The climate there was harsh and very dry. In the summer, the daytime temperatures were in the 40’s C. Temperatures greater than 50 degrees Centigrade often measured in the sub-sea leveled basin of Turfan (the landmark Buddhist center before being converted to Islam in the 8th century). In winter, the temperatures dip below -20 degrees Centigrade and are accompanied by the all-penetrating mighty wind. The wind is strong, continuous, and full of power. Desert-like temperatures soar in the sun but drop very rapidly at dusk. The shift in temperatures is quite noticeable and very demanding, and one cannot hide from it. The sandstorms there are very common, and particularly dangerous due to the lengths of storms, the strength of the winds, and the nature of the surface. The surface is rock, clay, and more sand that offers very little protection. It is hard to hide from the sand storm, and breathing presents an issue due to the strongest wind filled with the sand. Unlike the Gobi Desert, where there were a relatively large number of oases and water could be found not too far below the surface, the Taklimakan has much sparser resources and less hospitable accommodations. If you did not know precisely where to look for water, you might never find it. It was not really hiding it; it just did not have it.
The land adjacent to the Taklimakan Desert was equally daunting. To the northeast of the Taklimakan, lies the Gobi Desert, almost as unforgiving in climate and the conditions as the Taklimakan itself and, on the remaining three sides of the Taklimakan, lay some of the highest mountains in the world. To the South of the desert were the Himalaya, Karakorum, and the Kunlun ranges providing an effective barrier separating Central Asia from the Indian sub-continent. That’s what affects mostly the weather conditions in the region. If not for those mountains and their height, it could be a paradise. Only a few known icy passes cross these mountain ranges, and they are some of the most difficult in the world to overtake, but so desired. These passes typically are to be found over 5000 meters in altitude and are dangerously narrow and slippery, with precipitous drops into deep ravines. To the north and the west, one will find the Tian Shan, and Pamir mountain ranges. Though greener and not as high, the passes crossing these natural barriers have still provided more than enough problems for the adventurous travelers of the past. Lives were challenged, and lives were lost yet, many were still trying. For some, it was a matter of survival, a question of life, and for the others, it was just a game. The least difficult entry to this vicinity is from the east along the “Gansu Corridor,” a relatively fertile strip of land running along the base of the Qilian Mountains. This corridor is separating the great Mongolian plateau and the Gobi from the Tibetan High Plateau. It’s a hard rout, but it could be managed with fewer demands than the others. The others mostly could not be managed at all. If one comes from the west or the south, the only way in is over the dangerous and most difficult passes. It was a tough place to visit, and it was not much easier to leave.
The region, for centuries, was controlled by the Chinese Empire on the East and by the Persian Empire on the West. In 330 B.C., Alexander the Great of Macedonia finally conquered and occupied the Iranian Empire and the surrounding territories. He colonized this region superimposing the culture of the Greeks of the time on the Asians. Did it work? Some say yes and very much so. Although he ruled the area only until 325 B.C., the effect of the Greek invasion was quite considerable. The Greek language was brought to the region and somewhat enforced. Greek mythology and customs were introduced and widely accepted. The aesthetics of Greek art were merged with the ideas coming from the Indian kingdoms. Thus, a separate and quite notable local school of art emerged. The new culture was in the making. By the third century B.C., the area had already become the crossroads of Asia, where best of the Persian, Indian, and the Greek ideas met and quickly flourished. It is believed by many, but not proven yet, that residents of the Hunza valley in the Karakorum district were the direct descendants of the army of Alexander. It very well may be. It also may apply to some other areas as well. Have you seen the blue and the grey eyes of so many? Have you seen the facial features of men and women there? Yes, the Greeks could make a considerable deposit to the bloodline of these people, and most likely they did. Who can really tell what happened, when, and where? Still, so many things did happen. The Karakorum Highway on its long journey from Pakistan over to Kashgar now trails this valley, and it clearly indicates how close to the Taklimakan Alexander may have gotten. He could’ve been right in the midst of it. We know that he was leaving the Greek garrisons along the way, and they stayed there for years. Alexander did come to this neighborhood, left a deep impression on people residing there, and that’s a historical fact. We do not argue that at all? We just do not know the real depth of that impression. It could be even more profound than we ever thought. Alexander the Great and the Greeks were remembered there as the ancestors, who modified, if not created, the agriculture, architecture, art, and most of the modern crafts. It is known that art in this region was minimal before Alexander’s exploits. It was not developed to any artistic degree yet. Back then, even the Buddhist Gods had not attributed the human characters and the human features yet. Their faces were not human; however, not divine already. They were still the pure gods that could not be understood at all. Only the human characteristics of the Gods could provide some insides. Buddha did not have the face or the body until then, and he was present everywhere being everything at the same time. Some statues of Buddha we see now may bear a great resemblance with Hercules, Achilles, and/or Alexander of Macedonia, or any other Greek of that time. That was very likely because, in sculptures, Buddha looks more European than Asian. And, his clothes… Look at it closely. Is he wearing the Greek toga? Was Alexander the Buddha God for the locals? He very well could be. He was powerful enough, and the imagination could add the rest. War or no war, invaders or not, they were full of imagination. Get closer, closer, and look at the statue again. Put your glasses on. What do you see? The curly hair, the straight Greek nose, the toga-like clothes — Buddha does not really look like a Hindu or anyone living down the Silk Road. He is not a Hindu or a Chinese, or a Mongol. Buddha was not like so many people in Central Asia. Then, did he really come from there? No, Buddha was not from anywhere here. He looks more European or, let us say, Greek. The philosophy attributed to him was not purely Hindu. Was all that the most profound impression, the understanding, of the Greeks?
This ancient “crossroads” region, covering the area to the south of the Hindu Kush and Karakorum ranges, now Pakistan and Afghanistan, was overrun time and time again by many different tribes, armies, and peoples. After the Greeks, the tribes from Palmyra, in Syria and then Parthia to the east of the Mediterranean, fought overtaking the region as a price. Fighting and wars were the way of life back then, but is it much better now. These people were less sophisticated than the Greeks, but as demanding, if not more. And, nonetheless, they adopted the Greek culture, language, and the coin system in this province introducing their own limited but strong influences in the fields of architecture, sculpture, crafts, and art. The novel mixed culture was born in pain of bloody conflicts, and it was flourishing fast.
Close (what is a few hundred years for the history of the ancient land) on the heels of the Parthians, came the Yuezhi people from the Northern borders of the Taklimakan. The Yuezhi had been driven from their traditional home on the North by the powerful Xiongnu tribe. The Xiongnu tribe was later known as the Huns that finally ignored the Yuezhi and the other local attractions and shifted their attention towards Europe and then, settling in Northern India. Their colorful descendants became the Kushan people, and in the first century A.D., they moved into this crossroads area, bringing their adopted Buddhist religion with them. Like the other numerous tribes before them, the Kushan people espoused much of the Greek system that resided in the region already and soon, were absorbed by the neighborhood melting pot. Oh, the melting pot was going strong often, boiling over. The product of this marriage of such different cultures was the Gandhara society situated in what is now known as the Peshawar region of Northwest Pakistan. This fused Greek and the Buddhist art into a unique form of the heavily Germanized Buddhism that was in some cases, more Greek than Buddhism. The more one studies Buddhism, the more one can see the roots and the similarities. And, the Greek culture was older and more forceful or influential. It was well established and mature when Buddhism was just a baby. The Kushan people were the first to show Buddha in the human form building monasteries with statues and monuments of Buddha. Before this time, the Buddhist artists had preferred symbols such as the footprints Stupas. The Buddhist monuments traditionally containing relics of Buddha or the tree of enlightenment. It was done either out of the sense of sacrilege or merely to avoid the persecution (that existed at the time and still exist even now), or it could be the lack of artistic skills, imagination, and/or the concepts. Art without ideas is only a craft. In short, Buddha was not a person before the Greeks arrived and changed the mental landscape of the locals. Still, the Greek influence was so strong that the change started to happen relatively fast. Buddha was humanized within just a few years after the Greek invasion, and maybe that was the real reason for the new religion to become popular and spread out that fast.