Turpan (also known as Turfan or Tulufan, , ug, تۇرپان) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It has an area of and a population of 632,000 (2015).

Geonyms

The original name of the city is unknown. The form Turfan (while it is older than Turpan), was not used until the middle of the 2nd millennium CE and its use became widespread only in the post-Mongol period. Historically, many settlements in the Tarim Basin have been given a number of different names. Some of these names have also referred to more than one place: Turpan/Turfan/Tulufan is one such example. Others include Jushi/Gushi, Gaochang/ Qocho/ Karakhoja and Jiaohe/Yarkhoto. The center of the region has shifted a number of times, from Yar-Khoto (Jiaohe, to the west of modern Turpan) to Qocho (Gaochang, to the southeast of Turpan) and to Turpan itself.

History

Turpan has long been the centre of a fertile

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

(with water provided by the '' karez'' canal system) and an important trade centre. It was historically located along the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

. At that time, other kingdoms of the region included Korla and Yanqi. Along with city-states such as

Krorän Loulan, also called Krorän or Kroraina ( zh, s=, t=, p=Lóulán <

Eastern Han Chinese

''lo-lɑn'' <

(Loulan) and Kucha, Turfan appears to have been inhabited by people speaking the Indo-European Tocharian languages in prehistory. The Jushi Kingdom ruled the area in the 1st millennium BC, until it was conquered by the Chinese Han dynasty in 107 BC. It was subdivided into two kingdoms in 60 BC, between the Han and its enemy the Xiongnu Empire. The city changed hands several times between the Xiongnu and the Han, interspersed with short periods of independence. Nearer Jushi has been linked to the Turpan Oasis, while Further Jushi to the north of the mountains near modern

Jimsar Jimsar County is a county in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. It contains an area of . According to the 2002 census, it has a population of 130,000. Near the town of Jimsar are the ruins of the ancient city of Beiting () or Tin ...

. After the fall of the Han dynasty in 220, the region was virtually independent but tributary to various dynasties. Until the 5th century AD, the capital of this kingdom was Jiaohe (modern Yarghul west of Turpan). Many Han Chinese along with

Sogdia Sogdia (Sogdian language, Sogdian: ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also ...

ns settled in Turfan during the post Han dynasty era. The Chinese character dominated Turfan in the eyes of the Sogdians. Kuchean speakers made up the original inhabitants before the Chinese and Sogdian influx. The oldest evidence of the use of Chinese characters was found in Turfan in a document dated to 273 AD. In 327, the Gaochang Commandery (''jùn'') was created in the Turfan area by the Former Liang under Zhang Jun. The Chinese set up a military colony/garrison and organized the land into multiple divisions. Han Chinese colonists from the Hexi region and the central plains also settled in the region. Gaochang was successively ruled by the Former Liang,

Former Qin The Former Qin, also called Fu Qin (苻秦), (351–394) was a dynastic state of the Sixteen Kingdoms in Chinese history ruled by the Di ethnicity. Founded by Fu Jian (posthumously Emperor Jingming) who originally served under the Later ...

and

Northern Liang The Northern Liang (; 397–439) was a dynastic state of the Sixteen Kingdoms in China. It was ruled by the Juqu family of Lushuihu origin (a branch of the Xiongnu). Although Duan Ye of Han ethnicity was initially enthroned as the Northern Liang ...

. In 439, remnants of the

, led by Juqu Wuhui and Juqu Anzhou, fled to Gaochang where they would hold onto power until 460 when they were conquered by the

Rouran Khaganate The Rouran Khaganate, also Juan-Juan Khaganate (), was a tribal confederation and later state founded by a people of Proto-Mongolic Donghu origin.*Pulleyblank, Edwin G. (2000)"Ji 姬 and Jiang 姜: The Role of Exogamic Clans in the Organizatio ...

Gaochang Kingdom

At the time of its conquest by the Rouran Khaganate, there were more than ten thousand Han Chinese households in Gaochang. The Rouran Khaganate, which was based in Mongolia, appointed a Han Chinese named Kan Bozhou to rule as King of Gaochang in 460, and it became a separate vassal kingdom of the Khaganate. Kan was dependent on Rouran backing. Yicheng and Shougui were the last two kings of the Chinese Kan family to rule Gaochang. At this time the Gaoche was rising to challenge power of the Rouran in the Tarim Basin. The Gaoche king

Afuzhiluo Afuzhiluo (), also known as Kezhiluo, was a Gaoche ruler. In 487, the Rouran khagan Doulun attacked the Northern Wei dynasty, Afuzhiluo and his younger brother Qiongqi led more than one hundred thousand people in the west of Gaoche. He rebel ...

killed King Kan Shougui, who was the nephew of Kan Bozhou.East Asia Studies Institute of International Studies University of California CHINESE DYNASTIC HISTORIES TRANSLATIONS No. 6 and appointed a Han from

Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...

, named Zhang Mengming (張孟明), as his own vassal King of Gaochang. Gaochang thus passed under Gaoche rule. Later, Zhang Mengming was killed in an uprising by the people of Gaochang and replaced by Ma Ru (). In 501, Ma Ru himself was overthrown and killed, and the people of Gaochang appointed Qu Jia () from Jincheng Commandery as their king. Qu Jia at first pledged allegiance to the Rouran, but the Rouran khaghan was soon killed by the Gaoche and he had to submit to Gaoche overlordship. Later, when the

Göktürks The Göktürks, Celestial Turks or Blue Turks ( otk, 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣, Türük Bodun; ; ) were a nomadic confederation of Turkic peoples in medieval Inner Asia. The Göktürks, under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan (d. 552) and ...

emerged as the supreme power in the region, the Qu dynasty of Gaochang became vassals of the Göktürks. While the material civilization of Kucha to its west in this period remained chiefly Indo-Iranian in character, in Gaochang it gradually merged into the Tang aesthetics. Qu Wentai, King of Gaochang, was a main patron of the Tang pilgrim and traveller Xuanzang.

Tang conquest

The Tang dynasty had reconquered the Tarim Basin by the 7th century AD and for the next three centuries the Tibetan Empire, the Tang dynasty, and the Turks fought over dominion of the Tarim Basin. Sogdians and Chinese engaged in extensive commercial activities with each other under Tang rule. The Sogdians were mostly Mazdaist at this time. The Turpan region was renamed Xi Prefecture () when the Tang conquered it in 640 AD, had a history of commerce and trade along the Silk Road already centuries old; it had many inns catering to merchants and other travelers, while numerous brothels are recorded in Kucha and Khotan. As a result of the Tang conquest, policies forcing minority group relocation and encouraging Han settlement led to Turpan's name in the

Sogdian language The Sogdian language was an Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian language spoken mainly in the Central Asian region of Sogdia (capital: Samarkand; other chief cities: Panjakent, Fergana, Khujand, and Bukhara), located in modern-day Uzbekist ...

becoming known as "Chinatown" or "Town of the Chinese". In Astana Cemetery, a contract written in Sogdian detailing the sale of a Sogdian girl to a Chinese man was discovered dated to 639 AD. Individual

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

were common among silk route houses; early documents recorded an increase in the selling of slaves in Turpan. Twenty-one 7th-century marriage contracts were found that showed, where one Sogdian spouse was present, for 18 of them their partner was a Sogdian. The only Sogdian men who married Chinese women were highly eminent officials. Several commercial interactions were recorded, for example a camel was sold priced at 14 silk bolts in 673, and a Chang'an native bought a girl age 11 for 40 silk bolts in 731 from a Sogdian merchant. Five men swore that the girl was never free before enslavement, since the Tang Code forbade commoners to be sold as slaves. The Tang dynasty became weakened considerably due to the An Lushan Rebellion, and the Tibetans took the opportunity to expand into

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

and the Western Regions. The Tibetans took control of Turfan in 792. Dunhuang Uighur king

Clothing for corpses was made out of discarded, used paper in Turfan which is why the Astana graveyard is a source of a plethora of texts. 7th or 8th century

dumpling Dumpling is a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of dough (made from a variety of starch sources), oftentimes wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, flour, buckwheat or potatoes, and may be filled with meat, fi ...

s and wontons were found in Turfan.

Uyghur rule

In 803, the Uyghurs of the Uyghur Khaganate seized Turfan from the Tibetans. The Uyghur Khaganate however was destroyed by the Kirghiz and its capital Ordu-Baliq in Mongolia sacked in 840. The defeat resulted in the mass movement of the Uyghurs out of Mongolia and their dispersal into Gansu and Central Asia, and many joined other Uyghurs already present in Turfan. In the early twentieth century, a collection of some 900 Christian manuscripts dating to the ninth to the twelfth centuries was found at a monastery site at Turfan. The Uyghurs established a Kingdom in the Turpan region with its capital in Gaochang or Kara-Khoja. The kingdom was known as the Uyghuria Idikut state or Kara-Khoja Kingdom that lasted from 856 to 1389 AD. The Uyghurs were

Manichaean Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...

but later converted to Buddhism and funded the construction the cave temples in the Bezeklik Caves. The Uyghurs formed an alliance with the rulers of

. The Uyghur state later became a vassal state of the Kara-Khitans and then as a vassal of the

Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, ...

. This Kingdom was led by the Idikuts or Saint Spiritual Rulers. The last Idikut left Turpan area in 1284 for

Kumul Hami (Kumul) is a prefecture-level city in Eastern Xinjiang, China. It is well known as the home of sweet Hami melons. In early 2016, the former Hami county-level city was merged with Hami Prefecture to form the Hami prefecture-level city with t ...

and then

to seek protection of Yuan Dynasty, but local Uyghur Buddhist rulers still held power until the invasion by the

Moghul Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

Khizr Khoja in 1389. The conversion of the local Buddhist population to Islam was completed nevertheless only in the second half of the 15th century. Artifacts of Manichaean and Buddhist provenance are found in Turfan. Uyghur, New Persian, Sogdian and Syriac documents have been found in Turfan. Turfan also has documents with Middle Persian. After being converted to Islam, the descendants of the previously Buddhist Uyghurs in Turfan failed to retain memory of their ancestral legacy and falsely believed that the "infidel Kalmuks" ( Dzungars) were the ones who built Buddhist monuments in their area.

15th and 16th centuries

Buddhist images and temples in Turfan were described in 1414 by the Ming diplomat Chen Cheng. As late as 1420, the Timurid envoy Ghiyāth al-dīn Naqqāsh, who passed through Turpan on the way from Herat to Beijing, reported that many of the city's residents were " infidels". He visited a "very large and beautiful" temple with a statue of Shakyamuni; in one of the versions of his account it was also claimed that many Turpanians " worshipped the cross". Nieuhof-p-189-Mogolsche-gezant-Lach-van-Kley-plate-315

Nieuhof-p-189-Mogolsche-gezant-Lach-van-Kley-plate-315

The Moghul ruler of Turpan Yunus Khan, also known as Ḥājjī 'Ali (ruled 1462–1478), unified Moghulistan (roughly corresponding to today's Eastern Xinjiang) under his authority in 1472. Around that time, a conflict with the

Ming China The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...

started over the issues of tribute trade: Turpanians benefited from sending "tribute missions" to China, which allowed them to receive valuable gifts from the Ming emperors and to do plenty of trading on the side; the Chinese, however, felt that receiving and entertaining these missions was just too expensive. (Muslim envoys to the early Ming China were impressed by the lavish reception offered to them along their route through China, from

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

to Beijing, such as described by Ghiyāth al-dīn Naqqāsh in 1420–1421.) Turpan-karez-maqueta-d01

Yunus Khan was irritated by the restrictions on the frequency and size of Turpanian missions (no more than one mission in 5 years, with no more than 10 members) imposed by the Ming government in 1465 and by the Ming's refusal to bestow sufficiently luxurious gifts on his envoys (1469). Accordingly, in 1473 he went to war against China, and succeeded in capturing Hami in 1473 from the Oirat Mongol Henshen and holding it for a while, until Ali was repulsed by the Ming Dynasty into Turfan. He reoccupied Hami after Ming left. Henshen's Mongols recaptured Hami twice in 1482 and 1483, but the son of Ali, Ahmad Alaq, reconquered it in 1493 and captured the Hami leader and the resident of China in Hami (Hami was a vassal state to Ming). In response, the Ming Dynasty imposed an economic blockade on Turfan and kicked out all the Uyghurs from Gansu. It became so harsh for Turfan that Ahmed left. Ahmed's son

Mansur Mansour ( ar, منصور, Manṣūr); also spelled Mounsor, Monsur (Bengali), Mansoor, Manser, Mansur, Mansyur (Indonesian) or Mensur (Turkish), is a male Arabic name that means "He who is victorious", from the Arabic root '' naṣr'' (نصر), m ...

succeeded him and took over Hami in 1517. These conflicts were called the

Ming Turpan Border Wars The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...

. Several times, after occupying Hami, Mansur tried to attack China in 1524 with 20,000 men, but was beaten by Chinese forces. The Turpan kingdom under Mansur, in alliance with Oirat Mongols, tried to raid Suzhou in Gansu in 1528, but were severely defeated by Ming Chinese forces and suffered heavy casualties. The Chinese refused to lift the economic blockade and restrictions that had led to the battles and continued restricting Turpan's tribute and trade with China. Turfan also annexed Hami.

18th and 19th centuries

The Imin mosque of Turfan was built in 1779. Francis Younghusband visited Turpan 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. Turpan grapes impressed other travelers to the region as well. The 19th-century Russian explorer

Grigory Grum-Grshimailo Grigory Yefimovich Grum-Grshimailo (russian: Григо́рий Ефи́мович Грумм-Гржима́йло, 1860–1936) was a Russian zoologist best known for his expeditions to Central Asia ( Pamir, Bukhara, Tian-Shan, Kan-su, and Kuk ...

, thought the local raisins may be "the best in the world" and noted the buildings of a "perfectly peculiar design" used for drying them called chunche. Mongols, Chinese and Chantos all lived in Turfan during this period.

20th and 21st centuries

In 1931, a Uyghur rebellion against the China broke out in the region, after a Chinese commander tried to forcibly marry a local girl. The Chinese responded by indiscriminately attacking Muslims; this turned the entire countryside against the Chinese administration and the Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Tungans joined the rebels. On August 19, 1981, Deng Xiaoping conducted an inspection in Turpan Prefecture. On March 31, 1995, Turpan and

became sister cities. According to reports from

Radio Free Asia Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a United States government-funded private non-profit news service that broadcasts radio programs and publishes online news, information, and commentary for its audiences in Asia. The service, which provides editoriall ...

, as of 2020, there were eight Xinjiang internment camps in the prefecture.

Geography

Subdivisions

Turpan directly controls 1 district and 2 counties. Turpan-flaming-mountains-d02

Turpan is located about southeast of Ürümqi, Xinjiang's capital, in a mountain basin, on the northern side of the Turpan Depression, at an elevation of above sea level. Outside of Turpan is a small volcanic cone, the Turfan volcano, that is said to have erupted in 1120 as described in the Song Dynasty. In June 1995, a book of standard names for local geography was published.

Climate

Turpan has an extremely continental desert climate ( Köppen Climate Classification ''BWk''), with long, extremely hot summers (resembling a hot desert climate or ''BWh'') and somewhat short but very cold winters, with very brief spring and autumn in between. Annual precipitation is very low, amounting to only . The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in January to in July, or a very large seasonal variation of ; the annual mean is . With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 48% in December to 75% in September, sunshine is abundant and the city receives 2,912 hours of bright sunshine annually. Extremes have ranged from to , although a reading of in July 1975 is regarded as dubious. However, the high heat and dryness of the summer, when combined with the area's ancient system of irrigation, allows the countryside around Turpan to produce great quantities of high-quality fruit.

Demographics

According to the 2015 government census, the city of Turpan had a population of 651,853 (population density 15.99 inh./km²). The breakdown by

ethnicity An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

was as follows:

Language

There is Chinese influence in the vocabulary of Uyghur dialect in Turpan.

Assimilation

Turpan Uyghurs have more Han Chinese features and looks than Uyghurs elsewhere and this is suggested to be due to intermarriage between Han Chinese and Uyghurs in the past according to the locals. Due to physical features found in Uyghurs in Turpan it was claimed that Uyghurs married slaves sent to Turpan's Lukchun area by the Qing according to the Manchu Ji Dachun.

Economy

Turpan is an agricultural economy growing vegetables, cotton, and especially grapes being China's largest raisin producing area. There is a steady increase in farming acreage devoted to grapes backed by strong local government support for increased production. The local government has coordinated improvements in raisin distribution, offered preferential loans for grape cultivation, and free management training to growers. The annual Turpan Grape festival includes a mass wedding of Uyghurs funded by the government.

Transport

Turpan is served by the Lanzhou–Xinjiang High-Speed Railway through the Turpan North Railway Station. Turpan Railway Station is the junction for two conventional lines, the Lanzhou-Xinjiang and the Southern Xinjiang Railways. China National Highway 312 passes through Turpan. The Turpan Jiaohe Airport is close to Turpan North Railway Station.

Notable persons

Mahmut Muhiti Mahmut Muhiti (; ; 1887–1944), nicknamed Shizhang (), was a Uyghur warrior from Xinjiang. He was a commander of the insurgents led by Khoja Niyaz during the Kumul Rebellion against the Xinjiang provincial authorities. After Hoya-Niyaz and ...

References

;Further reading * * 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. . * 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. * 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). * Rossabi, M. 1972
"Ming China and Turfan, 1406–1517"
Central Asiatic Journal 16 (3). Harrassowitz Verlag: 206–25. * *

Stein, Aurel M. Sir Marc Aurel Stein, ( hu, Stein Márk Aurél; 26 November 1862 – 26 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born British archaeologist, primarily known for his explorations and archaeological discoveries in Central Asia. He was also a professor at ...

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. * 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.

External links

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 Turpan
Silk Road Seattle – University of Washington
(The Silk Road Seattle website contains many useful resources including a number of full-text historical works, maps, photos, etc.)
Karez (Qanats) of Turpan, ChinaImages and travel impressions along the Silk Road – Turpan
PPS in Spanish {{Authority control Populated places in Xinjiang Oases of China Populated places along the Silk Road Central Asian Buddhist kingdoms Central Asian Buddhist sites Former countries in Chinese history History of Xinjiang Prefecture-level divisions of Xinjiang