KAMI, OR KUMUL 477 



immense strategical importance. Its resources must 

 have been taxed to the utmost when vast and ponderous 

 Chinese armies, after crossing the foodless Gobi, suddenly 

 poured into the town. The oasis itself suffered mucli 

 during the Dungan rebellions, for Turki and Chinese 

 Mohammedans fell out amongst themselves ; Piassetsky, 

 who visited Kumul in 1875, spoke of the town as being 

 in ruins and used only as an encampment for Chinese 

 soldiers. It is surprising to find this same town in such 

 a flourishing condition as it is at the present day. 



The Khans of this little kingdom have been wise 

 enough to recognize the suzerainty of China, and for the 

 last two hundred years, by careful diplomac3^ the ruling 

 chiefs have steered a clear course through the intrigues 

 and entanglements that beset the heads of outlying 

 native states in Central Asia ; consequently the in- 

 dividuality of the oasis has been preserved intact. 



The most interesting side of Kumul is its status as 

 a convert to Islam from Buddhism. In the days of the 

 Uigurs the whole of this region belonged to the Buddhist 

 world ; even up to the fourteenth century, when Marco 

 Polo wrote of them, the Kumuliks were still " idolaters," 

 or Buddhists. Signs of the prevalence of Buddhism are 

 still to be found around Kumul in the presence of many 

 shrines and temples such as those excavated at Togucha 

 (to the west) by Prof. Grunwedel, and such as the remains 

 of images and colossal seated Buddhas of which Stein 

 was the first to record the existence at Ara-tam, a small 

 oasis to the north-east of Kumul, which has always been 

 the summer resort of the Khans. 



In the middle of the fifteenth century it is evident 

 that the two faiths were striving for the mastery, for 

 there is record of a mosque and a great Buddhist temple 



