Tocharians, an ancient people who inhabited the Tarim Basin in Central Asia
Most of them were members of the Imir, Dukur, Düker (Döger), Igdir, Chavuldur, Karkin, Salor or Agar (Ajar) tribes.
The native name of the historical Tocharians of the 6th to 8th centuries was, according to J. P. Mallory, possibly kuśiññe "Kuchean" (Tocharian B), "of the kingdom of Kucha and Agni", and ārśi (Tocharian A); one of the Tocharian A texts has ārśi-käntwā, "In the tongue of Arsi" (ārśi is probably cognate to argenteus, i.e. "shining, brilliant").
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J. P. Mallory and Victor H. Mair argue that the Tocharian languages were introduced to the Tarim and Turpan basins from the Afanasevo culture to their immediate north.
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According to Douglas Q. Adams, the Tocharians may have called themselves ākñi, meaning "borderers, marchers".
During the Han–Xiongnu War, the Chinese established a military seat at Wulei, north east of present-day Bugur with an aim to protect the Indo-European Tocharian statelets of the region and kept them away from the Xiongnu's aggression in the northeastern steppe.
It was used also by Western and Central Asian peoples: the Medes, Persians, Parthayans, Indo-Saka, Kushans, Tocharians, Mossynoeci, and others living within the milieu of Iranian peoples.