Written by: Mahnoor Fatima
Posted on: December 02, 2022 | 
| 中文
A farmer and his heard of camels walking through the Taklamakan Desert
While China is home to many famous and beautiful landscapes, there are some sites that may not be as famous, but are nevertheless endlessly fascinating. The Taklamakan Desert is China’s largest, and the world’s second-largest non-polar, sand-shifting desert (the first is the Sahara Desert) is located in the middle of the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. Historically, the desert has been of immense importance as a prominent landmark on the ancient Silk Road.
In the local Uyghur vernacular, the name means, ‘The Point of No Return’ (“You go in but you won’t come out”). The area, which is about the same size as the country of Germany, is known for its inhospitable climate, with shifting dunes which can reach up to 300 metres in height. Nicknamed ‘The Sea of Death’, it borders the equally hostile Gobi Desert, several mountain ranges (Kunlun, Pamir and Tian Shan), and countries like Pakistan, India and those of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan).
A Map of the Taklamakan Desert
During the time of the Silk Road trade, no one dared walked through the desert, both because of its inhospitable conditions, and the various folktales about the desert spirits who inhabit it, luring lost travelers to their deaths. Therefore, the Silk Road was split along the oases towns north and south of the desert, the largest being Khotan and Kashgar. Traders carrying everything from food, gems to slaves, would often stop to rest and restock in these towns.
A Street in Kashgar
While each town possesses unique features, it is perhaps Kashgar which is better known. Kashgar remains a notable hub along the Silk Road, and the pinnacle of traditional Uyghur culture. It was from Kashgar that the north and south trade networks would meet, and the Silk Road would descend to Samarkand, modern-day Pakistan/India and modern-day Afghanistan (called Bactria). Nowadays, travel companies take Silk Road enthusiasts on the same roads through the oasis towns, so that they can imagine and attempt to understand life around the vast desert.
Excavations around the Taklamakan Desert have revealed fascinating clues about the people who have lived in and traversed through the desert. These efforts started in the early 20th century, with Swedish archeologist and explorer Sven Hedin attempting to cross through the desert. Although Hedin lost two escorts as well as seven camels, he returned from his trip with artifacts as old as from the first millennium CE.
A Photograph from Aurel Stein's Excavation in 1910
However, the most famous of these excavations was by the British archaeologist Aurel Stein, who uncovered several artifacts in the modern-day town of Niya. Besides coins and elaborate decorations, Stein found tablets written in Indic script, which were written in 105 AD. Unfortunately, it was these initial discoveries that began an international race to dig out and sell ancient Chinese artifacts, which subsequently led the government to forbid international excavations in China in the 1920’s.
The next groundbreaking discovery which came about from the desert was in the late 1980s, when tombs of ancient mummies were found. These well-preserved mummies (due to the arid climate) were interestingly Caucasian, with fair hair, European features and Indo-European languages. The most famous of these discoveries were the ‘Cherchen Man’ with his high cheekbones and aquiline features, and the ‘Beauty of Loulan’, a forty-year-old woman wrapped in wool and felt, surrounded by funerary presents.
The Beauty of Loulan
More discoveries in the 2000’s have uncovered other ancient artifacts and sites, such as the Xiaohe cemetery, with graves that date back to over 2000 BCE. Xiaohe, as archaeologists discovered, was once a forest inhabited by a lost Indo-European civilization. Together, these excavations raise questions about the interactions and transmissions between China and Europe throughout history, and also help researchers understand the evolution of the desert and its inhabitants.
Figures From Xiaohe Cemetery
In recent years, the desert has been expanding outward, causing much concern to the Chinese government and local people about the loss of already-scarce fertile ground. To counter this concern, residents of Xinjiang and Chinese scientists have planted over 20 million trees in the region, and particular focus has centered around the Tarim Desert Highway. As a way to quell the effects of desertification, 430km of the 550km highway has been planted with vegetation in the past decade.
Between efforts to prevent further desertification and new initiatives to promote Silk Road tourism, the Taklamakan desert and its surrounding cities posit a unique vantage point to Xinjiang and China. This desert is a fascinating landscape with great historical significance to not only ancient China, but for the rest of the world because of the Silk Road. One would have to wait and see the initiatives taken by China to preserve the history of the region, as well as to improve the current living conditions there.
Forestation Projects on the Tarim Desert Highway (photo credits to VCG)
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