Kingdom of Khotan

The Kingdom of Khotan, also called the Kingdom of Yutian (), was an ancient Buddhist Saka kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin (modern-day Xinjiang, China). The ancient capital was originally sited to the west of modern-day Hotan at Yotkan. From the Han dynasty until at least the Tang dynasty it was known in Chinese as Yutian. This largely Buddhist kingdom existed for over a thousand years until it was conquered by the Muslim Kara-Khanid Khanate in 1006, during the Islamization and Turkicization 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 the Silk Road as well as a notable source of jade for ancient China, Khotan itself is relatively small – the circumference of the ancient city of Khotan at Yōtkan was about . Much of the archaeological evidence of the ancient city of Khotan however had been obliterated due to centuries of treasure hunting by local people.

The ancient Chinese called Khotan Yutian (, its ancient pronunciation was gi̯wo-d'ien or ji̯u-d'ien) To the Tibetans in the seventh and eighth centuries, the kingdom was called Li (or Li-yul) and the capital city Hu-ten, Hu-den, Hu-then and Yvu-then.

Location and geography

The geographical position of the oasis was the main factor in its success and wealth. To 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 oases beyond Niya, making travel difficult, and access is only relatively easy from the west.

Khotan was irrigated from the Yurung-kàsh 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 location next to the mountain not only allowed irrigation for crops but also increased the fertility of the land, as the rivers reduced the gradient and deposited sediment on their banks, creating a more fertile soil. This more fertile soil increased the agricultural productivity that made Khotan famous for its cereal crops and fruit. Therefore, Khotan's lifeline was its proximity to the Kunlun mountain range, and without it 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, which included Yarkand, Loulan (Shanshan), Turfan, the Kashgar, Karashahr, and Kucha (the last three, together with Khotan, made up the four Garrisons during the Tang dynasty). To the west were the Central Asian kingdoms of Sogdiana and Bactria. It was surrounded by powerful neighbours, such as the Kushan Empire, China, Tibet, and for a time the Xiongnu, all of which had exerted or tried to exert 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. 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. This trade helped the kingdom hold influence over the surrounding regions. It remained an important supplier of jade to China and the whole of Central Asia. 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 of Ashoka.

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.

In the 1900s, Aurel Stein discovered Prakrit documents written in 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. The use of Prakrit however may be a legacy of the influence of the Kushan Empire. 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 Ptolemaic Egypt. 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, who established Khotan using the administrative and social organizations of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. In Tibetan literature, a long list of Indian kings is preserved. Sten Konow, the Norwegian Indologist who critically examined the different versions of the tradition concluded as follows:

According to the oldest detailed Chinese and Tibetan texts (including a Tibetan text which may be contemporary), which we cannot distrust, the colonizing groups of exiled Indians (including the son and ministers of Emperor Ashoka) founded the Kingdom of Khotan.

The various manuscripts found in the regions surrounding Khotan come from various time periods, ranging from the fifth to the tenth centuries.]]

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. It also shared areal features with Tocharian. It is not certain when the Saka people moved into the Khotan area. Archaeological evidence from the Sampul tapestry of Sampul (Shanpulu; / ), near Khotan may indicate a settled Saka population in the last quarter of the first millennium BC, although some have suggested they may not have moved there until after the founding of the city. 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.

The Saka people were known as the Sai (塞, sāi, sək in Old Sinitic) in ancient Chinese records. These records indicate that they originally inhabited the Ili and Chu River valleys of modern Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In the Chinese Book of Han, the area was called the "land of the Sai", i.e. the Saka. According to the Sima Qian's Shiji, the Indo-European Yuezhi, originally from the area between Tängri Tagh (Tian Shan) and Dunhuang of Gansu, China, were assaulted and forced to flee from the Hexi Corridor of Gansu by the forces of the Xiongnu ruler Modu Chanyu in 177-176 BC. In 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. 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 became 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.

Documents written in Prakrit dating to the 3rd century AD from neighbouring Shanshan show that the king of Khotan was given the title hinajha (i.e. "generalissimo"), a distinctively Iranian-based word equivalent to the Sanskrit title senapati. Similar documents in the Khotanese-Saka language dating mostly to the 10th century have been found in Dunhuang.

Early period

thumb|upright=1.5|Coin of [[Gurgamoya, king of Khotan. Khotan, 1st century AD.<br />

Obv: Kharosthi legend, "Of the great king of kings, king of Khotan, Gurgamoya.<br />

Rev: Chinese legend: "Twenty-four grain copper coin". British Museum]]

In the 2nd century AD a Khotanese king helped the famous ruler Kanishka of the Kushan Empire of South Asia (founded by the Yuezhi people) to conquer the key town of Saket in the Middle kingdoms of India:

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.

Eastern Han period

thumb|upright|left|Ceramic figurine with Western influences, Yotkan near Khotan, 2-4th century AD.

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. 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.

By the time 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:

Han influence on Khotan, however, diminished when Han power declined.

Tang dynasty

thumb|upright|Man from Khotan (于闐國 Yutian) visiting the Chinese [[Tang dynasty court, in Wanghuitu circa 650 AD]]

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, and the Khotanese helped the Tibetans to conquer Aksu. Tang China later regained control in 692. The An Lushan Rebellion began in 755, and the Khotanese king sent some 5,000 troops to assist in the suppression efforts.

Khotan was taken by the Tibetan Empire in 792, who capitalized on the weakness of the Tang Dynasty and conquered much of Central Asia. Viśa' Saṃbhava married the daughter of Cao Yijin, the ruler of the Guiyi Circuit. Cao Yijin's grandson, Cao Yanlu, married the third daughter of Viśa' Saṃbhava.

Indian deity attributed to Viśa Īrasangä.jpg|Indian deity on the obverse of a painted panel, most likely depicting Shiva. Khotanese artist Viśa Īrasangä or his father Viśa Baysūna, 7th century

Persian deity attributed to Viśa Īrasangä.jpg|Persian deity on the reverse of a painted panel, probably depicting the legendary hero Rustam. Khotanese artist Viśa Īrasangä or his father Viśa Baysūna, 7th century

File:Hotan bm.jpg|Grotesque face, stucco, found at Khotan, 7th-8th century.

File:2015-13-101702 - Hotan Museum - Keramik mit Kuh- und Menschenkopf, Tang Dynastie.JPG|Human head ceramic with cow, Tang Dynasty. Hotan Cultural Museum, China

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Turco-Islamic conquest of Buddhist Khotan

thumb|upright=0.85|Portrait of [[Viśa' Saṃbhava, a 10th-century king of Khotan, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, Gansu province]]

In the 10th century, the Iranic Saka Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan was the only city-state in the Tarim Basin that was not yet conquered by either the Turkic Uyghur Qocho Kingdom (Buddhist) or by the Turkic Kara-Khanid Khanate (Muslim). 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 endeavors to proselytize Islam among the Turks and engage in military conquests, and a long war ensued between Islamic Kashgar and Buddhist Khotan. Satuq Bughra Khan's nephew or grandson Ali Arslan was said to have been killed during the war with the Buddhists. 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.

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 to 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. 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. Despite their foreign origins, they are viewed as local saints by the current Muslim population in the region. In 1006, the Muslim Kara-Khanid ruler Yusuf Kadir (Qadir) Khan of Kashgar conquered Khotan, ending Khotan's existence as an independent Buddhist state.

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. The Karakhanid Turkic Muslim writer Mahmud al-Kashgari recorded a short Turkic language poem about the conquest:

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In Turkic:

English translation:

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. It is however believed that the Turkic languages became the lingua franca throughout the Tarim Basin by the end of the 11th century.

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

Historical timeline

The first inhabitants of the region appear to have been Indians from the Maurya Empire according to its founding legends.
c.84 BC: Buddhism is reportedly introduced to Khotan.
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.

thumb|upright|Bronze coin of [[Kanishka, found in Khotan.]]

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.
195: The 'Western Regions' rebelled, and Khotan regained its independence.
399 Chinese pilgrim monk, Faxian, visits and reports on the active Buddhist community there.
632: Khotan pays homage to imperial 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: Tibetan Empire 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 () 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.
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.
934: Viśa' Saṃbhava marries the daughter of Cao Yijin, the ruler of the Guiyi Circuit of Dunhuang.
969: The son of King Viśa' Saṃbhava 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 Muslim ruler of Kāshgar and Balāsāghūn.
Between 1271 and 1275: Marco Polo visits Khotan.

List of rulers

Note:- Some names are in modern Mandarin pronunciations based on ancient Chinese records and Time period of rulers is in CE.

Yu Lin - 23 BC
Jun De - 57 BC
Gurgamoya - 30 to 60 AD
Xiu Moba - 60
Guang De - 60
Vijaya Krīti (Fang Qian) - 110
Jian - 132
An Guo - 152
Qiu Ren - 446
Polo the Second - 471
Sangrāma the Third (Sanjuluomo) - 477
She Duluo - 500
Viśa' ? - 530
Vijayavardhana (Bei Shilian) - 590
Viśa' Wumi - 620
Fudu Xin - 642
Vijaya Sangrāma IV (Fudu Xiong) - 665
Viśvajita (Viśa' Jing) - 691
Vijaya Dharma III (Viśa' Tiao) - 724
Vijaya Sambhava II (Fu Shizhan) - 725
Vijaya Vāhana the Great (Fudu Da) - 736
Viśa' Gui - 740
Viśa' Sheng - 745
Viśvavāhana (Viśa' Vāhaṃ) - 764
Viśa' Kīrti - 791
Viśa' Chiye - 829
Viśvānanda (Viśa' Nanta) - 844
Viśa' Wana - 859
Viśa' Piqiluomo - 888
Viśa' Saṃbhava - 912
Viśa' Śūra - 967
Viśa' Dharma - 978
Viśa' Sangrāma - 986
Viśa' Sagemayi - 999 to 1006

Buddhism

thumb|Head of Buddha found in Khotan, 3rd-4th century

The kingdom was one of the major centres of Buddhism, and up until the 11th century, the vast majority of the population was Buddhist. 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. 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.

The kingdom is primarily associated with the Mahayana. According to the Chinese pilgrim Faxian who passed through Khotan in the fourth century:

References

Book references

Web-references

Sources

Histoire de la ville de Khotan: tirée des annales de la chine et traduite du chinois; Suivie de Recherches sur la 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:
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. .
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.
Hill, John E. July, 1988. "Notes on the Dating of Khotanese History." Indo-Iranian Journal, Vol. 31, No. 3. See: for paid copy of original version. Updated version of this article is available for free download (with registration) at:
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.
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.
Sims-Williams, Ursula. 'The Kingdom of Khotan to AD 1000: A Meeting of Cultures.' 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.

External links

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