Kingdom of Khotan

Kingdom of Khotan
56–1006
Portrait of a king of Khotan, Dunhuang Mogao Caves, 10th century
Capital	Khotan
Common languages	Maybe an ancestor of the Tocharian languages, after the 1-2nd century Prakrit in the Brahmi script. Gandhari language 3-4th century. Khotanese, a Sakan dialect in a variant of the Brāhmī script.
Religion	Buddhism
Government	Monarchy
• c. 56	Yulin: Jianwu period (25–56 CE)
• 969	Nanzongchang (last)
History
• Khotan established	c. 300 BCE
• Established	56
• Yarkand attacks and annexes Khotan. Yulin abdicates and becomes king of Ligui	56
• Tibet invades and conquers Khotan	670
• Khotan held by the Muslim Yūsuf Qadr Khān	1006
• Disestablished	1006
Preceded by Succeeded by Khotan Kara-Khanid Khanate

The Kingdom of Khotan was an ancient Buddhist kingdom that was located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim basin. (The area lies in present day Xinjiang, China.) The ancient city of Khotan, the kingdom's capital, was originally located to the west of modern day Khotan at Yotkan. The Chinese (pinyin) name is Hetian (Chinese: 和田). The name Hotan is also used. 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). The kingdom existed for over a thousand years until it was ended by Muslim invaders in 1006.

Geography

The Khotan oasis’ geographical position is the main contributing factor to its success and wealth. The oasis of Khotan is situated in one of the most arid and desolate climates on the earth, the Taklimakan Desert. However Khotan is located at the far south of the Taklimakan at the foot of the outer hills of the Kun-lun range, extending along the range for around 40 miles. At all times irrigated from the Yurung-kàsh and Kara-kàsh rivers, which water the 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 Kun-lun mountain range and without this Khotan would not have become one of the largest and most successful oasis cities along the Silk Roads.

History

Coin of Gurgamoya, king of Khotan. Khotan, 1st century CE.
Obv: Kharoshthi legend "Of the great king of kings, king of Khotan, Gurgamoya.
Rev: Chinese legend: "Twenty-four grain copper coin". British Museum

Foundation

According to legend, the foundation of Khotan occurred when Kushtana, said to be a son of Asoka, the Mauryan emperor, settled there about 224 BCE.

However, it is likely to have existed much earlier than this. As early as 645 BCE, the Yuezhi (known later as the Kushans) were mentioned as suppliers of the famous nephrite jade to China, and the excavations of the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BCE) tomb of Fu Hao showed that all the jade originated from the oasis area of Khotan. The first inhabitants of the region appear to have been Indo-Europeans from the west, and well-preserved mummies of European origin have been found in the Tarim area.

In the second century BCE a Khotanese king helped the famous Kushan Emperor Kanishka to conquer the key town of Saketa in Middle India :

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.

According to the Hanshu ('History of the Former Han', covering the period from 125 BCE to 23 CE), Khotan had 3,300 households, 19,300 individuals and 2,400 people able to bear arms.

A daughter of the King of Khotan, married to the ruler of Dunhuang, Cao Yanlu, is here shown wearing elaborate headdress decorated with jade pieces. Mural in Mogao cave 61, Five Dynasties.

Han rule

The town grew very quickly after local trade developed into the interconnected chain of 'Silk Routes' to the West. By the time of the Han conquest, the population had more than quadrupled. The Hou Hanshu (Book of the Later Han, covering 6 to 189 CE) says:

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

Khotan was conquered by the Han Dynasty in 73 CE, but the Han influence on Khotan quickly diminished.

During the Yongping period (58-76 CE), in the reign of Emperor Ming, Xiumo Ba, a Khotanese general, rebelled against Suoju (Yarkand), and made himself king of Yutian (in 60 CE). On the death of Xiumo Ba, Guangde, son of his elder brother, assumed power and then (in 61 CE) defeated Suoju (Yarkand). His kingdom became very prosperous after this. From Jingjue (Niya) northwest, as far as Shule (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 (Pamirs).

Tang Dynasty

In 640, Emperor Taizong of Tang (Tang Dynasty, 618-907) launched a campaign against the Western Regions, and Khotan submitted to the Tang emperor. The Four Garrisons of Anxi was established, one of them at Khotan.

The Tibetans later defeated the Chinese and took control of the Four Garrisons, and the Khotanese helped the Tibetans to conquer Aksu. 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 until the arrival of Muslim invaders.

End of Buddhist Khotan

During late tenth century, Khotan became engaged in a struggle against the Muslim Karakhanids. Initially they had some success, briefly capturing Kashgar from the Karakhanids in 970, but in 1006, the Karakhanid Yusuf Kadr Khan of Kashgar conquered Khotan, ending Khotan's existence as an independent state. The Karakhanid writer Mahmud al-Kashgari wrote in a short poem about the conquest:

We came down on them like a flood, We went out among their cities, We tore down the idol-temples, We shat on the Buddha's head!

Marco Polo in Khotan

Marco Polo visited Khotan between 1271 and 1275 reporting that Khotan was "a province eight days’ journey in extent, which is subject to the Great Khan. The inhabitants all worship Mahomet. It has cities and towns in plenty, of which the most splendid, and the capital of the province, bears the same name as that of the province…It is amply stocked with the means of life. Cotton grows here in plenty. It has vineyards, estates and orchards in plenty. The people live by trade and industry; they are not at all warlike". Polo completely failed to identify silk and jade, the two most important goods for Khotan.

History Timeline

Gurgamoya coin. Obverse in Kharoshti: "Of the great king king of Khotan Gurgamoya". Reverse in Chinese: "6 grains coin". British Museum.

• c.84 BC: Buddhism is reportedly introduced to Khotan.
• c.56: Xian, the powerful and prosperous king of Yarkand, 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 Saketa in India.
• 127: The Chinese general Ban Yong attacked and subdued Karashahr; 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.
• 399 Chinese pilgrim monk, Faxian, visits and reports on the active Buddhist community there.
• 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.

Ceramic figurine showing Western influences, Yotkan near Khotan, 2-4th century CE.

• 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 made a protectorate.
• 725: Yuchi Tiao (Vijaya Dharma III) is beheaded by the Chinese for conspiring with the Turks. Yuchi Fushizhan (Vijaya Sambhava II) is placed on the throne by the Chinese.
• 728: Yuchi Fushizhan (Vijaya Sambhava II) officially given the title "King of 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 (Btsan-bzang Btsan-la Brtan) succeeds Fudu Da (Vijaya Vāhana) and begins persecution of Buddhists. Khotanese Buddhist Monks flee to Tibet were 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.
• 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 Tanjur.
• 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.

Grotesque face, stucco, found at Khotan, 7th-8th century.

• 969: King Nanzongchang 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 Muslim ruler of Kāshgar and Balāsāghūn.
• Between 1271 and 1275: Marco Polo visits Khotan.

Early names

Manuscript in Khotanese from Dandan-Uiliq, NE of Khotan. Now held in the British Library.

The name of the kingdom in the region now called Khotan has received many forms. The local people about the third century A.D. wrote Khotana in Kharoşţhī script; and Hvatäna- in Brāhmī in the somewhat later texts, whence as the language developed came Hvamna and Hvam, so that in the latest texts they have Hvam kşīra ‘the land of Khotan’. The name became known to the west while the –t- was still unchanged, and as is frequent in early New Persian. But under different influences the local people wrote also Gaustana, when they felt the prestige of Buddhist Sanskrit, and Yūttina, when the prestige of the Chinese kingdom in Śacu was at its height, in the ninth century. To the Tibetans in the seventh and eight centuries the land was Li and the capital city Hu-ten, Hu-den, Hu-then and Yvu-then.

Buddhism

Head of Buddha found in Khotan, 3rd-4th century A.D.

Further information: Buddhism in Khotan

The kingdom was one of the major centers of Buddhism. Buddhism was introduced in the first century BCE. Up until the 11th century, the vast majority of the population was Buddhist.

The kingdom is primarily associated with the Mahayana branch. 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.

It differed in this respect to Kucha, a Śrāvakayāna-dominated kingdom on the opposite side of the desert. Fa-Hsien account of the city states it had fourteen large and many small Buddhist monasteries. Many foreign languages, including Chinese, Sanskrit, Prakrit and Tibetan were used in cultural exchange.

Painting on wooden panel discovered by Aurel Stein in Dandan Oilik, depicting the legend of the princess who hid silk worm eggs in her headdress to smuggle them out of China to the Kingdom of Khotan.

Social and Economic life

The Seventh-century Chinese pilgrim, Hsüan-Tsang wrote much about the cities of the Tarim Basin in his Records of the Western Regions

Despite having scant sources of information on the socio-political structures of Khotan, the shared geographical conditions of the Tarim city-states, as well similarities found in Archaeological findings throughout the Tarim basin enables the drawing of some overall conclusions on Khotanese life. A seventh-century Chinese Pilgrim, Hsüan-tsang describes Khotan as having limited arable land but this seems to have been particularly fertile, being able to support ‘cereals and producing an abundance of fruits.’ He goes further by commenting how the city ‘manufactures carpets and fine-felts and silks’ as well as ‘dark and white jade’. In short, the city’s chief economy was based upon using the water from Oasis to irrigate the land as well as the manufacture of crafts which could then be traded on.

Hsüan-tsang also praises the culture of the people of Khotan, commenting on how they ‘love to study literature’ and how ‘Music is much practised in the country, and men love the 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 the more rural ‘wools and furs.’

Silk

Silkworms

Mulberry Tree

Khotan was the first place outside of China to begin cultivating silk. The story, repeated in many sources, and illustrated in murals discovered by archaeologists, is that a Chinese princess brought silkworm eggs hidden in her hairdo when she was sent to marry the Khotanese king. This probably took place in the first half of the 1st century CE but is disputed by different scholars.

Bronze coin of Kanishka, found in Khotan.

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 the kingdoms of Kashgar and Khotan (or Yutian in Chinese). According the 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 on these items leaving China as they were determined to maintain their monopoly on the manufacture of silk. Xuanzang states 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 she would need to bring silkworm 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 to Khotan, then to India, and from there eventually reached Europe.

Built on an oasis, its mulberry groves allowed the production and export of silk and silk rugs, in addition to the city's other major products such as its famous nephrite jade and pottery.

Jade

Jade carving from Western Han. These pieces were status symbols among the Chinese, fueling demand for Khotan 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 one “on the sole water course to cross the desert from the south”. Aside from the geographical location of the towns of Khotan it was also widely renowned as a significant area of nephrite jade production for export to China. Frances Wood provides a number of examples of Khotan jade trade by referring to: jade on sale there in observations of the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang in 645 as well as long-established jade sales to Chinese carvers in Xinglongwa and Chahai. She notes that these carvers had been carving ring-shaped pendants "from greenish jade from Khotan as early as 5000 BC". It would seem, from secondary sources, the prevalence of jade from Khotan from east to west is due to the relative lack elsewhere and to its quality. Evidence for the extent of the jade trade can be seen from archaeological remains as “polished and finished jade pieces were far more durable than ceramics and have survived for many millennia” . The jade from the rivers of Khotan continues to be transported along the southern Silk Road route to this day.

Neighbours

• Yarkand
• Kashgar
• Hanmo
• Karashahr — One of the four garrisons
• Kucha — One of the four garrisons
• Lop Nur
• Taklamakan Desert
• Tarim Basin
• China
• Tibet
• Xiongnu

Ceramic figurine with Western influences, Yotkan near Khotan, 2-4th century CE.

See also

• Khatana
• Khotan
• Hotan
• Yuezhi
• Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
• Dandan Oilik
• Tarim mummies

Sources

• 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: [3] for paid copy of original version. Updated version of this article is available for free download (with registration) at: [4]
• 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. [5]
• 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
• Watters, Thomas (1904–1905). On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India. London. Royal Asiatic Society. Reprint: 1973.

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." [6]
• 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. [7]

External links

• THE SPREAD OF INDIAN ART AND CULTURE TO CENTRAL ASIA AND CHINA
• ZENO coins page on Khotan
• Discussion on Sulekha.com
• Smallest ancient temple discovered