In fact, the embassies often brought them to China as gifts. According to various sources, the musical art of Chach and the Sogdian lute made a significant impact on the development of the Chinese musical tradition.
Another lute-like instrument, which reflects the interaction of urban and nomadic cultures, comes from archaeological findings in the areas of Shash and Khorezm. It is a two-string lute with a body that varied in form. Among the interesting discoveries related to it is a unique fragment of a frieze, depicting a female lute player, unearthed in the settlement of Kanka near Tashkent. In it a young female musician in an intricate hat is holding a two-stringed short lute at a tilt.
The Buddhist culture of the Kushan period (1st–3rd centuries) gave rise to a unique visual canon that later spread to both music and musical instruments. One outstanding example of this is the previously mentioned Ayram frieze (dated to the first centuries AD), discovered at a Buddhist complex in the settlement of Ayram, 20 km East of Termez (Surkhandarya region, Uzbekistan). The five female musicians with various musical instruments depicted in it create a professional musical ensemble, and according to the interpretation of renowned researcher of Buddhism S. F. Oldenburg, they could be the embodiment of the Buddhist philosophical notion of the “five great sounds”.
The latest curious findings from the previous two decades (in the sites of Kampyrtepe, Zartepe, Old Termez, Karatepe, etc.) have expanded our view of the regional distribution of musical instruments and their variety. A group of about ten terracotta figures of musicians, discovered in the ancient settlement of Kampyrtepe in Surkhandarya region, Uzbekistan (excavations by the Tokharistan expedition, led by E. V. Rtveladze), deserve special attention. Among them are three figures of musicians with horn instruments: lineal, transverse and multipipe lutes (Pan flutes) and terracottas depicting lute players. These statues date back to the last centuries BC and first centuries AD, and belong mostly to the Bactrian instruments of Antiquity. Particularly worthy of mention here is the bulla discovered by E. V. Rtveladze with a print depicting an instrument unique for Central Asia – the salpinga Greek signal horn.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "The Musical Legacy of Uzbekistan in Collections of the Russian Federation" (Volume VI) from the series "Cultural legacy of Uzbekistan in the world collections".
The general sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.
The musical culture of Chach, Khorezm, and Kushan (1st-8th centuries)
It is well known that singers and dancers from Central Asia, especially from the Chach region (modern Tashkent), were very popular in China at that time (900 AD).