This area consists of the Tarim Basin and mountains that surround it.
The basin's north is marked by the Tian Mountains, much of which lie within this area.
The west is bounded by the Pamir and the Karakorum.
The basin's south is bounded the the Kunlun and Altun Mountains.
Southeastern Sinkiang's PhysiographyUighurs(10) are probably(11) the majority. The majority in Kizil-Su-Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture are Khirgiz while south of them, in the Pamirs, are Tajiks(12). Mongols(13) live in and north of the Yanqi Basin. The Uighurs, Khirgiz and Tajiks are Sunni Moslems--making Islam the overwhelming majority religion--while the Mongols are Lamist Mahayana Buddhists. Some Putonghua Chinese speakers live at the south end of the Yanqi Basin, and they are split--between Buddhists and Moslems.(14)
Aksu, one of the administrative centers, is the largest city, but by no means of world status.
Speakers of Saka(15), an Iranian language, moved south across the Tian Mountains in the third century B.C.E. They were originally Zoroastrians but may have already converted to Buddhism by this time. The Chinese conquered the Saka oasis towns in the first century B.C.E. bringing Confucianism, which evolved into their syncretic mix of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. The Chinese did not retain control and eventually--starting in the sixth century--Turkic groups from Mongolia seized the area.(16) After the early Turks, Tokharians(17) moved in from the west side of the Pamirs. Then, from Mongolia, came the Uighurs--the current majority, followed by the Kirgiz from over the Pamirs, then the Chinese again and then the Mongols.
The early Turks worshipped Tangri, the sky, with annual sacrifices, and also held yearly sacrifices in an "ancestral cavern" honoring metallurgy. The Tokharians--at this time--were Buddhists. The Uighurs's state religion was Manichaeism--followers of the prophet, Mani, but older practices, such as magic pebbles, still persisted.
Just prior to the Mongols, the area was ruled by confederations of Turks, at this time Islamic, who ended Manichaeism. The local Mongols did not covert people to their religion, but instead were converted by Tibetans from south of Sinkiang. After the Mongol empire disintegrated, Uzbeks ruled, calling themselves Chagatai(18). The Chinese re-established intermittent control, interrupted notably by the Oirat(19) in the 18th century.
north
northeast
east
southeast
south of Bayan Gol Mongol Autonomous Prefecture
south of Hotan Prefecture
southwest of Hotan Prefecture
southwest of Kashi Prefecture
west of westernmost Kashi Prefecture
west of Kashi Prefecture and of southern Kizil-Su-Kirghiz Prefecture
northwest
west from just north of Mount Pobedy
(1) Xinjiang or Hsin-chiang in alternate transliterations from Chinese; it could be translated as New Frontier. More fully it is Hsin-chiang-Wei-Wu-Erh Tzu-Chih-Ch'u, that is Sinkiang Uighur (or Uygur) Autonomous Region.
(2) Zhongguo or Chung-hua in alternate transliterations from Chinese; it could be translated as Middle Kingdom or Middle Land.
(3) An alternate transliteration from Chinese is Pa-yin-kuo-leng-meng.
(4) In a transliteration from Chinese: Tzu-chi-chou.
(5) Or Ho T'ien or Khotan.
(6) In a transliteration from Chinese: Ti-ch'u.
(7) Or A-K'o-Su.
(8) Or K'o-shih or Kashgar or Kaxgar.
(9) An alternate transliteration from Chinese is K'o-Tzu-Le-Su-K'o-Erh-K'o Tzu.
(10) Or Uygurs.
(11) Forty-five percent of Sinkiang's population are classified as Uighurs, almost all of them speaking that language. Most of Sinkiang's Uighurs--at least the rural ones--live south of the T'ian (T'ien) Mountains.
(12) Tajik is one of the three names of the Persian language.
(13) They speak the Oirat dialect, known as Kalmyk in Russian.
(14) The Chinese government considers Moslem Chinese speakers to be a separate ethnicity: the Hui.
(15) Or Shaka.
(16) Some scholars believe that the immediate predecessors of these newcomers, the Hephthalites, spoke an Iranian language.
(17) They called their language Arshi-kantu. It is an Indo-European language.
(18) Or Jagatai or Djaghatai.
(19) Usually called the Kalmuks or Kalmyks in this period. Now also called the Altay. Oirat is a Mongolian dialect.