Shambhala...the Pamirs and Uighur Khocho

 AMU DARYA...upper valleys of the Pamirs enabled Zoroastrian pockets to survive up to the present times...

"Later Shambhalists would identify the ancient Uighur kingdom of Khocho, centered around the Turfan Depression, as one of the prime candidates for the physical location of Shambhala....."(http://www.shambhala.mn/Files/csoma.html)

 George Roerich’s book Trails to Innermost Asia mentions that while in Khotan they visited various ruins, but mentions by name only the Rawak Stupa, then as now the most conspicuous stupa in the area......Rawak is the ruins of an ancient magnificent Buddhist stupa, about 60 km northeast of central Hotan in southern Xinjiang, China......It was built in the third or fourth century C.E. when the Kingdom of Khotan was a leading center of Buddhist learning. It was was abandoned by the fourth to seventh century.....

Gaochang (Chinese: 高昌; pinyin: Gāochāng), also called Qara-hoja or Kara-Khoja (قاراھوجا in Uyghur), is the site of an ancient oasis city built on the northern rim of the inhospitable Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, China. The site is also known in published reports as Chotscho, Khocho, Qocho, or Qočo. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Gaochang was referred to as "Halahezhuo" (哈拉和卓) (Qara-khoja) and Huozhou.

A busy trading center, it was a stopping point for merchant traders traveling on the Silk Road. It was destroyed in wars during the 14th century, and old palace ruins and inside and outside cities can still be seen today. The ruins are located 30 km southeast of modern Turpan. Nearby Gaochang is the site of the Astana tombs

" the tale of Shripala, although legendary in nature, does contain a curious detail which might pertain to the actual physical location of Shambhala. According to the Dro Tradition a young man, the son of two yoga practioners, heard that boddhisattvas themselves were teaching the Dharma somewhere to the north of India in the country of Shambhala. Eager to learn the Dharma he set out on a journey to find these teachers. Beyond India but before reaching Shambhala, we are told, he encountered a vast desert which would have taken four months to cross......One may speculate here that the desert in question is the Taklamakan Desert of western China. As noted earlier, the Uighur kingdom of Khocho, located at the northern edge of the Taklamakan, has often been posited as the "historical" Shambhala. To reach Khocho from the southern edge of the Taklamakan would indeed have taken four or more months, depending on what route the traveler took.

HOR..."Hor gling denoted the region north of eastern Tibet in what is now Xinjiang Uighur."..."Hor and Phrom, (Turks and Tartars) north of Tibet. The land of Phrom Gesar of the North." (Stein: 1972..pg 41)..."Hor: where live the Uighurs. Near the Tarim River."...."Hor and Phrom, Turks and Tartars".(Stein: 1972..pg 41)...(80E) ...(See: Hermann: Historical Atlas of China)

After the fall of the Uigur Kaganate, some Manichaean Uigurs emigrated to the west banks of the Yellow River in Kansu, a second group emigrated via Yetti Su to the southern part of Khan Tengri (Tian Shan in Chinese) in Eastern Turkestan, the third and the largest group of Uigurs emigrated to the northern part of Khan Tengri where their ancestors were still living. The Manichaean Uigurs who emigrated to the west banks of the Yellow river in Kansu established a kingdom in 850 known as the Kan-Chou Uigur Kingdom, later absorbed in 1228 by the Tankut state Western Hsia. These Uigurs still live in the Kansu area under the name Sarik Uigurs or Yellow Uigurs, preserving their old Uigur tongue....The Manichaean Uigurs who emigrated to the northern part of Khan Tengri in Eastern Turkestan established the second Uigur Kingdom in 846 known as Karakhoja Uigur Kingdom near the present day city of Turfan.....The Manichaean Uigurs who settled in the southern part of Khan Tengri, established the Karakhanid Kingdom in 840 AD with the support of other Türks, the Karluks, Turgishes and Basmils, with Kashgar as their capital. In 934, during the rule of Satuk Bughra Khan, the Karakhanids embraced Islam. Thus, in the territory of Eastern Turkestan were two Uigur kingdoms: the Moslem Karakhanids, and Buddhist Karakhoja Uigurs.

This research explores the [[Wikipedia:Central Asian|Central Asian]] origins of the Shambhala Teachings and the region of ancient 'Shamis en Balkh' (36° N 66° E) as the location (before the 8th Century AD) of the 'legendary' Kingdom of Shambhala....known as 'Shams-i-Bala', it was located in the once extremely rich and fertile Oxus River region of Bactria and encircled by the great Pamir and Caucasus Asia Mountains.....With Tagzig to the west, Oddiyana to the east, Zhang-Zhung to the south-east, Gandharva to the south, Airyana Vaeja to the north and Uighur/Kunlun to the north east, legendary Balkh was a spiritual vortex and the location of a great pre-historic Sun Temple and a very important early Buddhist center...Shamis en Balkh was an important trade center in 5000 BC, reached it height about 2400 BC and was still an impressive city when Marco Polo visited in 1275 AD......

Source

balkhandshambhala.blogspot.com.au