Tocharians or Tokharians were part of Indo-European language group and were speakers of Tocharain language. They lived around northern edge of Tarim Basin (present day Xinjiang province of China) and the linguistic evidence of their language has been found between 400 - 1200 AD. The proto-Tocharian people are believed to be part of Afanasevo culture (South Siberia) to the north, which itself was an eastern branch of the Yamnaya Culture of Pontic-Steppe. However, Afanasevo culture predates Indo-Iranian-associated Andronovo culture by almost thousand years and is a reason for isolation of the Tocharian language from the Indo-European centum linguistic innovations. As known from Sanskrit texts, these people might have referred to themselves as Agni, Kuči, Krorän or Agniya, Kuchiya. Of these Kuči and Krorän were important kingdoms based around the ancient Silk-Road. The Tocharians largely accepted Buddhism as found from Buddhist sources. The frescoes found in Kizil caves of Tarim basin depicts stories from the Jataka(stories about previous birth of Gautama Buddha), Avadanas (type of Buddhist literature), the stories and legend of Buddha and the traditions of Hinayana school of Buddhism. According to Chinese Monk Xuanzang in 630 AD, the Tocharian King of Kucha Suvarnadeva, the heir and son of King Suvarnapushpa, was an ardent believer of Hinayana Buddhism. Though not much is known about the pre-Buddhist religion of the Tocharians, there are many similarities found between reconstructed Proto-Indo European Sun-Goddess and Dawn Goddess and many Chines Goddesses. Consequently it is suggested that Chinese belief system were influenced by some Pre-Buddhist belief system of the Tocharians. [Info and Image Credit: Tocharians , Wikipedia ; Image :: Group Around Buddha, Kizil Cave of Painters ; Image-URL :: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kizil_Cave_of_the_Painters,_Group_around_the_Buddha_and_upper_frieze_(reconstruction_from_black_and_white_original).jpg ]
Old World
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