Khotan was especially famous for producing high-quality nephrite jade traded along the Silk Road.
Khotan, also spelled Hotan or Hetian, is an oasis city in the southern Tarim Basin of present-day Xinjiang, China. Rivers descending from the Kunlun Mountains carried jade pebbles into the region, making the oasis a major source of both white and green nephrite.
Jade had exceptional value in China long before the Silk Road flourished. It was used for ritual objects, ornaments, seals, weapons, and elite burial goods. Khotan’s jade therefore moved eastward through desert routes and became closely associated with imperial demand.
Khotan was also a center of Buddhism, agriculture, textiles, and manuscript culture. Its position on the southern branch of routes around the Taklamakan made it an important intermediary between China and Central Asia. Historical accounts sometimes distinguish Khotan jade from other stones or use changing names for the city, but the oasis’s jade reputation is one of its most enduring Silk Road associations.