Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 2 hours ago
Gaochang,
also called Khocho, Qara-hoja, Kara-Khoja or Karahoja (قاراغوجا in Uyghur), was an ancient oasis city on the northern rim of the inhospitable Taklamakan Desert in present-day Sanbu Township, Xinjiang, China. The site is also known in published reports as Chotscho, Khocho, Qocho or Qočo. During the Yuan dynasty and Ming dynasty, Gaochang was referred to as "Halahezhuo" (哈拉和卓) (Qara-khoja) and Huozhou. Artistic depictions of the city have been published by Albert von Le Coq. Gaochang is considered in some sources to have been a "Chinese colony", that is, it was located in a region otherwise occupied at the time by West Eurasian peoples. A busy trading center, it was a stopping point for merchant traders traveling on the Silk Road. It was destroyed in wars during the 14th century and old palace ruins and inside and outside cities can still be seen today. Along with other sites along the historic Silk Road, Gaocheng was inscribed in 2014 on the UNESCO World Heritage List as the Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor World Heritage Site.
The Gaochang area was conquered by the Mongols of the Chagatai Khanate (not part of the Yuan dynasty) from 1275 to 1318 by as many as 120,000 troops. Buddhism spread to China from India along the northern branch of the Silk Road predominantly in the 4th and 5th centuries as the Liang rulers were Buddhists. The building of Buddhist grottos probably began during this period. There are clusters close to Gaochang, the largest being the Bezeklik grottos.
-------------------------------------------------------


قۇچۇ

تقع مدينة قاوتشانغ (بالقرب من توربان) على طريق الحرير.

تُعتبر ثقافة سوبيشي (1100-100 قبل الميلاد) من أقدم ثقافات المنطقة. وتُساهم هذه الثقافة ببعض مومياوات تاريم التي تعود إلى فترة لاحقة. ويُحتمل ارتباط هذه الثقافة بدولة تشيشي (車師، تشو-شي، مملكة جوشي) المعروفة في المصادر التاريخية الصينية. وقد وُثّقت ثقافة سوبيشي من خلال ثلاث مقابر وثيقة الصلة: مقبرة سوبيشي، ومقبرة شنغجينديان، ومقبرة يانغهاي. مملكة جوشي وحكم الهان الصيني المبكر، وُصفت المنطقة المحيطة بتورفان خلال عهد أسرة هان (206 قبل الميلاد - 220 ميلادي) بأنها محتلة من قبل جوشي (مملكة جوشي)، في حين كانت السيطرة على المنطقة تتأرجح بين الهان الصينيين والهيونغو، بالقرب من جاوتشانج يوجد موقع أثري رئيسي آخر: مقابر أستانا.
-------------------------------------------------------
高昌
西晉滅亡後,中國北方分裂為多個政權,包括中亞綠洲地區。高昌郡曾先後被前梁、前秦和北樑三國統治。西元383年,前秦將領陸光奪取了高昌郡的控制權。西元439年,北梁殘餘勢力在巨曲武會和巨曲安州的帶領下逃往高昌,並在那裡統治至西元460年,最終被柔然汗國征服。另一個版本的故事是​​,西元439年,一位名叫阿史那的人帶領500戶人家從甘肅遷徙到高昌。西元460年,柔然人強迫他們遷往阿爾泰。他們後來成為阿史那氏族,並建立了突厥汗國。高昌建於西元前1世紀,是絲路的重要樞紐,在西中國扮演重要的交通樞紐角色。巨司的統治者後來效忠於漢朝。西元327年,漢朝統治者張軍在前樑的領導下設立了高昌郡。漢人在此建立了軍事要塞,並將土地劃分為多個行政區。來自河西地區和中原的漢族移民也在此定居。西元5世紀中期到7世紀中期,高昌王國先後由坎氏、張氏、馬氏和曲氏統治。
西元840年後,高昌被逃離葉尼塞吉爾吉斯入侵的回鶻汗國殘餘勢力佔據。 850年,回鶻建立了高昌王國(喀喇霍加王國)。高昌居民信奉佛教、摩尼教和基督教。回鶻皈依佛教,並資助修建了附近的別孜克里克千佛窟,至今仍可見回鶻贊助者的畫像。自稱為「伊迪庫特」的佛教回鶻國王保留了遊牧生活方式,冬季居住在高昌,夏季則遷往氣候涼爽的烏魯木齊附近的畢什八里克。
-------------------------------------------------------

Category

📺
TV
Transcript
00:25I've reached the Turpan depression, which descends to 154 meters below
00:29sea level.
00:30It's the second lowest point on Earth after the Dead Sea.
00:37On the edge of this trough are the sandstone fire or flaming mountains, one of the world's
00:42hottest spots.
00:43The temperature frequently reaches 50 Celsius or higher in summer and dips to minus 20 in
00:49winter.
00:49This causes extremely strong winds, ranking 8 to 12 on the Bofor scale for four months
00:55a year.
01:04The oasis city of Gaochang was an important trade center on the northern branch of the
01:09Silk Road, which skirts around the Taklamakan Desert, linking Kashgar to Dunhuang, the starting
01:14point of the Great Wall of China.
01:16Despite the extreme climate on the edge of the Gobi Desert, the Turban Depression has been
01:21known for its agriculture for millennia.
01:24Since ancient times, the main crop has been grapes.
01:29This area is home to China's Uyghur ethnic minority, a Muslim people descended from the
01:34ancient Turkic tribes of the steppe.
01:41This is my neighbor.
01:44And she is the mistress of the house.
01:48Ah, dumplings.
01:50Are the raisins up there?
01:51That's the loft up there.
01:53Let's go and see.
01:59Wow.
02:03That's a whole lot of raisins.
02:17Can I take one?
02:24These raisins are almost ready to be bagged.
02:27So there's a system of ventilation through the bricks.
02:32Okay, right.
02:36And these are the grapes drying in the sun.
02:40And those are the vines?
02:42It's huge, the entire valley.
02:46These grapes must be very sweet because if it's 50 degrees Celsius in the shade, with
02:52the sun, the grape vine is a type of liana that thrives in difficult conditions.
02:59As any wine grower knows, poor soil and a burning hot sun produce the very best grapes.
03:06But here in Gauchang, the farmers have to cut the vine very high up, two meters from the
03:10ground.
03:12Otherwise, the ground reflects so much heat back into the canopy that the grapes burn.
03:17Even though the Silk Road caravaneers filled their bags with raisins, another Uyghur speciality
03:22spread around the world.
03:25China invented gunpowder, writing, paper and silk.
03:29But of all their finds, what I like best is pasta.
03:33Spaghetti, ravioli, tagliatelle.
03:36We know them by their Italian names.
03:38And yet pasta was invented in China 2,000 years ago.
03:43The traveller who pinched these women's ancestral recipe and took it all the way back to Venice
03:48after exploring the Silk Road was, of course, Marco Polo.
03:54We often associate Chinese cuisine with rice.
03:57But here in China's great northwest, we are in wheat country.
04:00And the local cuisine clearly reflects the Uyghur's Turkic-Mongol roots.
04:10Lift your head up high.
04:15From their nomadic origins, the Uyghurs have kept their incredible sense of hospitality.
04:23Sit down and eat quietly.
04:29There's ginger in it.
04:37There are slices of ginger.
04:39The WOAH .
04:42Wow, outstanding.
04:48Además, let us know.
04:51Please, thank you for your name.
04:52Bolonia.ids,
04:53Italia!
04:56It's in Italia.
04:59Incredibly good, really delicious.
05:09Ah, you do it like that.
05:22Ah, Genghis Khan is having another.
05:25Go on, Genghis Khan, eat it.
05:30He's devouring it as if he was going to conquer half of Asia.
05:35He's strong, this kid.
05:40Very strong.
05:45Where the villagers' vines now grow,
05:47they once stood in the days of the ancient Silk Road,
05:49a very imposing city nicknamed the brilliant pearl of the caravans.
06:00Marco Polo described the city of Gauchang
06:02as the capital of Uyghurstan,
06:04the land of the Uyghurs,
06:05vassals of the Emperor Kublai Khan,
06:08grandson of Genghis Khan,
06:10who conquered China and made Beijing his capital.
06:13But neither Kublai's protection nor its imposing walls
06:15prevented Gauchang from being sacked by a wild Mongol horde
06:19in the late 13th century,
06:20just after Marco Polo's sojourn.
06:24To retake Gauchang,
06:25a Chinese general diverted the channels supplying the city.
06:29Deprived of water, the survivors decided to abandon Gauchang for good.
06:34All that remains are these vast ruins,
06:36preserved over the centuries by the aridity of the desert.
06:44Gauchang was not only a stopping point for traders travelling the Silk Road,
06:47it was also renowned as a centre of learning.
06:50Buddhist pilgrims spread their faith here on arriving from India,
06:53the Nestorian Christians erected churches,
06:55and the Persian influence is still very much in evidence.
07:05Huge Manichean frescoes have been found here.
07:08Founded by the Iranian prophet Mani,
07:11Manicheanism saw the universe as a struggle between good and evil.
07:14At the time when Manicheanism was flourishing here in China,
07:17it was stamped out in France, around Albi,
07:20with the suppression of the Katars.
07:31On the outskirts of Gauchang stands a new temple built 15 years ago
07:34to highlight today's dominant culture in the Gobi Desert.
07:39Sign of the dragon, the rabbit or the monkey,
07:41the zodiac of the Han Chinese succeeded the Zoroastrianism of the Persians.
07:48The statue of Nuzia, creator goddess of the Han, watches over the site.
07:52Like her brother and husband Fuxi, she has a human head and a serpent's body.
07:58The mother goddess of Chinese mythology is in fact
08:01guarding the entrance of a huge cemetery.
08:03Over the course of 15 centuries,
08:05the inhabitants of Gauchang dug a vast necropolis here.
08:08The complex covers 10 square kilometers and contains over 1,000 tombs and vaults.
08:14The climate is so dry in the Turpan Basin
08:16that the corpses have been naturally mummified.
08:24The remains are often those of Han settlers,
08:26evidence of 2,000 years of Chinese efforts to include the Gobi in the Middle Kingdom.
08:37But the oldest bodies, which date from the Iron Age,
08:40reveal faces of a people close to the Europeans,
08:43lost very far to the east since the dawn of history.
08:48Unlike the mummies of the Egyptian pharaohs,
08:50these men and women were not embalmed.
08:53They never asked to appear immortal.
08:56Maybe it's better to let them rest in peace.
09:09A few kilometers north of the ancient city of Gauchang
09:12lies the oasis city of Turpan.
09:15This caravan stop has regained a degree of prosperity thanks to oil drilling.
09:20It's evident at first glance that the central government in Beijing
09:24is investing massively in the region.
09:30And yet traditional China is still very much in evidence
09:33in the city's back streets.
09:35Among other things, the bazaar sells manti,
09:38the Asian dumplings found all over the steppe
09:40from Ukraine to Mongolia.
09:50Turpan may owe a lot to oil,
09:52but its real wealth comes from an even more precious resource, water.
09:58Even though the city is in the middle of the desert,
10:00there's a plentiful supply of water here.
10:02It isn't naturally occurring, though.
10:05Instead, it flows through the city
10:06thanks to a complex network of channels and tunnels,
10:09which take advantage of the fact that Turpan is the second lowest place on Earth.
10:16This water conveyance system is believed to have originated in Persia,
10:19where channels are still used in arid areas to irrigate farmland.
10:23The technology spread throughout the Arab Muslim world
10:27and is still found today in Andalusia and Morocco.
10:31In Turpan, the tunnels or channels are known as carres.
10:34Some are over 100 meters underground,
10:37a form of vast 5,000-meter-long network.
10:41We've got to make the best of things.
10:45Super!
10:46Great!
10:52According to custom, each street clubs together to pay for maintenance work.
10:57When work starts, the owner of the house closest to the site
10:59treats everyone to roast sheep.
11:01We're still in there!
11:06Thank you!
11:10Thank you!
11:12Thank you!
11:12Thank you, thank you!
11:13Thank you!
11:16Thank you!
11:16Thank you!
11:17Very agile and far from claustrophobic,
11:19the carrots can have to constantly repair
11:21and dredge kilometers and kilometers of shafts, tunnels and pipes.
11:26Armed with only shovels, pickaxes and the knowledge of their boss, the old haji, Anduniyaz.
11:36It's really impressive because this technology is over 3,000 years old.
11:40The system is known as a kanat in Iran.
11:43It's spread across the Middle East, Central Asia, as far as here, on the edge of the Gobi.
11:48The Uyghurs call it karez, the system that taps into subterranean water here at the foot of the mountains
11:54and conveys it to the Turpan Depression, creating the oasis.
12:12Haji, how do you become a karez digger? Is it a tradition from father to son or is it a
12:17choice?
12:21We are the fourth generation to work in the karez.
12:25Our grandparents worked here before us.
12:29This karez is seven kilometers long and I've been working in it for 20 years.
12:36The galleries seem pretty fragile, there are no frames.
12:40Are you ever afraid the earth will fall on you?
12:44It falls on us sometimes, but we're not scared.
12:48We carry right on.
12:50It occasionally falls on our heads, but we keep on working.
12:54We're not scared, we're used to it.
13:02What are you and your team actually doing? Why are you digging in this tunnel full of earth?
13:09We're hard at work. The water is blocked.
13:13They have to remove all this mud so the water can flow again.
13:17It's a long and complicated process.
13:20They have to draw the water down there and make it flow.
13:25So the stream was so clogged up that the water was actually passing under the concrete pipe that you've installed
13:32here.
13:35You're clearing all that earth that we can see here to raise the level of the stream so that it
13:40flows through the pipe again.
13:42Is that right?
13:44Yes, that's right.
13:45OK, I understand.
13:57Ah, that's it. The water is starting to flow on the right there.
14:07Ah, the carriage diggers.
14:12Ah, yes, I can see the stream clearly now.
14:24Mmm, tastes good.
14:26It's spring water.
14:31There's a second hole here.
14:36Thousands of shafts provide access to the channels.
14:39Built in the courtyards of people's homes, they serve as wells.
14:49Tuopan's water made it possible to farm the land and build a civilization.
14:54These days, though, China is trying to harness the wind.
14:57And Tuopan is home to one of the largest wind farms in the world.
15:02The ancient city of Yaa illustrates the persistence of China's activities in the region.
15:09The Han established a garrison here as early as the 2nd century CE.
15:13Built on a spur-like plateau between the two arms of a river, the origins of Yaa, or Jihoui, date
15:19back to ancient times and no one knows who its first inhabitants were.
15:23Like the other major stops along the Silk Road, Yaa was a focal point for Asia's cultures, ideas and religions,
15:29as archaeologist Su Zhongliang explains.
15:33What was the period of occupation of this impressive city of Yaa, and how many people lived here in its
15:38heyday?
15:41The maximum population was about 17,000 households. That was in the time of the Tang dynasty.
15:57Almost two-thirds of Yaa are troglodyte dwellings, and yet, at the same time, the entire city is made of
16:02this sort of very porous earth.
16:03Is there a link between the two?
16:07The architecture of Yaa is made of earth. There are sandstorms throughout the year.
16:14Sand is deposited in the Depression, and it forms a layer of sediment or soil, known as los.
16:21This los is very compact and easy to dig and build with.
16:26Torpen has always been a very hot region, and it's obviously cooler underground.
16:31So the people of the time began to carve out the city, resulting in this very distinctive architecture.
16:37The particularity of dwellings carved out in this type of soil is, the deeper they are, the more recent they
16:42are,
16:43while those closer to the surface are older.
16:46It's very different to archaeological layers.
16:49The city's architecture results from these different factors, that is, the climate conditions, the search for coolness, and the existence
16:57of a geological depression.
17:01For the Chinese authorities, Yaa is an important archaeological and tourist site, as it highlights the centuries-old presence of
17:08the Han in some parts of the autonomous region of Xinjiang,
17:12alongside the Uyghurs and vast Tibetan kingdoms.
17:17The city is also a Buddhist treasure trove.
17:20This 15-metre high brick cone is one of China's oldest stupas.
17:28Yaa was a major centre on the Silk Road, particularly for the propagation of Buddhism.
17:33How did it reach here, and why?
17:36In the 4th century, there were already many temples here.
17:40Buddhism reached Turpan through trade-related activities.
17:45East to West and West to East communication did not only concern trade, but also the dissemination of cultures and
17:53religions.
18:04In its heyday, roughly how many monks lived on this site?
18:10In the Great Pagoda, on this square, there must have been over 1,000 monks.
18:14It was large enough to accommodate monks from many different countries at the same time, so there were a lot.
18:24In the north of the city, there's the necropolis and the stupas, here, in the centre.
18:29There's the huge Buddhist monastery and the monks' quarters.
18:32In the south, there's the royal palace and the royal family's residences.
18:36So where did many mortals live?
18:38Yaa was the country's capital city, so its inhabitants were mainly nobles, kings and monks.
18:47And most of the common people lived outside the city.
18:58If you look at the layout of the citadel, you can make out the residences of a few important families.
19:08Between them there were streets connecting the houses to one another.
19:11But at each crossroads, there was always a pagoda.
19:16This means one pagoda would be used for worship by several families.
19:22The highest ranking families also owned Buddha statues for home worship.
19:35When you walk around Yaa, you get the impression time suddenly stopped from one day to the next,
19:40as if a natural disaster had struck the city like in Pompeii.
19:44But what actually happened? Why has everything disappeared?
19:49Around the 13th century during the Mongol conquests, Yaa was destroyed by war.
19:55And after the war, the city's old wells, about 300 wells, were practically all abandoned
20:01because they'd either dried up or were full of corpses.
20:05And it was impossible to go on living here.
20:08Outside the city, water was still accessible, and so the inhabitants chose to move there.
20:12As a result, the city was gradually abandoned.
20:18Yaa may have been swallowed up by the desert, but Xinjiang's present capital is booming.
20:23Urumxi has a population of 2 million.
20:25By Chinese standards, it's pretty small.
20:27But this city on the edge of the desert sees itself as a cosmopolitan metropolis.
20:47The imposing one-child policy was never imposed on Xinjiang's national minorities.
20:52And Urumxi's colourful youth very definitely reflect the face of modern China.
20:57A dynamic, confident society with its sights set firmly on the future.
21:02A country set to take over as the world's largest economy,
21:05which borrows from the West whatever it wants, including sometimes from France.
21:12What do you call this sport, and how long have you been doing it?
21:16This sport is called parkour.
21:18Ah, from the French parkour.
21:20Yes.
21:24How long have you been doing it?
21:27I started eight years ago.
21:31As in the days of the ancient Silk Road, this park is a meeting place for different peoples.
21:35Young Uyghurs, Mongols and Hans, united by a shared passion that has its roots in Chinese Kung Fu.
21:43What made you want to try parkour?
21:48I loved running around as a kid.
21:53I really enjoyed weaving in and out of people.
21:58When I was older, I saw a French movie called Bonlieue 13, and I learned all the moves I'd seen
22:04in it.
22:08So, as I understand it, parkour or free running combines Chinese martial arts and French or other Western influences.
22:15I think the very swift, abrupt movements probably came from the Chinese tradition.
22:23Bruce Lee said, be water.
22:26Our course is like water.
22:28It's fluid.
22:29It flows.
22:31And in Western culture, they probably have that too.
22:36Frenchman David Bell said that parkour and Chinese philosophy was an obvious match.
22:41I don't think parkour is a combination of Chinese and Western cultures, but an obvious step in the evolution of
22:47humankind, in my mind anyways.
22:54From Kung Fu to the Yamakasi of the Paris suburbs, the sport of parkour is a wonderful contemporary example of
23:00the dialogue with the West,
23:01which has always characterized the Gobi Desert region.
23:13And does this sport, which combines different influences, reflect your own cultural mix, Uyghur, Han, Mongol, everything you are in
23:20this city?
23:25As it's an internationally recognized sport, it's been adopted by every ethnic group, blacks, whites, Asians.
23:35Practicing this sport is a real pleasure.
23:38It brings you joy.
23:42Everyone wants to be happy.
23:43That's why practitioners of parkour form a collective, naturally.
23:47Freedom is what we want.
24:06Prosperity versus freedom.
24:08That's the premise of the People's Republic of China.
24:11The regime wants to ease separatist tensions in Xinjiang at all costs.
24:16Beijing is investing massively in the region's development and plans to improve its connections with the rest of the country.
24:23In particular, thanks to this brand new high-speed rail station.
24:28The high-speed rail line is part of a multi-billion yuan project.
24:35A project aptly named, the New Silk Road.
24:41The key to the local main business can be, is a real parkour scale.
24:44Well, we're not going to be able to keep the wrecked road to the world.
24:53In particular, we have to create a new Dra.
25:00So, a new place is being inspired by the world.
25:00The race...
25:00Though we don't have a country ofllenika, is the sense of a new luxury museum.
25:01And we have to be a country that history, the country is a national security player.
25:02And we have to be a country of a country of Japan, to be a country of the country.
25:02And we have to be a country of people who have a country that is a country,
25:09Hey!
25:10Hey!
25:10Hey!
25:11Hey!

Recommended