View source for Tarim Basin

{{Short description|Endorheic basin in Xinjiang, China}}
{{Chinese
| pic = Wfm tarim basin.jpg
| picsize = 200px
| piccap = 
| c = 塔里木盆地
| p = Tǎlǐmù Péndì
| w = T'a<sup>3</sup>-li<sup>3</sup>-mu<sup>4</sup> P'en<sup>2</sup>-ti<sup>4</sup>
| mi = {{IPAC-cmn|t|a|2|l|i|3|m|u|4|-|p|en|2|d|i|4}}
| altname = Nanjiang
| c2 = 南疆
| p2 = Nánjiāng
| w2 = Nan<sup>2</sup>-chiang<sup>1</sup>
| mi2 = {{IPac-cmn|n|an|2|j|iang|1}}
| l2 = Southern Xinjiang
| uig = تارىم ئويمانلىقى
| uly = Tarim Oymanliqi
| uyy = Tarim Oymanliⱪi
| usy = Тарим ойманлиқи
}}
The '''Tarim Basin''' is an [[endorheic basin]] in [[Xinjiang]], Northwestern China occupying an area of about {{convert|888,000|km2|abbr=on}} and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.<ref name="Cheng_2006">Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, China." Hydrological Processes 20.10 (2006): 2207–2216. ([http://www.oede.ac.cn/Article/UploadFiles/201007/2010072121272383.pdf online] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501164558/http://www.oede.ac.cn/Article/UploadFiles/201007/2010072121272383.pdf |date=2016-05-01 }} 426 KB)</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Buono|first1=Regina M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HCe7DwAAQBAJ|title=Regulating Water Security in Unconventional Oil and Gas|last2=Gunn|first2=Elena López|last3=McKay|first3=Jennifer|last4=Staddon|first4=Chad|date=2019|publisher=Springer Nature|isbn=978-3-030-18342-4|pages=11|language=en}}</ref> Located in China's [[Xinjiang]] region, it is sometimes used synonymously to refer to the southern half of the province, that is, [[Southern Xinjiang]] or Nanjiang ({{zh|c=南疆|p=Nánjiāng}}), as opposed to the northern half of the province known as [[Dzungaria]] or Beijiang. Its northern boundary is the [[Tian Shan]] mountain range and its southern boundary is the [[Kunlun Mountains]] on the edge of the [[Tibetan Plateau]]. The [[Taklamakan Desert]] dominates much of the basin. The historical Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin is [[Altishahr]] ([[Uyghur language|Traditional Uyghur]]: {{lang|ug-Arab|آلتی شهر}}, {{Lang-zh|c=六城}}), which means 'six cities' in [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]. The region was also called ''Little Bukhara'' or ''Little Bukharia''.

==Geography and relation to Xinjiang==
[[File:China 100.78713E 35.63718N.jpg|thumb|right|The Tarim Basin is the oval desert in Central Asia.]]
[[Xinjiang]] consists of two main geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct regions with different historical names, [[Dzungaria]] and the Tarim Basin ([[Altishahr]]), until it was merged into the Chinese Province of Xinjiang in 1884.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4eBtAAAAIAAJ|title=The Cambridge History of China|date=1978|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=69|isbn=9780521214476|language=en}}</ref> At the time of the Qing conquest in 1759, Dzungaria was inhabited by steppe-dwelling, nomadic Mongolic [[Tibetan Buddhism|Buddhist]] [[Dzungar people|Dzungars]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Guo |first1=Rongxing |title=China's Spatial (Dis)integration: Political Economy of the Interethnic Unrest in Xinjiang |date=2015 |publisher=Chandos Publishing |isbn=978-0-08-100403-6 |page=9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gUOnBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |language=en}}</ref> while the Tarim Basin (Altishahr) was inhabited by sedentary, oasis-dwelling, [[Turkic languages|Turkic-speaking]] [[Uyghurs|Uyghur]] [[Muslim]] peasants.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sha |first1=Heila |title=Care and Ageing in North-West China |date=2018 |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |isbn=978-3-643-90874-2 |page=39 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RRB9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39 |language=en}}</ref> Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin were each governed separately until the creation of Xinjiang province.

=== Tarim Basin locations ===
{{Location map+ |Xinjiang
| width   = 400
|float=right
| caption = Places in and near the Tarim Basin. The highlighted area is roughly 1800 km across.|relief=1| places  =
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=39.47|long=75.98|label='''[[Kashgar]]'''|position=top|mark=Solid blue.svg}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=39.79|long=78.55|label=[[Maralbexi County|Bachu]]|position=top}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=41.21|long=79.22|label=[[Uqturpan County|Uchturpan]]|position=left}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=41.17|long=80.25|label=[[Aksu City|Aksu]]}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=41.72|long=82.93|label=[[Kuqa, Xinjiang|Kuqa]]|position=left}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=41.77|long=84.17|label=Luntai|position=bottom}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=41.65|long=86.13|label=[[Korla]]}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=42.02|long=86.55|label=[[Karasahr|Karashar]]}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=42.95|long=89.33|label=[[Turpan]]}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=42.83|long=92.50|label=[[Hami]]|position=right}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=39.83|long=96.25|label=Anxi|mark=Pfeil rechts.svg|position=top}}<!--shifted from 97.57-->
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=38.92|long=76.17|label=[[Yengisar County|Yangihissar]]}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=38.42|long=77.25|label='''[[Yarkant County|Yarkand]]'''|mark=Solid blue.svg|position=right}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=37.88|long=77.42|label=[[Kargilik Town|Karghalik]]}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=37.28|long=79.70|label=[[Karakax County|Karakash]]|position=left}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=37.10|long=80.02|label='''[[Hotan]]'''|mark=Solid blue.svg|position=bottom}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=36.88|long=81.60|label=[[Keriya Town|Keriya]]|position=top}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=37.05|long=82.68|label=[[Niya Town|Niya]]|position=right}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=39.02|long=88.10|label=[[Charklik (ancient settlement)|Charkilik]]|position=right}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=38.13|long=85.52|label=[[Qiemo Town|Qiemo]]}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=40.53|long=89.83|label=[[Loulan Kingdom|Loulan]]|mark=Map pointer.svg}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=40.09|long=94.40|label=[[Dunhuang]]|position=bottom}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=40.35|long=93.87|label=[[Yumen Pass|Jade Gate]]|position=top}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=43.85|long=87.60|label=[[Ürümqi]]|mark=Solid blue.svg}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=43.92|long=81.32|label=[[Yining|Kulja]]|position=left}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=45.50|long=82.33|label=[[Dzungarian Gate|Dzungarian&nbsp;Gate]]|position=left}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=45.60|long=84.88|label=[[Karamay]]}}
{{Location map~|Xinjiang|lat=46.75|long=82.98|label=[[Tacheng]]|position=left}}
}}
[[Image:Altai, Tienschan-Orte.png|thumb|upright=1.8|Physical map showing the separation of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Taklamakan) by the Tien Shan Mountains]]

====North side====
The Chinese called this the ''Tien Shan Nan Lu'' or Tien Shan South Road, as opposed to the ''Bei Lu'' north of the mountains. Along it runs the modern highway and railroad while the middle Tarim River is about 100&nbsp;km south.  The caravans met in [[Kashgar]] before crossing the mountains. [[Maralbexi County|Bachu]] or Miralbachi; [[Uqturpan County|Uchturpan]] north of the main road; [[Aksu, Xinjiang|Aksu]] on the large [[Aksu River (Xinjiang)|Aksu River]]; [[Kucha]] was once an important kingdom; [[Luntai County|Luntai]]; [[Korla]], now a large town; [[Karashar]] near [[Bosten Lake]]; [[Turpan]] north of the [[Turpan Depression]] and south of the [[Bogda Shan]]; [[Hami City|Hami]]; then southeast to [[Guazhou County|Anxi]] and the [[Gansu Corridor]].

====Center====
Most of the basin is occupied by the [[Taklamakan Desert]] which is too dry for permanent habitation. The [[Yarkand River|Yarkand]], [[Kashgar River|Kashgar]] and [[Aksu River (Xinjiang)|Aksu]] Rivers join to form the [[Tarim River]] which runs along the north side of the basin. Formerly it continued to [[Loulan]], but some time after 330&nbsp;AD it turned southeast near Korla toward [[Charkilik]], and [[Loulan]] was abandoned. The Tarim ended at the now-dry [[Lop Nur]], which occupied a shifting position east of Loulan. Eastward is the fabled [[Jade Gate]] which the Chinese considered the gateway to the [[Western Regions]]. Beyond that was [[Dunhuang]] with its ancient manuscripts and then [[Guazhou County|Anxi]] at the west end of the [[Gansu Corridor]].

====South side====
Settlements include Kashgar; [[Yangi Hissar]], famous for its knives; [[Yarkant County|Yarkand]], once larger than Kashgar; [[Kargilik County|Karghalik]] (Yecheng), with a route to India; [[Karakax County|Karakash]]; [[Khotan]], the main source of Chinese jade; eastward the land becomes more desolate; [[Keriya Town|Keriya]] (Yutian); [[Minfeng Town|Niya]] (Minfeng); [[Qiemo County|Qiemo]] (Cherchen); [[Ruoqiang Town|Charkilik]] (Ruoqiang). The modern road continues east to Tibet. There is currently no road east across the [[Kumtag Desert]] to Dunhuang, but caravans somehow made the crossing through the [[Yangguan pass]] south of the Jade Gate.

===Roads and transportation===
[[File:Creek burial (Urumqi, Xinjiang China) 2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Tarim Basin, ancient boat-shaped coffins]]
====Railways====
The whole Tarim Basin and the [[Taklamakan Desert]] are surrounded by railroads. The [[Southern Xinjiang Railway]] branches from the [[Lanxin Railway]] near Turpan, follows the north side of the basin to Kashgar, and curves southeast to Khotan, while [[Hotan–Ruoqiang railway]] loops around the south and west side of the Traim. They are part of the Taklimakan Desert railway loop, joined together with sections of the [[Golmud–Korla railway]], [[Hotan–Ruoqiang railway]], [[Kashgar–Hotan railway]], and [[Southern Xinjiang railway]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3182031/new-railway-completes-2700km-loop-taklamakan-desert-move |title=New railway completes 2,700km loop of Taklamakan Desert in move to integrate Xinjiang with rest of China |website=South China Morning Post |date=17 June 2022 |first=Kate |last=Zhang }}</ref>

====Roads====
[[China National Highway 312|The main road from eastern China]] reaches [[Ürümqi]] and continues as [[China National Highway 314|highway 314]] along the north side to Kashgar. [[China National Highway 315|Highway 315]] follows the south side from Kashgar to Charkilik and continues east to Tibet. There are currently four north–south roads across the desert. [[China National Highway 218|218]] runs from Charkilik to Korla along the former course of the Tarim, forming an oval whose other end is Kashgar. The [[Tarim Desert Highway]], a major engineering achievement, crosses the center from [[Niya Town|Niya]] to [[Luntai]]. The new [[China National Highway 217|Highway 217]] follows the Khotan River from Khotan to near [[Aksu City|Aksu]]. A road follows the [[Yarkant River]] from Yarkand to [[Baku|Baqu]]. East of the Korla-Charkilik road, travel continues to be very difficult.

====Rivers====
Rivers coming south from the Tien Shan join the Tarim, the largest being the [[Aksu River (Xinjiang)|Aksu]]. Rivers flowing north from the Kunlun are usually named for the town or oasis they pass through. Most dry up in the desert; only the [[Hotan River]] reaches the Tarim in good years. An exception is the [[Qiemo River]] which flows northeast into Lop Nur. Ruins in the desert imply that these rivers were once larger.

====Caravans and passes====
The original caravan route seems to have followed the south side. At the time of the Han dynasty conquest, it shifted to the center (Jade Gate-Loulan-Korla). When the Tarim changed course about 330&nbsp;AD it shifted north to [[Hami]]. A minor route went north of the Tian Shan. When there was war on the Gansu Corridor trade entered the basin near Charkilik from the [[Qaidam Basin]]. The original route to India seems to have started near Yarkand and Kargilik, but it is now replaced by the [[Karakoram Highway]] south from Kashgar. To the west of Kashgar via the [[Irkeshtam]] border crossing is the [[Alay Valley]], which was once the route to Persia. Northeast of Kashgar the [[Torugart]] pass leads to the [[Ferghana Valley]]. Near [[Uqturpan County|Uchturpan]] the [[Bedel Pass]] leads to [[Lake Issyk-Kul]] and the steppes. Somewhere near Aksu the difficult [[Muzat River|Muzart Pass]] led north to the Ili River basin (Kulja). Near Korla was the [[Iron Gate Pass]] and now the highway and railway north to Ürümqi. From Turfan the easy [[Dabancheng]] pass leads to Ürümqi. The route from Charkilik to the [[Qaidam Basin]] was of some importance when Tibet was an empire.

North of the mountains is Dzungaria with its central [[Gurbantünggüt Desert]], Ürümqi, and the [[Karamay]] oil fields. The [[Yining City|Kulja]] territory is the upper basin of the [[Ili River]] and opens out onto the [[Kazakh Steppe]] with several roads east. The [[Dzungarian Gate]] was once a migration route and is now a road and [[New Eurasian Land Bridge|rail crossing]]. [[Tacheng]] or Tarbaghatay is a crossroads and former trading post.

== Geology ==
[[Image:Wfm tarim basin.jpg|thumb|left|NASA landsat photo of the Tarim Basin]]
The Tarim Basin is the result of an [[Continental collision|amalgamation]] between an ancient [[microcontinent]] and the growing Eurasian continent during the [[Carboniferous]] to [[Permian]] periods, a process which ended in the earliest [[Triassic]] with the closure of the Palaeo-Asian Ocean.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zhang |first1=Donghai |last2=Huang |first2=Baochun |last3=Zhao |first3=Guochun |last4=Meert |first4=Joseph G. |last5=Williams |first5=Simon |last6=Zhao |first6=Jie |last7=Zhou |first7=Tinghong |date=30 July 2021 |title=Quantifying the Extent of the Paleo-Asian Ocean During the Late Carboniferous to Early Permian |url=https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2021GL094498 |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=48 |issue=15 |doi=10.1029/2021GL094498 |bibcode=2021GeoRL..4894498Z |s2cid=238714243 |access-date=6 October 2022}}</ref> At present, deformation around the margins of the basin is resulting in the microcontinental crust being pushed under [[Tian Shan]] to the north, and [[Kunlun Shan]] to the south.

A thick succession of [[Paleozoic]], [[Mesozoic]] and [[Cenozoic]] sedimentary rocks occupy the central parts of the basin, locally exceeding thicknesses of {{convert|15|km|abbr=on|sigfig=1}}. The [[source rock]]s of oil and gas tend to be mostly [[Permian]] mudstones and, less often, [[Ordovician]] strata which experienced an intense and widespread early [[Variscan orogeny|Hercynian]] [[karstification]].<ref name="NiuHuangFei2018">{{cite journal |last1=Niu |first1=Jun |last2=Huang |first2=Wenhui |last3=Fei |first3=Liang |date=3 December 2018 |title=Paleoenvironment in an Ordovician carbonate reservoir in southwestern of Tarim Basin, NW China: Evidence from stable isotopes |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15567036.2018.1549129?tab=permissions&scroll=top |journal=Energy Sources |volume=41 |issue=16 |pages=2007–2016 |doi=10.1080/15567036.2018.1549129 |s2cid=104392780 |access-date=22 November 2022}}</ref> The effect of this event are e.g. paleokarst reservoirs in the Tahe oil field.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Tian|first1=Fei|last2=Lu|first2=Xinbian|last3=Zheng|first3=Songqing|last4=Zhang|first4=Hongfang|last5=Rong|first5=Yuanshuai|last6=Yang|first6=Debin|last7=Liu|first7=Naigui|date=2017-06-26|title=Structure and Filling Characteristics of Paleokarst Reservoirs in the Northern Tarim Basin, Revealed by Outcrop, Core and Borehole Images|journal=Open Geosciences |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=266–280 |doi=10.1515/geo-2017-0022|issn=2391-5447 |bibcode=2017OGeo....9...22T|doi-access=free}}</ref> Below the level enriched with gas and oil is a complex Precambrian basement believed to be made up of the remnants of the original Tarim [[List of tectonic plates#Microplates|microplate]], which accrued to the growing [[Eurasia]]n continent in [[Carboniferous]] time.
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:SteinMummy.jpg|thumb|100px|[[Tarim Mummies]]]] -->
The snow on the [[Karakoram]] mountain range flows into [[glacier]]s which move down the valleys to melt. The melted water forms rivers which flow down the mountains and into the Tarim Basin, never reaching the sea. Surrounded by desert, some rivers feed the oases where the water is used for irrigation while others flow to salt lakes and marshes.

[[Image:Tarimrivermap.png|thumb|The Tarim Basin, 2008]]
[[Lop Nur]] is a [[marsh]]y, saline depression at the east end of the Tarim Basin. The [[Tarim River]] ends in Lop Nur.

The Tarim Basin is believed to contain large reserves of [[petroleum]] and [[natural gas]].<ref name=Boliang>{{cite book |last=Boliang |first=H. |year=1992 |contribution=Petroleum Geology and Prospects of Tarim (Talimu) Basin, China |title=Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade, 1978–1988 |series=AAPG Memoir |volume=54 |editor-last=Halbouty |editor-first=M. T. |location=Tulsa, Oklahoma |publisher=American Association of Petroleum Geologists |isbn=0891813330}}</ref>{{rp|493}} [[Methane]] comprises over 70 percent of the natural gas reserve, with variable contents of ethane (<1% – c. 18%) and propane (<0.5% – c. 9%).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2007/07082zhang/index.htm|title=Natural Gas Geochemistry in the Tarim Basin, China and Its Indication to Gas Filling History, by Tongwei Zhang, Quanyou Liu, Jinxing Dai, and Yongchun Tang, #10131 |date=2007|website=Search and Discovery|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081026104216/http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/documents/2007/07082zhang/index.htm|archive-date=2008-10-26}}</ref> [[China National Petroleum Corporation]]'s comprehensive exploration of the Tarim basin between 1989 and 1995 led to the identification of 26 oil- and gas-bearing structures. These occur at greater depths and in scattered deposits. Beijing aims to develop [[Xinjiang]] into China's new energy base for the long run, supplying one-fifth of the country's total oil supply by 2010, with an annual output of 35 million [[tonne]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/China/GA04Ad01.html|title=Doubts over Sinopec oil find in Tarim |first=Karen |last=Teo |date= January 4, 2005 |website=thestandard.com.hk |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310074308/http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/China/GA04Ad01.html |archive-date=March 10, 2011}}</ref> On June 10, 2010, [[Baker Hughes]] announced an agreement to work with [[PetroChina|PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Co.]] to supply oilfield services, including both [[Directional drilling|directional]] and [[Oil well#Drilling|vertical drilling]] systems, [[formation evaluation]] services, [[Oil well#Completion|completion]] systems and [[artificial lift]] technology for wells drilled into foothills formations greater than {{convert|7,500|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} deep with pressures greater than {{cvt|20,000|psi|bar}} and bottom-hole temperatures of approximately {{convert|160|°C|°F|abbr=on}}. [[Submersible pump|Electrical submersible pumping (ESP)]] systems will be employed to dewater gas and condensate wells. PetroChina will fund any joint development.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bakerhughes.com/news-and-media/media-center/press-releases/houston-tx-june-10-2010-baker-hughes|title=Baker Hughes Signs Strategic Framework Agreement with PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Co. |date=June 10, 2010 |website=bakerhughes.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619102954/http://www.bakerhughes.com/news-and-media/media-center/press-releases/houston-tx-june-10-2010-baker-hughes|archive-date=June 19, 2010}}</ref>

In 2015, Chinese researchers published the finding of a vast, carbon-rich underground sea beneath the basin.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Li|first1=Yan|last2=Wang|first2=Yu-Gang|last3=Houghton|first3=R. A.|last4=Tang|first4=Li-Song|year=2015|title=Hidden carbon sink beneath desert|journal=Geophysical Research Letters |volume=42 |issue=14|pages=5880–5887|doi=10.1002/2015GL064222|issn=1944-8007|doi-access=free|bibcode=2015GeoRL..42.5880L}}
*{{cite web |author=Ken Browne |date=2015-09-16 |title=Researchers just discovered a massive body of water under China's biggest desert |website=Inhabitat |url=http://inhabitat.com/vast-ocean-discovered-under-chinese-desert-may-be-worlds-largest-carbon-sink/ |ref=none}}</ref>

== History ==
[[Image:Tarimbecken 3. Jahrhundert.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Tarim Basin in the 3rd century]]

It is speculated that the Tarim Basin may be one of the last places in Asia to have become inhabited: It is surrounded by mountains and irrigation technologies might have been necessary.<ref name="nytimes">
{{cite news
 |url         = https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/weekinreview/12wong.html
 |title       = Rumbles on the Rim of China's Empire 
 |work   = www.nytimes.com
 |access-date  = 2009-07-13
 |last        = Wong
 |first       = Edward
 |date        = 2009-07-12
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20111204015033/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/weekinreview/12wong.html
 |archive-date = 2011-12-04
}}
</ref>

The [[Northern Silk Road]] on one route bypassed the Tarim Basin north of the [[Tian Shan]] mountains and traversed it on three oases-dependent routes: one north of the [[Taklamakan Desert]], one south, and a middle one connecting both through the [[Lop Nur]] region.
* The northern Tarim route ran from [[Kashgar]] via [[Aksu, Xinjiang|Aksu]], [[Kucha (city)|Kucha]], [[Korla]], through the [[Iron Gate Pass]], then [[Karasahr]], [[Jiaohe Ruins|Jiaohe]], [[Turpan]], [[Gaochang]] and [[Kumul, Xinjiang|Kumul]] to [[Anxi (historic town)|Anxi]].
* The southern Tarim route ran from Kashgar through [[Yarkant (town)|Yarkant]], [[Kargilik Town|Karghalik]], [[Guma, Pishan County|Pishan]], [[Khotan]], [[Keriya Town|Keriya]], [[Niya (Tarim Basin)|Niya]], [[Qarqan (town)|Qarqan]], [[Qarkilik (town)|Qarkilik]], [[Miran (China)|Miran]] and [[Dunhuang]] to Anxi.
* The middle Tarim route, the shortest of the four, connected [[Korla]] on the northern Tarim route through [[Loulan (town)|Loulan]] and across the Lop Nur region and [[Dunhuang]] on the southern Tarim route. The Lop Nur region became uninhabitable in the 4th century and the middle route has been deserted since the 6th century.

===Early periods===
In the early period, beginning around 2000 BC, there were six different cultural zones in the Tarim Basin, and bronze began to appear. One of these cultures was the Xintala culture ({{Circa|1700}}–1500 BC), near the site of Yanqi, also known as [[Karasahr|Karashar]], to the north and east of the Tarim, at the [[Kaidu River|Kaidu river]].<ref name="Høisæter">{{cite journal |last=Høisæter |first=Tomas Larsen |year=2017 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6311521432E4F0AFA783860A3C51C0BA/S0041977X17000507a.pdf/polities-and-nomads-the-emergence-of-the-silk-road-exchange-in-the-tarim-basin-region-during-late-prehistory-2000400-bce.pdf |title=Polities and nomads: the emergence of the Silk Road exchange in the Tarim Basin region during late prehistory (2000–400 BC) |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |volume=80 |issue=2 |pages=339–363|doi=10.1017/S0041977X17000507 }}</ref>{{rp|p.343}}
Structures made of mud bricks were found at [[Xintala]], showing building techniques similar to those seen in early oasis sites in western Central Asia, as well as in [[Yanbulake]]. There were no burials in Xintala culture, and its settlements were small.<ref name="Høisæter"/>{{rp|p.344}}

[[File:Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum Urumqi Xinjiang China 新疆 乌鲁木齐 新疆维吾尔自治区博物馆 - panoramio (2).jpg|left|thumb|[[Tarim mummies]], found in westernmost [[Xinjiang]], in the Tarim Basin.]]
Autosomal genetic evidence suggests that the earliest Tarim people arose from locals of primarily [[Ancient North Eurasian]] descent with significant [[East Asian people|Northeast Asian]] admixture. The [[Tarim mummies]] have been found in various locations in the eastern Tarim Basin such as [[Loulan]], the [[Xiaohe Tomb complex]], and [[Qäwrighul]]. These mummies have previously been suggested to be of [[Tocharians|Tocharian]] origin, but recent evidence suggests that the mummies belonged to a distinct population unrelated to later Indo-European pastoralists, such as Afanasievo.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Zhang|first1=Fan|last2=Ning|first2=Chao|last3=Scott|first3=Ashley|last4=Fu|first4=Qiaomei|last5=Bjørn|first5=Rasmus|last6=Li|first6=Wenying|last7=Wei|first7=Dong|last8=Wang|first8=Wenjun|last9=Fan|first9=Linyuan|last10=Abuduresule|first10=Idilisi|last11=Hu|first11=Xingjun|date=November 2021|title=The genomic origins of the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=599|issue=7884|pages=256–261|doi=10.1038/s41586-021-04052-7|issn=1476-4687|pmc=8580821|pmid=34707286|bibcode=2021Natur.599..256Z|quote=Using qpAdm, we modelled the Tarim Basin individuals as a mixture of two ancient autochthonous Asian genetic groups: the ANE, represented by an Upper Palaeolithic individual from the Afontova Gora site in the upper Yenisei River region of Siberia (AG3) (about 72%), and ancient Northeast Asians, represented by Baikal_EBA (about 28%) (Supplementary Data 1E and Fig. 3a). Tarim_EMBA2 from Beifang can also be modelled as a mixture of Tarim_EMBA1 (about 89%) and Baikal_EBA (about 11%).}}</ref> 

In the [[Iron Age]], the Chawuhu culture (c. 1000–400 BC) flourished in the Yanqi (Karashar) oasis, and also reached the Alagou sites near the [[Turpan|Turfan]] basin, and north to the region close to [[Ürümqi]].<ref name="Høisæter"/>{{rp|p.348}}

Earlier diggings in the southern Tarim Basin, in the 1990s, suggested that Yuansha (Djoumbulak Koum) in the [[Keriya River|Keriya river]] valley was the earliest fortified urban site, from around 400 BC, but new surveys and excavations between 2018 and 2020, showed that the site Kuiyukexiehai'er (Koyuk Shahri), located in the northern Tarim Basin, is actually the earliest fortified urban settlement in the entire region, covering 6 hectares, and developed in four phases between c. 770 BC and 80 AD. Spouted jars were found at this site, similar to those of Chawuhu culture, and buckles and moulds with animal motifs resemble steppe traditions.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dang |first=Zhihao |display-authors=etal |year=2022 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/early-urban-occupation-in-the-tarim-basin-recent-fieldwork-results-from-the-fortified-site-of-kuiyukexiehaier-koyuk-shahri/8F1FC55E08A966AC0F530D1FEFF124D4 |title=Early urban occupation in the Tarim Basin: Recent fieldwork results from the fortified site of Kuiyukexiehai'er (Koyuk Shahri) |journal=Antiquity |volume=96 |issue=386 |pages=463–470|doi=10.15184/aqy.2022.18 }}</ref>

{{multiple image| align = right | direction = horizontal | caption1= The [[Sampul tapestry]], a woolen wall hanging from [[Lop County]], Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, China, showing a possibly [[Hellenistic civilization|Greek soldier]] from the [[Greco-Bactrian kingdom]] (250–125 BC), with [[blue eyes]], wielding a spear, and wearing what appears to be a ''[[diadem]]'' headband; depicted above him is a [[centaur]], from [[Greek mythology]], a common [[Motif (visual arts)|motif]] in [[Hellenistic art]]
|caption2= Two [[Buddhist monk]]s on a mural of the [[Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves]] near [[Turpan]], Xinjiang, China, 9th century AD; although [[Albert von Le Coq]] (1913) assumed the [[blue eyes|blue-eyed]], [[red hair|red-haired]] monk was a [[Tocharians|Tocharian]],<ref>{{cite book |last=von<!--sic--> Le Coq |first=Albert |year=1913 |url=http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/LFc-42/V-1/page/0003.html.en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915144010/http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/LFc-42/V-1/page/0003.html.en |archive-date=2016-09-15 |title=Chotscho: Facsimile-Wiedergaben der wichtigeren Funde der ersten königlich preußischen Expedition nach Turfan in Ost-Turkistan |trans-title=Qocho: Facsimile reproductions of the more important finds of the first Royal Prussian expedition to Turfan in East Turkistan |language=de |location=Berlin |publisher=Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen)}}{{cite web |url=http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/VIII-1-B-31/V-1/page-hr/0107.html.en |title=Table 19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915183256/http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/VIII-1-B-31/V-1/page-hr/0107.html.en |archive-date=2016-09-15 |access-date=7 April 2023}}</ref> modern scholarship has identified similar [[Caucasian race|Caucasian figures]] of [[:File:BezeklikSogdianMerchants.jpg|the same cave temple]] (No. 9) as ethnic [[Sogdia]]ns,<ref name="gasparini 2014 pp134-163">{{cite journal |last=Gasparini |first=Mariachiara |url=http://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/transcultural/article/view/12313/8711 |title=A Mathematic Expression of Art: Sino-Iranian and Uighur Textile Interactions and the Turfan Textile Collection in Berlin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525084750/http://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/transcultural/article/view/12313/8711 |archive-date=2017-05-25 |editor1-first=Rudolf G. |editor1-last=Wagner |editor2-first=Monica |editor2-last=Juneja |journal=Transcultural Studies |publisher=Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg |issue=1 |year=2014 |volume=1 |pages=134–163 |doi=10.11588/ts.2014.1.12313 |issn=2191-6411 |access-date=3 September 2016}} See also endnote 32.</ref> an [[Eastern Iranian people]] who inhabited [[Turfan]] as an ethnic minority community during the phases of [[Tang dynasty|Tang Chinese]] (7th–8th century) and [[Kingdom of Qocho|Uyghur rule]] (9th–13th century).<ref>{{cite book |last=Hansen |first=Valerie |year=2012 |title=The Silk Road: A New History |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=98 |isbn=978-0-19-993921-3}}</ref> | image1 = UrumqiWarrior.jpg | width1 = 110 | image2 = Central Asian Buddhist Monks.jpeg | width2 = 195 }}

Another people in the region besides these Tarim people were the [[Indo-Iranians|Indo-Iranian]] [[Saka]] people, who spoke various [[Eastern Iranian languages|Eastern Iranian]] [[Saka language|Khotanese Scythian]] or Saka dialects. In the [[Achaemenid]] era [[Old Persian]] inscriptions found at [[Persepolis]], dated to the reign of [[Darius I]] (r. 522–486 BC), the Saka are said to have lived just beyond the borders of [[Sogdia]]na.<ref name="bailey 1996 1230">{{cite book |last=Bailey |first=H. W. |year=1996 |contribution=Khotanese Saka Literature |editor-last=Ehsan |editor-first=Yarshater |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |volume=III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods |at=Part 2, p. 1230 |edition=reprint |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> Likewise, an inscription dated to the reign of [[Xerxes I]] (r. 486–465 BC) has them coupled with the [[Dahae]] people of Central Asia.<ref name="bailey 1996 1230"/> The contemporary [[Greek historiography|Greek historian]] [[Herodotus]] noted that the Achaemenid Persians called all Indo-Iranian [[Scythia]]n peoples "Saka".<ref name="bailey 1996 1230"/> They were known as the Sai (塞, sāi, ''sək'' in archaic Chinese) in ancient Chinese records.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FcKtIPVQ6REC&pg=PA283 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia Volume III: The crossroads of civilizations: AD 250 to 750 | page=283 |author= Zhang Guang-da |publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-8120815407 |year=1999 }}</ref> These records indicate that they originally inhabited the [[Ili River|Ili]] and [[Chu River]] valleys of modern [[Kazakhstan]]. In the Chinese ''[[Book of Han]]'', the area was called the "land of the Sai", i.e. the Saka.<ref name="yu 2010 p13">{{cite journal |author=Yu Taishan |date=June 2010 |title=The Earliest Tocharians in China |editor-first=Victor H. |editor-last=Mair |editor-link=Victor Mair |journal=Sino-Platonic Papers |publisher=Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations |page=13}}</ref> A people believed to be Saka has also been found in various locations in the Tarim Basin, for example in the [[Keriya River|Keriya]] region at Yumulak Kum (Djoumboulak Koum, Yuansha) around 200&nbsp;km east of Khotan, with a tomb dated to as early as the 7th century BC.<ref>{{cite book |first1=C. |last1=Debaine-Francfort |first2=A. |last2=Idriss |title=Keriya, mémoires d'un fleuve. Archéologie et civilations des oasis du Taklamakan |language=fr |publisher=Electricité de France |date= 2001 |isbn= 978-2868050946 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/52-3/mallory.pdf |title=Bronze Age Languages of the Tarim Basin |author=J. P. Mallory |work=Penn Museum |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909231531/http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/52-3/mallory.pdf |archive-date=2016-09-09 }}</ref>

According to the [[Sima Qian]]'s ''[[Shiji]]'', the nomadic Indo-European [[Yuezhi]] originally lived between Tengri Tagh ([[Tian Shan]]) and [[Dunhuang]] in [[Gansu]], China.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mallory |first1=J. P. |last2=Mair |first2=Victor H. |author2-link=Victor Mair |name-list-style=amp |page=[https://archive.org/details/tarimmummiesanci00mall/page/58 58] |year=2000 |title=The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London |isbn=978-0-500-05101-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/tarimmummiesanci00mall/page/58 }}</ref> However, the Yuezhi were assaulted and forced to flee from the [[Hexi Corridor]] of Gansu by the forces of the [[Xiongnu]] ruler [[Modu Chanyu]], who conquered the area in 177–176 BC (decades before the [[Han Chinese]] conquest and colonization of western tip of Gansu or the establishment of the [[Protectorate of the Western Regions]]).<ref>{{cite book |last=Torday |first=Laszlo |date=1997 |title=Mounted Archers: The Beginnings of Central Asian History |location=Durham |publisher=The Durham Academic Press |pages=80–81 |isbn=978-1-900838-03-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Yü |first=Ying-shih |year=1986 |contribution=Han Foreign Relations |title=The Cambridge History of China |volume=I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220 |editor1-first=Denis |editor1-last=Twitchett |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-last=Loewe |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=377–388, 391 |isbn=978-0-521-24327-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Chang |first=Chun-shu |year=2007 |title=The Rise of the Chinese Empire |volume=II: Frontier, Immigration, & Empire in Han China, 130 B.C. – A.D. 157 |location=Ann Arbor |publisher=University of Michigan Press |pages=5–8 |isbn=978-0-472-11534-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Di Cosmo |first=Nicola |year=2002 |title=Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=174–189, 196–198, 241–242 |isbn=978-0-521-77064-4}}</ref> In turn the Yuezi attacked and pushing the Sai (i.e. Saka) west into Sogdiana, where in the mid-2nd century BC the latter crossed the [[Syr Darya]] into [[Bactria]], but also into the [[Fergana Valley]] where they settled in [[Dayuan]], south towards northern India, and eastward as well, where they settled in some of the oasis city-states of the Tarim Basin.<ref name="yu 2010 p13"/>{{rp|13–14}} Whereas the Yuezhi continued westward and conquered [[Daxia]] around 177–176 BC, the Sai (i.e. Saka), including some allied [[Tocharians|Tocharian peoples]], fled south to the [[Pamir Mountains|Pamirs]] before heading back east to settle in Tarim Basin sites like Yanqi (焉耆, [[Karasahr]]) and Qiuci (龜茲, [[Kucha]]).<ref name="yu 2010 p13"/>{{rp|21–22}} The Saka are recorded as inhabiting Khotan by at least the 3rd century and also settled in nearby [[Yarkant County|Shache]] (莎車), a town named after its Saka inhabitants (i.e. ''saγlâ'').<ref name="theobald 2011 saka">{{cite web |first=Ulrich |last=Theobald |date=26 November 2011 |url=http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/sakas.html |title=Chinese History – Sai 塞 The Saka People or Soghdians |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150119210419/http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/sakas.html |archive-date=2015-01-19 |website=ChinaKnowledge |access-date=2 September 2016}}<!--Truncated, incomprehensible quotation removed--></ref> Although the ancient Chinese called Khotan ''Yutian'' (于闐), its more native Iranian names during the Han period were ''Jusadanna'' (瞿薩旦那), derived from Indo-Iranian ''Gostan'' and ''Gostana'', the names of the town and region around it, respectively.<ref name="theobald 2011 yutian">{{cite web |first=Ulrich |last=Theobald |date=16 October 2011 |url=http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/citystates.html#yutian |title=City-states Along the Silk Road |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060513221622/http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/citystates.html |archive-date=2006-05-13 |website=ChinaKnowledge |access-date=2 September 2016}}</ref>

===Han dynasty===
Around 200 BCE, the Yuezhi were overrun by the [[Xiongnu]]. The Xiongnu then tried to invade the western region of China, but ultimately failed and lost control of the region to the Chinese. The Han Chinese wrested control of the Tarim Basin from the Xiongnu at the end of the 1st century under the leadership of General [[Ban Chao]] (32–102 CE), during the [[Han-Xiongnu War]].<ref name=Rene>{{Cite book |last=Grousset |first=Rene |title=The Empire of the Steppes |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1970 |isbn=978-0-8135-1304-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/empireofsteppesh00prof/page/37 37, 41–42] |url=https://archive.org/details/empireofsteppesh00prof/page/37 }}</ref> The Chinese administered the Tarim Basin as the [[Protectorate of the Western Regions]]. The Tarim Basin was later under many foreign rulers, but ruled primarily by Turkic, Han, Tibetan, and Mongolic peoples.

The powerful [[Kushans]], who conquered the last vestiges of the [[Indo-Greek]] Kingdom, expanded back into the Tarim Basin in the 1st–2nd centuries CE, where they established a kingdom in [[Kashgar]] and competed for control of the area with [[nomad]]s and Chinese forces. The '''Yuezhi''' or '''Rouzhi''' ({{zh|c=月氏|p=Yuèzhī|w=Yüeh<sup>4</sup>-chih<sup>1</sup>}}, {{IPAc-cmn|yue|4|-|zhi|1}}) were an ancient people first reported in Chinese histories as [[nomadic pastoralists]] living in an arid [[grassland]] area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of [[Gansu]] during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat by the Xiongnu, in the 2nd century BC, the Yuezhi split into two groups: the '''Greater Yuezhi''' (''Dà Yuèzhī'' 大月氏) and '''Lesser Yuezhi''' (''Xiǎo Yuèzhī'' 小月氏). They introduced the [[Brāhmī script|Brahmi]] script, the Indian [[Prakrit]] language for administration, and [[Buddhism]], playing a central role in the [[Silk Road transmission of Buddhism]] to Eastern Asia.

Three pre-Han texts mention peoples who appear to be the Yuezhi, albeit under slightly different names.{{sfn|Thierry|2005}}
* The philosophical tract ''[[Guanzi (text)|Guanzi]]'' (73, 78, 80 and 81) mentions [[nomadic pastoralism|nomadic pastoralists]] known as the ''Yúzhī'' 禺氏 ([[Old Chinese]]: *ŋʷjo-kje) or ''Niúzhī'' 牛氏 ([[Old Chinese|OC]]: *ŋʷjə-kje), who supplied [[jade]] to the Chinese.<ref>"Les Saces", Iaroslav Lebedynsky, {{ISBN|2-87772-337-2}}, p. 59</ref>{{sfn|Thierry|2005}} (The ''Guanzi'' is now generally believed to have been compiled around 26 BC, based on older texts, including some from the [[Qi (state)|Qi state era]] of the 11th to 3rd centuries BC. Most scholars no longer attribute its primary authorship to [[Guan Zhong]], a Qi official in the 7th century BC.<ref>Liu Jianguo (2004). ''Distinguishing and Correcting the pre-Qin Forged Classics''. Xi'an: Shaanxi People's Press. {{ISBN|7-224-05725-8}}. pp. 115–127</ref>) The export of jade from the Tarim Basin, since at least the late 2nd millennium BC, is well-documented archaeologically. For example, hundreds of jade pieces found in the [[Tomb of Fu Hao]] (c. 1200 BC) originated from the [[Khotan]] area, on the southern rim of the Tarim Basin.{{sfn|Liu|2001a|p=265}} According to the ''Guanzi'', the Yúzhī/Niúzhī, unlike the neighbouring Xiongnu, did not engage in conflict with nearby Chinese states.
* The ''[[Tale of King Mu, Son of Heaven]]'' (early 4th century BC) also mentions the ''Yúzhī'' 禺知 (OC: *ŋʷjo-kje).{{sfn|Thierry|2005}}
* The ''[[Yi Zhou Shu]]'' (probably dating from the 4th to 1st century BC) makes separate references to the ''Yúzhī'' 禺氏 (OC: *ŋʷjo-kje) and ''Yuèdī'' 月氐 (OC: *ŋʷjat-tij). The latter may be a misspelling of the name ''Yuèzhī'' 月氏 (OC: *ŋʷjat-kje) found in later texts, composed of characters meaning "moon" and "clan" respectively.{{sfn|Thierry|2005}}

===Sui–Tang dynasties===
[[File:Anonymous-Astana Graves Wei Qi Player.jpg|thumb|upright|Fragmentary painting on silk of a woman playing the [[Go (game)|''Go'' boardgame]], from the [[Astana Cemetery]], Gaochang, c. 744 AD, during the [[Protectorate General to Pacify the West|late period]] of [[Tang dynasty|Tang Chinese rule]] (just before the [[An Lushan Rebellion]])]]
After the Han dynasty, the kingdoms of the Tarim Basin began to have strong cultural influences on China as a conduit between the cultures of India and Central Asia and China. Indian Buddhists had previously travelled to China during the Han dynasty, but the Buddhist monk [[Kumārajīva]] from [[Kucha]], who visited China during the [[Six Dynasties]] period was particularly renowned. Music and dances from Kucha were also popular in the Sui and Tang periods.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UgOwDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT979 |title=The Silk Road Encyclopedia |author= Jeong Su-il |chapter=Kucha Music |publisher= Seoul Selection |date= 2016 |isbn=9781624120763 }}</ref>

During the [[Tang dynasty]], a [[Tang campaigns against the Western Turks|series]] of military expeditions were conducted against the oasis states of the Tarim Basin, then vassals of the [[Western Turkic Khaganate]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Patricia Buckley|last=Ebrey|title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of China|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-12433-1|page=111}}</ref> The [[Tang campaign against the oasis states|campaigns against the oasis states]] began under [[Emperor Taizong of Tang|Emperor Taizong]] with the [[Tang campaign against Karakhoja|annexation of Gaochang]] in 640.<ref name=Wechsler>{{cite book|first2=Howard J.|last2=Wechsler|first1=Denis|last1=Twitchett|chapter=Kao-tsung (reign 649-83) and the Empress Wu: The Inheritor and the Usurper|editor=Denis Twitchett|editor2=John Fairbank|title=The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China Part I|year=1979|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-21446-9|page=228}}</ref> The nearby kingdom of [[Karasahr]] was [[Tang campaigns against Karasahr|captured by the Tang]] in 644 and the kingdom of [[Kucha]] was [[Conquest of Kucha|conquered in 649]].<ref name="skaff">{{cite book|first=Jonathan Karem|last=Skaff|editor=Nicola Di Cosmo|title=Military Culture in Imperial China|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-03109-8|pages=183–185}}</ref>

[[File:Emperor Taizong's campaign against Xiyu states.svg|thumb|upright=1.25|Map of Taizong's campaigns against the Tarim Basin oasis states, allies of the Western Turks.]]

The expansion into Central Asia continued under Taizong's successor, [[Emperor Gaozong of Tang|Emperor Gaozong]], who [[conquest of the Western Turks|dispatched an army]] in 657 led by [[Su Dingfang]] against the Western Turk qaghan [[Ashina Helu]].<ref name="skaff"/> Ashina was defeated and the khaganate was absorbed into the Tang empire.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jonathan Karam|last=Skaff|title=Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors: Culture, Power, and Connections, 580–800|year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-973413-9|page=190}}</ref> The Tarim Basin was administered through the [[Anxi Protectorate]] and the [[Four Garrisons of Anxi]]. Tang hegemony beyond the [[Pamir Mountains]] in modern [[Tajikistan]] and [[Afghanistan]] ended with revolts by the Turks, but the Tang retained a military presence in Xinjiang. These holdings were later invaded by the [[Tibetan Empire]] to the south in 670. For the remainder of the Tang dynasty, the Tarim Basin alternated between Tang and Tibetan rule as they competed for control of Central Asia.<ref name="Millward">{{cite book|first=James A.|last=Millward|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-13924-3|pages=33–42}}</ref>

===Kingdom of Khotan===
{{Main|Kingdom of Khotan}}
{{further|Shule Kingdom|Western Regions|Protectorate of the Western Regions|Protectorate General to Pacify the West|Tang campaigns against Karasahr|Emperor Taizong's campaign against the Western Regions|Turkic settlement of the Tarim Basin}}

As a consequence of the [[Han–Xiongnu War]] from 133 BC to 89 AD, the Tarim Basin region of Xinjiang in Northwest China, including the Saka-founded oasis city-state of Khotan and Kashgar, fell under [[Han Chinese]] influence, beginning with the reign of [[Emperor Wu of Han|Emperor Wu]] (r. 141–87 BC) of the [[Han dynasty]].<ref>Loewe, Michael. (1986). "The Former Han Dynasty," in The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220, 103–222. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 197–198. {{ISBN|978-0-521-24327-8}}.</ref><ref>Yü, Ying-shih. (1986). "Han Foreign Relations," in ''The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220'', 377–462. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 410–411. {{ISBN|978-0-521-24327-8}}.</ref> Much like the neighboring people of the [[Kingdom of Khotan]], people of Kashgar, the capital of the [[Shule Kingdom]], spoke [[Saka language|Saka]], one of the [[Eastern Iranian languages]].<ref>Xavier Tremblay, "The Spread of Buddhism in Serindia: Buddhism Among Iranians, Tocharians and Turks before the 13th Century", in ''The Spread of Buddhism'', eds Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacker, Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 2007, p. 77.</ref> As noted by the Greek historian Herodotus, the contemporary Persians labelled all Scythians "Saka".<ref name="bailey 1996 1230"/> Indeed, modern scholarly consensus is that the Saka language, ancestor to the [[Pamir languages]] in [[northern India]] and Khotanese in [[Xinjiang]], belongs to the [[Scythian languages]].<ref>Kuz'mina, Elena E. (2007). ''The Origin of the Indo Iranians''. Edited by J.P. Mallory. Leiden, Boston: Brill, pp 381–382. {{ISBN|978-90-04-16054-5}}.</ref>

During China's [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907 AD), the region once again came under Chinese suzerainty with the campaigns of conquest by [[Emperor Taizong of Tang]] (r. 626–649).<ref>Xue, Zongzheng (薛宗正). (1992). History of the Turks (突厥史). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, pp. 596–598. {{ISBN|978-7-5004-0432-3}}; OCLC 28622013</ref> From the late 8th to 9th centuries, the region changed hands between the Chinese Tang Empire and the rival [[Tibetan Empire]].<ref>Beckwith, Christopher. (1987). The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp 36, 146. {{ISBN|0-691-05494-0}}.</ref><ref>Wechsler, Howard J.; Twitchett, Dennis C. (1979). Denis C. Twitchett; John K. Fairbank, eds. ''The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part I''. Cambridge University Press. pp. 225–227. {{ISBN|978-0-521-21446-9}}.</ref> By the early 11th century the region had fallen to the Muslim [[Turkic peoples]] of the [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]], which led to both the [[Turkification]] of the region and its conversion from [[Buddhism]] to [[Islam]].<ref>Scott Cameron Levi; Ron Sela (2010). ''Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources''. Indiana University Press. pp. 72–. {{ISBN|0-253-35385-8}}.</ref><ref>Ahmad Hasan Dani; B. A. Litvinsky; Unesco (1 January 1996). ''History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750''. UNESCO. pp. 283–. {{ISBN|978-92-3-103211-0}}.</ref>

[[File:Khotanese animal zodiac BLI6 OR11252 1R2 1.jpg|thumb|200px|A document from [[Khotan]] written in [[Saka language|Khotanese Saka]], part of the [[Eastern Iranian languages|Eastern Iranian branch]] of the [[Indo-European languages]], listing the animals of the [[Chinese zodiac]] in the cycle of predictions for people born in that year; ink on paper, early 9th century]]
Suggestive evidence of Khotan's early link to India are minted coins from Khotan dated to the 3rd century, bearing dual inscriptions [[Chinese language|in Chinese]] and [[Gāndhārī language|Gandhari Prakrit]] in the [[Kharosthi]] script.<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265">Emmerick, R. E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater (ed), ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods'', Part 1 (reprint edition) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 265.</ref> Although Prakrit was the administrative language of nearby [[Shanshan]], 3rd-century documents from that kingdom record the title ''hinajha'' (i.e. "generalissimo") for the king of Khotan, Vij'ida-simha, a distinctively Iranian-based word equivalent to the [[Sanskrit]] title ''[[senapati]]'', yet nearly identical to the Khotanese Saka ''hīnāysa'' attested in contemporary documents.<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265"/> This, along with the fact that the king's recorded regnal periods were given in Khotanese as ''kṣuṇa'', "implies an established connection between the Iranian inhabitants and the royal power", according to the late Professor of Iranian Studies Ronald E. Emmerick (d. 2001).<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265"/> He contended that Khotanese-Saka-language royal rescripts of Khotan dated to the 10th century "makes it likely that the ruler of Khotan was a speaker of [[Iranian languages|Iranian]]."<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265"/> Furthermore, he elaborated on the early name of Khotan:

{{blockquote|The name of Khotan is attested in a number of spellings, of which the oldest form is ''hvatana'', in texts of approximately the 7th to the 10th century AD, written in an Iranian language itself called ''hvatana'' by the writers. The same name is attested also in two closely related Iranian dialects, [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]] and [[Tumxuk|Tumshuq]]...Attempts have accordingly been made to explain it as Iranian, and this is of some importance historically. My own preference is for an explanation connecting it semantically with the name Saka, for the Iranian inhabitants of Khotan...<ref>Emmerick, R. E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater (ed), ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods'', Part 1 (reprint edition) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 265–266.</ref>}}

[[File:KingGurgamoyaKhotan1stCenturyCE.jpg|thumb|left|Coin of [[Gurgamoya]], king of Khotan. Khotan, 1st century CE.<br />
''Obv:'' [[Kharosthi]] legend, "Of the great king of kings, king of Khotan, Gurgamoya.<br />
''Rev:'' Chinese legend: "Twenty-four grain copper coin". [[British Museum]]]]

In [[Northwest China]], Khotanese-Saka-language documents, ranging from medical texts to [[Buddhist literature]], have been found, primarily in Khotan and [[Tumxuk|Tumshuq]] (northeast of Kashgar).<ref name="bailey 1996 pp1231-1235"/> They largely [[Islamicisation and Turkicisation of Xinjiang|predate the arrival of Islam]] to the region under the [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] [[Kara-Khanid Khanate|Kara-Khanids]].<ref name="bailey 1996 pp1231-1235">Bailey, H.W. (1996) "Khotanese Saka Literature", in Ehsan Yarshater (ed), ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods'', Part 2 (reprint edition), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 1231–1235.</ref> Similar documents in the Khotanese-Saka language [[Dunhuang manuscripts|were found in Dunhuang]] dating mostly to the 10th century.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://history.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/VH%20BAI%20paper%2009.pdf |title=The Tribute Trade with Khotan in Light of Materials Found at the Dunhuang Library Cave |first=Valerie |last=Hansen |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute |volume=19 |date=2005 |pages=37–46 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304031701/http://history.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/VH%20BAI%20paper%2009.pdf |archive-date=2016-03-04 }}</ref>

===Turkic influx===
After the collapse of the [[Uyghur Khaganate]] of modern-day [[Mongolia]], Uyghur people migrated to the Tarim Basin and mixed with the Tocharians and converted to their religion, and adopted their method of oasis agriculture.<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= 2010 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-4-431-87799-8 |page=284 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OenWCigfFBgC&pg=PA284 |language=en}}</ref> In the tenth century, the [[Karluks]], [[Yagma]]s, [[Chigils]] and other Turkic tribes founded the [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]] in [[Jetisu|Semirechye]], Western [[Tian Shan]], and [[Kashgaria]].<ref name="sinor">{{citation|last = Golden|first = Peter. B.|contribution = The Karakhanids and Early Islam|year = 1990|title = The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia|editor-last = Sinor|editor-first = Denis|page = 357|publisher = Cambridge University Press|isbn = 978-0-521-2-4304-9}}</ref>

===Islamisation of the Tarim Basin===
{{main|Turkic settlement of the Tarim Basin}}

The Karakhanids became the first Islamic Turkic dynasty in the tenth century when [[Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan]] converted to Islam in 966 while he controlled Kashgar.<ref name="sinor"/> Satuq Bughra Khan and his son directed endeavors to preach Islam among the Turks and engage in conquests.<ref name="Hansen2012">{{cite book|author=Valerie Hansen|title=The Silk Road: A New History|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195159318|url-access=registration|date=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-993921-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195159318/page/226 226]–}}</ref> Satok Bughra Khan's nephew or grandson Ali Arslan was slain by the Buddhists during the war. Buddhism lost territory to the Turkic Karakhanid Satok Bughra Khan during the Karakhanid reign around Kashgar.<ref name="RingSalkin1994">{{cite book|author1=Trudy Ring|author2=Robert M. Salkin|author3=Sharon La Boda|title=International Dictionary of Historic Places: Asia and Oceania|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vWLRxJEU49EC&pg=PA457|year=1994|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-884964-04-6|pages=457–}}</ref> The Tarim Basin became Islamicized over the next few centuries.

====Turkic-Islamic Kara-Khanid conquest of Iranic Saka Buddhist Khotan====
[[File:Uighur princes, Bezeklik, Cave 9, c. 8th-9th century AD, wall painting - Ethnological Museum, Berlin - DSC01747.JPG|thumb|left|[[History of the Uyghur people|Uyghur princes]] from the [[Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves]] near [[Turpan]], [[Kingdom of Qocho]], 8th–9th centuries]]

In the tenth century, the Buddhist Iranic Saka [[Kingdom of Khotan]] was the only city-state that was not conquered yet by the Turkic Uyghur (Buddhist) and the Turkic Karakhanid (Muslim) states. The Buddhist entitites of Dunhuang and Khotan had a tight-knit partnership, with intermarriage between Dunhuang and Khotan's rulers and Dunhuang's Mogao grottos and Buddhist temples being funded and sponsored by the Khotan royals, whose likenesses were drawn in the Mogao grottoes.<ref name="Millward2007">{{cite book|author=James A. Millward|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&q=Khotan+Buddhist&pg=PA55|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-13924-3}}</ref> Halfway in the 10th century Khotan came under attack by the Karakhanid ruler Musa, a long war ensued between the Turkic Karakhanid and Buddhist Khotan which eventually ended in the conquest of Khotan by Kashgar by the Karakhanid leader Yusuf Qadir Khan around 1006.<ref name="Millward2007" /><ref name="MichellGollings2008">{{cite book|author1=George Michell|author2=John Gollings|author3=Marika Vicziany|author4=Yen Hu Tsui|title=Kashgar: Oasis City on China's Old Silk Road|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hMJC0JSfBkEC&pg=PA13|year=2008|publisher=Frances Lincoln|isbn=978-0-7112-2913-6|pages=13–}}</ref>
[[File:Cemetery in Kashgar.jpg|thumb|An Islamic cemetery outside the [[Afaq Khoja Mausoleum]] in [[Kashgar]]]]
Accounts of the Muslim Karakhanid war against the Khotanese Buddhists are given in ''Taẕkirah of the Four Sacrificed Imams'' written sometime in the period from 1700 to 1849 which told the story of four imams from Mada'in city (possibly in modern-day Iraq) who traveled to help the Islamic conquest of Khotan, Yarkand, and Kashgar by Yusuf Qadir Khan, the Karakhanid leader.<ref name="Thum 627–653">{{cite journal |last=Thum |first=Rian |date=6 August 2012 |title=Modular History: Identity Maintenance before Uyghur Nationalism |url=https://www.academia.edu/1558522 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=627–653 |doi=10.1017/S0021911812000629 |s2cid=162917965 |access-date=29 September 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904025819/http://www.academia.edu/1558522/Modular_History_Identity_Maintenance_before_Uyghur_Nationalism |archive-date=4 September 2015 }}</ref> The "infidels" were defeated and driven towards Khotan by Yusuf Qadir Khan and the four Imams, but the Imams were assassinated by the Buddhists prior to the last Muslim victory. After Yusuf Qadir Khan's conquest of new land in Altishahr towards the east, he adopted the title "King of the East and China".<ref name="Thum 627–653"/>

In 1006, the Muslim Kara-Khanid ruler Yusuf Kadir (Qadir) Khan of Kashgar conquered Khotan, ending Khotan's existence as an independent state. The Islamic conquest of Khotan led to alarm in the east and Dunhuang's Cave 17, which contained Khotanese literary works, was closed shut possibly after its caretakers heard that Khotan's Buddhist buildings were razed by the Muslims, the Buddhist religion had suddenly ceased to exist in Khotan.<ref name="Hansen2012" /> The Karakhanid Turkic Muslim writer [[Mahmud al-Kashgari]] recorded a short Turkic language poem about the conquest:

{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
English translation:<ref name="Elverskog2011">{{cite book|author=Johan Elverskog|title=Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7_4Gr9Q438C&pg=PA94|date=6 June 2011|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-0531-2|pages=94}}</ref><ref name="AkasoyBurnett2011">{{cite book|author1=Anna Akasoy|author2=Charles S. F. Burnett|author3=Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim|title=Islam and Tibet: Interactions Along the Musk Routes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZfWXIfbynwYC&pg=PA295|year=2011|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-6956-2|pages=295–}}</ref><ref name="Hansen2012" /><ref name="Dankoff2008">{{cite book|author1-link=Robert Dankoff|author=Robert Dankoff|title=From Mahmud Kaşgari to Evliya Çelebi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KaYZAQAAIAAJ&q=flood+cities|page=79|year=2008|publisher=Isis Press|isbn=978-975-428-366-2}}</ref>
<blockquote>
We came down on them like a flood,<br />
We went out among their cities,<br />
We tore down the idol-temples,<br />
We shat on the Buddha's head!<br />
</blockquote>
{{col-2}}
In Turkic:<ref name="Moriyasu2004">{{cite book|author=Takao Moriyasu|title=Die Geschichte des uigurischen Manichäismus an der Seidenstrasse: Forschungen zu manichäischen Quellen und ihrem geschichtlichen Hintergrund|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_uOrQKcnMkAC&pg=PA207|year=2004|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-05068-5|pages=207–}}</ref><ref name="Dankoff2008" />

<blockquote>
kälginläyü aqtïmïz<br />
kändlär üzä čïqtïmïz<br />
furxan ävin yïqtïmïz<br />
burxan üzä sïčtïmïz<br />
</blockquote>{{col-end}}

====Conversion of the Buddhist Uyghurs====
[[File:Subashi Buddhist Temple Ruins - East.jpg|thumb|right|[[Subashi (lost city)|Subashi]] Buddhist temple ruins]]

The Buddhist Uyghurs of the Kingdom of Qocho and Turfan embraced Islam after conversion at the hands of the Muslim Chagatai Khizr Khwaja.<ref name="Millward2007" />

[[Kara Del]] was a Mongolian ruled and Uighur populated Buddhist Kingdom. The Muslim Chagatai Khan Mansur invaded and used the sword to make the population convert to Islam.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.hami.gov.cn/10037/10037/00016/00013/00004/2004/11719.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601094645/http://www.hami.gov.cn/10037/10037/00016/00013/00004/2004/11719.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=2009-06-01 | title=哈密回王简史－回王家族的初始}}</ref>

After being converted to Islam, the descendants of the previously [[Kingdom of Qocho|Buddhist Uyghurs in Turfan]] believed that the "infidel Kalmuks" ([[Dzungar people|Dzungars]]) were the ones who built Buddhist monuments in their area, in opposition to the current academic theory that it was their own ancestral legacy.<ref name="GibbLewis1998">{{cite book|author1=Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb|author2=Bernard Lewis|author3=Johannes Hendrik Kramers|author4=Charles Pellat|author5=Joseph Schacht|title=The Encyclopaedia of Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJPrAAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Brill|page=677|access-date=10 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101193741/https://books.google.com/books?id=PJPrAAAAMAAJ|archive-date=1 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Before Qing conquest ===
The eastern regions of the [[Chagatai Khanate]] in the early 14th century had been inhabited by a number of Mongol nomadic tribes. These tribes resented the conversion of khan [[Tarmashirin]] to Islam and the move of the khan to the sedentary areas of [[Transoxiana]]. They were behind the revolt that ended in Tarmashirin's death. One of the khans that followed Tarmashirin, [[Changshi]], favored the east and was non-Muslim.<ref>Grousset, p. 341</ref> In the 1340s as a series of ephemeral khans struggled to hold power in Transoxiana, little attention was paid by the Chagatayids to the eastern regions. As a result, the eastern tribes there were virtually independent. The most powerful of the tribes, the [[Dughlats]], controlled extensive territories in [[Moghulistan]] and the western Tarim Basin. In 1347 the [[Dughlat]]s decided to appoint a khan of their own, and raised the Chagatayid [[Tughlugh Timur]] to the throne.<ref>Grousset, pp. 343–344</ref>

In 1509 the Dughlats, vassal rulers of the Tarim basin, rebelled against the [[Moghulistan|Moghulistan Khanate]] and broke away. Five years later [[Sultan Said Khan]], a brother of the Khan of Moghulistan in [[Turfan]], conquered the Dughlats but established his own [[Yarkent Khanate]] instead.<ref>Grousset, p. 497</ref> By the early 17th century, the [[Naqshbandi]] Sufi [[Khoja (Turkestan)|Khoja]]s, descendants of [[Muhammad]], had replaced the Chagatayid Khans as rulers of the Tarim Basin. There was a struggle between two Khoja factions: the Afaqi (White Mountain) and the Ishaqi (Black Mountain). The Ishaqi defeated the Afaqi and the [[Afaq Khoja]] invited the [[5th Dalai Lama]] (the leader of the [[Tibetan people|Tibetans]]) to intervene on his behalf in 1677. The Dalai Lama then called on his Dzungar Buddhist followers in the Dzungar Khanate to act on the invitation. The Dzungar Khanate conquered the Tarim Basin in 1678, during the [[Dzungar conquest of Altishahr]], after which they set up [[Afaq Khoja]] as their puppet ruler.<ref>{{citation|last=Adle|first=Chahryar|year=2003|title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia 5|page=193}}</ref><ref name="GibbLewis1998"/>

===Qing dynasty===
[[File:Xinjiang regions.png|thumb|Northern Xinjiang (Dzungar Basin) (yellow), Eastern Xinjiang – [[Turpan Depression]] ([[Turpan Prefecture]] and [[Hami Prefecture]]) (red), and the Tarim Basin (blue)]]
Xinjiang did not exist as one unit until 1884 under Qing rule. It consisted of the two separate political entities of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Eastern Turkestan).<ref name="Michell 1870">[https://books.google.com/books?id=reBFF3fWjPAC&dq=Dzungaria+migrants&pg=RA1-PA2 Michell 1870], p. 2.</ref><ref name="Martin 1847">[https://books.google.com/books?id=SV9AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA21 Martin 1847], p. 21.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ik4BAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA554 Fisher 1852], p. 554.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=KGlJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA681 ''The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature, Volume 23'' 1852], p. 681.</ref> Dzungharia or Ili was called Zhunbu 準部 (Dzungar region) Tianshan Beilu 天山北路 (Northern March), "Xinjiang" 新疆 (New Frontier),<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=MC6sAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA21 Millward 1998], p. 21.</ref> or "Kalmykia" (La Kalmouquie in French).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CghUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA144|title=Géographie Mathématique, Physique et Politique de Toutes les Parties du Monde: Rédigée d'après ce qui a été publié d'exact et de nouveau par les géographes, les naturalistes, les voyageurs et les auteurs de statistique des nations les plus éclairées...|first=Edme|last=Mentelle|date=11 May 2018|publisher=H. Tardieu|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CghUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA160|title=Géographie Mathématique, Physique et Politique de Toutes les Parties du Monde: Rédigée d'après ce qui a été publié d'exact et de nouveau par les géographes, les naturalistes, les voyageurs et les auteurs de statistique des nations les plus éclairées...|first=Edme|last=Mentelle|date=11 May 2018|publisher=H. Tardieu|via=Google Books}}</ref> It was formerly the area of the [[Dzungar Khanate|Dzungar (or Zunghar) Khanate]] 準噶爾汗國, the land of the [[Dzungar people]]. The Tarim Basin was known as "Tianshan Nanlu 天山南路 (southern March), Huibu 回部 (Muslim region), Huijiang 回疆 (Muslim frontier), [[Chinese Turkestan]], Kashgaria, Little Bukharia, [[East Turkestan]]", and the traditional Uyghur name for it was [[Altishahr]] ({{langx|ug|التى شهر|Altä-shähär}}, ''Алтә-шәһәр'').<ref name="Millward 1998">[https://books.google.com/books?id=MC6sAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA23 Millward 1998], p. 23.</ref> It was formerly the area of the Eastern [[Chagatai Khanate]] 東察合台汗國, land of the [[Uyghur people]] before being conquered by the Dzungars.

== Demographics ==
The population of the Tarim Basin is estimated at approximately 5.5 million.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Tarim Basin |url=https://geography.name/tarim-basin/#:~:text=The%20%EE%80%80Tarim%EE%80%81%20became%20a%20barrier%20to%20Chinese%20expansion,the%20west%20and%20the%20capital%20is%20at%20Wu-lu-mu-ch%27i. |website=geography.name}}</ref>

=== People of the Tarim Basin ===
[[File:Khotan-mercado-d19.jpg|thumb|left|[[Uyghurs]] in [[Khotan]]]]
According to census figures, the Tarim Basin is dominated by the [[Uyghurs]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NrtIa77Sj2IC&pg=PA11 |title=The Uyghurs: Strangers in Their Own Land |first= Gardner |last= Bovingdon |page=11 |isbn=9780231519410 |year=2010 |publisher=Columbia University Press }}</ref> They form the majority population in cities such as [[Kashgar]], [[Artush]], and [[Hotan]]. There are however large pockets of Han Chinese in the region, such as [[Aksu, Xinjiang|Aksu]] and [[Korla]]. There are also smaller numbers of [[Hui people|Hui]] and other ethnic groups, for example, the [[Tajiks]] who are concentrated at [[Tashkurgan Town|Tashkurgan]] in the [[Kashgar Prefecture]], the [[Kyrgyz people|Kyrgyz]] in [[Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture|Kizilsu]], and the [[Mongols]] in [[Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture|Bayingolin]].<ref>{{cite book |title= Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland |pages=254–255 |editor-first=S. Frederick |editor-last=Starr |first=Stanley W. |last=Toops |publisher=Routledge|date= 2004|isbn=978-0765613189}}</ref>

The language spoken by the earliest Tarim residents is unclear; however it is widely agreed upon that they would eventually be Indo-European speakers.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dai |first1=Shan-Shan |last2=Sulaiman |first2=Xierzhatijiang |last3=Isakova |first3=Jainagul |last4=Xu |first4=Wei-Fang |last5=Abdulloevich |first5=Najmudinov Tojiddin |last6=Afanasevna |first6=Manilova Elena |last7=Ibrohimovich |first7=Khudoidodov Behruz |last8=Chen |first8=Xi |last9=Yang |first9=Wei-Kang |last10=Wang |first10=Ming-Shan |last11=Shen |first11=Quan-Kuan |last12=Yang |first12=Xing-Yan |last13=Yao |first13=Yong-Gang |last14=Aldashev |first14=Almaz A |last15=Saidov |first15=Abdusattor |last16=Chen |first16=Wei |last17=Cheng |first17=Lu-Feng |last18=Peng |first18=Min-Sheng |last19=Zhang |first19=Ya-Ping |title=The Genetic Echo of the Tarim Mummies in Modern Central Asians |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |date=1 September 2022 |volume=39 |issue=9 |pages=msac179 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msac179 |pmid=36006373 |pmc=9469894 |url=https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/39/9/msac179/6675590}}</ref> 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 |quote=Biological anthropological research indicates that the physical characteristics of those buried at Gumugou cemetery along the Kongque River near Lop Nur in Xinjiang  are very similar to those of the Andronovo culture and Afanasievo culture people from Siberia in Southern Russia. This suggests that all of these individuals belong to the Caucasian physical type. Additionally, excavations in 2002 by Xinjiang archaeologists at the site of Xiaohe cemetery, first discovered by the Swedish archaeologist Folke Bergman, uncovered mummies and wooden human effigies that clearly have Europoid features. According to the preliminary excavation report, the cultural features and chronology of this site are said to be quite similar to those of Gumugou. Other sites in Xinjiang also contain both individuals with Caucasian features and ones with Mongolian features. For example, this pattern occurs at the Yanbulark cemetery in Xinjiang, but individuals with Mongoloid features are clearly dominant. The above evidence is enough to show that, starting around 2,000 B.C., some so-called primitive Caucasians expanded eastward to the Xinjiang area as far as the area around Hami and Lop Nur. By the end of the second millennium, another group of people from Central Asia started to move over the Pamirs and gradually dispersed in southern Xinjiang. These western groups mixed with local Mongoloids resulting in an amalgamation of culture and race in middle Xinjiang east to the Tianshan.}} (internal cross references omitted)</ref> and genetics analysis also indicate that the population was of mixed ancestry in the bronze and iron age periods. Professor James A. Millward described the original Uyghurs as physically [[Mongoloid]], giving as an example the images in [[Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves|Bezeklik]] at Temple&nbsp;9 of the Uyghur patrons, until they began to mix with the Tarim Basin's original Tocharian and eastern Iranian inhabitants.<ref>{{cite book|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|first=James A.|last=Millward|edition=illustrated|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA43|page=43|isbn=978-0231139243|access-date=10 March 2014}}</ref> However, according to a genetic study of early Uyghur remains from the [[Uyghur Khaganate]] in Mongolia, most Uyghur-period individuals exhibit a high but variable degree of west Eurasian ancestry. The east–west admixture in the Uyghur Khaganate was said to have taken place around the year 500 AD.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jeong |first1=Choongwon |last2=Wang |first2=Ke |last3=Wilkin |first3=Shevan |last4=Taylor |first4=William Timothy Treal |title=A Dynamic 6,000-Year Genetic History of Eurasia's Eastern Steppe |journal=Cell |date=November 2020 |volume=183 |issue=4 |at=Figure 4, pp. 890–904 |doi=10.1016/j.cell.2020.10.015 |pmid=33157037 |pmc=7664836 |quote=The high genetic heterogeneity of the Early Medieval period is vividly exemplified by 12 individuals from the Uyghur period cemetery of Olon Dov (OLN; Figure 2) in the vicinity of the Uyghur capital of Ordu-Baliq. Six of these individuals came from a single tomb (grave 19), of whom only two are related (OLN002 and OLN003, second-degree; Table S2D); the absence of closer kinship ties raises questions about the function of such tombs and the social relationships of those buried within them. Most Uyghur-period individuals exhibit a high but variable degree of west Eurasian ancestry—best modeled as a mixture of Alans, a historic nomadic pastoral group likely descended from the Sarmatians and contemporaries of the Huns (Bachrach, 1973), and an Iranian-related (BMAC-related) ancestry—together with Ulaanzuukh_SlabGrave (ANA-related) ancestry (Figure 3E). The admixture dates estimated for the ancient Türkic and Uyghur individuals in this study correspond to ca. 500 CE: 8 ± 2 generations before the Türkic individuals and 12 ± 2 generations before the Uyghur individuals (represented by ZAA001 and Olon Dov individuals).}}</ref>

== Archaeology ==
[[Image:Miran fresco1.jpg|thumb|left|[[Fresco]], with [[Hellenistic]] influences, from a [[stupa]] shrine, [[Marin (China)|Miran]]]]
[[File:Young man, Khocho, Nestorian Temple, 602-654 AD, wall painting - Ethnological Museum, Berlin - DSC01740.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Murals from the Christian temple at Qocho|Painting of a Christian woman]], Khocho ([[Gaochang]]), early period of [[Tang dynasty|Chinese Tang]] rule, 602–654 AD]]
Although [[archaeological]] findings are of interest in the Tarim Basin, the prime impetus for exploration was [[petroleum]] and natural gas. Recent research with help of [[GIS]] database have provided a fine-grained analysis of the ancient [[oasis]] of [[Niya (Tarim Basin)|Niya]] on the [[Silk Road]]. This research led to significant findings; remains of hamlets with [[wattle and daub]] structures as well as farm land, orchards, vineyards, irrigation pools and bridges. The oasis at [[Niya (Tarim Basin)|Niya]] preserves the ancient landscape. Here also have been found hundreds of 3rd and 4th century wooden accounting tablets at several settlements across the oasis. These texts are in the [[Kharosthi]] script native to today's [[Pakistan]] and [[Afghanistan]]. The texts are legal documents such as tax lists, and contracts containing detailed information pertaining to the administration of daily affairs.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.silk-road.com/newsletter/vol2num2/oasis.html
 |title       = Archaeological GIS and Oasis Geography in the Tarim Basin
 |publisher   = The Silk Road Foundation Newsletter
 |access-date  = 2007-07-21
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927032739/http://www.silk-road.com/newsletter/vol2num2/oasis.html
 |archive-date = 2007-09-27
}}</ref>

Additional excavations have unearthed tombs with [[Tarim mummies|mummies]],<ref>David W. Anthony, ''Tracking the Tarim Mummies'', Archaeology, Volume 54 Number 2, March/April 2001</ref> tools, [[ceramic]] works, painted [[pottery]] and other artistic artifacts. Such diversity was encouraged by the cultural contacts resulting from this area's position on the [[Silk Road]].<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://sino-platonic.org/abstracts/spp097_sino_western.html
 |title       = A Discussion of Sino-Western Cultural Contact and Exchange in the Second Millennium BC Based on Recent Archeological Discoveries
 |access-date  = 2007-07-21
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070714143248/http://www.sino-platonic.org/abstracts/spp097_sino_western.html
 |archive-date = 2007-07-14
}}</ref> Early Buddhist sculptures and murals excavated at [[Marin (China)|Miran]] show artistic similarities to the traditions of [[Central Asia]] and [[North India]]<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/exhibit/trade/trade.html
 |title       = Silk Road Trade Routes
 |publisher   = University of Washington
 |access-date  = 2007-08-25
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20111108192822/http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/exhibit/trade/trade.html
 |archive-date = 2011-11-08
}}</ref> and stylistic aspects of paintings found there suggest that Miran had a direct connection with the West, specifically [[Rome]] and its provinces.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.asianart.com/forum/serindia.html
 |title       = Ten Centuries of Art on the Silk Road
 |access-date  = 2007-08-25
 |url-status     = live
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070809022354/http://asianart.com/forum/serindia.html
 |archive-date = 2007-08-09
}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Altishahr]]
* [[Chinese Turkestan]]
* [[Flaming Mountains]]
* [[Geography of China]]
* [[Junggar Basin]]
* [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]]
* [[Kunlun Mountains]]
* [[Silk Road transmission of Buddhism]]
* [[Taklamakan Desert]]
* [[Tarim mummies]]
* [[Tocharians]]
* [[Turpan water system]]

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* Baumer, Christoph. 2000. ''Southern Silk Road: In the Footsteps of Sir Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin''. Bangkok: White Orchid Books.
* {{cite book |last = Bellér-Hann |first=Ildikó |title = Community Matters in Xinjiang, 1880–1949: Towards a Historical Anthropology of the Uyghur |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cF4lMj8skvoC&q=altishahr+six+cities|year=2008 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |isbn = 978-9004166752 |ref = Beller-Hann }}
* {{citation|last=Grousset|first=Rene|year=1970|title=Empire of the Steppes|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=0813513049}}
* Hill, John E. 2004. ''The Peoples of the West from the Weilue'' 魏略 ''by Yu Huan'' 魚豢'': A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE.'' Draft annotated English translation. [http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html]
* Hill, John E. (2009) ''Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE''. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. {{ISBN|978-1-4392-2134-1}}.
*{{cite journal |last=Liu |first=Xinru |author-link=Xinru Liu |title=Migration and Settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan. Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies |journal=Journal of World History |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=261–292 |year=2001a |doi=10.1353/jwh.2001.0034 |jstor=20078910 |s2cid=162211306 }}
* Mallory, J.P. and Mair, Victor H. 2000. ''The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West''. Thames & Hudson. London. {{ISBN|0-500-05101-1}}.
* {{cite book |title = Géographie mathématique, physique & politique de toutes les parties du monde, Volume 12 |author1=Edme Mentelle |author2=Malte Conrad Brun (dit Conrad) Malte-Brun |author3=Pierre-Etienne Herbin de Halle |language = fr |year=1804 |publisher=H. Tardieu |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CghUAAAAQAAJ |access-date=10 March 2014 }}
* {{cite book |title = Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759–1864 |first=James A. |last=Millward |edition=illustrated |year=1998 |publisher=Stanford University Press |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=MC6sAAAAIAAJ |isbn = 978-0804729338 |access-date=10 March 2014 }}
* Stein, Aurel M. 1907. ''Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan'', 2 vols. Clarendon Press. Oxford. [http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/]
* Stein, Aurel M. 1921. ''Serindia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China'', 5 vols. London & Oxford. Clarendon Press. Reprint: Delhi. Motilal Banarsidass. 1980. [http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/]
* Stein Aurel M. 1928. ''Innermost Asia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia, Kan-su and Eastern Iran'', 5 vols. Clarendon Press. Reprint: New Delhi. Cosmo Publications. 1981. {{ISBN?}}
*{{cite book |first=François |last=Thierry |chapter=Yuezhi et Kouchans, Pièges et dangers des sources chinoises |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/11069062 |editor1-first=Osmund |editor1-last=Bopearachchi |editor2-first=Marie-Françoise |editor2-last=Boussac |title=Afghanistan, Ancien carrefour entre l'est et l'ouest |publisher=Brepols |location=Turnhout |year=2005 |pages=421–539 |isbn=978-2-503-51681-3 }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Tarim Basin}}
* Downloadable article: "Evidence that a West-East admixed population lived in the Tarim Basin as early as the early Bronze Age" Li et al. ''BMC Biology'' 2010, 8:15. [http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1741-7007-8-15.pdf]
* [http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/ Silk Road Seattle – University of Washington] (The Silk Road Seattle website contains many useful resources including a number of full-text historical works)
* [http://idp.bl.uk/idp.a4d The International Dunhuang Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080508024938/http://idp.bl.uk/idp.a4d |date=2008-05-08 }}
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/33392/rec/2 Along the ancient silk routes: Central Asian art from the West Berlin State Museums], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material from the Tarim Basin

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{{Basins of China}}
{{Xinjiang topics}}

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[[Category:Tarim basin| ]]
[[Category:Drainage basins of China]]
[[Category:Endorheic basins of Asia]]
[[Category:Landforms of Xinjiang]]
[[Category:Flora of Xinjiang|+]]
[[Category:Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests]]
[[Category:Ecoregions of Asia]]
[[Category:Ecoregions of China]]
[[Category:Biota of China]]
[[Category:Sites along the Silk Road]]