Tai-fu Under the HAN dynasty (206 b. c.e.-220 c. e.) the tai-fu was the most senior member of the government. His official duty was to provide moral guidance to the emperor, and the title has been translated as “grand tutor.” The office changed significantly between the Western and Eastern Han dynasties. During the Western Han there were only four such appointments, beginning with Wang Ling in 187 b. c.e. and ending with wang mang, the future usurper. As far as can be judged, the post was used mainly as a way of manipulating venerable but senior mandarins into a virtual sinecure. With the enthronement of guang WUDI in 25 c. e., however, the office was constantly filled, beginning with Zhuo Mao. Many of the grand tutors under the Eastern Han were also appointed to the important post of intendant of the Masters of writing and, with a large secretariat, were responsible for the proper flow of information to the emperor.
Taika Reforms The Taika Reforms were a vital part of the increasing centralization of imperial authority in Japan. In 645 c. e., the powerful Soga clan was eliminated from its position of power in the yamato court. For generations members of this clan had intermarried with the royal line and dominated the political scene. Two men, the future emperor TENJI and Fujiwara no Katamari, proceeded to introduce in the name of the emperor Kotoku a series of laws designed to weaken provincial resistance to the imperial court and establish an autocracy on the model of Tang China. The new regulations struck at the heart of the production system of Japan by reallocating land from nobles and designating it for the use of peasants. This was associated with a new system of taxation based on production. Such a system necessitated a census to establish the tax base.
The reforms provided state support for the Buddhist temples, a strong force in promoting the notion of imperial supremacy The long tradition of employing lavish and ostentatious burial mounds (kofuns) to project the status of local elites was terminated by new regulations limiting the size of mounds and the number of people permitted to work on them. This change can be confirmed, archaeologically, with a sharp fall in their number and size at this juncture. The Taika Reforms were followed by further centralizing trends, particularly illustrated by the new set of penal and administrative laws established in 701 c. e. and the rigid grading of ranks that ultimately led to the autocratic nara state centered at heijo-kyo.
Taixicun Taixicun is a major site of the shang state (1766-1045 b. c.e.), located near Shijiazhuang in Hebei province, China. There are three large mounds in an occupied area of at least 10 hectares (25 acres). Excavations have uncovered houses of between one and three rooms constructed of stamped earth and unfired clay BRICK, in addition to the foundations of a much larger house. Sacrificial remains of humans and animals associated with the large residence suggest that it was occupied by an elite member of the community The presence of a social hierarchy is also evidenced in the cemetery, where 58 graves have been opened. A small number are particularly well endowed with mortuary offerings, including fine bronze vessels, weapons, jades, gold ornaments, and oracle bones. One burial incorporated a ledge to retain sacrificed bodies. Other graves were markedly poorer and contained only ceramic vessels and the occasional bronze. Pottery shards include scratched written graphs, and a particularly interesting find, an ax, was made from meteoric rather than smelted iron.
Takamatsuzuka Takamatsuzuka is a late kofun, or burial mound, of the yamato state of Japan, located in the Nara Plain region of Honshu Island, Japan. It is significant because, although long since looted, the central burial chamber contained the remains of a lacquered coffin. The chamber walls were embellished with painted scenes of the celestial bodies, mythical creatures, and people dressed in the style of Korea. It dates to the late seventh century c. e. and, with a diameter of 15 meters (49.5 ft.) is a relatively small burial complex that might have housed a courtier of Korean origin.
Taksasila See taxila.
Tamluk Tamluk is the modern name of the port city at the mouth of the Rupnarayan River in India. It was mentioned by both Pliny (first century c. e.) and Ptolemy (second century c. e.) as Taluctae or Tamalities. Other recorded names are Tamralipta and Tamralipti. Excavations have identified a long sequence of occupation with deep prehistoric roots and the presence of a flourishing port during the Mauryan, sunga, and Gupta periods (325 B. C.E.-500 C. E.) Ceramics and intaglios evidence trade with the Roman Empire. Although the modern occupation has made extensive excavation difficult, it was a major center of BUDDHISM, according to the reports of the Chinese monks faxian and xuanzang. The latter emphasized the wealth of the inhabitants in the seventh century c. e.
See also gupta empire; maurya empire.
Tanjung Rawa Tanjung Rawa is a site located on an island at the mouth of the Selinsing River, on the west coast of Malaysia. It documents early trade contact with India, in the form of a gold ring with a Hindu motif and a seal of car-nelian dated to the fourth or fifth century c. e. on the basis of a brief text in SANSKRIT. It also has imported Chinese glazed pottery; radiocarbon dates suggest a lengthy period of occupation between the third and eighth centuries C. E. The inhabitants interred the dead in wooden boat coffins.
Taoism Taoism represents one of the two major philosophical schools of thought on the organization and administration of the Chinese state; the other is Confucianism. Taoism stresses detachment from the affairs of the world, in contrast to Confucianism. The term taoist does not enter the Chinese literature until the early HAN DYNASTY, but preceding texts on the Taoist way are known as the Huang Lao (Teachings of the Yellow Emperor), or the Teaching of laozi. The date and career of Laozi, “old master,” is not known. There may have been more than one author of the Daodejing, but there is no doubting its importance in subsequent Chinese theories of governance. In 1973 a remarkable discovery in a tomb at MAWANGDUI, dated to 168 B. C.E., included a version of the Daodejing written in silk.
In attempting to appreciate the subtleties and nuances of the Daodejing, it is necessary to understand the political ferment during the course of its compilation. This warring STATES PERIOD (475-221 B. C.E.) saw the replacement of the old feudal order of the zhou dynasty by a period of constant warfare among a diminishing number of states, as QIN achieved military preeminence. qin shihuangdi, the first emperor of a forcibly united China, introduced a centralized autocracy rooted in repression and military power. His dynasty barely outlived his own life, however, and the ensuing Han rulers inherited a vast new empire without any established rules of conduct. Were they to follow in the autocratic footsteps of their predecessor or develop a new form of government that could still hold together the many divergent and formerly independent kingdoms that made up their empire?
In contrast to Confucianism, which was compiled during the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 B. C.E.) and advocated a direct, compassionate, and humanistic approach of the sovereign, Taoism adopted a mystical and almost metaphysical approach rooted in the concept of Tao. Taoism encourages acceptance of the concept of wuwei, a word not subject to simple translation. It involves the ruler’s distancing himself in a remote and tranquil way from the lives of the people, through a harmonious and yielding acceptance of order eschewing warfare, ostentation, and vanity.
The Daodejing became particularly influential during the first six decades of the HAN dynasty. It comprises 81 chapters and is written partly in prose and partly in poetry. By employing a rich variety of metaphors, it explores the nature of the way:
Thirty spokes conjoin in one hub; there being nothing in between, the cart is useful. clay is molded into a vessel; there being nothing inside, the vessel is useful.
Doors and windows are carved out to make a room: there being nothing within, the room is useful.
Thus, with something one gets advantage, while with nothing one gets usefulness.
(de Bary and Bloom 1999)
Further reading: De Barry, W T., and I. Bloom, eds. Sources of Chinese Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999; Kohn, D., ed. Daoism Handbook. Handbook of Oriental Studies, 14. Leiden: Brill, 2000; Miller, J. Daoism: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2003.
Taosi Taosi is a major site of the longshan culture, located north of the Huang (Yellow) River in Shanxi province, China. The radiocarbon dates obtained during the excavations between 1978 and 1985 indicate that it was occupied during the last few centuries of the third millennium B. C.E. With an area of at least 300 hectares (750 acres), it is the largest Neolithic site known in China. The finds included the remains of houses, kilns for firing ceramic vessels, and storage pits, but it is best known for its cemetery, which covers three hectares (7.5 acres). Almost 1,000 graves have been uncovered. The most important aspect of the cemetery is the division of burials into three groups on the basis of their size and mortuary offerings. These three groups have been subdivided into a further seven types on the basis of size and grave furniture.
The nine elite graves were up to three meters (10 ft.) in length and were exclusive to adult males. They were richly endowed with grave goods, including fine ceramic vessels decorated with red painted designs. One such design reveals a coiled snake in red against a black background, its tongue fully extended and scales represented by alternating red and black forms. Wooden vessels also survived, some painted and others covered in lacquer. The jades included adzes, knives, cong tubes, and bi disks that were in all probability used by the leaders of Taosi in rituals. The man buried in Tomb 3015 was accompanied by two wooden drums, painted and incorporating alligator-skin striking surfaces, as well as stone chimes and three dogs. These burials also included whole pig skeletons, large chime stones, and stone arrowheads.
The majority (87 percent) were small, barely large enough to take the body. There are two subgroups: those with no grave goods and those equipped only with such items as a bone pin, a pottery vessel, or part of a pig’s jawbone.
Eighty graves (11.4 percent of the sample) belong to the medium group. These were large enough to take a wooden coffin and reached a length of 2.5 meters (8.25 ft.) and a width of up to 1.5 meters (4.95 ft.). One of these included a copper bell, indicating, as do other late Longshan settlements, that metallurgical skills had reached the central plains. The absence of any evidence at Taosi for smelting or casting makes it likely that this item was imported. The rich subset of this medium group were interred in a wooden coffin with cinnabar, a group of painted ceramic vessels, wooden bowls, and jade ornaments together with pigs’ jawbones. A middle subgroup also contained cinnabar, but no pottery vessels and few pigs’ jawbones and jades. The poorest graves in the medium sample were buried with one or two pigs’ mandibles, a bone pin, and stone ornaments.
This site is one of the clearest indicators of social ranking before the development of the XIA dynasty based at ERLITOU.
Taotie The taotie symbol is an image of an animal’s head in frontal view, formed from two animals facing each other, found on early Chinese ritual bronzes. It probably had a much earlier ancestry before the development of casting decorated bronze vessels dating from the early SHANG STATE (1766-1045 B. C.E.) to the middle to late WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY (1045-771 B. C.E.). The bronze frontlet with turquoise inlay from a tomb belonging to Period 2 at erlitou (c. 1900-1800 b. c.e.) has a simple form of taotie mask. Possibly the earliest examples are to be seen on the pottery vessels of the lower xiajiadian CULTURE at DADIANZI (2300-1600 B. C.E.). The actual term is documented first in the ZUOZHUAN (770-481 b. c.e.), where it was described as one of four evil animals given to gluttony, and indeed the depiction of the taotie usually incorporated a human or an animal in the creature’s mouth. It is not known what the motif was called during the Shang dynasty. Its earliest form is virtually confined to a pair of eyes surrounded by abstract designs, but over time its rendition began to include more animal-face features without metamorphosing into a recognizable creature. Its use was widespread over time and space in China. It is found, for example, on a ritual ax from the Shang tomb of FU hao and on a vessel from the early site of PANLONGCHENG (1500-1200 B. C.E.). Many examples are from the Western Zhou dynasty corpus of bronzes, such as the Zhifangtou tomb and the Zhuangbai hoard (771 B. C.E.). It is also, however, represented on bronzes
The Shang rulers of China had ritual vessels cast in bronze to feast the ancestors. This example was decorated with taotie mask images. (© Asian Art & Archaeology, Inc./CORBSS)
From SANXINGDUI in Sichuan (1400-1200 B. C.E.). A fine example of a jade taotie mask was found in the tomb of the second king of yue, dated to the second century b. c.e. This example held in its mouth a jade bi disk. The latter were regarded as auspicious symbols. While it is hard to be precise on the symbolic meaning of the taotie itself, its presence on bronzes designed to feast and honor the dead ancestors makes it probable that it represented death.
Ta Prohm The temple of Ta Prohm, formerly known as Rajavihara, was built to honor the mother of JAYAVARMAN VII (1181-1219 C. E.) of ANGKOR in Cambodia. Set within a wall of laterite one kilometer long by 600 meters (1100 by 660 yds.) lie two courts enclosed by passageways, each containing many small single-chambered temples. The foundation stela was written by Sri Suryakumara (the Sun prince), one of the king’s sons, and was set in place in 1186 c. E. The temple housed many statues of divinities. The principal image, said to be covered in gems, represented the king’s mother in the form of the mother of Buddha. There were also many other images. Indrakumara mentions 260 in the shrines. Brief INSCRIPTIONS name the statues that once stood within, and they suggest that the complex incorporated not only the principal image of the king’s mother, but also family shrines with images of the ancestors of members of his court. Thus the monument was a center for the worship of deified ancestors. The foundation inscription provides a glimpse of the temple in its heyday, revealing it as a symbol of royal and dynastic power and a generator of both religious and economic activity, around which a whole society in miniature operated. Eighteen high priests and 2,740 officials lived and worked there, together with 2,202 assistants, who included 615 female dancers; 12,640 people had the right to lodge there.
Feeding and clothing this multitude involved the provision of rice, honey, molasses, oil, fruit, sesame, millet, beans, butter, milk, salt, and vegetables, all the quantities scrupulously listed for appropriation from the royal foundations and warehouses. Clothing was also required, and even the number of mosquito nets is set down. In all, 79,365 men and women were assigned to supply the temple. The foundation’s assets included gold and silver vessels, 35 diamonds, 40,620 pearls, 4,540 precious stones such as beryl, copper goblets, tin, lead, 512 silk beds, 876 veils from China, cushions, and 523 sunshades. There were musical instruments “to charm the spirit,” and for nightfall or for rituals, there were 165,744 wax torches.
Tarim Basin The Tarim Basin in western China occupies a strategic position west of the Gansu Corridor and east of TRANSOXIANA, on the silk road. It lies north of the Kunlun Shan range and south of the Tien Shan. The rivers flowing from these mountain ranges enter the low and flat basin and form oases before they dry up as they enter the arid Taklamakan Desert. These oases are potentially productive and attracted settlement from the prehistoric period. Indeed, there is now a consistent body of evidence to indicate that the favorable oases around the Tarim Basin were occupied from at least the second millennium to the dawn of the historical period. The people in question must have moved into the area from the west and almost certainly spoke an Indo-European language or languages ancestral to the historically recorded Tochar-ian. With the quickening of trade during the qin and HAN dynasties, many small centers emerged under local rulers. They were, however, so widely distributed around the southern and northern margins of the basin that they formed independent polities. As such, they were not sufficiently powerful to withstand pressure from the people known as the xiongnu, ancestors of the Huns who exerted considerable influence through the speed of their horses and their ability to concentrate forces. As the Han Chinese showed increasing interest in what they called the western regions during the second century b. c.e., so the states of the Tarim Basin fell under Chinese control, gaining independence only during periods of central Han weakness or preoccupation elsewhere. The History of the Former Han (hanshu) and the SHIJI both provide historic accounts of the Han expansion to the northwest. They name 36 polities and provide both a census and the number of soldiers that each could deploy. Essentially, the Silk Road could follow two routes that passed through these little kingdoms. Both began at DUNHUANG in the east and terminated at kaxgar (Kashgar) in the west. The northern route passed from east to west through lou-lan or Turpan, Yanqi, Kuqa (Kucha), and Yarkand. The southern route followed the oases lying on the southern fringe of the Kunlun range, through qiemo, niya, and hotan.
CHINESE EXPANSION
During the disruptions caused by the end of the Qin and the establishment of the Western Han dynasty, the Tarim states were tributaries of the Xiongnu. Consolidation under Han WUDI (r. 141-87 b. c.e.), however, presented the opportunity for the Chinese to exert their influence in the Tarim Basin. The emperor dispatched Zhang Qian on a diplomatic mission in about 138 b. c.e. to secure intelligence on this area and attempt to forge alliances against the power of the Xiongnu. His journey is recorded in the Shiji of sima qian and provides one of the first eyewitness accounts of the Tarim Basin and beyond to BACTRIA and Ferghana. Of the Lopnor region of the eastern Tarim Basin, he wrote, “The Loulan and Gushi peoples live in fortified cities along the Salt Swamp. The Salt Swamp is some 5,000 li from chang’an.”
A Chinese military expedition in 108 b. c.e. put the eastern settlements of the Tarim Basin under Han control, and a decade later the whole area was taken. This hegemony was disrupted during the wang mang interregnum (8-23 C. E.), but the trade along the Silk Road was too important to forgo, and by the mid-first century C. E., Eastern Han authority was reasserted. The passage of trade caravans to the west was then accompanied by the spread of buddhism to the east.
EARLY INVESTIGATIONS
Both the description in Chinese accounts of walled cities and the known spread of Buddhism have attracted a number of scholars interested in the peoples of the area. Abel Remusat (1788-1832) wrote the first history of the state of HOTAN. Early expeditions were undertaken largely by Russian explorers. Chokan Valikhanov (1835-65) identified evidence for Buddhism near Kuqa (Kucha); Nikolay Przhevalsky (1839-88) led a series of expeditions to the Tarim region and encountered the desiccated prehistoric burials of people with European features. Later archaeological expeditions to the Tarim Basin during the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries led to the discovery and exploration of some major sites. Between 1868 and 1872, Freidrich von Richthofen (1833-1905) recognized the now dry lakebed of Lopnor, the same salt swamp noted by Zhang Qian. Sven Hedin (1865-1952) undertook many major scientific expeditions and identified important archaeological sites that included the desiccated mummies of the Qawrighul culture. Paul Pelliot (1878-1945) was a French Sinologist who visited and removed a considerable number of documents from the Buddhist caves of Dunhuang. sir aurel stein (1862-1943) was the most active archaeologist to explore the Tarim Basin in the early years of discovery. Beginning in 1900 he mounted four expeditions into Central Asia. The first took him to Hotan, a center in the southwestern margin of the Tarim Basin. He also inveigled himself into the good offices of the overseer at Dunhuang and managed to secure a huge collection of Buddhist manuscripts that are now housed in the British Museum in London.
RECENT EXCAVATIONS
In recent years archaeological research in the Tarim Basin has provided much vital and surprising information. The area is so dry that organic material has survived in sites often covered by drifting sand after their abandonment. it is evident that the oases were settled by farming communities originating in the West. Surviving documents have been found to be written in the Tocharian language, a member of the Indo-European family. Moreover, the desiccated mummies from Tarim burial sites have clear European rather than East Asian features. Their woolen clothes were also woven with patterns matched in western Europe.
Early Sites
Qawrighul in China is the earliest cemetery site to furnish human remains with Western affinities. It is located in the Konchi River Valley in the northeastern fringe of the basin and dates between 2000 and 1500 b. c.e. The dead were interred under woolen blankets and were associated with sprigs of ephedra, a plant with medicinal qualities thought to have been a component of soma. Soma was drunk during rituals by the Indo-Iranian-speaking peoples and was mentioned in the Vedic texts of India. A well-preserved woman interred at this site had fair hair. The nearby site of Kroran has also furnished burials of the same period, the most notable that of a woman who died when aged about 45 years. She wore woolen clothing, a felt hat with two goose feathers, and leather boots. Her facial features were emphatically Western, and her hair was fair. These people took with them to the Tarim oases sheep and goats, wheat, and barley.
Later Sites
To the northeast of Qawrighul, the cemetery of Qizil-choqa has been excavated and found to date to the early first millennium b. c.e. Again, Western features are characteristic of the dead, and the presence of barley and body tattoos also points to a westerly origin. In 1992 a cemetery was excavated at Subeshi on the northern margin of the basin. Several burials were uncovered, dating to about 400 B. C.E. One man wore a felt helmet, sheepskin coat, and leather leggings. He has been labeled a warrior, because he was accompanied by a bow and arrows made of bronze, iron, and bone. Perhaps the most extraordinary of the finds from this site were the remains of WOMEN interred with tall pointed hats resembling those associated with witches in European society. One of them was interred with a leather bag containing her cosmetic set, including a comb.
Similar material has been found at Qaradong, near the later center of Kuqa (Kucha). Excavations there revealed the remains of a settlement, in which the houses were made of wood and the inhabitants cultivated millet. The southern margins of the Tarim Basin also attracted early settlement. At Zaghunluq, a remarkable grave nine meters (29.7 ft.)deep was excavated in 1985. It contained the remains of a man and three women, who had been covered by layers of matting, animal skins, and wood. The clothing from this burial only extremely well preserved and abundant and was also important from the point of view of weaving techniques. One cap had been knitted, and a shirt was of woven wool. The man wore woolen trousers with a multicolored belt and high leather boots. The weaving technique here and in the site of Qizilchoqa employed a plaid twill with a tartan design whose closest parallels were founded in contemporary sites in western Europe.
CHINESE-DOMINATED SITES
The Han Chinese refer to the presence of the 36 city-states of the western region. Based on their fertile oases, these polities were in all probability occupied by the descendants of those found in the preceding prehistoric cemeteries. They were never powerful enough singly to withstand the power of the Xiongnu, nor were they able to coalesce into a larger political unit because of their isolation. Therefore, they were always subjected to either Xiongnu raids or Han Chinese expansion.
Niya
The best documented is the oasis state of Niya, on the southern margin of the basin. Here the remains of the ancient settlement line the dried-out bed of the Niya River over a distance of 25 by 10 kilometers (15 by 0.6 mi.). The remains of wooden house posts still stood over the drifting sand when the site was explored by Sir Aurel Stein, who also found the remains of a wooden bridge over the ancient river course. The houses had been constructed of wooden uprights bearing a wattle frame covered with mud daub. Each had a fireplace, and the mud of the living space floors contained wheat straw and cow dung. The inhabitants were most proficient in iron working, and the long prehistoric tradition of weaving continued, as is evidenced by the outstanding woolen, linen, and cotton garments recovered from the graves. Stein’s record of his visit to Niya illustrates the extraordinary preservation of the remains of this settlement. He found, for example, wattle walls of tamarisk twigs that still stood to a height of about 60 centimeters (2 ft.). A second building was almost completely covered by sand, but on removing it Stein found pottery vessels and wooden artifacts. Beyond the houses, he encountered the remains of an ancient vineyard. It was enclosed by a fence covering an area of 230 by 135 meters (253 by 149 yds.), in which the posts that would have supported the trellises remained in serried rows about five or six meters apart. Even the vine stems survived against their supporting posts. Fruit trees also grew there: apricots, peaches, apples, and walnuts.
Kroran, Hotan, Kaxgar, Kuqa
Kroran, another city-state, is located at the eastern end of the Tarim Basin. Its stamped-earth walls cover an area of about 10 hectares (25 acres), and the interior of the city included the foundations of temples, residences, and official buildings. Hotan in the far west of China was one of the major city-states, located where several rivers flow into the piedmont from the mountains to the south. It has long been renowned as a source of jade, while its strategic position rendered it vulnerable to more powerful peoples. Kaxgar (Kashgar) in northwest China was one of the richest city-states of the Tarim, and there are many early sites in the area around the modern city. It was also notable for the early development of a silk industry Kuqa (Kucha) in northwest China was the center of a flourishing city-state with a long history. There are many early settlements there, including the temples of Subeshi, where inscriptions in the Tocharian language have survived. These are but the major states of the Tarim, and they present many important issues needing further resolution, not least the degree to which the populace included the descendants of the Indo-European-speaking peoples who seem to have introduced Western agricultural crops, livestock, and weaving technology.
HAN DOMINANCE AND TRADE
The ensuing phase of Tarim Basin history saw the increasing dominance of the Han Chinese, as they established western provinces, sent garrison troops, and built their own military settlements. This led to an influx of Han objects and expansion of trade. Chinese silks were imported, often as gifts from the emperor to dependent rulers; cotton from India was also found. Vines were introduced from the west; mulberry trees and sericulture originated in the east. The city-states in the broad reach of the Han also used Chinese coins, which are abundantly found in the Tarim Basin, except in Hotan, where the coins were minted with the local king’s name in the KHAROSHTHI script. Archaeologically, watchtowers are the most obvious remains of the Han period. These were designed to warn the local garrisons of an impending attack by the Xiongnu, and some still stand up to 10 meters (33 ft.) in height. These towers were integral units of small walled enclosures with a building within to accommodate the guards. The top of these beacons contained a facility for burning wood by night or emitting smoke by day. From Kuqa to the Jade Gate and then on to Dunhuang and China proper, it was possible to transmit warnings of the gathering of the Xiongnu to the capital of Chang’an within a day.
The garrisons themselves were established to control and ward off attack from the Xiongnu. They were supposed to supply themselves locally, and their IRRIGATION canals to carry water to the fields and the field ridges themselves are still visible on the margins of the Qizil River. The irrigation system of the Miran River area was particularly sophisticated, involving subterranean channels to carry water from melted snow to the fields. There were main and branch canals in a complex distribution system. Much information on these military colonies, which introduced a marked infusion of Chinese settlers into the western regions for the first time, can be gained from the written documents on wood that have survived in this arid environment. Colonists and their families from all regions of the Han empire settled and engaged in both agricultural and defense. The presence of Han soldiers also provided the peaceful conditions necessary for the operation of the trading caravans that plied the Silk Road. The walled cities acted as intermediaries or way stations in this exchange, as increasing quantities of Chinese silks were taken westward.
INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM
But such exchange also involved the spread of ideas that, in the Tarim Basin, saw the establishment of foreign enclaves in the walled cities and the introduction of Buddhism. Buddhist monuments and their precious archives of manuscripts, have survived from the third century C. E., and Sir Aurel Stein was responsible for discovering and opening several Buddhist sites of outstanding importance. On 8 December 1906, he encountered by chance the site of MIRAN. He returned to excavate it the following year and uncovered a series of extraordinary wall paintings and massive stucco images of the Buddha, documents dating to the fourth century C. E., and the foundations of stupas. The subsequent research on the material at this site has confirmed a flourishing community by the third century C. E., whose art shows strong parallels with that of western Central Asia.
The area of Kuqa also contains important evidence for the establishment of Buddhism from the west. Qizil and Qumtura incorporate shrines cut into the hillside. At the former, the temples contain wall paintings, one of which depicts benefactors wearing sumptuous long embroidered coats with long sleeves and trousers, with swords hanging from their belts. The women wore long flowing skirts and tightly fitting bodices, both with matching patterned decoration. One painting even shows the artist at work. These people were depicted with blond or red hair, and the graffiti on the cave walls contained instructions to the artists in the Tocharian language.
Niya has also furnished evidence of Buddhist worship. Stein found the remains of a stupa, and a large assemblage of documents written in Kharoshthi and Chinese dating to the third century c. e. These include permits issued by the Chinese to merchants traversing the Silk Road and indicate that during that period Niya was part of the kingdom of SHAN-SHAN. More recent research has led to the discovery of more documents and a double burial of a man and a woman dating to the third or fourth century c. E. It included a complete and elegant coat of silk embroidered with Chinese characters and fragments of paper.
Further reading: Barber, E. W The Mummies of Urumchi. New York: W W Norton, 2000; Mallory, J. P In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and
Myth. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991;-., and
Mair, V. H. The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. London: Thames & Hudson, 2000.
Taruma Four inscriptions in the style of the mid-fifth century c. e. have been identified in western Java in Indonesia. They mention a state called Taruma and its king, Purnavarman. These are the earliest evidence in Java for the formation of states ruled by kings who had adopted Indian names and Hindu religion, suggesting that as in the maritime state of FUNAN on the mainland, international trade was deeply affecting strategically placed island communities.
Tatetsuki Tatetsuki is a large mounded tomb located near Kurashiki on the northern shore of the Inland Sea in Japan. During the third century C. E., the yamato state developed in its heartland, the Nara Basin. It was characterized by kofun—dominating earthen mounds covering stone-lined mortuary chambers. These contained the dead aristocrats who formed the basis of Japan’s first civilization. Some scholars have suggested that this development owes much to the intrusion of elite horse-riding warriors from the Korean Peninsula. However, Tatetsuki is a mounded tomb that some authorities date to the preceding late yayoi period (300 B. C.E.-300 C. E.), although some doubt exists as to whether it should in fact be ascribed to the early Yamato period itself. It measures 70 meters (23 ft.) across at its maximal extent. The evidence from the tomb suggests the possibility that there were local precedents for the kofun so characteristic of the Yamato state.
Excavations in 1976 showed that the top of the mound had been deliberately leveled, and five large stones had been put in place. Three of these lined the edge of the central burial pit. The surviving parts of two projections from the circular main mound had been paved. The principal grave was a pit in which a wooden chamber had been constructed. This contained a wooden coffin two meters (6.6 ft.) long, the base of which was lined with as much as 30 kilograms (66 lbs.) of cinnabar. Grave goods included a necklace made of jade, agate, and jasper beads and an iron dagger. Jasper and glass beads lay beside the dagger. The burial chamber had been filled with soil and a layer of pebbles that included broken pottery vessels and parts of a stone statue. It is considered likely that these accumulated during feasting or mortuary rituals. A smaller burial was found on the mound, but it was poorly preserved and smaller than the main tomb. The exotic beads of jasper and the presence of cinnabar point to exchange with other parts of Japan for exotic goods. Contemporary Yayoi sites also included HANIWA, clay cylinders that recur regularly in Yamato contexts.
Taxila Taxila in modern Pakistan is one of the great cities of ancient India. It was first described by sir ALEXANDER CUNNINGHAM, who discovered the ruins of Taxila during his 1863-64 field season. The successive cities there flourished for about 1,000 years, from the fifth century B. C.E. until the city was razed by the Huns. When the site was visited by the Chinese pilgrim xuan-ZANG in the seventh century C. E., it was deserted, but he commented on the fertile soils of the region, mild climate, many springs, and luxuriant vegetation. Taxila changed hands on many occasions, and three separate cities can be identified on the site: the bhir mound, Sirkap, and Sirsukh. The initial foundation saw Taxila as the capital of gandhara, a province controlled by darius THE GREAT, king of Persia, who invaded northeast India in 518 B. C.E. HERODOTUS OF HALICARNASSUS described this province as the richest in the Persian empire. After a short period of Greek control, the city was incorporated into the maurya empire under candragupta maurya (r. 325-297 B. C.E.). It thus became a regional or provincial center under the ultimate control of the Mauryan kings at Pataliputra. It was during this period that the city now known as the Bhir mound was constructed. With the collapse of the Mauryans, Taxila fell under the control of the Indo-Greek kingdom of bactria, and until the first century B. C.E. the second city known as Sirkap was occupied. Brief periods under the Scythians, known in India as the SAKAS, and Parthians followed. In about 60-79 C. E. Taxila again changed hands and fell under the dominance of the KUSHANS under Kujula Kadphises. In the fourth century C. E., Taxila was conquered by the Sassanian king Shapur II, and a century later the Chinese pilgrim faxian commented on the number of Buddhist shrines there. This was the prelude, however, to the destruction of the city by marauding White Huns between 390 and 460, and it never recovered.
The original name, Taksasila, the city of cut stone, is probably an allusion to the use of stone in the construction of the defenses and buildings within. It owed its wealth to its strategic location, for it lies near the left bank of the Indus and the eastern entrance to the Khyber Pass. It also has easy links across the Punjab to the Ganges (Ganga) Valley. It thus commanded a crossroads, with access to the silk road to the north, the rich communities of the Ganges (Ganga) to the east, and through the Khyber Pass to the Western world. megasthenes, ambassador of SELEUCUS I NICATOR to the Mauryan court at pataliputra in about 300 B. C.E., described the royal road linking the capital with Taxila and then on to the west. This location, however, was also a liability because the same routes that carried trade gave access to invasions.
ACHAEMENID, GREEK, SAKA,
AND PARTHIAN RULERS
Initially, the Achaemenid province was strictly controlled from Susa, the capital of the achaemenid empire. But as the central power began to slacken under the reign of Artaxerxes II (404-359 B. C.E.), the rulers of Taxila began to exert independence. The city then fell to the conquering army of ALEXANDER the great of Macedon in 326 B. C.E., and the local ruler Ambhi allied himself with the Greek host. It is recorded that Ambhi cemented this alliance with gifts of elephants, bulls, and sheep. Lavish hospitality and the exchange of gifts followed, and Alexander then placed Philip, one of his generals, in charge of Taxila. Philip’s control was short lived, for he was assassinated in 324 B. C.E., and Greek control rapidly dissolved. Greek written sources do not illuminate any aspect of the city but do mention some of the local customs, such as the burning of widows and exposing of the dead to be consumed by birds. The author Philostratus described the city’s fortifications and the grid pattern of the roads. The Scythian conquest was achieved under a leader called Moga or Maues in Greek, whose name is recorded on a copper inscription at Taxila dated probably 70-80 B. C.E. He took the title basileus in Greek and Maharaja in the kharoshthi texts seen in his coinage. The Scythians succumbed to the Parthians under King Gondophares in the early years of the first century c. E. This ruler is best known in the West on the basis of a record in the Apocrypha that Saint Thomas the apostle visited India and encountered him. A large earthquake afflicted the city during this period, and many buildings were destroyed. Rebuilding to a new and stronger design followed.
KUSHAN AND SASSANIAN DOMINATION
One notable result of the Kushan attack was that the inhabitants of Sirkap seem to have buried their valuables, recovered by sir John marshall 2,000 years later. His excavations encountered two pottery vessels containing exquisite treasures. One had an image of Eros and Psyche five centimeters (2 in.) high in gold repousse work. A pair of golden earrings was found in the same vessel. They are in the form of a crescent with pendants attached. There are three pendants of flowers and gold bangles. one of the most outstanding pieces is a necklace made of 43 individual plaques joined by two thin gold wires. The plaques incorporated oval insertions made of crystal, surrounded by tiny fish facing one another, each embellished with tiny pieces of inlaid shell. A gold belt with no fewer than 494 pieces threaded together is another tour de force of the gold worker’s art. Nearly all the items in the vessel were made of gold; there were also items of silver, copper gilt, glass, chalcedony, and silver coins. one was issued by a king Sapedana, a ruler who acknowledged Pacores as overlord. Pacores succeeded King Gondophares, who ruled Taxila in the mid-first century C. E. This knowledge assists in the dating of these hoards.
A silver inscription dated to 78 C. E. discovered in a chapel at the Buddhist temple the dharmarajika refers to the king of Taxila as supreme king of kings, son of the gods, the Kushana. This probably refers to Vima Kad-phises. His successor, the Kushan king kanishka i, founded the third city, known as Sirsukh. The Kushan kings were Buddhist, and they were responsible for many large religious monastic foundations, including the Kalawan, Giri, and Mohra Moradu.
As Kushan power declined, so that of Sassanian Persia grew. King Ardashir, who founded the Sassanian dynasty, expanded his kingdom into northwest India. An inscription from Persepolis in Persia records that the Sas-sanian king Shapur II in 356 C. E. occupied modern Kabul and instituted campaigns in the Punjab.
EXCAVATIONS
This rich textual record and the many allusions in Western and Indian sources to the wealth of Taxila present an intriguing challenge to archaeology. Taxila was discovered
Taxila was one of the centers of Gandharan art. This frieze, dating to the early centuries C. E., shows the Buddha and devotees. (Art Resource, NY)
In the late 19 th century by Sir Alexander Cunningham and was the focus of major excavations by Sir John Marshall between 1913 and 1935; sir Mortimer wheeler worked there in 1944-45.
World History
