• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.60 no.7
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• pp.117-130
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• 2010

The four walls of mural paintings in Afrasiab, Samarkand, have discovered: the indian-concept east wall, the west with the paintings of envoys from a number of countries bringing in King's letters or gifts, the south describing traditional ceremony celebrating the new year, the north with a picture of a Chinese princess on board beside hunting scenes. Overall, Sogdians in Afrasiab mural paintings of 7th century had following costume codes: a very short haircut or the Turkic queue, a rather-narrow-sleeved caftan with round-neck, a belt and boots. The west wall showed various costume style of a set of envoys from countries. First, a Turkic envoy had 3-6 rows of long plaits, wearing a caftan with two lapels and a belt - interestingly, Sogdian and Turkic nobles didn't wear pochettes. Second, a Chaganiyan had a hairband on his short hair, and his colorful round-neck caftan is decorated with animal-patterned medallions and a golden belt. Third, a Chach wore a jewelled hairband, putting gaiters on his pants. Forth, a Chinese was in putou with a round-neck caftan, and with a belt and sword around his waist. Lastly, also appeared a Koguryo envoy in white putou with a double-bird-feathered crown on top, wearing a long-sleeved yellow v-neck top, a belt, narrow-cuffed pants and boots. Identical to the Sogdian statues excavated in various regions of China are the appearance of big eyes and nose -similar to the warrior stone in Korea- a hairband, and a pochette down from the waist line. During this period, white and red were considered as prevailing colors for clothing: red and yellow among Turks. The costumes of characters in Afrasiab mural paintings were preferably made with the animal-patterned, sophiscated samite Zandanachi of Sogdiana.