The Silk Road had its start in Chang'an, an ancient capital of China which is now present day Xi'an, and ended its long journey on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Nearly half of the road ran across Xinjiang, an area that is situated in the center of the Eurasian continent. Because of this strategic placement, Xinjiang played a key role in the economic and cultural interchanges between the East and the West.
It is somewhat misleading to describe this route to the West as a “road,” as no single route was used to cross Central Asia. Instead, several different branches developed over the centuries, each passing through different oasis settlements. The routes all started from the capital in Chang’an, headed up the Gansu corridor, and finally reached Dunhuang on the edge of the Taklamakan.
In the early days of the Silk Road, Dunhuang (meaning “Blazing Beacon”) was an important trading center. The famous MogaoCaves near Dunhuang house some of the richest ancient Buddhist murals and sculpture. The northern route passed through Yumen and crossed the neck of the Gobi desert to Kumul (in Xinjiang), before following the Tianshan mountains around the northern fringes of the Taklamakan. On this route the road passed through the major oases of Turpan and Kuqa before arriving at Kashgar at the foot of the Pamirs.
The southern route of the road branched off at Dunhuang, passing through the Yang Guan and skirting the southern edges of the desert via Miran, Khotan and Yarkand, finally turning north again to meet the other route at Kashgar.
Stops Along the Silk Road
Turpan – the cradle of Uygur culture; one of the hottest place in Xinjiang. An oasis with grape valleys, picturesque Uygur villages and numerous ancient sites.
Kuqa – since the second century B.C., this was an important center for Central Asian trade and Indo-European culture. The KizilThousandBuddhaCaves (located 75 km from Kucha) contain the finest example of Buddhist Art in Central Asia.
Hotan - famous for its jade, carpets, silk and embroidery. White jade came from the WhiteJadeRiver and dark-green jade came from the BlackJadeRiver. Both types of jade were transported by caravans to the Central China via the Jade corridor near Dunhuang.
Yarkend – onе of the main commercial trade centers on the southern Silk Road with an unforgettable ancient bazaar and Mausoleum of Amanisa Han, a Uygur queen and creator of the epic “Mukam.”
The Taklamakan desert covers a vast area of Xinjiang through which only a few roads pass. Caravans throughout history have skirted its edges, from one isolated oasis to the next.
For many years Xinjiang served as the crossroads of Asia, where Persian, Indian and Greek ideas met one another, then branched off from the southern route and headed through the Eastern end of the Taklamakan to the city of Loulan, before joining the Northern route at Korla. From Kashgar onwards the routes again divided, heading across the Pamirs to Samarkand and to the south of the Caspian Sea. Or to the south over the Karakorum into India, a further route split from the northern route after Kuqa and headed across the Tianshan range to eventually reach the shores of the Caspian Sea, via Tashkent.
In addition to silk, the route carried many other precious commodities. Caravans heading towards China carried gold and other precious metals, ivory, precious stones, and glass. In the opposite direction jade, ceramics, bronze objects, furs, lacquer and iron were carried. Very often the silk traders, silk, on their way to the west, got no further than this region of Central Asia. The Astana tombs, where the nobles of Gaochang were buried, have turned up examples of silk cloth from China, as well as objects from as far as Persia and India.
Manichaeism, Buddhism and Islam came to China from India this way, along the northern branch of the route. Those historical, cultural, ethnical and geographical diversity made Xinjiang a very special place in China and Central Asia. Uyghurs, descended from the Turks and famous for their charming smiles and bright white teeth, find their age-old culture to be far more closely aligned with their Muslim cousins in Central Asia than their Han Chinese rulers from Beijing. Today the Uyghurs are the major population of Xinjiang.
The busy, prosperous days of this ancient Silk Road may long be over, but while strolling over the Kashgar Sunday Bazaar, one could easily argue with history. The Kashgar bazaar is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating bazaars across the world. Located in far eastern China close to the border of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Kashgar has always been an important trading oasis. Even today, the population at Kashgar swells every Sunday by 60,000 people!
The Kashgar market is a melting pot of Pakistani traders, Tajiks, nomadic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uyghurs who come together in a cataclysmic weekly meeting. Every Sunday they sell their garden produce by laying it out on a cloth, while a baggy-capped man sells garlic cloves slung around his neck. Once their goods are sold, they these men then stock up on necessities for themselves from those trading in old shoes, springs, fabric or bolts.
Cows, bulls, sheep, and horses are cajoled by their owners through the crowds of people at the livestock market. Some are held by a thin piece of string, while others are enticed by a few carrot tops. Roosters, ducks, dogs, cats are carried in a number of contrivances, but all seem oblivious to the action in this frantic, dusty place.
Walking the streets of Kashgar Old Town, you can still get a sense of what this legendary Central Asian hub was like in the days of the Silk road, Six-hundred-year old remnants of the city wall, narrow lanes and colorful multi-ethnic crowds combine to make Kashgar's historic district a unique place where the past strolls hand-in-hand with the present.
