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Textile with trees, birds, and mountain goats
Late 6th–early 7th century
Woven silk (1:2 warp-faced compound tabby)
Warp 9 1/2 in. (24.1 cm); weft 8 1/4 in. (21 cm)
Excavated from Tomb 186, Astana, Turfan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, 1972
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum
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This textile, along with others bearing similar patterns, was found in the extensive cemetery at Astana near Turfan. Red mountain goats kneel at the bottom of the textile, while pairs of birds are placed at the top. A sizable tree with a trunk shaped like a column fills the center of each pattern. Called a "lamp tree," it bears branches with leaf-shaped lamps. The textile belongs to a group that is sometimes termed yang shu jin, that is, jin textiles with the sun tree (yang shu) design. This term was recorded in manuscripts from Turfan dating to the mid-sixth century. Both the Chinese character for sun and the one for goat are pronounced "yang." As a result, textiles showing a goat along with a tree bearing lamps are often identified with the jin textiles with sun tree design mentioned in the sixth-century texts.
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