* Khotan Emirate, 1933 northwest China, merged into First East Turkestan Republic

While this was transpiring, in the nearby southern Tarim Basin city of Khotan, three brothers of rich Bughra family, Muhammad Amin Bughra, Abdullah Bughra and Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra, educated in the jadidist tradition, had led a rebellion of gold miners who worked in Surghak mines near Keriya city, also in Yurunkash and Karakash mountain rivers, and established themselves as emirs of the city, having declared the Khotan Emirate and independence from China on March 16, 1933.

Established distinct from the Khotan Emirate, the ETR claimed authority over territory stretching from Aksu along the northern rim of the Tarim Basin to Khotan in the south.

The Chinese guarded their knowledge of silk, but, 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.

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.

The one Tarim city state still independent of either Qarakhanid or Uyghur control at this point was Khotan, a Buddhist kingdom whose inhabitants, like those of early Kashgar and Yarkand, spoke the Iranian Saka tongue.

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.

Khotan Silk Factory is one of the notable silk producers in Hotan.

The Four Garrisons of Anxi was established, one of them at Khotan.

* 131: Fangqian, the king of Khotan, sends one of his sons to serve and offer tribute at the Chinese Imperial Palace.

* 670: Tibet invades and conquers Khotan ( now known as one of the " four garrisons ").

He remained in Kashgar until April, 1895 and then left on April 10 with three local escorts from the village of Merket in order to cross the Taklamakan Desert via Tusluk to the Khotan River.

However, another high official, Xiumo Ba, plotted, in his turn, with a Chinese man, Han Rong, and others, to kill Dumo and his brothers, then he named himself king of Yutian ( Khotan ).

As early as 645 BCE, the Yuezhi ( known later as the Kushans ) was mentioned as supplier of the famous nephrite jade from the region to China, and the excavations of Shang dynasty ( 1600 – 1046 BCE ) tomb of Fu Hao, showed that all the jade originated from the oases area of Khotan.

Mohammed Yakub ( also known as Yakub Beg ), 1820-1877 conquered Khotan, Aksu, Kashgar, and neighbouring towns with the help of the Russians in the 1860s.

Guma ( Goma ) Town (; Pinyin: Gùmǎ Zhèn, Uyghur: گۇما بازىرى ), also known as Pishan Town ( Chinese: 皮山镇 ; pinyin: Píshān ) ( written 皮亢 Pikang in the Weilüe ) is an ancient oasis town on the main caravan route between Khotan and Karghalik and, in Han times, the route left from here to go to Arachosia ( Kandahar ) through Hunza.

* 116: The Kushans, under Kanishka, establish a kingdom centered on Kashgar, also taking control of Khotan and Yarkand — previously Chinese dependencies in the Tarim Basin, modern Xinjiang.

Later, around 116, the Kushans under Kanishka established a kingdom centered on Kashgar, also taking control of Khotan and Yarkand, which were Chinese dependencies in the Tarim Basin, modern Xinjiang.

It was also in use in Kushan, Sogdiana ( see Issyk kurgan ) and along the Silk Road where there is some evidence it may have survived until the 7th century in the remote way stations of Khotan and Niya.

Hotan (), or Hetian (, formerly: ), also often written Khotan, is the seat of the Hotan Prefecture in Xinjiang, China.

: Xian also banished the king of Yutian ( Khotan ), Yulin, to be king of Ligui and set up his younger brother, Weishi, as king of Yutian.

From about the earliest Chinese dynasties until present, the jade deposits in most use were from the region of Khotan in the Western Chinese province of Xinjiang ( jade deposits from other areas of China, such as Lantian, Shaanxi, were also in great demand ).

Loulan was on the main route from Dunhuang to Korla, where it joined the so-called " northern route ", and was also connected by a route southwest to the kingdom ’ s seat of government in the town of Wuni in the Charkhlik / Ruoqiang oasis, and from thence to Khotan and Yarkand.

Tibetan Empire, Kingdom of Khotan, Liao Dynasty, Western Xia, Jin Dynasty ( 1115 – 1234 ), Kara-Khitan Khanate, Mongol Empire, Northern Yuan Dynasty, Qing Dynasty, Nguyễn Dynasty, Joseon Dynasty, Bogd Khaanate of Mongolia and North Korea also use non-Chinese era names.

They travelled by way of the former Tangut country, Khotan, Kashgar, Talas in the Syr Darya valley, Khorasan ( present day Afghanistan ), Maragha ( Azerbaijan ) and Mosul, arriving at Ani in Armenia.

The Book of the Later Han, Hou Hanshu, states that general Ban Chao fought battles near Khotan with a Kushan army of 70, 000 men led by an otherwise unknown Kushan viceroy named Xie ( Chinese: 謝 ) in 90 CE.

Rong, the son of Weishi, fled and made submission to the Han, who named him: “ Marquis Who Maintains Virtue .” A general from Suoju ( Yarkand ), named Junde, had been posted to Yutian ( Khotan ), and tyrannised the people there who became indignant.

A powerful wizard named Thugra Khotan is awoken from his three-thousand year sleep by an audacious yet unlucky Zamoran thief named Shevatas ( he does not survive the experience ).

Some of the kingdoms paying tribute to the Tang Dynasty included Kashmir, Nepal, Khotan, Kucha, Kashgar, Japan, Korea, Champa, and kingdoms located in Amu Darya and Syr Darya valley.

In 1006, Yusuf Kadr Khan of Kashgar conquered the Kingdom of Khotan.

The Khitans then conquered Kashgar, Khotan, and Beshbalik.

This theory proposes that that the monks of a nearby monastery heard about the fall of the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan to Karakhanids invaders from Kashgar in 1006 and the destruction it caused, so they sealed their library to avoid them being destroyed.

After leaving New York, the Roerichs – together with their son George and six friends – went on the five-year long ' Roerich Asian Expedition ' that, in Roerich's own words: " started from Sikkim through Punjab, Kashmir, Ladakh, the Karakoram Mountains, Khotan, Kashgar, Qara Shar, Urumchi, Irtysh, the Altai Mountains, the Oryot region of Mongolia, the Central Gobi, Kansu, Tsaidam, and Tibet " with a detour through Siberia to Moscow in 1926.

As a result, for a period ( until the Chinese regained control c. 127 CE ) the territory of the Kushans extended for a short period as far as Kashgar, Khotan and Yarkand, which were Chinese dependencies in the Tarim Basin, modern Xinjiang.

They captured territories as far as Kashgar, Khotan and Yarkant, in the Tarim Basin of modern-day Xinjiang, China.

In January, 1896, after a stopover in Kashgar, Hedin visited the 1, 500 year old abandoned cities of Dandan Oilik and Kara Dung, which are located northeast of Khotan in the Taklamakan desert.

Satuq's son, Musa, began to put pressure on Khotan in the mid-900s, and sometime before 1006 Yusuf Qadir Khan of Kashgar besieged and took the city.

Initially they had some success, briefly capturing Kashgar from the Karakhanids in 970, but in 1006, the Karakhanid Yusuf Kadr Khan of Kashgar conquered Khotan, ending Khotan's existence as an independent state.

* 127: The Chinese general Ban Yong attacked and subdued Karashahr ; and then Kucha, Kashgar, Khotan, Yarkand, and other kingdoms, seventeen altogether, who all came to submit to China.

* 132: The Chinese sent the king of Kashgar, Chenpan, who with 20, 000 men, attacked and defeated Khotan.

* 971: A Buddhist priest ( Jixiang ) brings a letter from the king of Khotan to the Chinese emperor offering to send a dancing elephant which he had captured from Kashgar.

* The southern Tarim route ran from Kashgar over Yarkant, Karghalik, Pishan, Khotan, Keriya, Niya, Qarqan, Qarkilik, Miran and Dunhuang to Anxi.

Yarkant is strategically located about half way between Kashgar and Khotan, at the junction of a branch road north to Aksu.

In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the Moghul khanate of Kashgar underwent a period of decentralization, with numerous subkhanates springing up with centers at Kashgar, Yarkand, Aksu and Khotan.

This included the kingdoms of Kashgar, Loulan, and Khotan, which were returned to Chinese control.