Tocharians

Also Tokharians, speakers of Indo-European languages, commonly called Tocharian A (Turfanian or East Tocharian) & Tocharian B (Kuchean or West Tocharian), who lived in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (aka Chinese Turkestan, East Turkestan, Sinkiang). They were known by the Chinese as the Yuezhi, by the Greeks as Tocharoi, and by the Turks as Twghry. Many practised Manichaeanism and Buddhism. They lived in the region from around 1000 BC until finally taken over and assimilated by Uighur Turks in the 8th century AD (?). An earlier invasion by other Turks pushed Tocharian speakers out and into modern Afghanistan, India, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Tajikstan, & Uzbekistan, and were known as the Kushan (This theory of the origins of the Kushans is still contested). They had contacts with the Chinese, Persians, Romans Turkic, Indian and Iranian tribes. Their descendants mixed with invading turkish peoples and became the modern Uighur, who display some European physical characteristics.