Turfan

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Location of Turfan Prefecture within Xinjiang

Turfan or Tulufan (Uyghur: تۇرپان‎, Turpan, Turpan, Turkish: Turfan, Modern Chinese: 吐魯番, Pinyin: Tǔlǔfān) is an oasis city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its population was 254,900 at the end of 2003.

[edit] Administration

Turfan is a county-level city in Turfan Prefecture, in Uyghurstan or in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

[edit] Geography and climate

Qingnian Lu, a Turfan street shaded by grapevine trellises

Turfan is located about 150 km southeast of Ürümqi, Xinjiang's capital, in a mountain basin, on the northern side of the Turfan Depression, at an elevation of 98 feet (30 meters) above sea level.

View of the "Flaming Mountains"

Turfan's climate is harsh, of the arid continental type, with very hot summers, very cold winters, and minimal precipitation, which amounts to only 20 mm (0.9 inch) per year. July is the hottest month, with averages highs of 39°C (103°F) and lows of 25°C (77°F), while January is the coldest, with highs of -4°C (26°F) and lows of -16°C (4°F). The Highest temperature ever measured in Turfan is 49.6°C (121°F) and the lowest is -38°C (-36.4°F).^[1]

However, the very heat and dryness of the summer, when combined with the area's ancient system of irrigation, allows the countryside around Turfan to produce great quantities of high-quality fruit.

[edit] Transport

• China National Highway 312

[edit] History

Turfan has long been the centre of a fertile oasis (with water provided by karez) and an important trade centre. It was historically located along the Silk Road's northern route, at which time it was adjacent to the kingdoms of Korla and Karashahr to the southwest and the town of Qarakhoja (Gaochang) to the southeast.

Tarim Basin in the 3rd century

Emin Minaret, Turfan

The peoples of the Kingdoms of Nearer and Further Jushi 車師 (the Turfan Oasis and the region to the north of the mountains near modern Jimasa), were closely related. It was originally one kingdom called Gushi 故師 (Wade-Giles: Ku-shih) until it was subdivided after the Chinese conquered it in 107 BCE.^[2][3] During Han era the city changed hands several times between the Xiongnu and the Han interspersed with short periods of independence.

A Uyghur girl in Turpan

The city again came under control of the Chinese Han Dynasty and, in 60 BC, became part of the Protectorate of the Western Regions. After the fall of the Han Dynasty, the region was virtually independent but tributary to various dynasties. Until the 5th century CE, the capital of this kingdom was Jiaohe (modern Yarghul - 16 km west of Turpan).^[4]

From 487 to 541 AD Turfan was an independent Kingdom ruled by a Turkish tribe known to the Chinese as the Gaoche. The Rouran Khaganate defeated the Gaoche and subjucated Turfan, but soon afterwards the Rouran were destroyed by the Göktürks. In the mid 7th century the Tarim Basin was reoccupied by the Chinese, now under the Tang Dynasty. During the 7th, 8th, and early 9th centuries the whole region was fought over by the Tang, the Empire of Tibet, and the Turks. Under Tang rule, it was a center of major commercial activity between chinese and sogdian merchants. Mazdaism was the religion practiced by the sogdians, and there were many inns in Turfan, some provided sex workers with an opportunity to service the Silk Road merchants since the official histories report that there were markets in women at both Kucha and Khotan.^[5] The Sogdian-language contract buried at the Astana graveyard demonstrates that at least one Chinese man bought a Sogdian girl in 639 AD. One of the archeologists who excavated the Astana site, Wu Zhen, contends that, although many households along the Silk Road bought individual slaves, as we can see in the earlier documents from Niya, the Turfan documents point to a massive escalation in the volume of the slave trade.^[6]The few documented pairings of Chinese male owners with Sogdian girls raise the question how often Sogdian and Chinese families intermarried. The historical record is largely silent on this topic, but Rong Xinjiang has found a total of twenty-one recorded marriages in the seventh century in which one partner was Sogdian, and in eighteen cases, the spouse is also Sogdian. The only exceptions are very high-ranking Sogdian officials who married Chinese wives.^[7] He concludes that most Sogdian men took Sogdian wives, and we may surmise that the pairings between Chinese men and Sogdian women were usually between a male master and a female slave. Several commercial interactions were recorded In 673 a company commander (duizheng 􀶟􀍍) bought a camel for fourteen bolts of silk from Kang Wupoyan 􀩰􀤢􀥎􀖷,^[8] a non-resident merchant from Samarkand (Kangzhou 􀩰􀏈).^[9] In 731 a Sogdian merchant sold an eleven-year-old girl to a resident of Chang’an, Tang Rong 􀡥􀿲, for forty bolts of silk.^[10] Five men served as guarantors, vouching that she was not a free person who been enslaved (The Tang Code banned the enslavement of commoners.)^[11]

The Uyghurs established a Kingdom in Turfan (known as the Uyghuria Idikut state or Kara-Khoja Uyghur Idikut Kingdom) that lasted from 856 to 1389 AD, surviving as a vassal of the Mongol Empire. This Kingdom, led by Idikuts, or Saint Spiritual Rulers, was established after the fall of the Uyghur Empire to the Kyrgyz Turks. Last Idikut left Turpan area in 1284 for Kumul, then Gansu to seek protection of Yuan Dynasty, but local uyghur Buddhist rulers still held power until Invasion of Moghul Hizir Khoja in 1389. Convertion local buddhist population to Islam was completed nevertheless only in the last half of XV century.

Francis Younghusband, visited Turfan in 1887 on his overland journey from Beijing to India. He said it consisted of two walled towns, a Chinese one with a population of no more than 5,000 and, about a mile (1.6 km) to the west, a Turk town of "probably" 12,000 to 15,000 inhabitants. The town (presumably the "Turk town") had four gateways, one for each of the cardinal directions, of solid brickwork and massive wooden doors plated with iron and covered by a semicircular bastion. The well-kept walls were of mud and about 35 ft (10.7 m) tall and 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 m) thick, with loopholes at the top. There was a level space about 15 yards (14 m) wide outside the main walls surrounded by a musketry wall about 8 ft (2.4 m) high, with a ditch around it some 12 ft (3.7 m) deep and 20 ft (6 m) wide). There were drumtowers over the gateways, small square towers at the corners and two small square bastions between the corners and the gateways, "two to each front." Wheat, cotton, poppies, melons and grapes were grown in the surrounding fields.^[12]

[edit] Demography

Turfan water system (Turfan Water Museum): Water is collected from mountains and channeled underground to agriculture fields

According to the 2000 census, the city of Turfan had a population of 251,652 (population density 15.99 inh./km²). The breakdown by nationality was as follows:

[edit] See also

• Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves
• Gaochang
• Tarim mummies
• Jiaohe Ruins
• Flaming Mountains
• Turfan water system
• Dingling (with a special section about the Fufuluo)

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu." 2nd Draft Edition. [4]
• 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. [5]
• Hulsewé A. F. P. and Loewe M. A. N. 1979. China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. E. J. Brill, Leiden.
• Puri, B. N. Buddhism in Central Asia, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi, 1987. (2000 reprint).
• Stein, Aurel M. 1912. Ruins of Desert Cathay: Personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China, 2 vols. Reprint: Delhi. Low Price Publications. 1990.
• 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.[6]
• 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.
• Yu, Taishan. 2004. A History of the Relationships between the Western and Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Western Regions. Sino-Platonic Papers No. 131 March, 2004. Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Turfan

Coordinates: 42°59′N 89°11′E / 42.983°N 89.183°E / 42.983; 89.183

• Silk Road Seattle (The Silk Road Seattle website contains many useful resources including a number of full-text historical works, maps, photos, etc.)
• Karez (Qanats) of Turpan, China
• Images and travel impressions along the Silk Road - Turpan PPS in Spanish

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