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64-458: The kingdom was originally an independent city-state, known in local Gandhari documents as Kroraïna (Krorayina, Kröran) – which is commonly rendered in Chinese as Loulan . The Western Han dynasty took direct control of the kingdom some time after 77 BCE, and it was later known in Chinese as Shanshan. The archaeologist J. P. Mallory has suggested that the name Shanshan may be derived from

128-783: A Chinese king in Loulan and called the city the Shanshan Fort. Then at the end of the 6th century, the Sui dynasty established the city state of Shanshan at Loulan. The Chinese pilgrim monk, Faxian , stayed about a month in Shanshan after a 17-day journey from Dunhuang in 399 CE. He described the country as "rugged and hilly, with a thin and barren soil. The clothes of the common people are coarse, and like those worn in our land of Han , some wearing felt and others coarse serge or hair. ... The king professed (our) Law, and there might be in

192-576: A consensus has grown in scholarship which sees the first wave of Buddhist missionary work as associated with Gāndhārī and the Kharoṣṭhī script, and tentatively with the Dharmaguptaka sect. Available evidence also indicates that the first Buddhist missions to Khotan were carried out by the Dharmaguptaka sect, and used a Kharoṣṭhī-written Gāndhārī. However, there is evidence that other sects and traditions of Buddhism also used Gāndhārī, and evidence that

256-607: A desert. Taitma Lake is seasonally dry, and Lop Nur is completely dry. Since 2001, "ecological water supply" has been regularly implemented downstream to partially restore and maintain the downstream vegetation and ecological environment. Some Chinese originally considered the Tarim to be the upper course of the Yellow River but, by the time of the Former Han dynasty (125 BCE–23 CE), it was known that it drains into Lop Nur,

320-483: A drainage area of 1.02 million. square kilometer. The main stream of the Tarim River is divided into upper, middle and lower sections: the upper section above Yangji Baza is the upper section, where the river bed is not bifurcated, the side erosion is strong, the meandering flow is developed, and the river bed is unstable; the middle section from Yangji Baza to Qunke, There are many forks, lakes and swamps here. During

384-591: A salt-encrusted lake bed). The river's waters now drain intermittently into Taitema Lake, which is located about 160 kilometres (99 mi) southwest of Lop Nur. Vegetation in the Tarim Basin is mainly located along the river and its branches. There, at the edge of the sands, shrubs like vegetation and stunted trees, especially wormwood, are found. Tugay poplar forest grows in the Tarim River valley. Underbrush consists of willows , sea buckthorn , and dense growths of Indian hemp and Ural licorice .The river

448-471: A special letter (noted by scholars as an underlined s, [ s ]), which later is used interchangeably with s, suggesting an early change to a sound, likely the voiced dental fricative ð, and a later shift to z and then a plain s. The Middle Prakrits typically weakened th to dh, which later shifted to h. Kharoṣṭhī does not render the distinction between short and long vowels, so the details of that feature are not known. Linguistic evidence links some groups of

512-488: A walled city reminiscent of ancient Loulan, desert facing hotels, shops and restaurants as well as a themed residential development. A county is named after Shanshan ( Piqan County ) in modern Xinjiang, although it lies outside of the historical area of Shanshan. This is a list of kings who ruled Shanshan from Chinese sources: In addition, the Kharosthi texts also list these kings: Gandhari language Gāndhārī

576-465: Is a corridor-like distribution of the largest primitive Populus euphratica forest in the world. There are many sandy plants such as Haloxylon , licorice, tamarisk and camel thorn in the forest. Hundreds of wild animals such as Tarim red deer, wild Bactrian camels, goose-throated antelopes , whooper swans and egrets are raised. At present, the Populus euphratica forest belt in the lower reaches

640-403: Is a primitive river with few dikes along the river, and it is allowed to overflow during flood periods. Wild plants grow densely in the floodplain area, including Populus euphratica , red willows and various pastures. In the middle reaches of the river, the terrain is gentle and there are many depressions, the water flow is scattered, interspersed with each other, the water network is disordered,

704-590: Is an early Middle Indo-Aryan language – a Prakrit – with unique features that distinguish it from all other known Prakrits. Phonetically, it maintained all three Old Indo-Aryan sibilants – s, ś and ṣ – as distinct sounds where they fell together as [s] in other Prakrits, a change that is considered one of the earliest Middle Indo-Aryan shifts. Gāndhārī also preserves certain Old Indo-Aryan consonant clusters, mostly those involving v and r. In addition, intervocalic Old Indo-Aryan th and dh are written early on with

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768-424: Is disappearing continuously due to the cut-off of the Tarim River and the decrease of water volume. The Tarim River flows through the desert area, and the riverbed is generally silt and sandy loam, which is easily washed away. The upper and middle reaches of the river bed are generally more than 1 km wide, the widest is nearly 4 km, and the downstream river bed is generally 200–300 meters wide. The Tarim River

832-495: Is hereinafter referred to as the Tarim River. According to the calculation of the main source Yeerqiang River, the total length is 2327 kilometers. The main stream winds from west to east along the northern edge of the Tarim Basin at 41 degrees north latitude, and turns eastward to the southeast at 87 degrees east longitude, passing through the eastern part of the Taklimakan Desert, and finally injecting into Lop Nur, with

896-455: Is rich in fish, and animal life on the river and the surrounding desert is varied. At the time of Sven Hedin 's visit in 1899, tigers were still being hunted and trapped along the rivers of the region and near Lop Nur . The valley and lakes of the Tarim are a stopover for many migratory birds. The Tarim River is frequently diverted, the river has a large sediment content, and the erosion and deposition change frequently. The Tarim River Basin

960-548: The Afridi Pashtuns in the 19th century. Georg Morgenstierne claimed that Tirahi is "probably the remnant of a dialect group extending from Tirah through the Peshawar district into Swat and Dir ". Nowadays, it must be entirely extinct and the region is now dominated by Iranian languages brought in by later migrants, such as Pashto . Among the modern day Indo-Aryan languages still spoken today, Torwali shows

1024-482: The Dardic languages with Gandhari. The Kohistani languages , now all being displaced from their original homelands, were once more widespread in the region and most likely descend from the ancient dialects of the region of Gandhara. The last to disappear was Tirahi , still spoken some years ago in a few villages in the vicinity of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, by descendants of migrants expelled from Tirah by

1088-524: The Former Han and Later Han ; control of the kingdom was regularly contested between the Chinese and the Xiongnu . The Xiongnu repeatedly contested the Han Chinese for control of the region until well into the 2nd century CE. In 77 BCE, the Chinese envoy Fu Jiezi was sent to kill the Loulan king, named Changgui or Angui (嘗歸 or 安歸), after several Han envoys were kidnapped and killed. He arrived on

1152-784: The Khotan River , comes to the same junction area from the south but it is usually dry at this location, having crossed the Taklamakan Desert to get here. Another river of western Xinjiang is the Kashgar River , which flows into the Yarkand River during the rainy season about 37 kilometres (23 mi) upstream from the Yarkand's confluence with the Aksu. The main source is the Yarkand River, which originates from

1216-621: The Kushan monk Lokakṣema began translating the first Buddhist sutras into Chinese. The earliest of these translations show evidence of having been translated from Gāndhārī. It is also known that manuscripts in the Kharoṣṭhī script existed in China during this period. Tarim River The Tarim River ( Chinese : 塔里木河 ; pinyin : Tǎlǐmù Hé ; Uyghur : تارىم دەرياسى , romanized :  Tarim deryasi ), known in Sanskrit as

1280-713: The Kushan Empire and various central Asian kingdoms, including Khotan and Shanshan . It appears on coins, inscriptions and texts, notably the Gandhāran Buddhist texts . It is notable among the Prakrits for having some archaic phonology, for its relative isolation and independence, for being partially within the influence of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean and for its use of the Kharoṣṭhī script, compared to Brahmic scripts used by other Prakrits. Gāndhārī

1344-717: The Tarim Basin is extremely scant, and in some years it is nonexistent. In the Taklamakan Desert and in the Lop Nur basin, the average annual total of precipitation is about 12 millimetres (0.47 in). In the foothills and in several other areas of the river's basin, the precipitation amounts to from 50 to 100 millimetres (2.0 to 3.9 in) a year. In the Tian Shan it is much wetter, precipitation often exceeding 510 millimetres (20 in). Maximum temperatures in

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1408-674: The Śītā , is an endorheic river in Xinjiang , China . It is the principal river of the Tarim Basin , a desert region of Central Asia between the Tian Shan and Kunlun Mountains . The river historically terminated at Lop Nur , but today reaches no further than Taitema Lake before drying out. It is the longest inland river in China . The Tarim River originates from the Karakoram Mountains and flows into Lop Nur along

1472-473: The 1st century of the Common Era. The Middle Prakrit phonetic features are the weakening of intervocalic consonants: degemination and voicing, such as the shift of OIA * k to g . The most rapid loss was the dentals, which started to disappear completely even before the late period as with * t > ∅ as in * pitar > piu ; in contrast, retroflex consonants were never lost. There is also evidence of

1536-762: The Dardic languages, whereas all the Indo-Aryan languages have replaced that term with reflexes of bhaginī . Until 1994, the only Gāndhāri manuscript available to the scholars was a birch bark manuscript of a Buddhist text, the Dharmapāda , discovered at Kohmāri Mazār near Hotan in Xinjiang in 1893 CE. From 1994 on, a large number of fragmentary manuscripts of Buddhist texts, seventy-seven altogether, were discovered in eastern Afghanistan and Western Pakistan. These include: Mahayana Buddhist Pure Land sūtras were brought from Gandhāra to China as early as 147 CE, when

1600-592: The Dharmaguptaka sect also used Sanskrit at times. It is true that most manuscripts in Gāndhārī belong to the Dharmaguptakas, but virtually all schools — inclusive Mahāyāna — used some Gāndhārī. Von Hinüber (1982b and 1983) has pointed out incompletely Sanskritised Gāndhārī words in works heretofore ascribed to the Sarvāstivādins and drew the conclusion that either the sectarian attribution had to be revised, or

1664-580: The Great Cozbo Ṣamasena as one who is, "beloved of men and gods, honoured by men and gods, blessed with a good name, who has set forth in the Mahāyāna." A military colony of 1,000 men was established at Loulan in 260 CE by the Chinese general Suo Mai (索勱). The site was abandoned in 330 CE due to lack of water when the Tarim River , which supported the settlement, changed course and the military garrison

1728-496: The Great Vehicle." The king who this refers to was probably Aṃgoka, who was the most powerful king of Shanshan. According to Richard Salomon, there is every reason to believe that Mahāyāna Buddhism was prominent in Shanshan at this time and enjoyed royal patronage. More evidence of official adoption of Mahāyāna Buddhism in Shanshan is seen in a letter inscribed in wood which dates to several decades later. The letter describes

1792-579: The Northern dynasties, Sui and Tang dynasties, the Tarim River was called Ji-style water, Ji-shu water and Ji-shou water. The Qing dynasty's "Map of the Western Regions" called it "Erse Gol", which means "flowing water" in Mongolian. According to the "Draft of Qing History", the name of the river Tarim means "horse without reins", which describes the river's frequent diversion. In the 24th year of

1856-603: The Pamir Plateau, the Karakoram Mountains, the Kunlun Mountains and the Altun Mountains around the Tarim Basin. River system, Weigan river system, Aksu river system, Kashgar river system, Yarkand river system, Hotan river system, Keriya river system, Cheerchen river system. The water source of the Tarim River completely comes from the tributaries originating from the surrounding mountainous areas, and

1920-493: The Taklamakan Desert. It receives another tributary, the Muzat River from the north; however, out of these four rivers (Aksu, Yarkand, Khotan, and Muzart), only the Aksu flows into the Tarim year-round It is the Tarim's most important tributary, supplying 70–80 percent of its water volume. Prior to the completion of reservoirs and irrigation works in the mid-20th century, the Tarim's waters eventually reached Lop Nur (now

1984-600: The Tarim Basin are about 40 °C (104 °F). The Tarim River freezes over every year from December through March. The Tarim River and most of its tributaries originate in the Karakorum and Kunlun Mountains . The name Tarim is applied to the river formed by the union of the Aksu River , flowing from the north, and Yarkand River , coming from the southwest, near the Aral City in western Xinjiang. A third river,

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2048-450: The Tarim River has decreased from 6 billion cubic meters in the 1950s to The 4.4 billion cubic meters at the beginning of the 21st century have decreased by an average of 320 million cubic meters per decade. From the 1980s to the beginning of the 21st century, the amount of water entering the Tarim River has been less than the average for many years. Since the 1950s, although the natural inflow of water in each tributary has increased, due to

2112-484: The Tarim frequently changes its channel, the length tends to vary over the years. It is shallow, unsuitable for navigation, and because of its heavy silt load, forms a braided stream near its terminus. The area of the Tarim River Basin is about 557,000 square kilometres (215,000 sq mi). A considerable part of the Tarim's course is unformed, following no clearly defined riverbed. The water volume of

2176-564: The Xiongnu envoys and presented their heads to the King, after which King Guang of Shanshan offered his allegiance to Han. Loulan was later recorded as a dependent kingdom of Shanshan in the 3rd century Weilüe . An inscription in the Kharoṣṭhī script was found at Endere , originally written around in the middle of the 3rd century CE. The inscription describes the king of Shanshan as a follower of Mahāyāna Buddhism — one who has "set forth in

2240-452: The beginning of the Tang dynasty), the remaining Shanshan people, led by Shanfutuo (鄯伏陁), migrated to Hami in the Northern area. The Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang passed through this region in 644 on his return from India to China, visited a town called Nafubo (納縛波, thought to be Charklik) of the Loulan country, and he also wrote of Qiemo : "A fortress exists, but not a trace of man". In 2011,

2304-614: The closest linguistic affinity possible to Niya , a dialect of Gāndhārī. Initial identification of a distinct language occurred through study of one of the Buddhist āgamas , the Dīrghāgama , which had been translated into Chinese by Buddhayaśas ( Chinese : 佛陀耶舍 ) and Zhu Fonian ( Chinese : 竺佛念 ). The now dominant hypothesis on the propagation of Buddhism in Central Asia goes back to 1932 when E. Waldschmidt remarked that

2368-556: The continuous increase in water consumption in the source area and the upper and middle reaches of the main stream, the water source of each tributary in the upper reaches of the Tarim River has been decreasing day by day, and the Kashgar River stopped inflow in the late 1950s; After the construction of the Bachu Xiaohaizi Reservoir in the 1960s, the discharge of the Yarkand River decreased sharply; except for

2432-683: The country more than four thousand monks, who were all students of the hînâyana . ... (The monks) ...were all students of Indian books and the Indian language." From the 5th century onwards, however, the land was frequently invaded by nomads such as Tuyuhuns , the Rourans , and the Dingling , and the area became gradually abandoned. In the spring of 442 CE, Loulan was invaded by Juqu Anzhou and its king fled to Jumo (Cherchen) , and Shanshan then came to be ruled from Qiemo. At around 630 (at

2496-603: The discharge of the Hetian River during the flood period, there was no water discharge in other periods. In the upper reaches of the lower reaches, the five farms of the Second Agricultural Division of the Production and Construction Corps rely on the sluices that block the river to bring all the water into the plains and reservoirs. As a result, the lower reaches of the lower reaches have become

2560-418: The flood period, the water flow overflows and disperses, and the main flow is often diverted; the lower section below Qunke, the river channel is restored and unified. The Daxihaizi Reservoir was built between Tieganlik, so only a small amount of river water could flow to Yingsu, and only during the flood period did water leak into Taitma Lake. The Tarim flows in an eastward direction along the northern edge of

2624-415: The local government decided to undertake a large-scale development aimed at positioning Shanshan as "The Desert Tourism City" to attract a larger number to tourists to the area. Tourism and attraction development consultant Leisure Quest International (USA) was retained to develop a master plan and conceptual design for the development. The plan includes development of a themed destination which would include

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2688-484: The loss of a distinction between aspirates and plain stops as well, which is unusual in the Indo-Aryan languages . In Central Asian Gāndhārī, there is often confusion in writing nasals with homorganic stops; it is unclear if this might represent assimilation of the stop or the appearance of prenasalized consonants to the phonetic inventory. Gāndhārī grammar is difficult to analyse; endings were eroded not only by

2752-416: The loss of final consonants and cluster simplification of all Prakrits but also by the apparent weakening of final vowels "'to the point that they were no longer differentiated'". Nonetheless, there was still at least a rudimentary system of grammatical case . Verbal forms are highly restricted in usage due to the primary usage of longer texts to translations of religious documents and the narrative nature of

2816-486: The lower course of the river diminishes as a result of extensive evaporation and water-diversion schemes. The Tarim River Basin belongs to the inland river basin, which originates from the inland rivers in the mountains around the Tarim Basin and flows into the basin, forming a centripetal water system. The river system of the Tarim River Basin is composed of 144 rivers originating from the Tianshan Mountains,

2880-408: The main stream is 4.511 billion cubic meters. At the same time, the amount of water varies greatly due to seasonal differences. In summer, snow and glaciers melt, which increases the amount of water and decreases in winter. The Tarim River is a naturally dissipative river in history, with an average annual water consumption of 1.669 billion cubic meters in the upper reaches, 2.296 billion cubic meters in

2944-412: The meanders are developed, and the water and grass lakes are connected. The water quality at the outflow mountain pass of the four major sources of the Tarim River is grade 1-2, which can meet the requirements of living, agricultural irrigation and fishery. Due to the influence of geographical environment factors and farmland drainage, the water quality of the main stream is poor in non-flood seasons, and

3008-410: The middle reaches, and only 633 million cubic meters of water entering the downstream. The distribution of glacier runoff is uneven throughout the year. The water inflow from June to September accounts for 70%-80% of the annual runoff, and most of them are floods; the irrigation season from March to May only accounts for about 10% of the annual runoff. is likely to cause spring drought. Precipitation in

3072-423: The name of another city in the area, Cherchen (later known in Chinese as Qiemo ). A local variety of Gandhari was used in the kingdom for administrative, literary, and epigraphic purposes. Scholars such as Thomas Burrow have suggested the local population might have spoke a hypothetical Tocharian C , as evidenced by the loanwords in those Gandhari documents. The kingdom of Kroraïna (Loulan), later Shanshan,

3136-661: The names quoted in the Chinese Dīrghāgama (T. 1), which had been translated by the avowedly Dharmaguptaka monk Buddhayaśas (who also translated the Dharmaguptakavinaya ), were not rendered from Sanskrit, but from a then undetermined Prākrit also found in the Khotan Dharmapada . In 1946, Bailey identified this Prākrit, which he named Gāndhārī, as corresponding to the language of most Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions from Northwestern India. Since this time,

3200-458: The northern edge of the Taklimakan Desert. It has a total length of 2,327 kilometers and a drainage area of 1.02 million square kilometers. Its main tributaries include the Hotan River , the Aksu River , and the Kashgar River . The course of the Tarim River swings from north to south in history, and its migration is uncertain. The last major river change occurred in 1921, when the main stream

3264-524: The pretext of carrying gold and valuables to the outer states and intending to give a presentation to the king, but stabbed the Loulan king to death while he was drunk. The king's younger brother Weituqi (尉屠耆) was then installed as the king of Loulan by the Han ruler, and the kingdom was renamed Shanshan. The newly installed king requested the presence of Han forces in Yixun (伊循), due to his fear of retribution from

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3328-572: The reign of Emperor Jiaqing of the Qing dynasty (1819), Xu Song wrote in "The Record of the Waterways of the Western Regions": "The Hui language (Uyghur language) refers to the 'cultivable land' called Tarim, and it is said that the people living in the riverside are farming for their business." The total length of the Yarkand-Tarim river system is 2,030 kilometres (1,260 mi), although, as

3392-414: The salinity of the river water has exceeded the standard of saline-alkali areas, and the water quality category is inferior to 5. Floods generally occur in summer, and the period from May to September in high mountains is the period of melting snow in glaciers and high mountains. The annual average natural runoff of the Tarim River Basin is 39.83 billion cubic meters, mainly recharged by glaciers and snowmelt,

3456-670: The sediment content is very high. The average annual water volume of the Tarim River at the confluence of the three major sources is 4.299 billion cubic meters, of which the Aksu River is 3.358 billion cubic meters, the Yeerqiang River is 23 million cubic meters, and the Hotan River 918 million cubic meters. In the downstream, 212 million cubic meters are introduced from the Kongque River, and the total water volume of

3520-401: The sons of the assassinated king in Loulan. Chinese army officers were therefore sent to colonise the area, and an office of commandant was established at Yixun. In 25 CE it was recorded that Shanshan was in league with the Xiongnu. In 73 AD, the Han army officer Ban Chao went to Shanshan with a small group of followers, which was also receiving a delegation from the Xiongnu. Ban Chao killed

3584-602: The south-west of Lop Nur), Cherchen (later Qiemo ), as well as Niya , further to the south-west. In 126 BCE, the Chinese envoy, Zhang Qian described Loulan as a fortified city near Lop Nur . Because of its position on what became the main routes from China to the West, controlling both the Southern Route between Dunhuang and Khotan, and the main Silk Route from Dunhuang to Korla Kucha and Kashgar during

3648-527: The southeastern foot of the Telim Kanli Peak in the Karakoram Mountains. The source is divided into four branches, namely the Yeerqiang River, the Aksu River, the Kashgar River, and the Hotan River. The four rivers converge near Xiaojia in Awati County. In the "Heyuan Jilue" of the Qing dynasty, it is recorded as "the meeting place is connected by four rivers. Shaped like a bullpen." Xiao Jacket

3712-411: The sutras but seem to parallel changes in other Prakrits. The lexicon of Gāndhārī is also limited by its textual usage; it is still possible to determine unusual forms, such as Gāndhārī forms that show commonalities with forms in modern Indo-Aryan languages of the area, notably some groups of the Dardic languages . An example is the word for sister, which is a descendant of Old Indo-Aryan svasṛ- as in

3776-478: The tacit dogma "Gāndhārī equals Dharmaguptaka" is wrong. Conversely, Dharmaguptakas also resorted to Sanskrit. Starting in the first century of the common era, there was a large trend toward a type of Gāndhārī which was heavily Sanskritized. In general terms, Gāndhārī is a Middle Prakrit, a term for middle-stage Middle Indo-Aryan languages. It only begins to show the characteristics of the Late Prakrits in

3840-410: The unique groundwater resources are 3.07 billion cubic meters, and the total water resources in the basin is 42.9 billion cubic meters. Since the 1950s, the natural runoff of the four major source and outflow mountain passes has shown an increasing trend. However, due to the increase in the irrigation area and water consumption in front of the source area, the amount of water supplied to the main stream of

3904-410: Was an Indo-Aryan Prakrit language found mainly in texts dated between the 3rd century BCE and 4th century CE in the region of Gandhāra , located in the northwestern Indian subcontinent . The language was heavily used by the former Buddhist cultures of Central Asia and has been found as far away as eastern China, in inscriptions at Luoyang and Anyang . Gandhari served as an official language of

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3968-542: Was diverted to the east and flowed into Lop Nur through the Kongque River. In 1952, a dam was built near Yuli County , separated from the Kongque River, and the river water returned to Taitma Lake and Lop Nur through the old road of Tieganlik. The Greek geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD called the Tarim River the Oichardes River in his book "Geography". " Shui Jing Zhu " is called the South River. In

4032-417: Was moved 50 km south to Haitou. The fort of Yingpan to the northwest remained under Chinese control until the Tang dynasty . Chinese rule continued into the Western Jin dynasty and intermittently in later centuries. It was recorded that in 283 the son of the king was sent as a hostage to the Chinese court during the reign of Emperor Wu of Jin dynasty . In the 5th century, the Northern Wei installed

4096-420: Was probably founded at a strategically located walled town, near the north-west corner of Lop Nur, next to the then outflow of the Tarim River into Lop Nur (40° 9’ N, 89° 5’ E). The site of Kroraïna covered about 10.8 hectares (27 acres) with a Buddhist pagoda about 10 metres (33 feet) high, numerous houses, and irrigation ditches. The kingdom included the city of Charklik (near the modern town of Ruoqiang to

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