- Guma Town
Guma (Goma) Town (Chinese: 固玛镇;
Pinyin : Gùmǎ Zhèn), formerly as Pishan Town (Chinese: 皮山镇;pinyin : Píshān), coord|37|37|N|78|18|E|) is an ancientoasis town on the main caravan route betweenKhotan andKarghalik . It is located in theTaklamakan Desert , in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, about 280 km southeast ofKashgar in modernXinjiang ,China .The
Hanshu (which describes events up to 23 CE) mentions that it had 500 households, 3,500 individuals and 500 persons able to bear arms. It was an important hub for caravans heading south to India over theKarakorum route, or through thePamirs toJalalabad orBadakhshan .Today, Pishan is a small, rather poor town of about 2,000 people. The main crop is
cotton . Most of the inhabitants are Uyghur and there are someTajiks .External links
* [http://www.astrographics.com/GalleryPrintsIndex/GP4531.html Satellite picture of Pishan]
* [http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/ Silk Road Seattle] (The Silk Road Seattle website contains many useful resources including a number of full-text historical works)References
*Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the "Hou Hanshu"." 2nd Draft Edition. [http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/hhshu/hou_han_shu.html]
*Hill, John E. 2004. "The Peoples of the West from the Weilüe" 魏略 "by Yu Huan" 魚豢": A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE." Draft annotated English translation. [http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html]
*Hulsewé, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N. 1979. "China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty". E. J. Brill, Leiden.
*Roerich, George N. (1931): "Trails to Inmost Asia: Five Years of Exploration with the Roerich Central Asian Expedition". Roerich. First Indian Reprint. Book Faith India, Delhi. 1996.
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