Kashgar

KASHGAR, a city of Chinese Turkistan, situated at an alti tude of over 4,000 ft., in 30' N., 75° 63' E., on the Kyzyl Su or Kashgar Darya, originally a tributary of the Tarim but now often losing itself in the marshes before it reaches that river. The town is the ancient Su-leh of the Chinese, which perhaps repre sents an original Solek or Sorak. Kashgar lies to the east of the nodal point from which the Tian Shan runs north-east, the Alai range runs west and the Kashgar or Sarikol mountains curve south east along the eastern edge of the Pamirs, fingering out in the east ward running Altyn Tagh. The route from Kashgar to the fertile Ferghana valley to the west of the Alai range lies to the north across the Terek Pass (alt. 12,73o ft.) and the journey can be accomplished in a few days. The Kyzyl Art (14,015 ft.) also links it with the west, and through Khotan to the south-east it links via the Karakorum Pass (18,30o ft.) with northern India. The Urumchi gap (2,790 ft.) and the Otun-koza (2,390 ft.) give access to Urumchi and the Ili valley to the north-east.

The loess oasis of which Kashgar is the centre depends entirely on irrigation from the Kyzyl Su (Red River) and the Tuman Su, its tributary; grain and fruit grow luxuriously and settlement in the oasis is very ancient. The volume of water available for irriga tion depends on the amount of snow in the mountains, which is apparently gradually diminishing; a cold summer in the Pamirs (e.g., 1915) may delay thawing and thus limit the quantity of water at the time of sowing. Summer is intensely hot, the three summer months having a maximum ay. temp. of 9o° F and a minimum of 62° F, while the maximum ay. temp. for the three winter months is 38° F and the minimum 17° F. The scanty rainfall averages 3.34 in. per annum and is irregularly distributed throughout the year; in 1915 practically no rain fell during spring and summer. The prevailing westerly winds bring clouds of dust from the Takla Makan desert, so that the Kashgar oasis is envel oped in a cloud of dust for more than 200 days in the year.

History.

The first recorded link between China proper and Chinese Turkistan is the possibly legendary visit of Mon Wang, an emperor of the Chou dynasty, to Khotan in I000 B.C. Under the Han dynasty in the 3rd century B.C., the Hiung Nu or Huns moved west from Mongolia and drove the Indo-Scythian Yue-chi then living in Kansu, Kokonor and the southern half of the Gobi from their homes, and one branch, the Great Yue-chi, settled in the Kashgar oasis, driving out the Sacae in 163 B.C. Following on the

perpetual strife between the Huns and the Chinese, the latter in the first century B.C. conquered Chinese Turkistan, including Su leh or Kashgar. (Ptolemy speaks of a Kasia regio, included in Scythia beyond the Imaus, possibly an indication of the origin of the word Kashgar), and from 51 B.c. the Chinese exacted tribute from the nomad tribes inhabiting the region between Shensi and the Caspian. Pan Chao, a famous Chinese warrior of the first century A.D. is said to be buried in Kashgar and a temple exists on the supposed site of his tomb, overlooking the springs of Pan Chao whose origin legend attributes to him. Later the Yue-chi reasserted their authority in Kashgar as Chinese influence waned. During the 2nd century A.D. the vine was introduced into China via this route, and the Yue-chi introduced Buddhism into China and some elements of Chinese civilization into India; they are also credited with the introduction of the pear and peach into China.

Turkish and Mongol hordes repeatedly swept through the region in the centuries that followed, though the Chinese had a garrison in Kashgar in the 8th century, which struggled against the Tibetans and the Arabs and finally succumbed to the Western Turks. In the loth and nth centuries Kashgar formed part of the Turkish Uighur kingdom, overthrown by the Kara-Kitais, another west ward moving Turkish tribe, in the early 12th century. In 1219 Jenghiz Khan invaded the district and the sweeping away of local tribal boundaries by his famous empire later resulted in an impetus to trade, witnessed by the visit of the Venetian merchant, Marco Polo, to Kashgar about 1275. In the 14th century the oasis was ravaged by the troops of Timur (Tamerlane), though a last march planned by him through the region in an effort to conquer China was never carried out, owing to his death in 1405. In the succeed ing centuries Kashgar suffered many attacks, being completely destroyed in 1514 by Mirza Ababakar, who built a new fortress with massive defences higher up the Tuman river.