The Turpan Oasis was a strategically significant centre on Xinjiang's Northern Silk Route; site of the ancient cities of Yarkhoto (Jiaohe) and Karakhoja (Gaochang). Chinese armies first entered Turpan in the 2nd century BCE; during the reign of Han Emperor Wu Di (141-87) when the oasis was a centre of Indo-European Tocharian culture.

Turpan retained a distinctly Buddhist character until the time of the Chagatai Khanate in the 13th century; when Islam gradually became the dominant religion. Pictures From Asia David Henley