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup|maternal lineages]] were a mixture of east and west Eurasian types, while all the [[human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup|paternal lineages]] were of west Eurasian type.{{sfnp|Li|Li|Cui|Xie|2010}}
It is unknown whether they are connected with the frescoes painted at Tocharian sites more than two&nbsp;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.<ref name="Zhang"></ref>

The mummies were found with plaid-woven tapestries that are notably similar to the weaving pattern of the "tartan" style of the [[Hallstatt culture]] of central Europe, associated with [[Celts]]; the wool used in the tapestries was found to come from sheep with European ancestry.<ref>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..."</ref>

A 2021 genetic study demonstrated that the Tarim mummies were unrelated to Afanasievo populations and instead were a genetic isolate descending mainly from [[Ancient North Eurasian]]s.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Zhang|first1=F|last2=Ning|first2=C|last3=Scott|first3=A|display-authors=etal|date=2021|title=The genomic origins of the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies|journal=Nature|volume=599|issue=7884|pages=256–261|doi=10.1038/s41586-021-04052-7|pmid=34707286|pmc=8580821|bibcode=2021Natur.599..256Z}}</ref>

===Later migrations===
Later, groups of [[nomadic pastoralism|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 the [[Wusun]] and [[Yuezhi]].{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=318}}
It is thought that at least some of them spoke [[Iranian languages]],{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=318}}
but a minority of scholars suggest that the Yuezhi were Tocharian speakers.<ref>{{cite book |author=John E. Hill |title=Through the Jade Gate to Rome |page=311 |publisher=Booksurge Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4392-2134-1 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Beckwith|2009|pp=84, 380–383}}

During the 1st&nbsp;millennium&nbsp;BC, a further wave of immigrants, the [[Saka]] speaking Iranian languages, arrived from the west and settled along the southern rim of the Tarim.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|pp=268, 318}}
They are believed to be the source of Iranian loanwords in Tocharian languages, particularly related to commerce and warfare.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|pp=310–311, 318}} The [[Subeshi culture]] is a candidate for the Iron Age predecessors of the Tocharians.{{sfnp|Mallory|2015|p=24}}

== Oasis states ==
[[File:Larger Tarim oasis states (1st century BC).svg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Major oasis states of the ancient Tarim Basin]]
{{Continental Asia in 500 CE |right|{{center|The Tocharians and contemporary Asian polities c. 500 AD.}}||Map of Tocharian areas.png}}
The first record of the oasis states is found in Chinese histories. The ''[[Book of Han]]'' lists 36&nbsp;statelets in the Tarim basin in the last two centuries BC.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=66}} These oases served as waystations on the trade routes forming part of the [[Silk Road]] passing along the northern and southern edges of the Taklamakan desert.{{sfnp|Millward|2021|p=6}} 

The largest were [[Kucha]] with 81,000&nbsp;inhabitants and [[Karasahr|Agni]] (Yanqi or Karashar) with 32,000.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|pp=68, 72}} Next was the [[Loulan 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.{{sfnp|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=591}} Situated on the northern and southern edges of the Tarim, these small urban societies were overshadowed by [[Eurasian nomads|nomadic 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.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=72}}

=== Xiongnu and Han empires ===
In 177&nbsp;BC, the [[Xiongnu]] drove the [[Yuezhi]] from western Gansu, causing most of them to flee west to the [[Ili Valley]] and then to [[Bactria]]. The Xiongnu then overcame the Tarim statelets, which became a vital part of their empire.{{sfnp|Yü|1986|pp=405, 407}}
The Chinese [[Han dynasty]] was determined to weaken their Xiongnu enemies by depriving them of this area.{{sfnp|Yü|1986|p=407}}
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&nbsp;BC under [[Zheng Ji (general)|Zheng Ji]].{{sfnp|Yü|1986|pp=409–411}}
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&nbsp;BC) to cow the rest, and the massacre of the entire population of [[Luntai]] (80&nbsp;km east of Kucha) when they resisted.{{sfnp|Loewe|1979|p=49}}

During the [[Eastern Han|Later Han]] (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.{{sfn|Grousset|1970|p=40-47}} In 74 AD, Chinese troops started to take control of the Tarim Basin with the conquest of [[Turfan]].{{sfn|Grousset|1970|p=42}} 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]].{{sfn|Grousset|1970|p=45-46}} Even the [[Kushan Empire]] of [[Kujula Kadphises]] sent an army to the Tarim Basin to support Kucha, but they retreated after minor encounters.{{sfn|Grousset|1970|p=45-46}}

In 124, [[Kucha]] formally submitted to the Chinese court, and by 127 China had conquered the whole of the Tarim Basin.{{sfn|Grousset|1970|p=48}} China's control of the Silk Road facilitated the exchange of art and the progation of [[Buddhism]] from Central Asia.{{sfn|Grousset|1970|p=47-48}} The Roman [[Maes Titianus]] is known to have visited the area in the 2nd century AD,{{sfn|Grousset|1970|p=40, 48}} as did numerous great Buddhist missionaries such as the [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] [[An Shigao]], the [[Yuezhi]]s [[Lokaksema (Buddhist monk)|Lokaksema]] and [[Zhi Qian]], or the Indian Chu Sho-fu (竺朔佛).{{sfnp|Grousset|1970|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=CHzGvqRbV_IC&pg=PA49 49 ff]}} The Han controlled the Tarim states until their final withdrawal in 150&nbsp;AD.{{sfnp|Hansen|2012|p=66}}{{sfnp|Millward|2021|p=23}}

====Kushan Empire (2nd century AD)====
[[File:Devotees of the Cave of the Hippocampi, Kizil Caves.jpg|thumb|upright=2|Tocharian kneeling devotees circa 300 AD, in the paintings of the ''[[:Commons:Category:Cave of the Hippocampi (Cave 118)|Cave of the Hippocampi]]'' (Cave 118), [[Kizil Caves]].<ref name="MMRB651">{{cite book |last1=Rhie |first1=Marylin Martin |title=Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia, Volume 2 The Eastern Chin and Sixteen Kingdoms Period in China and Tumshuk, Kucha and Karashahr in Central Asia (2 vols) |date=15 July 2019 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-39186-4 |pages=651 ff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ogD1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA651}}</ref>]]
The [[Kushan Empire]] 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).{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=97}} With these Indic languages came scripts, including the [[Brahmi script]] (later adapted to write Tocharian) and the [[Kharosthi]] script.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=115}}

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 was [[Kumārajīva]] (344–412/5).{{sfnp|Walter|1998|pp=5–9}}{{sfnp|Hansen|2012|p=66}} Captured by [[Lü Guang]] of the [[Later Liang (Sixteen Kingdoms)|Later Liang]] 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.{{sfnp|Millward|2021|pp=27–28}}{{sfnp|Hansen|2012|p=68}}

The [[Kizil Caves]] lie 65&nbsp;km west of Kucha, and contain over 236&nbsp;Buddhist temples. Their murals date from the 3rd to the 8th&nbsp;century.{{sfnp|Walter|1998|pp=21–17}}
Many of these murals were removed by [[Albert von Le Coq]] and other European archaeologists in the early 20th&nbsp;century, and are now held in European museums, but others remain in their original locations.{{sfnp|Hansen|2012|pp=61–65}}

An increasingly dry climate in the 4th and 5th&nbsp;centuries led to the abandonment of several of the southern cities, including [[Niya (Tarim Basin)|Niya]] and Krorän, with a consequent shift of trade from the southern route to the northern one.{{sfnp|Millward|2021|pp=25–26}}
Confederations of nomadic tribes also began to jostle for supremacy.
The northern oasis states were conquered by [[Rouran Khaganate|Rouran]] in the late 5th&nbsp;century, leaving the local leaders in place. The nearby area of [[Gaochang]] and the [[Jushi Kingdom]] were alternatively ruled as a Chinese Prefecture, taken over by the [[Northern Liang]] in 442 CE, conquered by the [[Rouran Khaganate]] in 460, and conquered by the [[Tiele people|Gaoju Turks]] in 488.

=== Flourishing of the oasis states ===
[[File:Cave_123_complete_with_sides.jpg|thumb|upright|The Buddhist ''[[:Commons:Category:Cave with the Ring-Bearing Doves (Kizil)|Cave with the Ring-Bearing Doves]]'' (Cave 123) at the [[Kizil Caves]]  near [[Kucha]], built circa 430-530 AD.]]
Kucha, the largest of the oasis cities, was ruled by royal families sometimes autonomously and sometimes as vassals of outside powers.{{sfnp|Hansen|2012|pp=66, 75}} The Chinese named these Kuchean kings by adding the prefix ''Bai'' (白), meaning "White", probably pointing to the fair complexion of the Kucheans.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Puri |first1=Baij Nath |title=Buddhism in Central Asia |year=1987 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. |isbn=978-81-208-0372-5 |page=79 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sluKZfTrr3oC&pg=PA79}}</ref> 
The government included some 30&nbsp;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.{{sfnp|Di Cosmo|2000|p=398}}
The ''[[Book of Jin]]'' says of the city:
{{blockquote|text=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.|title=''Book of Jin'', Chapter&nbsp;97{{sfnp|Millward|2021|p=28}}}}

[[File:Cave of the Painters (detail of the Monks).jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|left|Monks from the Cave of the Painters circa 500 AD, [[Kizil Caves]].]]
The inhabitants grew [[red millet]], wheat, rice, legumes, [[hemp]], grapes and pomegranates, and reared horses, cattle, sheep and camels.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=73}}

They also extracted a wide range of metals and minerals from the surrounding mountains.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=74}}
Handicrafts included leather goods, fine felts and rugs.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=74}}

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.<ref name="sohu.com">References BDce-888、889, MIK III 8875, now in the Hermitage Museum.{{cite web |title=俄立艾爾米塔什博物館藏克孜爾石窟壁畫 |url=https://www.sohu.com/a/369632883_534369 |website=www.sohu.com |language=zh}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rowland |first1=Benjamin|page=155 |title=The art of Central Asia |date=1975 |publisher=New York, Crown |url=https://archive.org/details/artofcentralasia00rowl/page/154/mode/2up}}</ref>

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]] 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)====
[[File:Kucha ambassador to the Southern Liang court 516-520 CE.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|Ambassador from [[Kucha]] (龜茲國 ''Qiuci-guo''), one of the main Tocharian cities, visiting the Chinese [[Liang dynasty|Southern Liang]] court in [[Jingzhou]] circa 516–520 AD at the time of [[Hephthalite]] domination over the region, with explanatory text. ''[[Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang]]'', 11th century Song copy.]]
In the late 5th century AD the [[Hephthalites]], based in [[Tokharistan]] ([[Bactria]]), expanded eastward through the [[Pamir Mountains]], which are comparatively easy to cross, as did the [[Kushan Empire|Kushans]] before them, due to the presence of convenient plateaus between high peaks.{{sfnp|Millward|2021|p=37}} They occupied the western [[Tarim Basin]] ([[Kashgar]] and [[Khotan]]), taking control of the area from the [[Rouran Khaganate|Rouran]]s, who had been collecting heavy tribute from the oasis cities, but were now weakening under the assaults of the Chinese [[Northern Wei|Wei dynasty]].{{sfnp|Millward|2021|p=30}} 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 [[Northern Wei|Wei dynasty]]. The Hephthalites continued to occupy the Tarim Basin until the end of their Empire, circa 560 AD.{{sfnp|Millward|2021|pp=30, 408}}

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]] or [[Kucha]] in the [[Tarim Basin]] ([[Kizil Caves]], [[Kumtura Caves]], [[Subashi Temple|Subashi reliquary]]).<ref name="EK200"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ilyasov |first1=Jangar |title=The Hephthalite Terracotta // Silk Road Art and Archaeology. Vol. 7. Kamakura, 2001, 187–200 |journal=Silk Road Art and Archaeology |date=2001 |pages=187–197 |url=https://www.academia.edu/24635305}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS xiv. E. Iranian Art – Encyclopaedia Iranica |url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/chinese-iranian-xiv |website=www.iranicaonline.org}}</ref> 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.<ref name="EK200"/> 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.<ref name="EK200">{{cite journal |last1=Kageyama |first1=Etsuko |title=Change of suspension systems of daggers and swords in eastern Eurasia: Its relation to the Hephthalite occupation of Central Asia |journal=ZINBUN |date=2016 |volume=46 |pages=200–202 |url=https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/209942/1/zinbun_46_199.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kurbanov |first1=Aydogdy |title=THE HEPHTHALITES: ICONOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS |journal=Tyragetia |date=2014 |volume=8 |page=329 |url=http://oaji.net/articles/2017/4586-1488311404.pdf}}</ref> The influence of the [[art of Gandhara]] 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.<ref>Kageyama quoting the research of S. Hiyama, "Study on the first-style murals of Kucha: analysis of some motifs related to the Hephthalite's period", in {{cite journal |last1=Kageyama |first1=Etsuko |title=Change of suspension systems of daggers and swords in eastern Eurasia: Its relation to the Hephthalite occupation of Central Asia |journal=ZINBUN |date=2016 |volume=46 |page=200 |url=https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/209942/1/zinbun_46_199.pdf}}</ref>

====Göktürks suzerainty (560 AD)====
[[File:King Suvarnapusa of Kucha, Cave 69, Kizil.jpg|thumb|upright|left|King [[Suvarnapushpa]] of Kucha is historically known and ruled 600–625 AD. Cave 69, [[Kizil Caves]].]]
The early Turks of the [[First Turkic Khaganate]] then took control of the [[Turfan]] and [[Kucha]] areas from around 560 AD, and, in alliance with the [[Sasanian Empire]], became instrumental in the fall of the [[Hephthalite Empire]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hiyama |first1=Satomi |title=Reflection on the Geopolitical Context of the Silk Road in the First and Second Indo-Iranian Style Wall Paintings in Kucha |journal=Silk Road – Meditations: 2015 International Conference on the Kizil Cave Paintings, Collection of Research Papers |date=September 2015 |page=81 |url=https://www.academia.edu/18453844}}</ref>

The [[Göktürks|Turks]] then split into [[Western Turkic Khaganate|Western]] and [[Eastern Turkic Khaganate|Eastern]] Khaganates by 580 AD.{{sfnp|Hansen|2012|p=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195159318/page/75/mode/2up 75]}} Tocharian royal families continued to rule Kucha, as vassals of the [[Western Turks]], to whom they provided tribute and troops.{{sfnp|Hansen|2012|p=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195159318/page/75/mode/2up 75]}} Many surviving texts in Tocharian date from this period, and deal with a wide variety of administrative, religious and everyday topics.{{sfnp|Hansen|2012|p=76}} They also include travel passes, small slips of [[Populus euphratica|poplar]] wood giving the size of the permitted caravans for officials at the next station along the road.{{sfnp|Hansen|2012|p=77}}

[[File:Kizil 16, sword-bearers.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Tocharian knights from [[Kizil Caves]] ([[Commons:Category:Cave of the Sixteen Sword-Bearers|Cave 16]]). Circa 600 AD]]
In 618, king [[Suvarnapushpa]] of Kucha sent an embassy to the court of the [[Tang dynasty]] acknowledging vassalship.<ref name="GV">"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 {{cite journal |last1=Vignato |first1=Giuseppe |title=Archaeological Survey of Kizil: Its Groups of Caves, Districts, Chronology and Buddhist Schools |journal=East and West |date=2006 |volume=56 |issue=4 |page=405, note 71 |jstor=29757697 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29757697 |issn=0012-8376}}</ref>{{sfn|Grousset|1970|p=99}}<ref>"618年，汉名为苏伐勃駃（梵文Suvarna pushpa，意为金色的花朵）的库车王向隋场帝表示归顺。" in {{cite book |last1=Grousset |first1=René |title=草原帝国 (L'Empire des Steppes) |page=138 |url=https://archive.org/details/shijiemingzhuB/B0806%E8%8D%89%E5%8E%9F%E5%B8%9D%E5%9B%BD/page/n149/mode/2up}}</ref>

In 630, the [[Han Chinese|Chinese]] [[Chinese Buddhism|Buddhist]] [[Buddhist monk|monk]] [[Xuanzang]] visited the cities of the Tarim Basin on his pilgrimage to India. He later described the characteristics of Kucha ({{lang|zh|屈支国}}) in great detail in his ''[[Records of the Western Regions]]'':<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rowland |first1=Benjamin|page=151 |title=The art of Central Asia |date=1975 |publisher=New York, Crown |url=https://archive.org/details/artofcentralasia00rowl/page/150/mode/2up}}</ref><ref name="Psychology Press"/><ref name="屈支国 in 大唐西域记/01 - 维基文库，自由的图书馆"/><br> 
1) "The style of writing is Indian, with some differences"<br>
2) "They clothe themselves with ornamental garments of silk and embroidery. They cut their hair and wear a flowing covering (over their heads)"<br>
3) "The king is of Kuchean race"<ref>"王屈支种也" in {{cite web |title="屈支国" in 大唐西域记/01 - 维基文库，自由的图书馆 |url=https://zh.m.wikisource.org/zh-hans/%E5%A4%A7%E5%94%90%E8%A5%BF%E5%9F%9F%E8%A8%98/01 |website=zh.m.wikisource.org |publisher=Wikisource}}</ref><br>
4) "There are about one hundred convents (saṅghārāmas) in this country, with five thousand and more disciples. These belong to the [[Hinayana|Little Vehicle]] of the school of the [[Sarvāstivādas]] (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)."<br>
5) "About 40 li to the north of this desert city there are two convents close together on the slope of a mountain".<ref name="DCW">{{cite web |last1=Waugh |first1=Daniel (Historian, University of Washington) |title=Kizil |url=http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/exhibit/religion/buddhism/tarim/kizil.html |website=depts.washington.edu |publisher=Washington University |access-date=30 December 2020}}</ref>

=== Tang conquest and aftermath ===
{{see also|Emperor Taizong's campaign against the Western Regions}}
In the 7th&nbsp;century, [[Emperor Taizong of Tang|Emperor Taizong]] of [[Tang dynasty|Tang China]], having [[Tang campaign against the Eastern Turks|overcome]] the [[Eastern Turkic Khaganate|Eastern Turks]], sent his armies west to attack the Western Turks and the oasis states.{{sfnp|Wechsler|1979|p=220}}
The first oasis to fall was [[Turfan]], which was captured in 630 and annexed as part of China.{{sfnp|Wechsler|1979|p=225}}

[[File:Emperor Taizong's campaign against Xiyu states.svg|thumb|right|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.{{sfnp|Wechsler|1979|p=226}}
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.{{sfnp|Wechsler|1979|pp=226, 228}} 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."{{sfn|Grousset|1970|p=100}}The Tocharian cities never recovered from the Tang conquest.{{sfnp|Wechsler|1979|p=228}}

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.{{sfnp|Hansen|2012|p=80}}
The ruling Bai family of Kucha are last mentioned in Chinese sources in 787.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=272}}
There is little mention of the region in Chinese sources for the 9th and 10th centuries.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|pp=272–273}}

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.{{sfnp|Hansen|2012|p=108}}
Over centuries of contact and intermarriage, the cultures and populations of the pastoralist rulers and their agriculturalist subjects blended together.{{sfnp|Millward|2021|p=47}} Modern Uyghurs are the result of admixture between the Tocharians and the Orkhon Uyghurs from the 8th century CE.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Li |first1=Hui |last2=Cho |first2=Kelly |last3=Kidd |first3=Judith R. |last4=Kidd |first4=Kenneth K.|title=Genetic Landscape of Eurasia and "Admixture" in Uyghurs|journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |date=December 2009 |volume=85 |issue=6 |pages=934–937 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2009.10.024 |pmid=20004770 |pmc=2790568 |quote=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}}</ref> Many Uyghurs converted to the Tocharian Buddhism or Nestorian Christianity,{{sfnp|Millward|2021|p=63}} and adopted the agricultural lifestyle and many of the customs of the oasis-dwellers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hong |first1=Sun-Kee |last2=Wu |first2=Jianguo |last3=Kim |first3=Jae-Eun |last4=Nakagoshi |first4=Nobukazu |title=Landscape Ecology in Asian Cultures |date=25 December 2010 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-4-431-87799-8 |page=284 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OenWCigfFBgC&pg=PA284 |language=en}} p.284: "The Uyghurs mixed with the Tocharian people and adopted their religion and their culture of oasis agriculture (Scharlipp 1992; Soucek 2000)."</ref> 
The Tocharian language gradually disappeared as the urban population switched to the [[Old Uyghur language]].{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=273}}

===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 Caves|Kizil]]):<ref>{{cite web |last1=Carling |first1=Gerd (Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen) |title=Tocharian (p.16) |url=https://spw.uni-goettingen.de/projects/aig/doc/TOC-INT-003.pdf}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable centre"
|+ Tocharian B manuscript B-496
|-
! scope="col" align=left| Translation<br><small>(English)</small>!!Transliteration!!Inscription<br><small>([[Tocharian script]])</small>
|-
|align=center |
{{blockquote|
I.<br>
... for a thousand years however, Thou wilt tell the story Thy (...) I announce,<br>
Heretofore there was no human being dearer to me than thee; likewise hereafter there will be no one dearer to me than thee.<br>
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.<br>
III.<br>
Thus did I always think: "I will live well, the whole of my life, with one lover: no force, no deceit."<br>
The god Karma alone knew this thought of mine; so he provoked quarrel; he ripped out my heart from thee;<br>
He led thee afar; tore me apart; made me partake in all sorrows and took away the consolation thou wast.<br>
... mi life, spirit, and heart day-by-day...<ref name="DQA">{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Douglas Q. |last2=Peyrot |first2=Michaël |last3=Pinault |first3=Georges-Jean |last4=Olander |first4=Thomas |last5=Rasmussen |first5=Jens Elmegård |title="More Thoughts on Tocharian B Prosody" in "Tocharian and Indo-European Studies vol.14"|date=2013 |publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press |isbn=978-87-635-4066-7 |pages=26–28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FEPjCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA27}}</ref><ref name="GJP">Chrestomathie tokharienne: Textes et grammaire, Georges-Jean Pinault. Peeters, 2008.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Language Log » Tocharian love poem |url=https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=46597}}</ref><ref>[https://littlebleenhat.github.io/xtb.html World Atlas of Poetic Traditions: Tocharian]</ref>}}
| align=left |
{{poemquote|
II.<br>
''(...) Yaltse pikwala (...) watäṃ weṃt no''<br>
''Mā ñi cisa noṣ śomo ñem wnolme lāre tāka mā ra postaṃ cisa lāre mäsketär-ñ.''<br>
''Ciṣṣe laraumñe ciṣṣe ārtañye pelke kalttarr śolämpa ṣṣe mā te stālle śol-wärñai.''<br>
III.<br>
''Taiysu pälskanoym sanai ṣaryompa śāyau karttse-śaulu-wärñai snai tserekwa snai nāte.''<br>
''Yāmor-ñīkte ṣe cau ñi palskāne śarsa tusa ysaly ersate ciṣy araś ñi sälkāte,''<br>
''Wāya ci lauke tsyāra ñiś wetke klyautka-ñ pāke po läklentas ciṣe tsārwo, sampāte.''<br>
''(...) Śaul palsk araśñi, kom kom''<ref name="DQA"/><ref name="GJP"/>}}
|align=center |
[[File:Tocharian B Love Poem.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|none|[[Tocharian B]] Love Poem, manuscript B496 (one of two fragments).]]
|}

==Genetics==
[[File:Tocharians DNA.png|250px|thumb|Autosomal dna Tocharians. [[Eastern Hunter Gatherer]] (<small>{{Colorsample|#0BDA51|0.6}}</small> EHG), [[Caucasus hunter-gatherer|Caucasian Hunter-Gatherer]]/[[Ganj Dareh|Iran Neolithic Farmer]] (<small>{{Colorsample|#FF2400|0.6}}</small> CHG/INF), [[Anatolian Neolithic]] (<small>{{Colorsample|#9966CC|0.6}}</small>), [[Ancient Northeast Asian|East Asian hunter gatherer]] (<small>{{Colorsample|#FFFF00|0.6}}</small> ANA), Yellow River Neolithic Farmer (<small>{{Colorsample|#ED760E|0.6}}</small> YRNF) and [[Ancient Ancestral South Indians]] (<small>{{Colorsample|#1560BD|0.6}}</small> AASI)]]
===Haplogroups===
According to genetic studies, the Tocharians had haplogroup [[Haplogroup R1b|R1b]] and C2a.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kumar |first1=Vikas |last2=Wang |first2=Wenjun |last3=Jie |first3=Zhang |last4=Wang |first4=Yongqiang |last5=Ruan |first5=Qiurong |last6=Yu |first6=Jianjun |last7=Wu |first7=Xiaohong |last8=Hu |first8=Xingjun |last9=Wu |first9=Xinhua |last10=Guo |first10=Wu |last11=Wang |first11=Bo |last12=Niyazi |first12=Alipujiang |last13=Lv |first13=Enguo |last14=Tang |first14=Zihua |last15=Cao |first15=Peng |last16=Liu |first16=Feng |last17=Dai |first17=Qingyan |last18=Yang |first18=Ruowei |last19=Feng |first19=Xiaotian |last20=Ping |first20=Wanjing |last21=Zhang |first21=Lizhao |last22=Zhang |first22=Ming |last23=Hou |first23=Weihong |first24=Liu |last24=Yichen |first25=Bennett |last25=E. Andrew |date=2022|title=Bronze and Iron Age population movements underlie Xinjiang population history |url=https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abk1534 |journal=Science |volume=376 |issue=6588 |pages=62–69 |doi=10.1126/science.abm4247 |pmid=35357918|hdl=20.500.12684/12345 |hdl-access=free |pmc=10064553 }}</ref>

===Steppe hypothesis===
Tocharians are generally depicted with "red or blonde hair, long noses and blue or green eyes", and are thought to have spoken an Indo-European language ([[Tocharian languages|Tocharian]]).<ref name="ADNA"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hemphill |first1=Brian E. |last2=Mallory |first2=J.P. |title=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 |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |date=July 2004 |volume=124 |issue=3 |page=201 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.10354 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8509372_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 |quote=Wall paintings of Tocharian speakers depict these individuals as possessing red or blond hair, long noses, blue or green eyes, and wearing broadswords inserted in scabbards hanging from their waists.}}</ref> There have been two major hypotheses regarding their origin: the “Bactrian oasis hypothesis” suggesting an origin from the [[Oxus civilization]], and the "steppe hypothesis" suggesting an origin from the [[Afanasievo]] and the [[Andronovo]] populations moving from the [[Altai Mountains|Altai]]–[[Minusinsk Hollow|Minusinsk]] regions.<ref name="ADNA">{{cite journal |last1=Keyser |first1=Christine |last2=Bouakaze |first2=Caroline |last3=Crubézy |first3=Eric |last4=Nikolaev |first4=Valery G. |last5=Montagnon |first5=Daniel |last6=Reis |first6=Tatiana |last7=Ludes |first7=Bertrand |title=Ancient DNA provides new insights into the history of south Siberian Kurgan people |journal=Human Genetics |date=September 2009 |volume=126 |issue=3 |page=408 |doi=10.1007/s00439-009-0683-0 |quote=Two hypotheses have been offered by archaeologists to account for the origins of these Bronze Age people believed to have spoken an Indo-European language called Tocharian and depicted as possessing red or blonde hair, long noses and blue or green eyes: the “steppe hypothesis” and the “Bactrian oasis hypothesis”. Proponents of the latter assert that settlement of the Xinjiang came from sedentary based population of the Oxus civilisation found in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, whereas proponents of the “steppe hypothesis” maintain that the Tarim region experienced a colonization attributed to Afanasievo and Andronovo populations who migrated to Xinjiang from the Altai–Minusinsk regions north of the Tarim Basin (Hemphill and Mallory 2004). Our results corroborate the “steppe hypothesis”.}}</ref> Current DNA research suggests that the "steppe hypothese" is the most likely.<ref name="ADNA"/>

Overall, the Tocharians seem to have mainly derived from the [[Afanasievo culture]], but with contributions from other peripheral cultures, such as the [[BMAC]], the [[Ancient Northeast Asian|Baikal Hunter-Gatherers]] and [[Yellow River]] farmers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kumar |first1=Vikas |last2=Wang |first2=Wenjun |last3=Zhang |first3=Jie |last4=Wang |first4=Yongqiang |title=Bronze and Iron Age population movements underlie Xinjiang population history |journal=Science |date=April 2022 |volume=376 |issue=6588 |pages=62–69 |doi=10.1126/science.abk1534 |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk1534# |quote=Genetically the Tocharians Tarim originated from the Afanasievo culture, but with the contribution of other populations such as Bmac, Baikal HG and Yellow River farmer, this gene influx was received from these populations during the Bronze and Iron Ages.}}</ref>

==Known rulers==
Names of the rulers of Kucha are known mainly from Chinese sources.
[[File:Prince Tottika of Kucha with his wife Svayamprabhā, accompanied by two monks, Maya Cave 205, Kizil Caves.jpg|thumb|upright|Prince [[Tottika]], [[Kizil Caves|Kizil Cave]] 205.]]
* Hong (洪, 弘), circa 16 AD
* Chengde (丞德), circa 36 AD
* Zeluo (则罗), circa 46 AD
* Shen Du (身毒), circa 50 AD
* Bin (宾), circa 72 AD
* Jian (建), circa 73 AD
* Youliduo 尤利多, circa 76 AD
* Bai Ba (白霸), circa 91 AD
* Bai Ying(白英), circa 110-127 AD
* Bai Shan (白山), circa 280 AD
* Long Hui (龙会), circa 326 AD
* Bai Chun [[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 白纯 ''Baichun'', ruled circa 383 AD
* Bai Zhen [[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 白震 ''Baizhen'', ruled circa 383 AD
* Niruimo Zhunasheng [[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 尼瑞摩珠那胜 '' Niruimo Zhunasheng'', ruled circa 520 AD
* [[Tottika]] (ruled in Kucha in the end of the 6th century), [[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 托提卡 ''Tuotika''
* Bai Sunidie [[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 白苏尼咥 ''Bai Sunidie'', circa 562 AD
* [[Suvarnapuspa]] (ruled in [[Kucha]], 600-625 AD), [[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 白苏伐勃𫘝 ''Bai Sufaboshi''
* Suvarnadeva (ruled in [[Kucha]] before 647), [[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 白蘇伐疊 ''Bai Sufadie''
* Haripushpa (ruled in [[Kucha]] from 647), [[Chinese language|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 Xiaojie 白孝节(719)
* Bai Huan (ruled 731–789) [[Chinese language|Chinese]]: 白环, last ruler to be mentioned by Chinese sources.{{sfnp|Mallory|Mair|2000|p=272}}

==See also==
{{History of Xinjiang}}
* [[List of Tocharian (Agnean-Kuchean) peoples]]
* [[Tocharian clothing]]
* [[Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves]]
* [[Sogdia]]
* [[Takhar Province]] ([[Afghanistan]])

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Works cited===
{{refbegin|indent=yes|colwidth=30em}}
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  | postscript = .
  }}
* {{citation
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  | url = https://archive.org/details/EmpieresOfTheSilkRoad
  | postscript = .
  }}
* {{citation
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  | s2cid = 161858422 }}
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  | postscript = .
  }}
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  | title = China in Central Asia: The Early Stage: 125 BC – AD 23
  | editor-given = Anthony François Paulus | editor-surname = Hulsewé
  | publisher = Brill | year = 1979 | isbn = 978-90-04-05884-2
  | postscript = .
  }}
* {{citation
  | title = The problem of Tocharian origins: an archaeological perspective
  | given = J.P. | surname = Mallory | author-link = J. P. Mallory
  | journal = Sino-Platonic Papers | number = 259 | date = November 2015
  | url = http://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp259_tocharian_origins.pdf
  | postscript = .
  }}
* {{citation
  | given1 = J.P. | surname1 = Mallory
  | given2 = Douglas Q. | surname2 = Adams | author-link2 = Douglas Q. Adams
  | title = Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
  | publisher = [[Taylor & Francis]] | year = 1997 | isbn = 978-1-884964-98-5
  | postscript = .
  }}
* {{citation | given1 = J.P. | surname1 = Mallory | given2 = Victor H. | surname2 = Mair | author-link2 = Victor H. Mair | title = The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West | publisher = Thames & Hudson | location = London | year = 2000 | isbn = 978-0-500-05101-6 | postscript = . | url = https://archive.org/details/tarimmummiesanci00mall }}
* {{citation
  | title = Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang
  | given = James A. | surname = Millward
  | publisher = Hurst & Company | location = London | edition = new and revised | year = 2021
  | isbn = 978-1-78738-334-0
  | postscript = .
  }}
* {{citation
  | title = The Spider's Web. Goddesses of Light and Loom: Examining the Evidence for the Indo-European Origin of Two Ancient Chinese Deities 
  | given = J.T. | surname = Snow
  | journal = Sino-Platonic Papers | number = 118 | date = June 2002
  | url = http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp118_chinese_weaving_goddess.pdf
  | postscript = .
  }}
* {{citation
  | given = Mariko Namba | surname = Walter
  | url = http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp085_tokharian_buddhism_kucha.pdf
  | title = Tocharian Buddhism in Kucha: Buddhism of Indo-European Centum Speakers in Chinese Turkestan before the 10th Century C.E.
  | journal = Sino-Platonic Papers | volume = 85 | year = 1998
  | postscript = .
  }}
* {{cite Cambridge History of China | volume = 3
  | chapter = T'ai-tsung (reign 624–49) the consolidator
  | given = Howard J. | surname = Wechsler
  | pages = 188–241
  | mode = cs2 | postscript = .
  }}
* {{citation
  | chapter = Tocharian
  | given = Werner | surname = Winter
  | pages = 154–168
  | title = The Indo-European languages
  | editor1-given = Giacalone Anna | editor1-surname = Ramat
  | editor2-given = Paolo | editor2-surname = Ramat
  | location = London | publisher = [[Routledge]] | year = 1998 | isbn = 978-0-415-06449-1
  | postscript = .
  }}
* {{cite Cambridge History of China | volume = 1
  | chapter = Han foreign relations
  | surname = Yü | given = Ying-shih
  | pages = 377–462
  | mode = cs2 | postscript = .
  | year = 1986
  }}
{{refend}}

==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.

* [[Philip Baldi|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.
* [[Robert Beekes|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 and [[Jaan Puhvel]]. Berkeley. University of California Press.
* {{cite book |last1=Mair |first1=Victor H. |last2=Zhang |first2=Shuheng |last3=Adams |first3=Douglas Q. |last4=Blažek |first4=Václav |last5=Comsa |first5=Alexandra |last6=Haarmann |first6=Harald |last7=Joseph |first7=Brian D. |last8=Malzahn |first8=Melanie |last9=Poruciuc |first9=Adrian |last10=Ringe |first10=Don |last11=Wells |first11=Peter S. |title=Tocharica et archeologica: A Festschrift in Honor of J. P. Mallory |date=2024 |publisher=The Institute for the Study of Man, Inc. |location=Washington DC |isbn=978-0-9983669-6-8}}
* 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
* Walter, Mariko Namba 1998 [http://www.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp085_tokharian_buddhism_kucha.pdf "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.&nbsp;357–369.
* Xu, Wenkan 1996 "The Tokharians and Buddhism" In: ''Studies in Central and East Asian Religions'' 9, pp.&nbsp;1–17. [http://61.54.131.141:8010/Resource/Book/Edu/JXCKS/TS010057/0001_ts010057.htm]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Wiktionary|Tocharian}}
*[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tocharian.htm Tocharian alphabet] at omniglot.com
*[http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/didact/idg/toch/tochbr.htm Tocharian alphabet]
*[http://www.wordgumbo.com/ie/cmp/toch.htm Modern studies are developing a Tocharian dictionary.]
* A dictionary of Tocharian B by Douglas Q. Adams (Leiden Studies in Indo-European 10), xxxiv, 830 pp., Rodopi: Amsterdam – Atlanta, 1999. [http://ieed.ullet.net/tochB.html]

{{Central Asian history}}
{{Historical Non-Chinese peoples in China}}

[[Category:Tocharians| ]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Chinese history]]
[[Category:Extinct ethnic groups]]
[[Category:Indo-European peoples]]