Sogdians

Sogdia () or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya rivers, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Empire, and listed on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great. Sogdiana was first conquered by Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, and then was annexed by the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great in 328 BC. It would continue to change hands under the Seleucid Empire, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, the Kushan Empire, the Sasanian Empire, th

Kangju (; Eastern Han Chinese: kʰɑŋ-kɨɑ < *khâŋ-ka (c. 140 BCE)) was the Chinese name of a kingdom in Central Asia during the first half of the first millennium CE. The name Kangju is now generally regarded as a variant or mutated form of the name Sogdiana. According to contemporaneous Chinese sources, Kangju was the second most powerful state in Transoxiana, after the Yuezhi. Its people, known in Chinese as the Kāng (康), were evidently of Indo-European origins, spoke an Eastern Iranian language, and had a semi-nomadic way of life. The Sogdians may have been the same people as those of Kangju

anonymous painting

goddess in the ancient area corresponding to Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Northwest India

local Sogdian dynasty, which ruled the city of Bukhara

ancient Iranian dynasty

Asian state

mummy excavated in Yingpan, China

Weshparkar, or Veshparkar, was the Sogdian god of the Atmosphere and the Wind. He corresponds to the Avestan god Vayu. In Central Asia, Weshparkar has also been associated to the Indian god Shiva.

type of dance, the folk dance from the Western Regions of Tang Dynasty; clear and lively rhythm, accompanied by multi-rotating pedals

Pre-Islamic murals in Tajikistan

Archaeological finds

tang Chinese stele erected in 781

museum

thumb|Sogdian Huteng dancer, Xiuding temple pagoda, [[Anyang, Henan, China, Tang dynasty, 7th century.]] Huteng (, also 胡腾舞, Húténgwǔ, "Dance of the Nomadic leap") was the Chinese term for a type of dance that originated in Central Asia, especially among the Sogdians and the region of Tashkent (石國, Shíguó). The dance was well known during the Tang dynasty, and there are numerous depictions of it in works of art. The dance was characterized by spinning, leaps and backflips. The dancers would particularly make somersaults, first planting their feet firmly on the carpet, tilting their face upward