kingdom · China, Tibet and Mongolia

Kingdom of Khotan

200 BCE – 1006 CE (approx.) · capital Khotan

The jade-rich Buddhist kingdom of the southern Silk Road, whose Saka-speaking kings lasted more than a thousand years until the Kara-Khanid conquest.

Origins

Khotan, Yutian in Chinese, grew in the oasis watered by rivers from the Kunlun Mountains on the southern edge of the Taklamakan. Its own legends trace the founding to Indian and Chinese settlers, including a son of the emperor Ashoka. It appears in Han records from the 2nd century BCE, already trading the white and green jade of its rivers.

Rule and society

Khotan's people spoke Khotanese, an Eastern Iranian Saka language preserved in many Buddhist texts. Its kings, of the Visa dynasty, made it a major centre of Mahayana Buddhism, and tradition says a Chinese princess smuggled silkworm eggs to it in her headdress. Under the Tang Dynasty it was one of the Four Garrisons of Anxi; in the 10th century King Li Shengtian kept close ties with Dunhuang.

Decline and legacy

After a long war, the Muslim Kara-Khanid Khanate conquered Khotan around 1006. Its Buddhist culture was replaced by Islam and the Turkic language, but manuscripts from Khotan and Dunhuang preserve Khotanese literature.

Connections (3)

More states of China, Tibet and Mongolia →

Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Kingdom of Khotan. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kingdom-of-khotan
MLA
“Kingdom of Khotan.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kingdom-of-khotan. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Kingdom of Khotan.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kingdom-of-khotan.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Kingdom of Khotan’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/kingdom-of-khotan (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻