Kingdom of Khotan

The Kingdom of Khotan was an ancient Iranian Saka Buddhist kingdom

located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the southern edge of
Kingdom of Khotan
the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang, China). The 56–1006
ancient capital was originally sited to the west of modern-day Hotan
(Chinese: 和田) at Yotkan.[1][2] From the Han dynasty until at least the Tang
dynasty it was known in Chinese as Yutian (Chinese: 于闐, 于窴, or 於闐).
This largely Buddhist kingdom existed for over a thousand years until it was
conquered by the Muslim Kara-Khanid Khanate in 1006, during the
Islamicisation and Turkicisation of Xinjiang.

Built on an oasis, Khotan's mulberry groves allowed the production and

export of silk and carpets, in addition to the city's other major products such
as its famous nephrite jade and pottery. Despite being a significant city on Kingdom of Khotan as of 1001 AD
the silk road as well as a notable source of jade for ancient China, Khotan
Capital Yotkan
itself is relatively small – the circumference of the ancient city of Khotan at
Yōtkan was about 2.5 to 3.2 km (1.5 to 2 miles). Much of the archaeological
Common languages Gāndhārī
language 3-4th
evidence of the ancient city of Khotan however had been obliterated due to century.[web 1]
centuries of treasure hunting by local people.[3] Khotanese, a
dialect of the
The inhabitants of Khotan used Khotanese, an Eastern Iranian language, and Saka language,
in a variant of
Gandhari Prakrit, an Indo-Aryan language related to Sanskrit. There is
the Brāhmī
debate as to how much Khotan's original inhabitants were ethnically and script.[web 2]
anthropologically South Asian and speakers of the Gāndhārī language versus
Religion Buddhism
the Saka, an Indo-European people of Iranian branch from the Eurasian
Steppe. From the 3rd century onwards they also had a visible linguistic Government Monarchy
influence on the Gāndhārī language spoken at the royal court of Khotan. The • c. 56 Yulin: Jianwu
Khotanese Saka language was also recognized as an official court language
period (25–56
AD)
by the 10th century and used by the Khotanese rulers for administrative • 969 Nanzongchang
documentation. (last)
History
• Khotan established c. 300 BC
Contents • Established 56
• Yarkant attacks 56
Names and annexes
Khotan. Yulin
Location and geography
abdicates and
History becomes king of
Foundation legend Ligui
Arrival of the Saka • Tibet invades and 670
Early period conquers Khotan
Eastern Han period • Khotan held by the 1006
Muslim, Yūsuf
Tang dynasty
Qadr Khān
Turkic-Islamic conquest of Buddhist Khotan • Disestablished 1006
Historical timeline
Preceded Succeeded by
Rulers by
 Buddhism Khotan Kara-Khanid
Khanate
Social and economic life
Silk
Today part of China
Jade
Tajikistan
Khotan coinage
Mitochondrial DNA analysis
See also
Notes
References
Book references
Web-references
Sources
Further reading
External links

Names
The kingdom of Khotan was given various names and transcriptions. The ancient
Chinese called Khotan Yutian (于闐, its ancient pronunciation was gi̯wo-d'ien or ji̯u-
d'ien)[3] also written as 于窴 and other similar-sounding names such as Yudun (于遁),
Huodan (豁旦), and Qudan (屈丹). Sometimes they also used Jusadanna (瞿薩旦那),
derived from Indo-Iranian Gostan and Gostana, the names of the town and region
around it respectively. Others include Huanna (渙那).[4] To the Tibetans in the seventh
and eight centuries, the kingdom was called Li (or Li-yul) and the capital city Hu-ten,
Hu-den, Hu-then and Yvu-then.[5][6]

The name as written by the locals changed over time; in about the third century AD, the
local people wrote Khotana in Kharoṣṭhī script, and Hvatäna in the Brahmi script some
time later. From this came Hvamna and Hvam in their latest texts, where Hvam kṣīra or
'the land of Khotan' was the name given. Khotan became known to the west while the –
t- was still unchanged, as is frequent in early New Persian. The local people also used
Gaustana (Gostana or Kustana) under the influence of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, and
Yūttina in the ninth century, when it was allied with the Sinicised kingdom of Șacū
(Shazhou or Dunhuang).[5][7] Portrait of Visa Sambhava, the
king of Khotan from Five
Dynasties to early Northern
Location and geography Sung period, Mogao Caves,
The geographical position of the oasis was the main factor in its success and wealth. To Dunhuang, Gansu province,
10th century
its north is one of the most arid and desolate desert climates on the earth, the
Taklamakan Desert, and to its south the largely uninhabited Kunlun Mountains
(Qurum). To the east there were few oasis beyond Niya making travel difficult, and access is only relatively easy from the
west.[3][8]

Khotan was irrigated from the Yurung-kàsh[9] and Kara-kàsh rivers, which water the Tarim Basin. These two rivers produce vast
quantities of water which made habitation possible in an otherwise arid climate. The position next to the mountain not only
provided irrigation for crops but it also increased the fertility of the land as the rivers reduce the gradient and deposited their
sediment, creating a more fertile soil. This therefore increased the productivity of the agricultural industry which has made Khotan
 famous for its cereal crops and fruits. Therefore, Khotan's lifeline was its vicinity
to the Kunlun mountain range and without this Khotan would not have become
one of the largest and most successful oasis cities along the Silk Roads.

The kingdom of Khotan was one of the many small states found in the Tarim
Basin that included Yarkand, Loulan (Shanshan), Turfan, Kashgar, Karashahr, and
Kucha (the last three together with Khotan made up the four Garrisons during the
Tang dynasty). To the west were Central Asian kingdoms of Sogdiana and
Bactria. It was surrounded by powerful neighbours, such as the Kushan Empire,
Clay figurines found in Yotkan, 2nd- China, Tibet, and for a time the Xiongnu, all of which had exerted or tried to exert
4th century their influence over Khotan at various times.

History
From an early period, the Tarim Basin had been inhabited by different groups of Indo-European speakers such as the Tocharians
and Saka people.[10][11] Jade from Khotan had been traded into China for a long time before the founding of the city, as indicated
by items made of jade from Khotan found in tombs from the Shang (Yin) and Zhou dynasties. The jade trade is thought to have
been facilitated by the Yuezhi.[12]

Foundation legend
There are four versions of the legend of the founding of
Khotan,[13] these may be found in accounts given by the Chinese
pilgrim Xuanzang and in Tibetan translations of Khotanese
documents. All four versions suggest that the city was founded
around the third century BC by a group of Indians during the reign
Manuscript in Khotanese from Dandan Oilik, NE of
of Ashoka.[3][13] According to one version, the nobles of a tribe in
Khotan. Now held in the British Library.
ancient Taxila, who traced their ancestry to the deity Vaiśravaṇa,
were said to have blinded Kunãla, a son of Ashoka. In punishment
they were banished by the Mauryan emperor to the north of the Himalayas, where they settled in Khotan and elected one of their
members as king. However war then ensued with another group from China whose leader then took over as king, and the two
colonies merged.[3] In a different version, it was Kunãla himself who was exiled and founded Khotan.[14]

The legend suggests that Khotan was settled by people from northwest India and China, and may explain the division of Khotan
into an eastern and western city since the Han dynasty.[3] Others however argued that the legend of the founding of Khotan is a
fiction as it ignores the Iranian population, and that its purpose was to explain the Indian and Chinese influences that were present
in Khotan in the 7th century AD.[15] By Xuanzang's account, it was believed that the royal power had been transmitted unbroken
since the founding of Khotan, and evidence indicates that the kings of Khotan used an Iranian-based word as their title since at
least the 3rd century AD, suggesting that they may be speakers of an Iranian language.[16]

In the 1900s, Aurel Stein discovered Prakrit documents written Kharoṣṭhī in Niya, and together with the founding legend of
Khotan, Stein proposed that these people in the Tarim Basin were Indian immigrants from Taxila who conquered and colonized
Khotan.[17] The use of Prakrit however may be a legacy of the influence of the Kushan Empire.[18] There were also Greek
influences in early Khotan based on evidence such as Hellenistic artworks found at various sites in the Tarim Basin, for example,
the Sampul tapestry found near Khotan, tapestries depicting the Greek god Hermes and the winged pegasus found at nearby
Loulan, as well as ceramics that may suggest influences from as far as the Hellenistic kingdom of the Ptolemaic Egypt.[19][20] One
suggestion is therefore that the early migrants to the region may have been an ethnically mixed people from the city of Taxila led
by a Greco-Saka or an Indo-Greek leader, and established Khotan using the administrative and social organizations of the Greco-
Bactrian Kingdom.[21][22]
Arrival of the Saka
Surviving documents from Khotan of later centuries indicate that the people of Khotan
spoke the Saka language, an Eastern Iranian language that was closely related to the
Sogdian language (of Sogdiana); as an Indo-European language, Saka was more distantly
related to the Tocharian languages (also known as Agnean-Kuchean) spoken in adjoining
areas of the Tarim Basin.[24] It also shared areal features with Tocharian. It is not certain
when the Saka people moved into the Khotan area. Archaeological evidence from Shanpula
(Sampul) near Khotan may indicate a settled Saka population in the last quarter of the first
millennium BC,[25] although some have suggested they may not have moved there until
after the founding of the city.[26] The Saka may have inhabited other parts of the Tarim
Basin earlier – presence of a people believed to be Saka had been found in the Keriya
region at Yumulak Kum (Djoumboulak Koum, Yuansha) around 200 km east of Khotan,
possibly as early as the 7th century BC.[27][28] A document from Khotan
written in Khotanese Saka,
The Saka people were known as the Sai ( 塞, sāi, sək in Old Sinitic) in ancient Chinese part of the Eastern Iranian
records.[29] These records indicate that they originally inhabited the Ili and Chu River branch of the Indo-European
languages, listing the
valleys of modern Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In the Chinese Book of Han, the area was
animals of the Chinese
called the "land of the Sai", i.e. the Saka.[30] According to the Sima Qian's Shiji, the Indo-
zodiac in the cycle of
European Yuezhi, originally from the area between Tängri Tagh (Tian Shan) and Dunhuang predictions for people born
of Gansu, China,[31] were assaulted and forced to flee from the Hexi Corridor of Gansu by in that year; ink on paper,
the Mongolic forces of the Xiongnu ruler Modu Chanyu in 177-176 BC.[32][33][34][35] In early 9th century
turn the Yuezhi were responsible for attacking and pushing the Sai (i.e. Saka) south. The
Saka crossed the Syr Darya into Bactria around 140 B.C.[36] Later the Saka would
also move into Northern India, as well as other Tarim Basin sites like Khotan,
Karasahr (Yanqi), Yarkand (Shache) and Kucha (Qiuci). One suggestion is that the
Saka become Hellenized in the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and they or an
ethnically-mixed Greco-Scythians either migrated to Yarkand and Khotan, or a bit
earlier from Taxila in the Indo-Greek Kingdom.[37]

Documents written in Prakrit dating to 3rd-century AD from neighbouring Ruins of the Rawak Stupa outside of
Shanshan show that the king of Khotan was given the title hinajha (i.e. Hotan, a Buddhist site dated from the
"generalissimo"), a distinctively Iranian-based word equivalent to the Sanskrit late 3rd to 5th century AD.[23]
title senapati.[16] This along with the fact that the king's recorded regnal periods
were given as Khotanese kṣuṇa, "implies an established connection between the
Iranian inhabitants and the royal power," according to the late Professor of Iranian Studies Ronald E. Emmerick (d. 2001).[16] He
contended that Khotanese-Saka-language royal rescripts of Khotan dated to the 10th century "makes it likely that the ruler of
Khotan was a speaker of Iranian."[16] Furthermore, he elaborated on the early name of Khotan:

The name of Khotan is attested in a number of spellings, of which the oldest form is hvatana, in texts of
approximately the 7th to the 10th century AD written in an Iranian language itself called hvatana by the writers.
The same name is attested also in two closely related Iranian dialects, Sogdian and Tumshuq...Attempts have
accordingly been made to explain it as Iranian, and this is of some importance historically. My own preference is
for an explanation connecting it semantically with the name Saka, for the Iranian inhabitants of Khotan spoke a
language closely related to that used by the used by the Sakas in the north-west of India from the first century B.C.
onwards.[16]
Later Khotanese-Saka-language documents, ranging from medical texts to Buddhist literature, have been found in Khotan and
Tumshuq (northeast of Kashgar).[38] Similar documents in the Khotanese-Saka language dating mostly to the 10th century have
been found in Dunhuang.[39]

Early period
In the second century BC a Khotanese king helped the famous ruler Kanishka of the Kushan Empire of South Asia (founded by the
Indo-Iranian Yuezhi people) to conquer the key town of Saket in the Middle kingdoms of India: [a]

Afterwards king Vijaya Krīti, for whom a manifestation of the Ārya Mañjuśrī, the Arhat called Spyi-pri who was
propagating the religion (dharma) in Kam-śeṅ [a district of Khotan] was acting as pious friend, through being
inspired with faith, built the vihāra of Sru-ño. Originally, King Kanika, the king of Gu-zar [Kucha] and the Li
[Khotanese] ruler, King Vijaya Krīti, and others led an army into India, and when they captured the city called So-
ked [Saketa], King Vijaya Krīti obtained many relics and put them in the stūpa of Sru-ño.

— The Prophecy of the Li Country.[40]

According to Chapter 96A of the Book of Han, covering the period from 125 BC to 23 AD, Khotan had 3,300 households, 19,300
individuals and 2,400 people able to bear arms.[41]

Eastern Han period

Minted coins from Khotan dated to the 1st century AD bear dual inscriptions in
Chinese and Gandhari Prakrit in the Kharosthi script, showing links of Khotan to
India and China in that period.[16]

Khotan began to exert its power in the first century AD. It was first ruled by
Yarkand, but revolted in 25-57 AD and took Yarkand and the territory as far as
Kashgar, thereby gaining control part of the southern silk road.[3] The town grew
Coin of Gurgamoya, king of Khotan.
very quickly after local trade developed into the interconnected chain of silk Khotan, 1st century AD.
routes across Eurasia. Obv: Kharosthi legend, "Of the great
king of kings, king of Khotan,
During the Yongping Gurgamoya.
Rev: Chinese legend: "Twenty-four
period (58-76 AD), in the
grain copper coin". British Museum
reign of Emperor Ming,
Xiumo Ba, a Khotanese
general, rebelled against
Suoju (Yarkand), and made
himself king of Yutian (in
60 AD). On the death of
Xiumo Ba, Guangde, son
of his elder brother,
assumed power and then
Ceramic figurine with (in 61 AD) defeated Suoju
Western influences, Yotkan (Yarkand). His kingdom
near Khotan, 2-4th century became very prosperous
AD. after this. From Jingjue
(Niya) northwest, as far as
Kashgar thirteen kingdoms
 submitted to him.
Meanwhile, the king of
Shanshan (the Lop Nor
region, capital Charklik)
had also begun to prosper.
From then on, these two
kingdoms were the only
major ones on the Southern
Route in the whole region
to the east of the Congling
(Pamir Mountains).[42]

King Guangde of Khotan submitted to the Han dynasty in 73 AD. Khotan at the time had relation with the Xiongnu, who during
the reign of Emperor Ming of Han (57-75 AD) invaded Khotan and forced the Khotanese court to pay them large annual amounts
of tribute in the form of silk and tapestries.[43] When the Han military officer Ban Chao went to Khotan, he was received by the
King with minimal courtesy. The soothsayer to the King suggested that he should demand the horse of Ban, and Ban killed the
soothsayer on the spot. The King, impressed by Ban's action, then killed the Xiongnu agent in Khotan and offered his allegiance to
Han.[44]

By the time of the Han dynasty exerted its dominance over Khotan, the population had more than quadrupled. The Book of the
Later Han, covering 6 to 189 AD, says:

The main centre of the kingdom of Yutian (Khotan) is the town of Xicheng ("Western Town", Yotkan). It is 5,300 li
(c.2,204 km) from the residence of the Senior Clerk [in Lukchun], and 11,700 li (c.4,865 km) from Luoyang. It
controls 32,000 households, 83,000 individuals, and more than 30,000 men able to bear arms.[42]

Han influence on Khotan, however, would diminished when Han power declined.[web 3]

Tang dynasty
The Tang campaign against the oasis states began in 640 AD and Khotan submitted to the Tang emperor. The Four Garrisons of
Anxi were established, one of them at Khotan.

The Tibetans later defeated the Chinese and took control of the Four Garrisons. Khotan was first taken in 665,[45] and the
Khotanese helped the Tibetans to conquer Aksu.[46] Tang China later regained control in 692, but eventually lost control of the
entire Western Regions after it was weakened considerably by the An Lushan Rebellion.

After the Tang dynasty, Khotan formed an alliance with the rulers of Dunhuang. The Buddhist entitites of Dunhuang and Khotan
had a tight-knit partnership, with intermarriage between Dunhuang and Khotan's rulers and Dunhuang's Mogao grottos and
Buddhist temples being funded and sponsored by the Khotan royals, whose likenesses were drawn in the Mogao grottoes.[47]

Khotan was conquered by the Tibetan Empire in 792 and gained its independence in 851.[48]

Turkic-Islamic conquest of Buddhist Khotan

In the 10th century, the Iranic Saka Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan was the only city-state that was not conquered yet by the Turkic
Uyghur (Buddhist) and the Turkic Qarakhanid (Muslim) states. During the latter part of the tenth century, Khotan became engaged
in a struggle against the Kara-Khanid Khanate. The Islamic conquests of the Buddhist cities east of Kashgar began with the
conversion of the Karakhanid Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan to Islam in 934. Satuq Bughra Khan and later his son Musa directed
 Paintings by the Khotanese artist Yuchi Yiseng or his father Yuchi Bazhina (尉遲跋質那), Tang dynasty (618-907
AD)
Left: painting of an Indian deity on the obverse of a painted panel, most likely depicting Shiva
Right: painting of a Persian deity on the reverse of a painted panel, probably depicting the legendary hero
Rustam

endeavors to proselytize Islam among the Turks and engage in military

conquests,[47][49] and a long war ensued between Islamic Kashgar and Buddhist
Khotan.[50] Satuq Bughra Khan's nephew or grandson Ali Arslan was said to have
been killed during the war with the Buddhists.[51] Khotan briefly took Kashgar
from the Kara-Khanids in 970, and according to Chinese accounts, the King of
Khotan offered to send in tribute to the Chinese court a dancing elephant captured
from Kashgar.[52]

Accounts of the war between the Karakhanid and Khotan were given in Taẕkirah
of the Four Sacrificed Imams, written sometime in the period from 1700-1849 in
the Eastern Turkic language (modern Uyghur) in Altishahr probably based on an
older oral tradition. It contains a story about four Imams from Mada'in city
(possibly in modern-day Iraq) who helped the Qarakhanid leader Yusuf Qadir
Khan conquered Khotan, Yarkand, and Kashgar.[53] There were years of battles
where "blood flows like the Oxus", "heads litter the battlefield like stones" until
the "infidels" were defeated and driven towards Khotan by Yusuf Qadir Khan and
the four Imams. The imams however were assassinated by the Buddhists prior to
the last Muslim victory.[54] Despite their foreign origins, they are viewed as local
saints by the current Muslim population in the region.[55] In 1006, the Muslim
Kara-Khanid ruler Yusuf Kadir (Qadir) Khan of Kashgar conquered Khotan,
ending Khotan's existence as an independent Buddhist state.[47] Some
communications between Khotan and Song China continued intermittently, but it Human head ceramic with cow, Tang
was noted in 1063 in a Song source that the ruler of Khotan referred to himself as Dynasty. Hotan Cultural Museum,
China
kara-khan, indicating dominance of the Karakhanids over Khotan.[56]
It has been suggested Buddhists in Dunhuang, alarmed by the conquest of Khotan
and ending of Buddhism there, sealed Cave 17 of the Mogao Caves containing the
Dunhuang manuscripts so to protect them.[57] The Karakhanid Turkic Muslim
writer Mahmud al-Kashgari recorded a short Turkic language poem about the
conquest:

Grotesque face, stucco, found at

Khotan, 7th-8th century.

In Turkic:[58][59] English translation:[57][60][61][62]

kälginläyü aqtïmïz We came down on them like a flood,

kändlär üzä čïqtïmïz We went out among their cities,
furxan ävin yïqtïmïz We tore down the idol-temples,
burxan üzä sïčtïmïz We shat on the Buddha's head!

According to Kashgari who wrote in the 11th century, the inhabitants of Khotan still spoke a different language and did not know
the Turkic language well.[63][64] It is however believed that the Turkic languages became the lingua franca throughout the Tarim
Basin by the end of the 11th century.[65]

By the time Marco Polo visited Khotan, which was between 1271 and 1275, he reported that "the inhabitants all worship
Mohamet."[66][67]

Historical timeline
The first inhabitants of the region appear to have been Indians from the Maurya Empire according to its founding
legends.[3]
The foundation of Khotan occurred when Kushtana, said to be a son of Ashoka, the Indian emperor belonging to
the Maurya Empire settled there about 224 BC.[68]
c.84 BC: Buddhism is reportedly introduced to Khotan.[69]
c.56: Xian, the powerful and prosperous king of Yarkent, attacked and annexed Khotan. He transferred Yulin, its
king, to become the king of Ligui, and set up his younger brother, Weishi, as king of Khotan.
61: Khotan defeats Yarkand. Khotan becomes very powerful after this and 13 kingdoms submitted to Khotan,
which now, with Shanshan, became the major power on the southern branch of the Silk Route.
78: Ban Chao, a Chinese General, subdues the kingdom.
105: The 'Western Regions' rebelled, and Khotan regained its independence.
127: The Khotanese king Vijaya Krīti is said to have helped the Kushan Emperor Kanishka in his conquest of
Saket in India.
127: The Chinese general Ban Yong attacked and subdued Karasahr; and then Kucha, Kashgar, Khotan, Yarkand,
and other kingdoms, seventeen altogether, who all came to submit to China.
129: Fangqian, the king of Khotan, killed the king of Keriya, Xing. He installed his son as the king of Keriya. Then
he sent an envoy to offer tribute to Han. The Emperor pardoned the crime of the king of Khotan, ordering him to
hand back the kingdom of Keriya. Fangqian refused.
131: Fangqian, the king of Khotan, sends one of his sons to serve and offer tribute at the Chinese Imperial Palace.
 132: The Chinese sent the king of Kashgar, Chenpan, who with 20,000 men,
attacked and defeated Khotan. He beheaded several hundred people, and
released his soldiers to plunder freely. He replaced the king [of Keriya] by
installing Chengguo from the family of [the previous king] Xing, and then he
returned.
151: Jian, the king of Khotan, was killed by Han chief clerk Wang Jing, who
was in turn killed by Khotanese. Anguo, the son of Jian, was placed on the
throne.
175: Anguo, the king of Khotan, attacked Keriya, and defeated it soundly. He
killed the king and many others.[70]
399 Chinese pilgrim monk, Faxian, visits and reports on the active Buddhist
community there.[71]
632: Khotan pays homage to China, and becomes a vassal state.
644: Chinese pilgrim monk, Xuanzang, stays 7–8 months in Khotan and writes
a detailed account of the kingdom.

670: Tibet invades and conquers Khotan (now known as one of the "four
garrisons").
c.670-673: Khotan governed by Tibetan Mgar minister.
674: King Fudu Xiong (Vijaya Sangrāma IV), his family and followers flee to
China after fighting the Tibetans. They are unable to return.
c.680 - c.692: 'Amacha Khemeg rules as regent of Khotan.
692: China under Wu Zetian reconquers the Kingdom from Tibet. Khotan is Gurgamoya coin. Obverse in
made a protectorate. Kharosthi: "Of the great king
725: Yuchi Tiao (Vijaya Dharma III) is beheaded by the Chinese for conspiring king of Khotan Gurgamoya".
with the Turks. Yuchi Fushizhan (Vijaya Sambhava II) is placed on the throne Reverse in Chinese: "6
by the Chinese. grains coin". British
728: Yuchi Fushizhan (Vijaya Sambhava II) officially given the title "King of Museum.
Khotan" by the Chinese emperor.
736: Fudu Da (Vijaya Vāhana the Great) succeeds Yuchi Fushizhan and the
Chinese emperor bestows a title on his wife.
c. 740: King Yuchi Gui (Wylie: btsan bzang btsan la brtan) succeeds Fudu Da
(Vijaya Vāhana) and begins persecution of Buddhists. Khotanese Buddhist
monks flee to Tibet, where they are given refuge by the Chinese wife of King
Mes ag tshoms. Soon after, the queen died in a smallpox epidemic and the
monks had to flee to Gandhara.[72]
740: Chinese emperor bestows a title on wife of Yuchi Gui.
746: The Prophecy of the Li Country is completed and later added to the
Tibetan Tengyur.
756: Yuchi Sheng hands over the government to his younger brother, Shihu
(Jabgu) Yao.
786 to 788: Yuchi Yao still ruling Khotan at the time of the Chinese Buddhist
pilgrim Wukong's visit to Khotan.[73]
969: The son of King Lishengtian (Vijaya Sambhava) named Zongchang sends
a tribute mission to China.
971: A Buddhist priest (Jixiang) brings a letter from the king of Khotan to the
Chinese emperor offering to send a dancing elephant which he had captured
from Kashgar.
1006: Khotan held by the Muslim Yūsuf Qadr Khān, a brother or cousin of the Ceramic figurine showing
Muslim ruler of Kāshgar and Balāsāghūn.[74] Western influences, Yotkan
Between 1271 and 1275: Marco Polo visits Khotan.[75] near Khotan, 2-4th century
AD.

Rulers
(Some names are in modern Mandarin pronunciations based on ancient Chinese records)

Yu Lin (俞林) 23
Jun De (君得) 57
 Xiu Moba (休莫霸) 60
Guang De (廣德) 60
Fang Qian (放前) 110
Jian (建) 132
An Guo (安國) 152
Qiu Ren (秋仁) 446
Polo the Second (婆羅二世) 471
Sanjuluomo the Third (散瞿羅摩三世) 477
She Duluo (舍都羅) 500
Viśa' (尉遲) 530
Bei Shilian (卑示練) 590
Viśa' Wumi (尉遲屋密) 620
Fudu Xin (伏闍信) 642
Fudu Xiong (伏闍雄) 665
Viśa' Jing (尉遲璥) 691
Viśa' Tiao (尉遲眺) 724
Fu Shizhan (伏師戰) 725
Fudu Da (伏闍達) 736
Viśa' Gui (尉遲珪) 740
Viśa' Sheng (尉遲勝) 745
Viśa' Vāhaṃ (尉遲曜) 764
Viśa' Jie (尉遲詰) 791
Viśa' Chiye (尉遲遲耶) 829
Viśa' Nanta (尉遲南塔) 844
Viśa' Wana (尉遲佤那) 859
Viśa' Piqiluomo (尉遲毗訖羅摩) 888
Viśa' Saṃbhava (尉遲僧烏波) 912
Viśa' Śūra (尉遲蘇拉) 967
Viśa' Dharma (尉達磨) 978
Viśa' Sangrāma (尉遲僧伽羅摩) 986
Viśa' Sagemayi (尉遲薩格瑪依) 999

Buddhism
The kingdom was one of the major centres of Buddhism, and up until the 11th century, the vast majority of the population was
Buddhist.[76] Initially, the people of the kingdom were not Buddhist, and Buddhism was said to have been adopted in the reign of
Vijayasambhava in the first century BC, some 170 years after the founding of Khotan.[77] However, an account by the Han general
Ban Chao suggested that the people of Khotan in 73 AD still appeared to practice Mazdeism or Shamanism.[15][78] His son Ban
Yong who spent time in the Western Regions also did not mention Buddhism there, and with the absence of Buddhist art in the
region before the beginning of Eastern Han, it has also been suggested that Buddhism may not have been adopted in the region
until the middle of the second century AD.[78]

The kingdom is primarily associated with the Mahayana.[79][80] According to the Chinese pilgrim Faxian who passed through
Khotan in the fourth century:
 The country is prosperous and the people are numerous; without
exception they have faith in the Dharma and they entertain one
another with religious music. The community of monks numbers
several tens of thousands and they belong mostly to the
Mahayana.[web 3]

It differed in this respect to Kucha, a Śrāvakayāna-dominated kingdom on the

opposite side of the desert. Faxian's account of the city states it had fourteen large
and many small viharas.[81] Many foreign languages, including Chinese, Sanskrit,
Prakrits, Apabhraṃśas and Classical Tibetan were used in cultural exchange.

Social and economic life

Despite scant information on the socio-
political structures of Khotan, the shared
Head of Buddha found in Khotan,
3rd-4th century geography of the Tarim city-states and
similarities in archaeological findings
throughout the Tarim Basin enable some
conclusions on Khotanese life.[82] A seventh-century Chinese pilgrim named Xuanzang
described Khotan as having limited arable land but apparently particularly fertile, able to
support "cereals and producing an abundance of fruits".[83] He further commented that the
city "manufactures carpets and fine-felts and silks" as well as "dark and white jade". The
city's economy was chiefly based upon water from oases for irrigation and the manufacture Bronze coin of Kanishka,
found in Khotan.
of traded goods.[84]

Xuanzang also praised the culture of Khotan, commenting that its people "love to study
literature", and said "[m]usic is much practiced in the country, and men love song and dance." The "urbanity" of the Khotan people
is also mentioned in their dress, that of ‘light silks and white clothes’ as opposed to more rural "wools and furs".[83]

Silk
Khotan was the first place outside of inland China to begin cultivating silk. The legend, repeated in many sources, and illustrated in
murals discovered by archaeologists, is that a Chinese princess brought silkworm eggs hidden in her hair when she was sent to
marry the Khotanese king. This probably took place in the first half of the 1st century AD but is disputed by a number of
scholars.[85]

One version of the story is told by the

Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang
who describes the covert transfer of
silkworms to Khotan by a Chinese
princess. Xuanzang, on his return
from India between 640 and 645,
crossed Central Asia passing through
Painting on wooden panel discovered by Aurel Stein in Dandan Oilik,
the kingdoms of Kashgar and Khotan
depicting the legend of the princess who hid silkworm eggs in her headdress
(Yutian in Chinese).[86] to smuggle them out of China to the Kingdom of Khotan.

According to Xuazang, the

introduction of sericulture to Khotan occurred in the first quarter of the 5th century. The King of Khotan wanted to obtain
silkworm eggs, mulberry seeds and Chinese know-how - the three crucial components of silk production. The Chinese court had
strict rules against these items leaving China, to maintain the Chinese monopoly on silk manufacture. Xuanzang wrote that the
King of Khotan asked for the hand of a Chinese princess in marriage as a token of his allegiance to the Chinese emperor. The
request was granted, and an ambassador was sent to the Chinese court to escort the Chinese princess to Khotan. He advised the
princess that she would need to bring silkworms and mulberry seeds in order to make herself robes in Khotan and to make the
people prosperous. The princess concealed silkworm eggs and mulberry seeds in her headdress and smuggled them through the
Chinese frontier. According to his text, silkworm eggs, mulberry trees and weaving techniques passed from Khotan to India, and
from there eventually reached Europe.[87]

Jade
Khotan, throughout and before the Silk Roads period, was a prominent trading oasis
on the southern route of the Tarim Basin – the only major oasis "on the sole water
course to cross the desert from the south".[88] Aside from the geographical location of
the towns of Khotan it was also important for its wide renown as a significant source
of nephrite jade for export to China.

There has been a long history of trade of jade from Khotan to China. Jade pieces from
the Tarim Basin have been found in Chinese archaeological sites. Chinese carvers in
Xinglongwa and Chahai had been carving ring-shaped pendants "from greenish jade
from Khotan as early as 5000 BC".[89] The hundreds of jade pieces found in the tomb
of Fuhao from the late Shang dynasty by Zheng Zhenxiang and her team all
originated from Khotan.[90] According to the Chinese text Guanzi, the Yuezhi,
described in the book as Yuzhi 禺氏, or Niuzhi 牛氏, supplied jade to the Chinese.[91]
It would seem, from secondary sources, the prevalence of jade from Khotan in ancient
Chinese is due to its quality and the relative lack of such jade elsewhere.
Daughter of the King of Khotan
married to the ruler of Dunhuang,
Xuanzang also observed jade on sale in Khotan in 645 and provided a number of
Cao Yanlu, shown here wearing
examples of the jade trade.[89]
elaborate headdress decorated
with jade pieces. Mural in Mogao
Cave 61, Five Dynasties.
Khotan coinage
The Kingdom of Khotan is known to have produced both cash-style coinage and coins
without holes[92][93][94]
 Approximate Illustration
Traditional Hanyu
Inscription years of King (from A. Image
Chinese Pinyin
production Stein)

yú
Yu Fang 于方 129–130 Fang Qian
fāng

Zhong Er 重廿四铢铜 Maharajasa

Shi Si Zhu CE100-200 Yidirajasa
钱
Tong Qian Gurgamoasa

Maharajasa
Liu Zhu 六铢 CE00-200 Yidirajasa
Gurgamoasa（?）

Mitochondrial DNA analysis

At the cemetery in Sampul (Chinese: 山 普 拉 ), ~14 km from the archaeological site of Khotan in Lop County,[95] where
Hellenistic art such as the Sampul tapestry has been found (its provenance most likely from the nearby Greco-Bactrian
Kingdom),[96] the local inhabitants buried their dead there from roughly 217 BC to 283 AD.[97] Mitochondrial DNA analysis of
the human remains has revealed genetic affinities to peoples from the Caucasus, specifically a maternal lineage linked to Ossetians
and Iranians, as well as an Eastern-Mediterranean paternal lineage.[95][98] Seeming to confirm this link, from historical accounts it
is known that Alexander the Great, who married a Sogdian woman from Bactria named Roxana,[99][100][101] encouraged his
soldiers and generals to marry local women; consequentially the later kings of the Seleucid Empire and Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
had a mixed Persian-Greek ethnic background.[102][103][104][105]

See also
Khatana
Hotan
Rawak Stupa
Dandan Oilik
Yuezhi
Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
Tarim mummies
Kamsabhoga

Notes
a. If this is correct, and if modern dating of the beginning of Kanishka's era in 127 AD, this must have happened at
about this date - just before Ban Yong reasserted Chinese influence over the region.

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Sedentary and Nomadic Civilisations: Vol 2 (https://books.google.com/books?id=DguGWP0vGY8C&pg=PA238#v=
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86. Boulnois, L (2004). Silk Road: Monks, Warriors and Merchants on the Silk Road. Odyssey. p. 179.
87. Boulnois, L (2004). Silk Road: Monks, Warriors and Merchants on the Silk Road. Odyssey. pp. 179–184.
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 90. Liu, Xinru (2001a). "Migration and Settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan. Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic
and Sedentary Societies". Journal of World History. 12 (2): 261–292. doi:10.1353/jwh.2001.0034 (https://doi.org/1
0.1353%2Fjwh.2001.0034). JSTOR 20078910 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/20078910).
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Web Site). 3 December 1999. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
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f) (PDF). by Stein Márk Aurél (hosted on Wikimedia Commons). 1907. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
94. Cribb, Joe, "The Sino-Kharosthi Coins of Khotan: Their Attribution and Relevance to Kushan Chronology: Part 1"
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/42667383), Numismatic Chronicle Vol. 144 (1984), pp. 128–152; and Cribb, Joe, "The
Sino-Kharosthi Coins of Khotan: Their Attribution and Relevance to Kushan Chronology: Part 2" (https://www.jstor.
org/stable/42667535), Numismatic Chronicle Vol. 145 (1985), pp. 136–149.
95. Chengzhi, Xie; Chunxiang, Li; Yinqiu, Cui; Dawei, Cai; Haijing, Wang; Hong, Zhu; Hui, Zhou (2007). "Mitochondrial
DNA analysis of ancient Sampula population in Xinjiang". Progress in Natural Science. 17 (8): 927–933.
doi:10.1080/10002007088537493 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F10002007088537493).
96. Christopoulos, Lucas (August 2012), "Hellenes and Romans in Ancient China (240 BC – 1398 AD)," in Victor H.
Mair (ed), Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 230, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, pp 15-16, ISSN 2157-9687.
97. Christopoulos, Lucas (August 2012), "Hellenes and Romans in Ancient China (240 BC – 1398 AD)," in Victor H.
Mair (ed), Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 230, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, p. 27, ISSN 2157-9687.
98. Christopoulos, Lucas (August 2012), "Hellenes and Romans in Ancient China (240 BC – 1398 AD)," in Victor H.
Mair (ed), Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 230, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, p. 27 & footnote #46, ISSN 2157-9687.
99. Livius.org. "Roxane (http://www.livius.org/articles/person/roxane/)." Articles on Ancient History. Page last modified
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100. Strachan, Edward and Roy Bolton (2008), Russia and Europe in the Nineteenth Century, London: Sphinx Fine Art,
p. 87, ISBN 978-1-907200-02-1.
101. For another publication calling her "Sogdian", see Christopoulos, Lucas (August 2012), "Hellenes and Romans in
Ancient China (240 BC – 1398 AD)," in Victor H. Mair (ed), Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 230, Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, p. 4, ISSN
2157-9687.
102. Holt, Frank L. (1989), Alexander the Great and Bactria: the Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia, Leiden,
New York, Copenhagen, Cologne: E. J. Brill, pp 67–8, ISBN 90-04-08612-9.
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Publishing, p. 61.
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London,: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Salem Press, p. 1010, ISBN 0-89356-313-7.
105. Lucas Christopoulos writes the following: "The kings (or soldiers) of the Sampul cemetery came from various
origins, composing as they did a homogenous army made of Hellenized Persians, western Scythians, or Sacae
Iranians from their mother’s side, just as were most of the second generation of Greeks colonists living in the
Seleucid Empire. Most of the soldiers of Alexander the Great who stayed in Persia, India and central Asia had
married local women, thus their leading generals were mostly Greeks from their father’s side or had Greco-
Macedonian grandfathers. Antiochos had a Persian mother, and all the later Indo-Greeks or Greco-Bactrians were
revered in the population as locals, as they used both Greek and Bactrian scripts on their coins and worshipped
the local gods. The DNA testing of the Sampul cemetery shows that the occupants had paternal origins in the
eastern part of the Mediterranean"; see Christopoulos, Lucas (August 2012), "Hellenes and Romans in Ancient
China (240 BC – 1398 AD)," in Victor H. Mair (ed), Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 230, Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, p. 27 & footnote #46,
ISSN 2157-9687.
Web-references
1. "Archaeological GIS and Oasis Geography in the Tarim Basin" (https://web.archive.org/web/20070927032739/htt
p://www.silk-road.com/newsletter/vol2num2/oasis.html). The Silk Road Foundation Newsletter. Archived from the
original (http://www.silk-road.com/newsletter/vol2num2/oasis.html) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 21 July
2007.
2. "The Sakan Language" (http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/LLDescription.cfm?code=xsk). The Linguist. Retrieved
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3. "The Buddhism of Khotan" (http://idp.bl.uk/education/buddhism/khotanese/khotanese.html). idp.bl.uk.

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substance minérale appelée par les Chinois PIERRE DE IU, et sur le Jaspe des anciens. Abel Rémusat. Paris.
L’imprimerie de doublet. 1820. Downloadable from: [3] (https://books.google.com/books/about/Histoire_de_la_ville
_de_Khotan.html?id=hHYuwvKRNW8C)
Bailey, H. W. (1961). Indo-Scythian Studies being Khotanese Texts. Volume IV. Translated and edited by H. W.
Bailey. Indo-Scythian Studies, Cambridge, The University Press. 1961.
Bailey, H. W. (1979). Dictionary of Khotan Saka. Cambridge University Press. 1979. 1st Paperback edition 2010.
ISBN 978-0-521-14250-2.
Beal, Samuel. 1884. Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, by Hiuen Tsiang. 2 vols. Trans. by Samuel
Beal. London. Reprint: Delhi. Oriental Books Reprint Corporation. 1969.
Beal, Samuel. 1911. The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang by the Shaman Hwui Li, with an Introduction containing an account
of the Works of I-Tsing. Trans. by Samuel Beal. London. 1911. Reprint: Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi. 1973.
Emmerick, R. E. 1967. Tibetan Texts Concerning Khotan. Oxford University Press, London.
Emmerick, R. E. 1979. Guide to the Literature of Khotan. Reiyukai Library, Tokyo.
Grousset, Rene. 1970. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Trans. by Naomi Walford. New
Brunswick, New Jersey. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-1304-9
Hill, John E. July, 1988. "Notes on the Dating of Khotanese History." Indo-Iranian Journal, Vol. 31, No. 3. See: [4]
(http://www.springerlink.com/content/gg8740360243350j/) for paid copy of original version. Updated version of this
article is available for free download (with registration) at: [5] (https://independent.academia.edu/JHill/Papers/4399
45/Notes_on_the_Dating_of_Khotanese_History)
Hill, John E. 2004. The Peoples of the West from the Weilüe 魏略 by Yu Huan 魚豢: A Third Century Chinese
Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE. Draft annotated English translation. [6] (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20150907144621/http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html)
Hill, John E. (2009), Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty,
1st to 2nd Centuries CE, Charleston, South Carolina: BookSurge, ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1
Legge, James. Trans. and ed. 1886. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk
Fâ-hsien of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. Reprint:
Dover Publications, New York. 1965.
Mukerjee, Radhakamal (1964), The flowering of Indian art: the growth and spread of a civilization, Asia Pub.
House
Sinha, Bindeshwari Prasad (1974), Comprehensive history of Bihar, Volume 1, Deel 2, Kashi Prasad Jayaswal
Research Institute
Sims-Williams, Ursula. 'The Kingdom of Khotan to AD 1000: A Meeting of Cultres.' Journal of Inner Asian Art and
Archaeology 3 (2008).
Watters, Thomas (1904–1905). On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India. London. Royal Asiatic Society. Reprint: 1973.
Whitfield, Susan. The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith. London. The British Library 2004.
Williams, Joanna. 'Iconography of Khotanese Painting'. East & West (Rome) XXIII (1973), 109-54.
R. E. Emmerick. 'Tibetan texts concerning Khotan'. London, New York [etc.] Oxford U.P. 1967.
Further reading
Hill, John E. (2003). Draft version of: "The Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu. 2nd Edition." "Appendix
A: The Introduction of Silk Cultivation to Khotan in the 1st Century CE." [7] (http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/te
xts/hhshu/appendices.html#a)
Martini, G. (2011). "Mahāmaitrī in a Mahāyāna Sūtra in Khotanese - Continuity and Innovation in Buddhist
Meditation", Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal 24: 121-194. ISSN 1017-7132 (https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:j
rnl&q=n2:1017-7132). [8] (http://www.chibs.edu.tw/ch_html/chbj/24/Giuliana%20Martini%20121-194.pdf)
1904 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan, London, Hurst and Blackett, Ltd. (https://books.google.com/books?id=1Ra3AA
AAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false) Reprint Asian
Educational Services, New Delhi, Madras, 2000 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 (http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/
VIII-5-B2-5/V-1/)
1907. Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan, 2 vols. Clarendon
Press. Oxford. (https://books.google.com/books?id=FaMMAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_sum
mary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false)[1] Ancient Khotan : vol.1 (http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/VIII-5-B2-7/V-1/)
Ancient Khotan : vol.2 (http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/VIII-5-B2-7/V-2/)

External links
THE SPREAD OF INDIAN ART AND CULTURE TO CENTRAL ASIA AND CHINA (https://web.archive.org/web/20
070817073602/http://ignca.nic.in/pb0013.htm)
ZENO coins page on Khotan (http://www.zeno.ru/showgallery.php?cat=1086)
Discussion on Sulekha.com (http://vajaratnayana.sulekha.xcom/blog/post/2004/09/end-of-the-indic-kingdom-of-kh
otan.htm)
Smallest ancient temple discovered (http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=4,1888,0,0,1,0)

1. M. A. Stein – Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books (http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/creator/marc_aurel_stein.ht

ml.en) at dsr.nii.ac.jp

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