broke the power of Tibet in the Tarim basin about 860 and
founded a kingdom themselves: it extended into China and lasted long,
for Sutras in Uigur were printed at Peking in 1330 and Uigur
manuscripts copied in the reign of K'ang Hsi (1662-1723) are reported
from a monastery near Suchow.[467] I am informed that a variety of
this alphabet written in vertical columns is still used in some parts
of Kansu where a Turkish dialect is spoken. Though Turkish was used by
Buddhists in both the east and west of the Tarim basin, it appears to
have been introduced into Khotan only after the Moslim conquest.
Another Semitic script, hitherto unknown and found only in a
fragmentary form, is believed to be the writing of the White Huns or
Hephthalites.

As the Tibetans were the predominant power in the Tarim basin from at
least the middle of the eighth until the middle of the ninth century,
it is not surprising that great stores of Tibetan manuscripts have
been found in the regions of Khotan, Miran and Tun-huang. In Turfan,
as lying more to the north, traces of Tibetan influence, though not
absent, are fewer. The documents discovered must be anterior to
the ninth century and comprise numerous official and business papers
as well as Buddhist translations.[468] They are of great importance
for the history of the Tibetan language and also indicate that at the
period when they were written Buddhism at most shared with the Bon
religion the allegiance of the Tibetans. No Manichaean or Christian
translations in Tibetan have yet been discovered.

Vast numbers of Chinese texts both religious and secular are preserved
in all the principal centres and offer many points of interest among
which two may be noticed. Firstly the posts on the old military
frontier near Tun-huang have furnished a series of dated documents
ranging from 98 B.C. to 153 A.D.[469] There is therefore no difficulty
in admitting that there was intercourse between China and Central Asia
at this period. Secondly, some documents of the T'ang dynasty are
Manichaean, with an admixture of Buddhist and Taoist ideas.[470]

The religious monuments of Central Asia comprise stupas, caves and
covered buildings used as temples or viharas. Buddhist, Manichaean and
Christian edifices have been discovered but apparently no shrines of
the Zoroastrian religion, though it had many adherents in these
regions, and though representations of Hindu deities have been found,
Hinduism is not known to