Hotan
Hotan
Khotan, Hetian, Gosthana | |
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![]() | |
Coordinates: 37°07′N 79°55′E / 37.117°N 79.917°E | |
Country | China |
Autonomous region | Xinjiang |
Prefecture | Hotan |
Municipal seat | Nurbagh Subdistrict |
Area | |
• Total | 465.84 km2 (179.86 sq mi) |
Elevation | 1,382 m (4,534 ft) |
Population (2020)[2] | |
• Total | 501,028 |
• Density | 1,100/km2 (2,800/sq mi) |
Demographics | |
• Ethnic groups |
|
• Spoken languages | Uyghur, Mandarin Chinese |
Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard[a]) |
Postal code | 839000 |
Area code | 0903 |
GDP (Nominal)[3] | 2018 |
– Total | ¥8.274 billion $1.247 billion |
– Per Capita | ¥20,399 $3,076 |
– Growth | ![]() |
License plate prefix | 新R |
Website | Hotan Government Website (in Chinese) |
Hotan | |||||||||||||||
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Uyghur name | |||||||||||||||
Uyghur | خوتەن | ||||||||||||||
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Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
Chinese | 和田 | ||||||||||||||
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Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 和阗 | ||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 和闐 | ||||||||||||||
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Second alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 于窴 | ||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 于窴 | ||||||||||||||
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Kazakh name | |||||||||||||||
Kazakh | حوتان قالاسى Хотан қаласы Хотан қаласы | ||||||||||||||
Kyrgyz name | |||||||||||||||
Kyrgyz | حوتەن شاارى Хотан шаары Hotan şaary |
Hotan or Khotan (see also § Etymology) is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an autonomous region in Northwestern China. The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become an administrative area in its own right in August 1984. It is the seat of Hotan Prefecture.
With a population of 408,900 (2018 census),[4] Hotan is situated in the Tarim Basin some 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) southwest of the regional capital, Ürümqi. It lies just north of the Kunlun Mountains, which are crossed by the Sanju, Hindutash and Ilchi passes. The town, located southeast of Yarkant County and populated almost exclusively by Uyghurs, is a minor agricultural center. An important station on the southern branch of the historic Silk Road, Hotan has always depended on two strong rivers, the Karakash River and the White Jade River, to provide the water needed to survive on the southwestern edge of the vast Taklamakan Desert. The White Jade River still provides water and irrigation for the town and oasis.[5][6]
Etymology
[edit]Hotan (or Khotan) and its surrounding area were originally known as Godana in ancient Sanskrit cosmological texts.[7] The Chinese transcribed the name as 于窴, pronounced Gudana in Middle Chinese (Yutian in modern Standard Chinese); the pronunciation eventually morphed into Khotan. In the 7th century, the Chinese Buddhist monk and scholar Xuanzang attempted to remedy this lexical change. Xuanzang, who was well-versed in Sanskrit, proposed that the traditional name was in fact Kustana (गौस्तन) and asserted it meant "breast of the earth". However, this was likely borrowed from the Tibetan name for the region, Gosthana, which means "land of cows". It is therefore most likely that the original name of Hotan was Sanskritic in origin, a consequence of ancient Indian settlement in the region.[8][9]
An alternative etymology is proposed by Harold Walter Bailey, an expert in the Khotanese language. He believes the oldest indigenous name to be Hvatana.[10]
Hotan was known to 19th-century European explorers as Ilchi.
The official Uyghur-to-Latin transliteration, and therefore English spelling, of the modern city's name is "Hotan" according to the Register of Chinese Geographic Places.[11] The Hanyu pinyin romanization Hetian has also been used on some maps and by some airports. The city's former Chinese name was written with a different character for "tian" (simplified Chinese: 阗; traditional Chinese: 闐; pinyin: Tián).
History
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Joppen_1907_India_in_the_2nd_Century_A.D.jpg/200px-Joppen_1907_India_in_the_2nd_Century_A.D.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Bronze_coin_of_Wima_Kadphises_found_in_Khotan.jpg/200px-Bronze_coin_of_Wima_Kadphises_found_in_Khotan.jpg)
The oasis of Hotan is strategically located at the junction of the southern (and most ancient) branch of the Silk Road joining China and the West with one of the main routes from ancient India and Tibet to Central Asia and distant China. It provided a convenient meeting place where not only goods, but technologies, philosophies, and religions were transmitted from one culture to another.
Tocharians lived in this region over 2000 years ago. Several of the Tarim mummies were found in the region. At Sampul, east of the city of Hotan, there is an extensive series of cemeteries scattered over an area about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) wide and 23 km (14 mi) long. The excavated sites range from about 300 BCE to 100 CE. The excavated graves have produced a number of fabrics of felt, wool, silk and cotton and even a fine bit of tapestry, the Sampul tapestry, showing the face of Caucasoid man which was made of threads of 24 shades of color. The tapestry had been cut up and fashioned into trousers worn by one of the deceased. An Anthropological study of 56 individuals showed a primarily Caucasoid population.[12][13] A study in 2010 showed that an Eastern Eurasian lineage common in Siberia dominates the mitochondrial DNA of the mummies from the Xiaohe Cemetery. Their Y chromosome is distributed throughout Eastern Europe, South Asia, Central Asia, and Siberia.[14]
There is a relative abundance of information on Hotan readily available for study. The main historical sources are to be found in the Chinese histories (particularly detailed during the Han[15] and early Tang dynasties) when China was interested in control of the Western Regions, the accounts of several Chinese pilgrim monks,[16] a few Buddhist histories of Hotan that have survived in Classical Tibetan and a large number of documents in the Iranian Saka language and other languages discovered, for the most part, early this century at various sites in the Tarim Basin and from the hidden library at the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang.
Indo-Greek Khotan
[edit]In the Hellenistic period, there was an Indo-Greek colony in Khotan.[17]
Buddhist Khotan
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/%E4%BA%8E%E9%97%90%E5%9C%8B_Yutian_Khotan_in_Wanghuitu_circa_650_CE_%28with_portrait%29.jpg/220px-%E4%BA%8E%E9%97%90%E5%9C%8B_Yutian_Khotan_in_Wanghuitu_circa_650_CE_%28with_portrait%29.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/%E4%B8%87%E5%9B%BD%E6%9D%A5%E6%9C%9D%E5%9B%BE_Khotan_%E5%92%8C%E9%98%97_delegates_in_Beijing%2C_China%2C_in_1761.jpg/220px-%E4%B8%87%E5%9B%BD%E6%9D%A5%E6%9C%9D%E5%9B%BE_Khotan_%E5%92%8C%E9%98%97_delegates_in_Beijing%2C_China%2C_in_1761.jpg)
The ancient Kingdom of Khotan was one of the earliest Buddhist states in the world and a cultural bridge across which Buddhist culture and learning were transmitted from India to China.[18] Its capital was located to the west of the modern city of Hotan. The inhabitants of the Kingdom of Khotan, like those of early Kashgar and Yarkant, spoke Saka, one of the Eastern Iranian languages. Khotan's indigenous dynasty (all of whose royal names are Indian in origin) governed a fervently Buddhist city-state boasting some 400 temples in the late 9th/early 10th century—four times the number recorded by Xuanzang around 630. The kingdom was independent but was intermittently under Chinese control during the Han and Tang dynasties.
After the Tang dynasty, Khotan formed an alliance with the rulers of Dunhuang. Khotan enjoyed close relations with the Buddhist centre at Dunhuang: the Khotanese royal family intermarried with Dunhuang élites, visited and patronized Dunhuang's Buddhist temple complex, and donated money to have their portraits painted on the walls of the Mogao grottos. Through the 10th century, Khotanese royal portraits were painted in association with an increasing number of deities in the caves. Besides this, a particular site, Melikawat functioned as a major Buddhist center in the Kingdom of Khotan.
In the 10th century, Khotan began a struggle with the Kara-Khanid Khanate, a Turkic state.[19] The Kara-Khanid ruler, Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan, had converted to Islam:
Satuq's son, Musa, began to put pressure on Khotan in the mid-10th century, and sometime before 1006 Yusuf Qadir Khan of Kashgar besieged and took the city. This conquest of Buddhist Khotan by the Muslim Turks—about which there are many colourful legends—marked another watershed in the Islamicisation and Turkicisation of the Tarim Basin, and an end to local autonomy of this southern Tarim city state.[20]
Some Khotanese Buddhist works were unearthed.[21][22][23]
The rulers of Khotan were aware of the menace they faced since they arranged for the Mogao grottoes to paint a growing number of divine figures along with themselves. Halfway in the 10th century Khotan came under attack by the Qarakhanid ruler Musa, and in what proved to be a pivotal moment in the Turkification and Islamification of the Tarim Basin, the Karakhanid leader Yusuf Qadir Khan conquered Khotan around 1006.[24]
Islamic Khotan
[edit]Yūsuf Qadr Khān was a brother or cousin of the Muslim ruler of Kashgar and Balasagun, Khotan lost its independence and between 1006 and 1165, became part of the Kara-Khanid Khanate. Later it fell to the Kara-Khitan Khanate, after which it was ruled by the Mongols.
When Marco Polo visited Khotan in the 13th century, he noted that the people were all Muslim. He wrote 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".[25][26]
Qing period
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/Nar-Bagh_pavilion.jpg/220px-Nar-Bagh_pavilion.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Hindutagh-pass-aksai-chin-center2-1873.jpg/220px-Hindutagh-pass-aksai-chin-center2-1873.jpg)
The Qing dynasty of China conquered the Dzungar Khanate during the final stage of the Dzungar–Qing Wars in the late 1750s. By 1760, Hotan became the territory of the Qing dynasty along with the rest of Xinjiang.[27] The town suffered severely during the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) against the Qing rule and again a few years later when Yaqub Beg of Kashgar made himself master of Kashgaria,[28][29] ruling the newly founded Turkic state known at the time as Yettishar.[30][31] However, Xinjiang was reconquered by the Qing dynasty by 1877 and was converted into a province in 1884.[27]
Post-Qing
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Chinese_Troops_at_Khotan.jpg/220px-Chinese_Troops_at_Khotan.jpg)
Qing imperial authority collapsed in 1912. During the Republican era in China, warlords and local ethnic self-determination movements wrestled over control of Xinjiang. Abdullah Bughra, Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra, and Muhammad Amin Bughra declared themselves Emirs of Khotan during the Kumul Rebellion. Tunganistan was an independent administered region in the southern part of Xinjiang from 1934 to 1937. The territory included the oases of the southern Tarim Basin; the centre of the region was Khotan. Beginning with the Islamic rebellion in 1937, Hotan and the rest of the province came under the control of warlord Sheng Shicai. Sheng was later ousted by the Kuomintang.[citation needed]
People's Republic of China
[edit]Shortly after the Communists won the civil war in 1949, Hotan was incorporated into the People's Republic of China.
In 1983/4, the urban area of Hotan was administratively split from the larger Hotan County, and from then on governed as a county-level city.[1][32]
On July 11, 2006, the townships of Jiya and Yurungqash (Yulongkashi) in Lop County and Tusalla (Tushala) in Hotan County were transferred to Hotan City.[1]
Following the July 2009 Ürümqi riots, ethnic tensions rose in Xinjiang and in Hotan in particular. As a result, the city has seen occasional bouts of violence. In June 2011, Hotan opened its first passenger-train service to Kashgar, which was established as a special economic zone following the riots. In July of the same year, a bomb and knife attack occurred on the city's central thoroughfare. In June 2011, authorities in Hotan Prefecture sentenced Uyghur Muslim Hebibullah Ibrahim to ten years imprisonment for selling "illegal religious materials".[33][34] In June 2012, Tianjin Airlines Flight 7554 was hijacked en route from Hotan to Ürümqi.
In a report from the Uyghur American Association, in June 2012, notice was said to be given that police planned to undertake a search of every residence in Gujanbagh (Gujiangbage), Hotan. Hotan is the last municipality in Xinjiang with a majority Ugyhur presence in the core of the city. The UAA viewed this as an attempt to systematically intimidate the Uyghur population in Hotan.[35][better source needed]
The Sultanim Cemetery (37°07′02″N 79°56′04″E / 37.11722°N 79.93444°E) in central Hotan was a historical Uyghur graveyard that also included a religious shrine. According to a 2019 interview by the Uyghur Human Rights Project, the cemetery entombed four commanders of Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan, who conquered the city around 960 CE and spread Islam. Due to space limitations after over a thousand years of burials, multiple bodies had to reuse the same grave, and additionals layers were dug underneath old ones.[36] Between 2018 and 2019, the cemetery was demolished and the western part of the land turned into a parking lot.[37][38][39][40]
Geography and climate
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Collecting_jade_in_the_White_Jade_River_near_Khotan.jpg/220px-Collecting_jade_in_the_White_Jade_River_near_Khotan.jpg)
Hotan has a temperate zone, cold desert climate (Köppen BWk), with a mean annual total of only 36.5 millimetres (1.44 in) of precipitation falling on 17.3 days of the year. Due to its southerly location in Xinjiang just north of the Kunlun Mountains, during winter it is one of the warmest locations in the region, with average high temperatures remaining above freezing throughout the year. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −3.9 °C (25.0 °F) in January to 25.8 °C (78.4 °F) in July, and the annual mean is 13.03 °C (55.5 °F). The diurnal temperature variation is not large for a desert, averaging 11.8 °C (21.2 °F) annually. Although no month averages less than half of possible sunshine, the city only receives 2,587 hours of bright sunshine annually, which is on the low end for Xinjiang; monthly percent possible sunshine ranges from 50% in March to 75% in October.
Climate data for Hotan, elevation 1,375 m (4,511 ft), (1991–2020 normals) | |||||||||||||
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Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 20.5 (68.9) |
22.0 (71.6) |
30.6 (87.1) |
34.6 (94.3) |
37.6 (99.7) |
39.8 (103.6) |
41.1 (106.0) |
40.2 (104.4) |
35.9 (96.6) |
30.0 (86.0) |
24.7 (76.5) |
18.3 (64.9) |
41.1 (106.0) |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 1.2 (34.2) |
7.3 (45.1) |
16.7 (62.1) |
24.1 (75.4) |
28.1 (82.6) |
31.2 (88.2) |
32.9 (91.2) |
31.6 (88.9) |
27.6 (81.7) |
21.0 (69.8) |
12.1 (53.8) |
3.4 (38.1) |
19.8 (67.6) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | −3.8 (25.2) |
1.9 (35.4) |
10.6 (51.1) |
17.6 (63.7) |
21.6 (70.9) |
24.8 (76.6) |
26.4 (79.5) |
25.2 (77.4) |
21.0 (69.8) |
14.0 (57.2) |
5.7 (42.3) |
−1.7 (28.9) |
13.6 (56.5) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −7.9 (17.8) |
−2.8 (27.0) |
5.1 (41.2) |
11.8 (53.2) |
15.8 (60.4) |
19.3 (66.7) |
21.0 (69.8) |
20.0 (68.0) |
15.5 (59.9) |
8.0 (46.4) |
0.8 (33.4) |
−5.7 (21.7) |
8.4 (47.1) |
Record low °C (°F) | −21.0 (−5.8) |
−19.3 (−2.7) |
−7.0 (19.4) |
−0.2 (31.6) |
4.3 (39.7) |
9.5 (49.1) |
12.2 (54.0) |
10.2 (50.4) |
4.3 (39.7) |
−2.1 (28.2) |
−12.3 (9.9) |
−19.3 (−2.7) |
−21.0 (−5.8) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 1.9 (0.07) |
2.1 (0.08) |
3.1 (0.12) |
3.4 (0.13) |
7.3 (0.29) |
10.4 (0.41) |
6.1 (0.24) |
6.0 (0.24) |
4.5 (0.18) |
1.2 (0.05) |
1.1 (0.04) |
1.5 (0.06) |
48.6 (1.91) |
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 2.6 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 2.4 | 3.7 | 3.2 | 2.2 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 21.6 |
Average snowy days | 5.0 | 2.6 | 0.6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.6 | 3.8 | 12.6 |
Average relative humidity (%) | 53 | 42 | 29 | 27 | 33 | 36 | 40 | 42 | 41 | 37 | 41 | 53 | 40 |
Mean monthly sunshine hours | 175.4 | 176.0 | 208.5 | 225.0 | 263.8 | 263.2 | 246.0 | 231.0 | 240.4 | 267.3 | 222.4 | 183.2 | 2,702.2 |
Percent possible sunshine | 57 | 57 | 55 | 57 | 60 | 60 | 56 | 56 | 66 | 79 | 74 | 62 | 62 |
Source: China Meteorological Administration[41][42][43] |
Administrative divisions
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Txu-oclc-6654394-nj-44-3rd-ed.jpg/220px-Txu-oclc-6654394-nj-44-3rd-ed.jpg)
The city includes four subdistricts, three towns, five townships and two other areas:[1][44][45]
Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Uyghur (UEY) | Uyghur Latin (ULY) | Administrative division code | Notes | |
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Subdistricts | |||||||
Nurbagh Subdistrict (Nurbag) |
努尔巴格街道 (奴尔巴格街道[46]) |
Nǔ'ěrbāgé Jiēdào | نۇرباغ كوچا باشقارمىسى | nurbagh kocha bashqarmisi | 653201001 | ||
Gujanbagh Subdistrict | 古江巴格街道 | Gǔjiāngbāgé Jiēdào | گۇجانباغ كوچا باشقارمىسى | gujanbagh kocha bashqarmisi | 653201002 | ||
Gulbagh Subdistrict | 古勒巴格街道 | Gǔlèbāgé Jiēdào | گۈلباغ كوچا باشقارمىسى | gülbagh kocha bashqarmisi | 653201003 | ||
Narbagh Subdistrict | 纳尔巴格街道 | Nà'ěrbāgé Jiēdào | نارباغ كوچا باشقارمىسى | narbagh kocha bashqarmisi | 653201004 | ||
Towns | |||||||
Laskuy Town | 拉斯奎镇 | Lāsīkuí Zhèn | لاسكۇي بازىرى | laskuy baziri | 653201100 | ||
Yurungqash Town[47] | 玉龙喀什镇 | Yùlóngkāshí Zhèn | يۇرۇڭقاش بازىرى | yurungqash baziri | 653201101 | ||
Tusalla Town | 吐沙拉镇 | Tǔshālā Zhèn | تۇساللا بازىرى | tusalla baziri | 653201102 | formerly Tusalla Township (تۇساللا يېزىسى, 吐沙拉乡) | |
Townships | |||||||
Shorbagh Township | 肖尔巴格乡 | Xiào'ěrbāgé Xiāng | شورباغ يېزىسى | shorbagh yëzisi | 653201200 | ||
Ilchi Township | 伊里其乡 | Yīlǐqí Xiāng | ئىلچى يېزىسى | Ilchi yëzisi | 653201201 | ||
Gujanbagh Township | 古江巴格乡 | Gǔjiāngbāgé Xiāng | گۇجانباغ يېزىسى | gujanbagh yëzisi | 653201202 | ||
Jiya Township | 吉亚乡 | Jíyà Xiāng | جىيا يېزىسى | jiya yëzisi | 653201204 | ||
Aqchal Township | 阿克恰勒乡 | Ākèqiàlè Xiāng | ئاقچال يېزىسى | Aqchal yëzisi | 653201205 |
Others:
- Beijing Industrial Park (北京工业园区), Hotan City Jinghe Logistics Park (和田市京和物流园区)
Demographics
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/85/Khotan-mezquita-d03.jpg/220px-Khotan-mezquita-d03.jpg)
Hotan is largely dominated by the Uyghurs, and as of 2015, 311,050 of the 348,289 residents of the county were Uyghur, 35,897 were Han Chinese and 1,342 were from other ethnic groups.[48]
In 1940, Owen Lattimore quoted the population of Khotan to be estimated as 26,000.[49]
In 1998 the urban population was recorded at 154,352, 83% of which were Uyghurs, and 17% were Han Chinese.[50]
In 1999, 83.01% of the population was Uyghur and 16.57% of the population was Han Chinese.[51]
In the 2000 census, the population was recorded as 186,123. In the 2010 census figure, the figure had risen to 322,300. The increase in population is partly due to boundary changes.[52]
Transportation
[edit]Air
[edit]Hetian Kungang Airport (IATA: HTN) serves the city. It serves regional flights to Ürümqi. Originally a military use airport, it was expanded significantly in 2002 to accommodate higher passenger volumes. It is located 12 km (7.5 mi) south of the city proper.
Road
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/Khotan-mercado-d09.jpg/220px-Khotan-mercado-d09.jpg)
Hotan is served by China National Highway 315, which runs along the southern Tarim Basin from Ruoqiang to Kashgar, and the Trans-Taklamakan Desert Highway, which run north to Luntai. An expressway is being built between Hotan and Karakax County (Moyu) as of 2014.
Rail
[edit]Hotan is connected to the rest of China's rail network via the Kashgar–Hotan Railway, which opened to freight traffic in December 2010, and passenger service in June 2011. The railway station was constructed by a company under the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and is located in the town of Lasqi (拉斯奎) northwest of the city proper. Passenger train service on this line is limited, with only one train per day, local service 5828/5825, linking the city with Kashgar (8~ hours) and Ürümqi (~34 hours).
Buses
[edit]Regular bus services link Hotan with Kashgar. There is also an express bus to Aksu via the 430 km (270 mi) 'Hotan-Aksu Cross-Desert Highway' which was opened in 2007, travels alongside the intermittent Hotan River, and which takes about 5 or 6 hours. This same bus then goes on to Urumchi taking a total of about 21 hours from Hotan.[53]
Economy
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/%27Mutton_fat%27_jade_for_sale_at_Khotan_Jade_Market.jpg/220px-%27Mutton_fat%27_jade_for_sale_at_Khotan_Jade_Market.jpg)
As of 1885[update], there was about 100,000 acres (662,334 mu) of cultivated land in Khotan.[54]
Nephrite jade
[edit]Chinese historical sources indicate that Hotan was the main source of the nephrite jade used in ancient China. For several hundred years, until they were defeated by the Xiongnu in 176 BCE, the trade of Khotanese jade into China was controlled by the nomadic Yuezhi. The Chinese still refer to the Yurungkash as the White Jade River, alluding to the white jade recovered from its alluvial deposits. The light-colored jade is called "Mutton fat" jade. Most of the jade is now gone, with only a few kilos of good quality jade found yearly. Some is still mined in the Kunlun Mountains to the south in the summer,[55] but it is generally of poorer quality than that found in the rivers.[56][57]
Fabrics and carpets
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Silk_weaving_in_Khotan.jpg/220px-Silk_weaving_in_Khotan.jpg)
Khotanese textiles were mentioned by Xuanzang, who visited the oasis in 644 CE. In his Biography it is stated: "It produced carpets and fine felt, and the felt-makers also spun coarse and fine silk."[58]
Ancient Chinese-Khotanese relations were so close that the oasis emerged as one of the earliest centres of silk manufacture outside China. There are good reasons to believe that the silk-producing industry flourished in Hotan as early as the 5th century.[59] According to one story, a Chinese princess given in marriage to a Khotan prince brought to the oasis the secret of silk-manufacture, "hiding silkworms in her hair as part of her dowry", probably in the first half of the 1st century CE.[60][61] It was from Khotan that the eggs of silkworms were smuggled to Iran, reaching Justinian I's Constantinople in 551.[62]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Khotanese_silks_on_display_in_shop.jpg/220px-Khotanese_silks_on_display_in_shop.jpg)
Silk production is still a major industry employing more than a thousand workers and producing some 150 million metres of silk annually. Silk weaving by Uyghur women is a thriving cottage industry, some of it produced using traditional methods.[55]
Atlas is the fabric used for traditional Uyghur clothing worn by Uyghur women. It is soft, light and graceful tie-dyed silk fabric. It comes various colors, the brighter and rich colors are for small children to young ladies. The gray and dark colors are for elderly women.
The oldest piece of kilim which we have any knowledge was obtained by the archaeological explorer Aurel Stein; a fragment from an ancient settlement near Hotan, which was buried by sand drifts about the fourth century CE. The weave is almost identical with that of modern kilims.
Hotanese pile carpets are still highly prized and form an important export.[63][64]
Notable persons
[edit]Gallery
[edit]-
Market in Hotan
-
Uyghur people at Sunday market
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Carpet weaving in Hotan
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Entrance to the Khotan Jade Market Center
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Entrance to the Hotan Cultural Museum
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Local jade displayed in the Hotan Cultural Museum lobby.
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Map of the region including Khotan (Ilchi) (1893)
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Map including Hotan (Ho-t'ien, Khotan) (DMA, 1983)
See also
[edit]- Atlas silk
- Dandan Oilik
- Hotan Cultural Museum
- Khatana
- Kingdom of Khotan
- Silk Road transmission of Buddhism
Notes
[edit]- ^ Locals in Xinjiang frequently observe UTC+6 (Xinjiang Time), 2 hours behind Beijing.
- ^ From map: "DELINEATION OF INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES MUST NOT BE CONSIDERED AUTHORITATIVE".
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ a b c d 和田市历史沿革 [Hotan City Historical Development] (in Simplified Chinese). XZQH.org. 2 December 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
1984年和田县析置和田市。{...}2003年,和田市总面积155.04平方千米,{...}2006年7月11日,洛浦县吉亚乡、玉龙喀什镇与和田县吐沙拉乡正式划归和田市管辖。两乡一镇划归和田市管辖后,和田市管辖区域变为五乡、两镇、一个管理区、一个工业园区和四个街道办事处。和田市的行政区域面积由155.04平方千米扩大至465.84平方千米,{...}2010年第六次人口普查,和田市常住总人口322300人,其中:奴尔巴格街道24134人,古江巴格街道34567人,古勒巴格街道27919人,纳尔巴格街道37338人,拉斯奎镇25231人,玉龙喀什镇22614人,肖尔巴格乡39331人,伊里其乡22646人,古江巴格乡13680人,吐沙拉乡48468人,吉亚乡22071人,阿合恰管理区4301人。
- ^ "China: Xīnjiāng (Prefectures, Cities, Districts and Counties) - Population Statistics, Charts and Map". www.citypopulation.de.
- ^ "(新疆)2018年和田市国民经济和社会发展统计公报" (in Chinese). 12 November 2019. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
- ^ China Population: Xinjiang: Hotan: Hetian City https://www.ceicdata.com/en/china/population-county-level-region/population-xinjiang-hotan-hetian-city
- ^ Marc Aurel Stein. (1907) Ancient Khotan: Detailed Report of Archaeological Explorations in Eastern Turkestan. Oxford. Pages 123-126.
- ^ Bonavia, Judy. The Silk Road: Xi'an to Kashgar. Revised by Christopher Baumer (2004), pp. 306-319. Odyssey Publications. ISBN 962-217-741-7.
- ^ Higgins, Benjamin (November 1962). "The Philippines. Public Policy and National Economic Development. By Frank Golay. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1961. Xviii, 455. Map, Tables, Index, Bibliographic Essay". The Journal of Asian Studies. 22 (1): 114–116. doi:10.2307/2049929. JSTOR 2049929.
- ^ Wang, Bangwei; Sen, Tansen (2011). India and China: Interactions through Buddhism and Diplomacy: A Collection of Essays by Professor Prabodh Chandra Bagchi. Anthem Press. p. 186. ISBN 9780857288219.
- ^ Puri, Baij Nath (1987), Buddhism in Central Asia, Motilal Banarsidass, p. 52, ISBN 978-81-208-0372-5
- ^ Bailey, Harold W. (1982). The Culture of the Sakas in Ancient Iranian Khotan. Caravan Books. pp. 2–3. ISBN 0-88206-053-8.
- ^ (中国地名录, published in Beijing, SinoMaps Press 中国地图出版社 1997; ISBN 7-5031-1718-4; p. 312.)
- ^ Mallory, J. P. and Mair, Victor H. 2000. The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West, pp. 132, 155-156. Thames & Hudson. London. ISBN 0-500-05101-1.
- ^ Bonavia, Judy. The Silk Road: Xi'an to Kashgar. Revised by Christopher Baumer (2004), p. 317. Odyssey Publications. ISBN 962-217-741-7.
- ^ Chunxiang Li; Hongjie Li; Yinqiu Cui; Chengzhi Xie; Dawei Cai; Wenying Li; Victor H Mair; Zhi Xu; Quanchao Zhang; Idelis Abuduresule; Li Jin; Hong Zhu; Hui Zhou (2010). "Evidence that a West-East admixed population lived in the Tarim Basin as early as the early Bronze Age". BMC Biology. 8 (15): 15. doi:10.1186/1741-7007-8-15. PMC 2838831. PMID 20163704.
- ^ Hill (2015), Vol. I, "The Kingdom of Yutian 于窴 (Khotan)", pp. 17-19 and nn.
- ^ "《大唐大慈恩寺三藏法師傳》". Archived from the original on May 27, 2013.
- ^ Christopoulos, Lucas (August 2021). "Hellenes and Romans in Ancient China" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers. 230.
- ^ "Khotan - Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2012-04-06.
- ^ "Error" (PDF). www.ihp.sinica.edu.tw. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 June 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
- ^ Page55 Eurasian crossroads By James A. Millward
- ^ Mark J. Dresden, The Jatakastava or 'Praise of the Buddha's Former Births' Philadelphia, 1955
- ^ Gippert, Jost. "TITUS Texts: Corpus of Khotanese Saka Texts: Frame". titus.uni-frankfurt.de. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
- ^ "賢愚經". Archived from the original on November 22, 2014.
- ^ James A. Millward (2007). Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. Columbia University Press. pp. 55–. ISBN 978-0-231-13924-3.
- ^ Latham, Ronald (1958). Marco Polo: the travels. p. 80.
- ^ Wood, Frances (2002). The Silk Road: two thousand years in the heart of Asia. University of California Press. p. 18. ISBN 9780520243408.
- ^ a b S. Frederick Starr (2015). Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland. Taylor & Francis. p. 57. ISBN 9781317451372.
- ^ Stein, Aurel M. (1907). "Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan, 2 vols., p. 180. Clarendon Press. Oxford".
- ^ Bonavia, Judy. The Silk Road: Xi'an to Kashgar. Revised by Christopher Baumer (2004), p. 309. Odyssey Publications. ISBN 962-217-741-7.
- ^ Samah Ibrahim (29 January 2019). "China's Uighur Strategy and South Asian Risk". Future Directions International. Archived from the original on 30 September 2021. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
The creation of the Islamic State of Yettishar (1865 – 1878), with its capital at Kashgar, which is in present-day Xinjiang, came about as the result of a series of uprisings in Xinjiang.
- ^ Alexandre Andreyev (2003). Soviet Russia and Tibet: The Debarcle of Secret Diplomacy, 1918-1930s. BRILL. p. 16. ISBN 9004129529 – via Google Books.
- ^ 夏征农; 陈至立, eds. (September 2009). 辞海:第六版彩图本 [Cihai (Sixth Edition in Color)] (in Chinese). 上海. Shanghai: 上海辞书出版社. Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House. p. 866. ISBN 9787532628599.
和田地区行署驻此。{...}1983年由和田县析置。
- ^ "CHINA (INCLUDES TIBET, HONG KONG, AND MACAU) 2012 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT". International Religious Freedom Report. pp. 10, 11 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Qiao Long; Luisetta Mudie (19 June 2012). "Uyghur Jailed Over Religious Materials". Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
Authorities in the city of Hotan in the ethnically troubled Xinjiang region have handed a 10-year jail term to a Uyghur man convicted of selling "illegal religious materials" ahead of a sensitive anniversary. The sentence was passed on Sunday by the Hotan Municipal People's Court on Hebibullah Ibrahim, the People's Daily online news site reported.
- ^ "Notice informs locals of mandatory residence searches in Hotan community; police reserve the right to "use force" to enter homes". Uyghur American Association. 18 June 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
- ^ Bahram K. Sintash (October 2019). "Demolishing Faith: The Destruction and Desecration of Uyghur Mosques and Shrines" (PDF). Uyghur Human Rights Project. pp. 24–25. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
The Sultanim Cemetery has a history of over 1,000 years. King Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan of the Kara-Khanid Khanate (999–1211) conquered Hotan (the Buddhist Kingdom Udun at that time), and spread Islam around 960 AD. During the conquest, four Kara-khan commanders, including Prince Sultan Kilich Khan, were killed and Muslims buried them at this location. Since then, the cemetery has been known as Sultanim Maziri (My Sultan Shrine) and became one of the most important cemeteries among Uyghur Muslims who have paid their respects here for over 1,000 years. In the center, the four commanders' graves were still there until China completely bulldozed the entire cemetery in 2019. Many religious leaders, scholars and other important people in Hotan's far and recent history have been buried in this cemetery.
- ^ Matt Rivers (3 January 2020). "More than 100 Uyghur graveyards demolished by Chinese authorities, satellite images show". CNN. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
The Sultanim Cemetery in the center of Hotan City is one of the most famous ancient cemeteries in Xinjiang. It was destroyed between January to March 2019.
- ^ Fred Hiatt (3 November 2019). "In China, every day is Kristallnacht". Washington Post. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
Before After
Cemetery demolished
The site of Sultanim cemetery in Hotan, Xinjiang, in December, 2018 and March 2019. - ^ Kurban Niyaz; Joshua Lipes (1 May 2020). "Xinjiang Authorities Construct Parking Lot Atop Historic Uyghur Cemetery". Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ^ Asim Kashgarian (1 December 2019). "US: China Targets Uighur Mosques to Eradicate Minority's Faith". Voice of America. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
37°7′2.13″N 79°56′2.96″E
Satellite imagery with a comparative analysis of Sultanim Cemetery in Hotan city, in China's northwest Xinjiang province. - ^ 中国气象数据网 – WeatherBk Data (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- ^ "Experience Template" 中国气象数据网 (in Simplified Chinese). China Meteorological Administration. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- ^ 中国地面国际交换站气候标准值月值数据集(1971-2000年). China Meteorological Administration. Archived from the original on 2013-09-21.
- ^ 2018年统计用区划代码和城乡划分代码:和田市 [2018 Statistical Area Numbers and Rural-Urban Area Numbers: Hotan City] (in Simplified Chinese). National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China. 2018. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
统计用区划代码 名称 653201001000 努尔巴格街道办事处 653201002000 古江巴格街道办事处 653201003000 古勒巴格街道办事处 653201004000 纳尔巴格街道办事处 653201100000 拉斯奎镇 653201101000 玉龙喀什镇 653201102000 吐沙拉镇 653201200000 肖尔巴格乡 653201201000 伊里其乡 653201202000 古江巴格乡 653201204000 吉亚乡 653201205000 阿克恰勒乡 653201401000 北京工业园区 653201402000 和田市京和物流园区
- ^ 和田市概况. 和田市人民政府网 (in Simplified Chinese). 12 December 2018. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
辖6乡2镇,4个街道办事处和1个工业园区
- ^ 奴尔巴格街道. 和田市人民政府网 (in Simplified Chinese). 25 September 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
- ^ huaxia, ed. (17 September 2020). "Full Text: Employment and Labor Rights in Xinjiang". Xinhua News Agency. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
Yusan Hasan from Yurungqash Town, Hotan City
- ^ 3-7 各地、州、市、县(市)分民族人口数 (in Simplified Chinese). شىنجاڭ ئۇيغۇر ئاپتونوم رايونى 新疆维吾尔自治区统计局 Statistic Bureau of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. 15 March 2017. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
- ^ Owen Lattimore (1940). "Inner Asian frontiers of China". New York: American Geographical Society. p. 157 – via Internet Archive.
Khotan, 1600 sq. km., city population 26,000
- ^ Stanley W. Toops (15 March 2004). "The Demography of Xinjiang". In S. Frederick Starr (ed.). Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland. Routledge. pp. 256–257. ISBN 978-0765613189.
- ^ Morris Rossabi, ed. (2004). Governing China's Multiethnic Frontiers (PDF). University of Washington Press. p. 180. ISBN 0-295-98390-6.
- ^ "HÉTIÁN SHÌ (County-level City)". City Population.
- ^ Harper et al (2009), p. 840.
- ^ Herold J. Wiens (November 1966). "Cultivation Development and Expansion in China's Colonial Realm in Central Asia". The Journal of Asian Studies. 26 (1): 75. doi:10.2307/2051832. JSTOR 2051832. S2CID 162339064.
- ^ a b Bonavia, Judy. The Silk Road: Xi'an to Kashgar. Revised by Christopher Baumer (2004), pp. 307-308. Odyssey Publications. ISBN 962-217-741-7.
- ^ Marc Aurel Stein. (1907) Ancient Khotan: Detailed Report of Archaeological Explorations in Eastern Turkestan. Oxford. Pages 132-133.
- ^ Laufer, Berthold. Jade: A Study in Chinese Archaeology & Religion. (1912) Reprint: Dover Publications, New York, N.Y. (1974), pp. 24, 26, 291-293, 324. ISBN 0-486-23123-2.
- ^ A Biography of the Tripiṭaka Master of the great Ci'en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty. Śramaṇa Huili and Shi Yancong. Translated by Li Rongxi. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. (1995), p. 163. ISBN 1-886439-00-1.
- ^ Whitfield, Susan. The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith. Serindia Publications Inc., 2004. ISBN 1-932476-12-1. Page 47.
- ^ Hill (2015), Vol. II, pp. 1-2. "Appendix A: Introduction of Silk Cultivation to Khotan."
- ^ Sarah Underhill Wisseman, Wendell S. Williams. Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials . Routledge, 1994. ISBN 2-88124-632-X. Page 131.
- ^ "From Khotan, silk culture is believed to have passed by way of Kashmir to India and then westwards into central Asia and Persia". Quoted from Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Oxford University Press, 1950, article "Silk".
- ^ Bennett, Ian. Rugs & Carpets of the World. (1978). Ferndale Edition (1981). Quarto Publishing, London, pp.182-189. ISBN 0-905746-24-4.
- ^ "Khotan rug - Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2012-04-06.
Sources
[edit]- Harper, Damian et al. (2009). Lonely Planet China: 11th Edition. Lonely Planet. ISBN 978-1-74104-866-7.
- Hill, John E. (1988). "Notes on the Dating of Khotanese History". Indo-Iranian Journal. 31 (3): 179–190. doi:10.1163/000000088790083016. S2CID 161410483. Updated version of this article is available for free download (with registration) at: independent.academia.edu
- Hulsewé, A. F. P. (1979). China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC − AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. E. J. Brill, Leiden. ISBN 90-04-05884-2.
- Legge, James 1886. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: Being an account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien of his travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. Oxford, Clarendon Press. Reprint: New York, Paragon Book Reprint Corp. 1965.
- Mallory, J. P. and Mair, Victor H. 2000. The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. Thames & Hudson. London. 2000.
- Montell, Gösta, Sven Hedin's Archaeological Collections from Khotan: Terra-cottas from Yotkan and Dandan-Uiliq, The Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 7 (1936), pp. 145–221.
- Montell, Gösta, Sven Hedin's Archaeological Collections from Khotan II (appendix by Helmer Smith (pp. 101–102)), The Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 10 (1938), pp. 83–113.
- Puri, B. N. Buddhism in Central Asia, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi, 1987. (2000 reprint).
- Stein, Aurel M. 1907. Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan, 2 vols. Clarendon Press. Oxford. dsr.nii.ac.jp 1907. Ancient Khotan: Detailed report of archaeological explorations in Chinese Turkestan, 2 vols. Clarendon Press. Oxford.[1] Ancient Khotan : vol.1 Ancient Khotan : vol.2
- Stein, Aurel M. 1921. Serindia: Detailed report of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China, 5 vols. London & Oxford. Clarendon Press. Reprint: Delhi. Motilal Banarsidass. 1980. dsr.nii.ac.jp
- 1904 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan, London, Hurst and Blackett, Ltd. Reprint Asian Educational Services, New Delhi, Madras, 2000 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1
- Watters, Thomas 1904–1905. On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India. London. Royal Asiatic Society. Reprint: Delhi. Mushiram Manoharlal. 1973.
- Yu, Taishan. 2004. A History of the Relationships between the Western and Eastern Han, Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Western Regions. Sino-Platonic Papers No. 131 March 2004. Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania.
External links
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Wikivoyage-Logo-v3-icon.svg/40px-Wikivoyage-Logo-v3-icon.svg.png)
- Official government site (in Chinese)
- Silk Road Seattle - University of Washington (The Silk Road Seattle website contains many useful resources including a number of full-text historical works)
- Site devoted to the Buddhism of Khotan with a copy of Sir Aurel Stein's map of the Tarim Basin and Khotan region
- Satellite image of region which can be enlarged Archived 2009-03-06 at the Wayback Machine
- China: Taklamakan - Desert With No Ocean Underground
- Bealby, John Thomas (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). p. 781. .
- "Khotan", Encyclopaedia Iranica Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica
- ^ M. A. Stein – Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books at dsr.nii.ac.jp