CHAPTER THREE

TUMSHUK

I. INTRODUCTION

Tumshuk (Tumshuq or Toumchouq) is a small village near Maral-Bashi on the road to Aksu at the western end of the Northern Silk Road in Eastern Central Asia (Map 3.1 and Fig. 3. la). The Buddhist ruins discovered near the village of Tumshuk com• prise the presently known major Buddhist remains along this stretch of the Northern Silk Road between Kashgar (Shu-le 1Ai: ill) and Kucha (Ch'iu-tz'u ft n). The Tumshuk area may have been associated with the locales of Wei-t'ou W lffi, Wen-su ii. mKu• mo ~ ~ and Kuai-hu ~ ~ known from Chinese records of the 4th century (Map 3.2). The ancient name for the exact locale of Tumshuk is not known; the present name of Tumshuk-a Turkish name-appears only after the I 0th century and the Islamic con• quest of the region. There are three known sites with Buddhist materials in the Tumshuk area: Toqquz-Sarai and Lal-Tagh, both northwest of Tumshuk village, and Tumshuk-Tagh, which is southwest of the village (Fig. 3.la). The whole area, a large valley watered by the Y arkand and Kash gar Rivers, is dotted with spectacular eroded mountains that stand like mesas above the broad valley floor (Figs. 3.1 c, 3. 70). The ancient ruins around Tumshuk were first noted by T. D. Forsyth in his descrip• tion of the Maral-Bashi region in 1873. 1 Sven Hedin, during his quick survey of the area on February 27, 1895, observed some of the ruins and assessed that they were of two periods of make, but indicated they were probably Muslim, an assessment that may have deterred serious consideration ofTumshuk for the exploration of ancient sites until Pelliot's spectacular discoveries. 2 Paul Pelliot of the French Mission came to the area in 1906 expecting to find only Muslim ruins. When by fortuitous chance he saw the fragment of a baked clay hand holding drapery (at the site later to be designated Temple "D" at Toqquz-Sarai) he realized he had found an ancient Buddhist site. Between October 28 and December 15, 1906, he surveyed the general region and excavated two sites, devoting most of his time to the excavation of Toqquz-Sarai, though he made a lim-

1 L. Hambis, M. Hallade, and M. Paul-David, Toumchouq, 2 vols., (Mission Paul Pelliot, Documents archfologiques, XIII), Paris, I 961-1964, II, p. xiii. 2 Ibid., II, p. 44. WU-SUN ~ . ,... ' Kuai-hu (?) T'IEN SHAN MOUNTAINS (Agni) Kao-t' ung HSI UNG-NU ~u-m~-< (Karashahr) Ji' Wei-t' ou • Wen;,..1,_u__ __..,, Yen-ch'i • Chu-shih ch'ien-pu • • ..-0 Lake Baghrash Kao-ch'ang •1-wu (Kashgar) • Su-le _($)o>C! OC',r -1).h _0,,. TAKLAMAKAN •Yarkand Lou-la n • I 'l Lob nor DESERT '"1 c::: 1•Miran Yu-men kuan ~ "'::c 'J><;-, Tun-huang• • Yu-t'ien• c::: •Niya ,~o~ Ch1u-ch'uan ~ (Khotan) 'J><::'-V r~-~C$-..}~ K'UN-LUN MOUNTAINS

MAP 3. 2 NORTHERN SILK ROAD IN EASTERN CENTRAL ASIA (in the 4th century A.D.) (with Chinese names) • Cities, towns and sites :::::: Pass WU-SUN Tribes § [After Mather (1959), with modifications] N ci u: .,::. c.o -...J