Khotan

English

Map including Khotan (1922)

Pronunciation

• enPR: kōtänʹ, kōʹtänʹ

Proper noun

Khotan

1. Alternative form of Hotan
   • 1904, M. A. Stein, “A Journey of Geographical and Archaeological Exploration in Chinese Turkestan”, in Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 1903‎^[1], Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, pages 762–763:

     Among the ancient sites in the Taklamakan Desert which are frequented by Khotan "treasure seekers," and which the prospecting parties sent out by me had visited, none seemed to offer better opportunities for systematic excavations than the one known to them as Dandan-Uilik.

   • 1957, Bo Gyllensvärd, T'ANG GOLD AND SILVER (Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Bulletin)‎^[2], volume 29, Göteborg: Elanders Boktryckeri, page 21:

     It is possible, then, to point out a few types of objects which came into China before T'ang together with Buddhism via Central or Western Asian contacts. The same is also the case with the ornamentation. An account of the pre-T'ang Buddhist sculpture offers an excellent opportunity to study the change of the lotus motif in the fifth and sixth centuries. Particularly in the latter part of the sixth century the lotus descriptions are executed in a luxuriant way and often quite naturalistic. These lotus representations are easy to trace to their Indian origin, whereas it is rather difficult to follow the versions of the lotus ornamentation in the Central Asian city-states. We might assume that the artists from Khotan played an important role also here.

   • 1973 February 18, “Taiwan's contemplative religion”, in Free China Weekly‎^[3], volume XIV, number 6, Taipei, page 2:

     Buddhism's authentic history in China begins in 65 A.C.^{[sic – meaning A.D.]} when Ming Ti (second Emperor of the East Han dynasty) sent a mission to "the western regions" to find out more about a great religion that originated in India but took root in China. The emperor's emissaries returned from Khotan in six years with Buddhist monks, classics (sutras) and ikons.

   • 1979, Jan Myrdal, translated by Ann Henning, Carpets from China, Xinjiang & Tibet‎^[4], Pantheon Books, page 139:

     The Khotan rug factory, Hotan Rayonluk Gilam Karahanisi, is situated outside the town of Khotan, in Lop county four kilometers east on the bank of the Yurunkash River.

   • 2004, Barry Holstun Lopez, Resistance‎^[5] (Fiction), New York: Vintage Books, published 2005, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 105:

     A week into the trip Korbel told me I was riding well, no trouble at all for him, so we would detour a little to the east, toward an oasis called Tongguzbasti. We would soon pick up a very old route, he told me, one that ran between the Khotan, which we had by then gained, and another riverbed, the Keriya. Along the way we would see something.

   • 2021, The Buddha’s Words and Their Interpretations‎^[6], Shin Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute, →ISBN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 October 2021, page 137:

     The waters of two rivers, the Yurungkash or Baiyu he 白玉河 (White Jade River) and the Karakash or Heiyu he 黑玉河 (Black Jade River), were indispensable for establishing human culture in Khotan. These two rivers unite near Koxlax (about 200 km north of Khotan) and together form the Khotan River.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Khotan.
2. The historical region corresponding to modern Hotan.
3. The historical Kingdom of Khotan.

Derived terms

• Khotanese

Further reading

• “Khotan”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “Khotan” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.