Tocharians

The Tocharians, (also spelled Tokharians) were nomads who lived in today's Xinjiang who spoke the Tocharian languages (q.v.)..

They were known by the Chinese as the Daxia (大夏, although popular sources have argued that they were in fact the same as the Yuezhi), by the Greekss as Tocharoi, and by the Turks as Twghry.

Earlier mummified burials suggest that precursors of these Indo-European speakers may have lived in the region from around 1000 BC until finally they were assimilated by Uighur Turks in the 8th century CE.

Their 7th and 8th century manuscript fragments suggest that they were neither as nomadic nor as barbaric as the Chinese considered them. Besides the religious texts, the texts include monastery correspondence and accounts, commercial documents, caravan permits, and medical and magical texts. The Tocharians may have played a part in the transmission of Buddhism to China.

An earlier invasion by other Turks pushed Tocharian speakers out and into modern Afghanistan, India, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and were known as the Kushan (This theory of the origins of the Kushanss is still contested).

Tocharians, living on the Silk Road, had contacts with the Chinese and Persians, and Turkic, Indian and Iranian tribes. Their Buddhism, like their alphabet, came from northern India. Many apparently also practised Manichaeanism.

See external links at Tocharian languages.