Skip to content

Dharma Documentaries

Buddhism and Its Cultures

Menu
  • Dharma
  • Culture
  • Ecology
  • Archives
  • About
Menu

Lost Oasis on the Silk Road, Parts 1-3

Posted on November 9, 2012March 19, 2022 by Dharma Documentaries
The first three sections from a three-hour documentary on the Buddhist Silk Road kingdom of Kucha made by CCTV.

Tarim Basin map by Jahrhundert (CC License)

 

This is the beginning of a 3-hour documentary made by Chinese Central Television (CCTV) on the Silk Road kingdom of Kucha (here called Kuqa).

The Kucha kingdom was the largest in the Tarim Basin, as can be seen from the map below, and it controlled the northern Silk Roads, making it a very prosperous kingdom.

The people who inhabited the kingdom at that time were of European stock, and their language, Tocharian (here called Toxci) is related to the western branch of Indo-Aryan.

They were also Buddhists following the Sthavira school of Sarvastivada, unlike their neighbours who all became Mahayanists.

The documentary has been split into 9 sections, and I will show three sets of three films for the next three weeks.

The first set traces the pre-history of the peoples of the region, finding European skeletons from as long as 4,000 years ago, and also their rediscovery by European explorers in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, and the decipherment of their language.

It also focuses on the agriculture and trades that helped support their lives, their societal organisation, and shows something of the art works they produced, especially the remains of one of the most extensive monastic cave complexes in China at Kirkil.

 

Part One:

if the video does not appear on the page, try reloading the page; and if that doesn’t work, leave a comment so I can update the page (the comment is not published)

Part Two:

if the video does not appear on the page, try reloading the page; and if that doesn’t work, leave a comment so I can update the page (the comment is not published)

Part Three:

if the video does not appear on the page, try reloading the page; and if that doesn’t work, leave a comment so I can update the page (the comment is not published)

 

Lost Oasis

 

Lost Oasis

 

Lost Oasis

 

Lost Oasis

 

Lost Oasis

 

Lost Oasis

 

TAGS:
Culture, Arts, Caves, China, Silk Road, Sthavira

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Comments do not appear straight away, but are moderated before publication

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search

Subscriptions

Follow our Facebook Page Follow our Tweets Subscribe to our Feed

Subscribe by Email

Email


Shortlink and QR

https://dharma-documentaries.net/b/1wT

Donations

This site has taken more than fifteen years and 1,000s of hours to build, and has more than a thousand documentaries on it. If you would like to help, you can do so here. Even small amounts make a difference.

Copyright

If anyone has any copyright claims please contact me at dharmadocus@gmail.com and the posts and films will be immediately removed.

Top Ten Tags

Theravada
Mahayana
Vajrayana

India
Silk Road
China
Tibet

Arts
Lectures
Women

Sponsorship

 hosting sponsored by exabytes.my 

Random Posts

  • Shaolin Zen Meditation, Martial Arts and Medicine
  • The Indus Valley (The Masters of the River)
  • Building Without Nails, the Genius of Japanese Carpentry
  • Secrets of Angkor
  • Living Soil
  • Laos (Expoza)
  • The Longmen Grottoes in China
  • The Unfortunate Idol Fo: The Story of a Forgotten Buddha
  • Beyond the Himalayas 4, On The Roof Of The World
  • Heritage Curse?

Recent Posts

  • 1948, Creation & Catastrophe
  • Bhutan, Back to the Roots along with Matthieu Ricard
  • Walid Haddad, Jātaka, the Buddhas Past Birth-Stories, 02
  • Walid Haddad, Jātaka, the Buddhas Past Birth-Stories, 01
  • Karma Girl
  • Wang Erchuan, Thangka Collector
  • Mongolian Temple Architecture
  • Mongolian Applique
  • Mongolian Thangka
  • Painting in Time

Related Posts:

  • Lost Oasis on the Silk Road, Parts 4-6
  • Lost Oasis on the Silk Road, Parts 7-9
  • The Silk Road Series 5/16: In Search of the Kingdom…
  • A Buddhist Kingdom Beneath the Sands
  • The Silk Road Series 7/16: Khotan-Oasis of Silk and Jade
  • Guge, the Lost Kingdom of Tibet
  • The Silk Road Series 42, The Progeny of the Queen of Sheba
  • The Silk Road Series 4/16: The Dark Castle
  • The Silk Road Series 8/16: A Heat Wave Called Turfan
  • Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures of the Silk Road
© 2025 Dharma Documentaries | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme