Kargilik (Uyghur: قاغىلىق) or Yecheng (Chinese: 叶城) is a town in Xinjiang, China. It is to the southeast of Kashgar, at a distance of 249 km by road and is north of Mazar by 249 km.[4] It is the seat of Kargilik (Yecheng) County.
Kargilik/Yecheng is the name of both the oasis and the town. It is situated on the southern rim of the Taklamakan desert, about halfway between Pishan and Yarkand on the southern route around the Tarim Basin. It is about 50 km north of Kokyar.[5] The rich loess terraces of the oasis are watered by the Tiznaf river and several smaller streams. They are joined to the north by a belt of cultivated land stretching about 40 km from the town of Yecheng to the Yarkand River.
History
During the Former Han period, this place was referred to as Xiye (Chinese: 西夜; Wade–Giles: Hsi-yeh). It was described as having 350 households, 4,000 people and 1,000 men able to bear arms.[6] It was ruled by a king of a neighboring area called Zihe (Chinese: 子合; Wade–Giles: Tzu-ho).[7] In the Later Han period it was also known as Piaosha which translates literally as "drifting sands".[8] It was noted for producing baicao (白草, literally "white grass") which gave a very poisonous substance used on arrow tips - probably from an aconite plant. Xiye is recorded in the Book of the Later Han as being distinct from Zihe and having 2,500 households, more than 10,000 people and 3,000 men able to bear arms.[9][10][8]
The Chinese pilgrim monk, Song Yun, passed through the Kingdom of Zhujuban (Chinese: 朱駒半) on his way from Khotan in 519 CE. He described it as being five days' journey around and that it produced much cereal, which was made into cakes. The inhabitants did not allow the slaughter of animals and only ate those which had died a natural death. Many of them lived in the mountains. They resembled the people of Khotan in their language and customs while their writing was like that of the Brahmans from India.[11]
Xuanzang, travelling through the country in 644 CE, described it as being very fertile, with abundant grapes, pears and plums. He said it was more than 1,000 li in circuit, with a capital city measuring more than 10 li around. The writing was like that of Khotan but the spoken language was different. Although he says the people were sincere Buddhists, they had little culture or education and he found them rude and deceitful. Many monasteries were in ruins and the 100 or so monks left were of the Mahayana school. He added that the Mahayana canonical texts were more numerous here than in any other country Buddhism had reached. It apparently sent an embassy to China at the beginning of the Taiyan period (435-439 CE) and tribute was sent regularly after that. It later fell under the power of the Hephthalites and then the Western Turks. In 639 the ruler sent an embassy to the Chinese court and by 659 was included as part of the region called the "Four Garrisons" by the Chinese after their defeat of the Turkish chief, Duman. The population were presumably converted to Islam soon after the new religion arrived in the Tarim Basin about 1006 CE.[citation needed]
During the 1800s, Kargalik contained many foreign slaves who had integrated into the Chinese state. After being freed, many slaves such as Gilgitis in Xinjiang cities like Tashkurgan, Yarkand and Karghallik, stayed rather than return Hunza in Gilgit. Most of these slaves were women who married local slaves and free men and had children with them. Sometimes the women were married to their masters, other slaves or free men who were not their masters. There were ten slave men to slave women married couples and 15 master-female slave couples, with several other non-master free men married to slave women. Both slaves and free Turki and Chinese men fathered children with Hunza slave women. A free man, Khas Muhammad, was married with two children to a female slave named Daulat, aged 24. A Gilgiti slave woman aged 26, Makhmal, was married to a Chinese slave man, Allah Vardi and had three children with him.[12]
In 1979, a number of religious schools were founded by militant group East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM/TIP) founder Abdul Hakeem Makhdoom in Karghalik. These were used to disseminate the movement's ideology among the local population, and were the place where Hasan Mahsum, who would later go on to revive and lead the militant group, studied from 1984 to 1989.[13]
In 1994, the Chinese character name for the town was set as Kageleke (喀格勒克镇).[3]
On 28 February 2012, ethnic Uyghurs, wielding knives, attacked a market in Yecheng, killing 13 people, mostly ethnic Han. The police shot & killed the seven Uyghur attackers.[14]
Geography
Kargilik Town is located on the alluvial fan of the Tizinafu River located in the northern part of Kargilik County. Chasa Meschit Township (Qiasameiqite, Qiasimiqiti) surrounds Kargilik Town on the north, east and south. To the west, the town borders Yitimliqum Township (Yitimukong).[1]
In earlier times it was important as the usual starting-point for caravans to India, through the Pamirs, via Tashkurghan, or through Ladakh by the Karakoram passes.
Today there is a small town with a market, some shops and a bank. Large-scale irrigation has transformed huge areas of desert into productive agricultural land. Yecheng is the main centre for Chinese immigration into western Xinjiang and it has become quite a large, sprawling town.[4]
The total economic output of the town for that year of 2011 was valued at 309,812,200 CNY.[1]
^ abc喀格勒克镇简介. 叶城县人民政府网 (in Simplified Chinese). 19 August 2015. Retrieved 14 April 2020. 喀格勒克镇的东部、南部和北部三面由恰斯米其提乡围绕，西与依提木孔乡接壤，辖区总面积37.5平方公里。
^ ab叶城县历史沿革. XZQH.org (in Simplified Chinese). 14 November 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2020. 2000年第五次人口普查，叶城县常住总人口370229人，其中：喀格勒克镇59260人{...}2010年第六次人口普查，叶城县常住总人口454328人，其中：喀格勒克镇75730人，
^ abcd1997年叶城县行政区划. XZQH.org (in Simplified Chinese). 19 November 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2020. 喀格勒克镇 县政府驻地。清光绪十年（ 1884）属消铁庄，清政府在此设置叶城底驿和洛河克亮噶尔军台。1958年属红旗公社，1970年析建城关公社，1994年改设喀格勒克镇。面积6平方千米，人口6.8万，其中维吾尔族占78.7％，{...}315国道过境。
^Hulsewé, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N. 1979. China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty, pp. 100-101. E. J. Brill, Leiden
^Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu." 2nd Draft Edition. [1]
^Legge, James 1886. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: Being an account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline, pp. lxxxviii-lxxxix. Oxford, Clarendon Press. Reprint: New York, Paragon Book Reprint Corp. 1965.
Hill, John E. 2004. The Peoples of the West from the Weilue 魏略 by Yu Huan 魚豢: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE. Draft annotated English translation. [2]
Hill, John E. (2009) Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN978-1-4392-2134-1.
Hulsewé, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N. 1979. China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. E. J. Brill, Leiden.
Mallory, J. P. and Mair, Victor H. 2000. The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. Thames & Hudson. London. 2000.
Stein, Aurel M. 1907. Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan, 2 vols. Clarendon Press. Oxford. [3]
Watters, Thomas 1904-1905. On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India. London. Royal Asiatic Society. Reprint: Delhi. Mushiram Manoharlal. 1973.
