Everything about Hotan totally explained
The
oasis town of
Hotan ( formerly: ; also spelled
Khotan). It was previously known in Chinese as 于窴 pinyin: Yutian.
Hotan is the capital of
Hotan Prefecture,
Xinjiang,
China. With a population of 114,000 (2006), Hotan lies in the
Tarim Basin, just north of the
Kunlun Mountains, which are crossed by the Sanju,
Hindu-tagh, and Ilchi passes.
The town, located southeast of
Yarkand 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
Yurungkash River - to provide the water needed to survive on the southwestern edge of the vast
Taklamakan Desert. The Yurungkash still provides water and irrigation for the town and oasis.
History
The oasis of Hotan is strategically located at the junction of the southern (and most ancient) branch of the famous “
Silk Route” joining
China and the West with one of the main routes from
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.
At Sampul, to the east of the city of Hotan, there's an extensive series of cemeteries scattered over an area about a kilometre wide and 23 km long. The excavated sites range from about 300 BCE - 100 CE. The excavated graves have produced a number of fabrics of felt, wool, silk and cotton and even a fine bit of tapestry showing the face of Caucasoid man which was made of threads of 24 shades of colour. The tapestry had been cut up and fashioned into trousers worn by one of the deceased! Anthropological studies 56 individuals studied show a primarily Caucasoid population "similar to the Saka burials of the southern Pamirs".
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 and early
Tang dynasties), the accounts of several Chinese pilgrim monks, a few Buddhist histories of Hotan that have survived in
Tibetan, and a large number of documents in
Khotanese 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 “
Caves of the Thousand Buddhas” near
Dunhuang.
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.
By 1006, Khotan was held by the Muslim Yūsuf Qadr Khān, a brother or cousin of the Muslim ruler of Kāshgar and Balāsāghūn. Between 1006 and 1165, after it fell to the Kara Kitai, it was part of the
Kara-Khanid Khanate and became, in time, a Muslim state. The town suffered severely during the
Dungan revolt against the
Qing Dynasty in 1864-1875, and again a few years later when
Yaqub Beg of
Kashgar made himself master of East Turkestan.
Products
Nephrite Jade
Khotan is famous for its high-quality
nephrite jade, which comes in a variety of colurs. 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 Hotanese 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. 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, but it's generally of poorer quality than that found in the rivers.
Fabrics and carpets
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 fifth century. 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. It was from Khotan that the eggs of silkworms were smuggled to
Persia, reaching
Justinian's
Constantinople in 551 AD.
Khotanese carpets, were mentioned by
Xuanzang, who visited the oasis in
644 CE: "The country produces woolen carpets and fine felt, and the people are skillful in spinning and weaving silk." In his Biography it's stated: "It produced carpets and fine felt, and the felt-makers also spun coarse and fine silk."
Not only pile carpets were produced in ancient times, but also
kilims:
» "As kilims are much less durable than rugs that have a pile to protect the warp and weft, it isn't surprising that few of great age remain. The oldest piece of which we've any knowledge is a fragment obtained by M. A.
Stein, the archaeological explorer, from the ruins near Khotan, in Eastern Turkestan, of an ancient settlement, which was buried by sand drifts about the fourth or fifth century
anno domini. The weave is almost identical with that of modern kilims, and has about fourteen threads of warp and sixteen threads of weft to the inch. The pattern consists of narrow stripes of blue, green, brownish yellow, and red, containing very small geometric designs. With this one exception, so peculiarly preserved, there are probably very few over a century old."
Khotanese pile carpets are still highly prized and form an important export.
» "The rich natural colours and designs of Hetian carpets have been treasured all over Central Asia for centuries. They are especially valuable because of the city's especially long, thick wool. Villagers make carpets as a sideline, selling them at the bazaar or to private buyers from other parts of Xinjiang. Pieces of chain-stitch embroidery made with a hooked needle are much prized."
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
Uighur women is a thriving
cottage industry, some of it produced using traditional methods.
Footnotes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Hotan'.
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