Hotan

Oaza i istoimeni grad **Hotan** ili **Hetian** (, , nekoć: ; također **Khotan**) je glavni grad prefekture u kineskoj autonomnoj regiji Xinjiang. Na kineskom se ranije za njega koristilo ime 于窴 (pinyin: Yutian) a evropskim istraživačima iz 19. vijeka je bio poznat kao **Ilchi**.

U njemu živi 114.000 stanovnika (2006), a smješten je u Tarimskoj zavali, sjeverno od Kunlunske planine, kroz kojih se probija prijevoj Sanju, kao i prijevoji Hindu-tagh i Ilchi.

U samom gradu, koji je smješten jugoistočno od Yarkanda, žive gotovo isključivo Ujguri te predstavlja manje poljoprivredno središto. Kroz historiju je bio važna stanica na južnom ogranku Puta svile. Hotan je ovisio i dvije važne rijeke - Karakašu i Jurungkašu - poznatim kao Bijeli i Crni Žad, a koje su mu pružale dragocjenu vodu na robu Taklamakanske pistinje. Jurungkaš dan-danas daje vodu gradu i okoliciza navodnjavanje.

## Fusnote

## Izvori
* Hill, John E. 1988. “Notes on the Dating of Khotanese History.” *Indo-Iranian Journal* 31 (1988), pp.&nbsp;179–190. See: http://www.springerlink.com/content/gg8740360243350j/ 
* 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. http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html
* Hill, John E. (2009) *Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE*. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. . 
* Hulsewé, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N. 1979. *China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC &ndash; AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty*. E. J. Brill, Leiden.
* 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.&nbsp;145–221.
* Montell, Gösta, *Sven Hedin’s Archaeological Collections from Khotan II* (appendix by Helmer Smith (pp.&nbsp;101–102)), The Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 10 (1938), pp.&nbsp;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. http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/  
* 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. http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/ 
* 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.

## Vanjske veze

* Official government site
* Silk Road Seattle (The Silk Road Seattle website contains many useful resources including a number of full-text historical works)
* http://idp.bl.uk/education/buddhism/khotanese/khotanese.html  (A 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 
* China: Taklamakan - Desert With No Ocean Underground