Subashi

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For the town in Kyrgyzstan, see Subash.

Sarira casket from Subashi. Wood covered with hemp and painted. 6th-7th century. Otani Collection. Tokyo National Museum.

Subashi is a lost city located in the Taklamakan Desert, on the ancient Silk Road, near Kucha, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China. The city was partly excavated by the Japanese archaeologue Count Otani.

A sarira, a Buddhist relic box of the 6th-7th century, discovered in Subashi shows Central Asian men in long tunics, reminiscent of other friezes which have been called Tocharian.

The "Witch of Subashi" is another famous archaeological artifact, the mummy of a woman with a huge pointed hat, thought to be a representative of early Caucasian populations who lived in the region around the beginning of our era.