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Loulan (樓蘭; pinyin: Lóulán) is an ancient town founded in the second century BC on the north-eastern edge of the Taklamakan desert. Loulan was an ancient kingdom along China's Silk Road in Xinjiang. The ruins of Loulan are on what were the western banks of Lop Nur, in the Ruoqiang county of the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, now completely submerged in the desert (approximate coordinates, 40°9′ N 89°5′ E).
A 3,800-year-old female mummy (circa 1600 BC) was discovered in Loulan in 1980 (see Mummy: Chinese mummy), suggesting an even earlier inhabitation of the region.
In 55 BC the area became a Chinese puppet state, called Shanshan. The Tarim River, which supported the settlement, subsequently changed course, and by the sixth century the city was abandoned.
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Archaeology
Sven Hedin
Loulan was rediscovered by Sven Hedin in 1901, who excavated some houses and found a wooden Kharosthi tablet amongst other remains.
Aurel Stein
Aurel Stein made further excavations in 1906 and 1914, investigating the town's packed-earth and straw wall. It was over 1000 feet on each side, and 20 feet thick at the base. Stein also recovered a wool-pile carpet fragment, some yellow silk, and Gandharan architectural wood-carvings.
Modern Chinese Expions
Reported in the Washington Times, 2005, are discoveries made in 1979 and 1980 by a Chinese architectural team in the area. They discovered a man-made canal, 15 feet deep and 55 feet wide, running through Loulan from northwest to southeast; a 32 foot high earthen domehaped Buddhist stupa; and a 41 feet long by 28 feet wide home apparently for a Chinese official, housing 3 rooms and supported by wooden pillars. They also collected 797 objects from the area, including vessels of wood, bronze objects, jewelry and coins, and Mesolithic stone tools (Washington Times, 2005).
Other reported (2003) finds in the area include additional mummies and burial grounds, ephedra sticks, a string bracelet that holds a hollowed jade stone, a leather pouch, a woolen loincloth, a wooden mask painted red and with large nose and teeth, boathaped coffins, a bow with arrows and a straw basket (Washington Times, 2005).
External links
- Soka Gakkai Dictionary of Buddhism: Lou-lan
- Washington Times, 2005: Loulan vanished in sand
- Korla Travel Guide
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