Tarim, in watery metaphor, is not so much a basin as a pool in a tidal river flowing alternately to and from the sea.  We can imagine that in such a pool creatures of very different provenance might be found together.  So currents both from east to west and from west to east passed through the Tarim, leaving behind whatever could live there:  Chinese administration and civilization from the east:  Iranians from the west, bearing with them in the stream fragments that had drifted from Asia Minor and Byzantium, while still other currents brought Hindus and Tibetans from the south.

One feature of special interest in the history of the Tarim is that it was in touch with Bactria and the regions conquered by Alexander and through them with western art and thought.  Another is that its inhabitants included not only Iranian tribes but the speakers of an Aryan language hitherto unknown, whose presence so far east may oblige us to revise our views about the history of the Aryan race.  A third characteristic is that from the dawn of history to the middle ages warlike nomads were continually passing through the country.  All these people, whether we call them Iranians, Turks or Mongols had the same peculiarity:  they had little culture of their own but they picked up and transported the ideas of others.  The most remarkable example of this is the introduction of Islam into Europe and India.  Nothing quite so striking happened in earlier ages, yet tribes similar to the Turks brought Manichaeism and Nestorian Christianity into China and played no small part in the introduction of Buddhism.

A brief catalogue of the languages represented in the manuscripts and inscriptions discovered will give a safe if only provisional idea of the many influences at work in Central Asia and its importance as a receiving and distributing centre.  The number of tongues simultaneously in use for popular or learned purposes was remarkably large.  To say nothing of great polyglot libraries like Tun-huang, a small collection at Toyog is reported as containing Indian, Manichaean, Syriac, Sogdian, Uigur and Chinese books.  The writing materials employed were various like the idioms and include imported palm leaves, birch bark, plates of wood or bamboo, leather and paper, which last was in use from the first century A.D. onwards.  In this dry atmosphere all enjoyed singular longevity.

Numerous Sanskrit writings have been found, all dealing with religious or quasi religious subjects, as medicine and grammar were then considered to be.  Relatively modern Mahayanist literature is abundant but greater interest attaches to portions of an otherwise lost Sanskrit canon which agree in substance though not verbally with the corresponding passages in the Pali Canon and are apparently the original text from which much of the Chinese Tripitaka was translated.  The manuscripts hitherto published include Sutras from the Samyukta and Ekottara Agamas, a considerable part