Kashgar (Chaghatay: Kashghār; Uyghur: Qăshqăr) is an oasis town in the Tarim Basin, or Eastern Turkistan, which has been ruled alternately by various powers, including the Mongols, the Chinese, the Tibetans, and local nobles, among many others. The city's name is often used to refer to the whole oasis in which it is located, or even the entire region of the eastern Tarim Basin. Kashgar is currently regarded as the cultural centre of the Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking, Muslim ethnic group, though in earlier periods it has sometimes been