Loulanis
تخاران 樓蘭人 | |
|---|---|
 Tokharis displaying both Caucasoid and Asiatic phenotypes | |
| Total population | |
| ~18.3 million (2019, est.) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Loulan | 14,591,200 |
 China | ~3-4 million |
 Kazakhstan | 223,100 |
 Australia | 50,000 |
 Kyrgyzstan | 49,000 |
 United States | 45,800 |
 Russia | ~5-10 thousand |
 Canada | 1,555 |
 Ukraine | 197 |
| Languages | |
| First language Tokhari Second language Mandarin, Russian | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Non-religious or Traditional religions (including Buddhism and irreligion) Minority of Islam, small minority of Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Iranian peoples | |
The Tokhari people (تخاران Toxârân, singular تخار Toxâr) are an Indo-European ethnicity who live in East and Central Asia. Today, Tokharis live primarily in Loulan, where they make up a majority of the population. Like many populations of central Eurasia, they are closely related to both European and East Asian populations.
An estimated 70% of Tokharis living in Loulan reside in the southwestern portion of the country, the Tarim Basin. Outside of Loulan, the largest community of Tokharis is in Taoyuan County, Hunan, China. Significant diaspora communities exist in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as in the United States, Australia, and Russia.
Name
In the Tokhari language, the ethnonym is written تخار Toxâr in the singular and تخاران Toxârân in the plural. In Chinese they are known as 樓蘭人, which is romanised in pinyin as lóulánrén.
In English, the name of the people is officially Tokhari, although the archaic term Tocharian persists outside of Loulan; this is considered erroneous but not offensive, and in fact may be considered poetic. Loulani or Loulanese are used as well in informal speech, although this more correctly refers to all citizens of Loulan regardless of ethnic ties.
Identity
Throughout its history, the term Tokhari has taken on an increasingly expansive definition. Initially only signifying a small group of people in the historic region of Tuhristan, the term later expanded to encompass an entire ethnicity whose distinctive Persian variety and culture were shared with the people of Tuhristan. This somewhat fluid definition of Tokhari and the diverse ancestry of modern Tokharis creates some scholarly debate about what constitutes true Tokhari ethnography and ethnogenesis.
Contemporary scholars consider modern Tokharis to be the descendants of a number of people, including various Indo-European and Indo-Iranian peoples in the Tarim Basin, as well as Turkic and Mongolic tribes who migrated into the area after the fall of the Uyghur Khanate. DNA analyses indicate that the peoples of central Asia such as the Tokharis are all mixed Caucasian and East Asian.