Khotan Prefecture
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Hotan PrefectureThe official spelling is "Hotan" according to (also known as Gosthana, Gaustana, Godana, Godaniya, Khotan, Hetian, Hotien) is located in the
Tarim Basin The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, China." Hydr ...
region of southwestern
Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
, China, bordering the
Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of ...
to the south and
Union Territory of Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu an ...
and Gilgit-Baltistan to the west. The vast majority of the
Aksai Chin Aksai Chin is a region administered by China as part of Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang and Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet. It is claimed by India to be a part of its Leh District, Ladakh Union Territory. It is a part of t ...
region which is disputed between China and
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
is administered as part of Hotan Prefecture. The seat of Hotan Prefecture is Hotan and its largest county by population is
Karakax County Karakax County (), alternatively Moyu County, also transliterated from Uyghur as Qaraqash County (; ), alternately Qaraqash, is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is located in the southern edge of the Tarim Basin, it is under ...
. The vast majority of the residents of the prefecture are Muslim
Uyghurs The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghur ...
and live around oases situated between the desolate
Taklamakan Desert The Taklimakan or Taklamakan Desert (; zh, s=塔克拉玛干沙漠, p=Tǎkèlāmǎgān Shāmò, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Такәламаган Шамә; ug, تەكلىماكان قۇملۇقى, Täklimakan qumluqi; also spelled Taklimakan and T ...
and Kunlun Mountains. The region was the center of the ancient Iranian Saka Buddhist
Kingdom of Khotan The Kingdom of Khotan was an ancient Buddhist Saka kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang, China). The ancient capital was originally sited to ...
. Later, the region was part of the
Kara-Khanid Khanate The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek K ...
, followed by the
Qara Khitai The Qara Khitai, or Kara Khitai (), also known as the Western Liao (), officially the Great Liao (), was a Sinicized dynastic regime based in Central Asia ruled by the Khitan Yelü clan. The Qara Khitai is considered by historians to be an ...
,
Chagatai Khanate The Chagatai Khanate, or Chagatai Ulus ( xng, , translit=Čaɣatay-yin Ulus; mn, Цагаадайн улс, translit=Tsagaadain Uls; chg, , translit=Čağatāy Ulusi; fa, , translit=Xânât-e Joghatây) was a Mongol and later Turkicized kh ...
,
Moghulistan Moghulistan (from fa, , ''Moghulestân'', mn, Моголистан), also called the Moghul Khanate or the Eastern Chagatai Khanate (), was a Mongol breakaway khanate of the Chagatai Khanate and a historical geographic area north of the Ten ...
and the
Dzungar Khanate The Dzungar Khanate, also written as the Zunghar Khanate, was an Inner Asian khanate of Oirat Mongol origin. At its greatest extent, it covered an area from southern Siberia in the north to present-day Kyrgyzstan in the south, and from t ...
, which was conquered by the
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...
of China. Hotan became part of
Xinjiang under Qing rule The Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China ruled over Xinjiang from the late 1750s to 1912. In the history of Xinjiang, the Qing rule was established in the final phase of the Dzungar–Qing Wars when the Dzungar Khanate was conquered by the Qing d ...
. In the 1930s, the Khotan Emirate declared independence from China. The PLA entered Hotan in 1949. The prefecture is known for its jade, silk and carpets.


Etymology

The prefecture is named for its seat, Hotan (Khotan, Hetian, Hotien). The area of Hotan is historically known as Gaustana, Godana or Godaniya, a
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
name meaning "Land of the cows". In Chinese, the same name is written as Yu-t'ien, pronounced as ''Gu-dana''. It is referred to as Gosthana by local Tibetans, which also means the same in Sanskrit.


History

The Hotan Prefecture region played a major part in the
Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) The Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) or Tongzhi Hui Revolt (, Xiao'erjing: تُ‌جِ خُوِ لُوًا, dng, Тунҗы Хуэй Луан) or Hui (Muslim) Minorities War was a war fought in 19th-century western China, mostly during the reig ...
.
Tunganistan Tunganistan (, dng, Хуэситан), also called Dunganistan (named after the Dungan people), was an independently administered region in the southern part of the Chinese province Xinjiang from 1934 to 1937, contemporaneous to the Chinese Civi ...
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. On December 22, 1949, PLA forces reached Hotan. In 1950, the area was redesignated as Hotan District (). In 1959, the Chinese character name of Hotan was changed from '' to the homophonous ''. In 1962, events of the
Sino-Indian War The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tibet ...
occurred in parts of
Aksai Chin Aksai Chin is a region administered by China as part of Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang and Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet. It is claimed by India to be a part of its Leh District, Ladakh Union Territory. It is a part of t ...
administered as part of Hotan Prefecture. In 1971, Hotan was changed from a district () to a prefecture (). Between June 1991 and March 1992, there were six attacks with firearms on Han Chinese residents in Hotan Prefecture. (Sourced to the ''Xinjiang Public Security Gazette'' (), pages 84) According to a reporter for the ''
Wen Wei Po ''Wen Wei Po'' is a pro-Beijing state-owned newspaper based in Hong Kong. The newspaper was established in Hong Kong on 9 September 1948, after its Shanghai edition was launched in 1938. Its head office is in the Hing Wai Centre () in Aber ...
'' in
Ürümqi Ürümqi ( ; also spelled Ürümchi or without umlauts), formerly known as Dihua (also spelled Tihwa), is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China. Ürümqi developed its ...
, between January and August 2005, authorities had disbanded six "illegal underground" religious schools in Hotan Prefecture and confiscated more than one hundred unauthorized religious books and periodicals as well as 972 audio and video tapes. In 2016, Kunyu was established within the boundaries of Hotan Prefecture. In 2020 during the
COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China The COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). China was the first country to experience an outbreak o ...
, 171 Uyghur workers from Hotan Prefecture were sent to
Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a popul ...
,
Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...
.


Geography

The vast majority of the residents live around oases situated between the desolate Taklamakan Desert and Kunlun Mountains. To the north, the prefecture borders
Aksu Prefecture Aksu PrefectureThe official spelling according to is located in mid-Western Xinjiang, People's Republic of China. It has an area of and 2.37 million inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 535,657 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made up of A ...
, to the east
Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture Bayingolin (; often abbreviated to Bayingol; also as Bayinguoleng) is an autonomous prefecture for Mongol people in the southeast of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Western China. It borders Gansu to the east, Qinghai to the southeast and ...
, to the west Kashgar Prefecture, and to the south,
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...
and the areas disputed between China,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
.
Aksai Chin Aksai Chin is a region administered by China as part of Hotan County, Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang and Rutog County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet. It is claimed by India to be a part of its Leh District, Ladakh Union Territory. It is a part of t ...
includes the southernmost point administered as part of Xinjiang. Most of the prefecture has a
cold desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...
.


Administrative divisions

The Hotan Prefecture is divided into one
county-level city A county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a county-level administrative division of the People's Republic of China. County-level ...
and seven
counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
and surrounds Kunyu:


Demographics

According to the analysis of
Adrian Zenz Adrian Nikolaus Zenz (born 1974) is a German anthropologist known for his studies of the Xinjiang internment camps (also known as "re-education" camps) and Uyghur genocide. He is a senior fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Mem ...
, the population growth of Hotan declined significantly between 2015 and 2018. As of 2015, 2,248,113 (96.7%) of the 2,324,287 residents of the prefecture were Uyghur, 71,233 were
Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctiv ...
(3.1%) and 4,941 were from other ethnic groups. In 2014, according to a local government employee in the township of Langru in Hotan County, "Islamic beliefs are very strong" in the prefecture. As of the 2000s, the population of Hotan Prefecture was more than 95% Uyghur. As of 1999, 96.9% of the population of Hotan (Hetian) Prefecture was Uyghur and 3.1% of the population was Han Chinese. Residents of Hotan Prefecture commonly speak Uyghur and often do not speak
Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...
.


Notable persons

*
Ismail Amat Ismail Amat ( ug, ئىسمائىل ئەھمەد, translit=Isma'il Ehmet; zh , s = 司马义·艾买提 , p = Sīmǎyì Àimǎití ; September 1935 – 16 October 2018) was a Chinese politician of Uyghur ethnicity who served as Chairman (Governor ...
, former Chairman (Governor) of Xinjiang * Islam Akhun, con-man * Juma Tayir, imam of the Id Kah Mosque, murdered by ETIM terrorists *
Kurban Tulum Kurban Tulum ( ug, قۇربان تۇلۇم, translit=qurban tulum, ; 1883 – May 26, 1975), also called Uncle Kurban (), was a Uyghur who lived in Yutian County, Xinjiang, China in what was the Keriya oasis. He has been promoted by the Communi ...
, Member of the Fourth National People's Congress, a symbol of unity between Han people and the Uyghurs *
Ablajan Awut Ayup Ablajan Awut Ayup ( ug, ئابلاجان ئاۋۇت ئايۇپ; born 11 November 1984) is a singer, songwriter and dancer who wrote over 400 songs and was known for promoting Uyghur culture and identity as well as building a cultural bridge with ...
, a pop singer, songwriter and dancer * Abdul Haq, militant


Historical maps

Historical English-language maps including modern-day Hotan Prefecture area: File:Johnson-journey-ilchi1865-mapa.jpg, Map including ILCHÍ (1865) File:China West 1906-08 Sven Hedin.jpg, Map of the expeditions of Sven Hedin (1906-8) including the southern part of the modern Hotan Prefecture ( RGS, early 20th century) File:STANFORD(1917) p61 PLATE19. SINKIANG (14597194848).jpg, Map including Hotan (labeled as Khotan) (1917) File:Txu-oclc-6654394-nj-44-3rd-ed.jpg, Map including most of northern Hotan Prefecture area ( USATC, 1971) File:Operational Navigation Chart G-7, 6th edition.jpg, From the Operational Navigation Chart; map including Hotan Prefecture area ( DMA, 1980) File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 g-7a.jpg, Map including Hotan Prefecture area (northwest) ( DMA, 1984) File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 g-7b.jpg, Map including Hotan Prefecture area (northeast) ( DMA, 1990) File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 g-7d.jpg, Map including Hotan Prefecture area (southwest) with Aksai Chin ( DMA, 1995)


Notes


Footnotes


External links


Hotan Government website Hotan Government website Silk Road in Photographs > Khotan
{{Prefectural-level divisions of the People's Republic of China Prefecture-level divisions of Xinjiang