kucha

Kucha, also spelled Kuqa, is a historic oasis city and former kingdom in the Tarim Basin, in present-day Xinjiang, China. It lies in Kuqa County, Aksu Prefecture, and was a key Silk Road hub linking Central Asia with China.

The polity of Kucha emerged in antiquity and endured into the medieval period, under local rulers with varying degrees of external suzerainty. It interacted with major powers of the region, including the Tang dynasty. The oasis supported a culturally diverse community and became a renowned center of Buddhism, with temples and cave complexes that attracted pilgrims and scholars.

Kucha is especially noted for its role in the Buddhist transmission network of Central Asia. The area produced a substantial corpus of manuscripts, inscriptions, and wall paintings, representing texts in Chinese, Sanskrit, and the local Kucha language. The discoveries, along with other Tarim Basin finds, contributed to the study of early Buddhist history, Central Asian languages, and the Silk Road.

In the modern era, the historical region corresponds to what is now Kuqa County in Xinjiang. The name Kucha is used in historical and scholarly contexts to denote the ancient kingdom and its cultural footprint, distinct from the contemporary administrative entity.