Never posted this stone coffin of a Brahman couple from Kashmir. The man's epitaph survives: Chinese name-Li Dan, Sanskrit-Dasa "Servant of God." Moving to China when young, dying in 564 in today Xi'an, he was honored by Chinese emperors more than any known Sogdians of his days. The tomb was discovered under the floor of a farmer's house. Except for a Byzantine gold coin from the wife's mouth, no valuables have been found in the coffin. The imagery on the coffin depicts guardian creatures of pure Chinese style, thus attracting little scholarly attention.

Images on a 7th-c silk banner possibly by Sogdians in imperial Chinese workshop, sent to Japan as a gift, now in Horyuji Temple&a national treasure. I argue, in Sino-Platonic Papers, the royal hunting figure, though in Sasanian style, was intended to be viewed as Chinese emperor. The paper is open access:
sino-platonic.org/complete/spp30…

Though no similar examples survived from that time in China, textual records mention royal hunting scenes in court paintings, and one could have been reproduced in a 7th-c palace in Samarkand: a Tang emperor hunting on horseback:

Worth remembering, #Mulan is based on a Xianbei (proto-Mongol/proto-Turkic) heroine, who lived in North China when it was ruled by a dynasty of nomadic origin around the 5th c AD. Here's a 5th-c figurine of a Xianbei woman, known in history for their bravery and love of freedom. In Mulan's times, or the Northern dynasties, women in armor and cavalry were not uncommon. Good at archery on horseback, Lady Pan (6th c), the wife of a Tibetan (Di) general, is said to fight side by side with her husband on the battlefield, thus gaining an epithet "General Pan."

10th-14th centuries, a sizable community of Tamil merchants & their families thrived in Quanzhou, a port city on SE coast of China and a starting point of maritime Silk Road. They brought the art tradition of South India to China, exemplified by hundreds of finely carved stones: On the left is a statue of Vishnu, one of the most important deities in Hinduism and the protector of the universe. On the lower right is a stone shrine of Vishnu's wife Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, fortune, and luxury.

Mongolian archaeologists' discovery of "Dragon City" is last piece of the puzzle of a road (s) connecting the seat of Xiongnu empire on Mongolian steppe & the capital of Han dyn in Central China, a route no less significant than the Silk Road. Here're some recent finds along it: "Dragon City" is located on the north side of the Khangai Mountains, a place celebrated as the cradle of nomadic civilizations in Mongolia. Over the past 2 decades, cemeteries of Xiongnu nobles (at Gol Mod) were uncovered near the city, yielding a wealth of spectacular objects.

One of the most prosperous and prominent Christian communities in the history of East Asia was a Turkic tribe called Ongud active in present-day central Inner Mongolia during 9th -14th centuries. I want to use this thread to show some remains of their cities, cemeteries, and art: Onguds were converted to Christianity as early as the 9th c by Church of the East (Nestorian) priests who fled Central China due to the Tang emperor's persecution. Yet they rose to prominence in the 13th c by allying with Genghis Khan. Here're two 9th-c Nestorian stones in China.

1900.6.22 A hidden “library” was found at Mogao Caves in Dunhuang. Sealed behind a wall ca. 1000 AD, it's packed with tens of thousands of manuscripts & paintings dating to as early as 4C AD. Most contents are Buddhist or in Chinese, but many of other religions & in non-Chinese: L: 9C drawing of two Sogdian goddesses, possibly Den holding a dog figure & four-armed Nana
R: Earliest known Zoroastrian scripture (9C), written not in the sacred language of Avestan, but in Sogdian. It conveys one of the four greatest prayers: “Truth is the best good ... ”

This exciting new research dates Por-Bajin, a ruined "fortress" of Uyghur Empire, to 777 AD, thus tying it to Bogu Khan & one of the most fascinating events about religious conversion in world history: the establishment of Manichaeism as a state religion. pnas.org/content/early/… Manichaeism was founded by Mani in Persia in the 3rd c AD. Prosecuted as a heresy in the west, it spread to China in the 7th c. Here's a manuscript of a text written in 731, explaining its doctrines & rites to a Tang emperor. But the text didn't work; in 732 it's banned in China.

My posts on Shimao attracted a bit attention. In fact, also on the east edge of the steppe, in 6th c AD, arose a city which can be truly called the first cosmopolitan metropolis in Chinese history. It's the capital city of Northern Wei, founded by proto-Mongolian Xianbei people. Here're a couple of objects which help to pin down the close connections of the city (Pingcheng, today Datong) with Eurasian world. First, as a people originating on the steppe, the Xianbei nobility got their nomadic way of life painted in their tombs: yurts, tent carts, BBQ ...

What have been excavated at Shimao in Shaanxi over the past decade are perhaps more significant than the terracotta army of the First Emperor. The magnificent 4000-year-old city, built mostly of stone, challenges many conventional notions about the birth of Chinese civilization. 1. As Ralph E. Turner puts it, "almost nothing is known about Chinese architecture before the age of Qin (3rd c BC)," because dominant building materials had been rammed earth &timber. But at Shimao, we see a stone city with monumental structures which look like stepped pyramids.

The grandest stupa in Afghanistan, 40 miles north of Kabul, has been restored from a pile of ruins. The universal shape of the 4th/5th-c structure makes it a perfect example of the coming together of Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Islam in the beautiful country's history. The Topdara stupa overlooks the site of Kapsia, the summer capital of Kushan empire, where Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited in 7th c, saying: "the stupas are of an imposing height.. built on high level spots, from which they may be seen on every side, shining in their grandeur."

Fragments of stone carvings scattered around at the burial site of the founding fathers of Tangut Kingdom - like a crime scene, barely disturbed since the destruction of the site by Mongols in 1227 as a punishment of the Tangut resistance, which caused the death of Genghis Khan. A recently opened museum by the site shows a large number of objects, most for the 1st time, recovered from the imperial cemetery of Tangut Kingdom, a 2-century-long dynasty established in NW China by a people of Tibetan origin, its territory stretching from Ordos to Dunhuang.