Xinjiang Province, 748km (464 miles) SW of ?rumqi, 723km (448 miles) E of Kashgar, 591km (366 miles) SE of Yining
A maverick Silk Route kingdom, Kuqa was the center of the ancient kingdom of Qiuci. The inhabitants were Indo-European Tocharians, who migrated down from Anatolia (Turkey) and the Caucasus. Drawing on inspiration from Gandhara and Persia, Kuqan musicians and artists were very much the fashion in the cosmopolitan capital of Chang'an. Monks adhered to Hinayana Buddhism, in contrast to other Tarim basin towns and China proper, which adhered to the more complex Mahayana tradition.
Kuqa's most famous son was Kumarajiva (A.D. 343-413), uniquely qualified to be a translator, with a Brahmin father and a Kuqan mother. His father wanted him to be ordained as a Buddhist monk, but his mother sent him to Kashmir and Kashgar to be instructed in Indian literature, astronomy, and Buddhism. He arrived in Chang'an in 401 as a prisoner of Chinese raiders, and soon caught the eye of the fervently Buddhist Tibetan ruling house. Kumarajiva oversaw the largest "translation team" in history. Although the Kuqan scholar was skeptical that the scriptures could ever be rendered faithfully from the Sanskrit, the team of around 1,000 scholars translated the Diamond Sutra, which became one of the most influential texts in Chinese Buddhism.
Present-day Kuqa is a friendly, ramshackle Uighur town with a great Friday market. The fertile soil and relatively temperate climate yield delicious apricots, grapes, peaches, and plums.
