Khotan Kelims of the Silk Road: Myth, Ritual and Ancient Central Asian Civilization

This book examines Qushu carpets from the Xinjiang Hotan region using an interdisciplinary approach. Covering Khotan Buddhist culture, Persian artistic influences, and Silk Road exchanges, the study fills a significant gap in research on medieval Western Regions visual texts. It employs a three-tiered framework of “artifact analysis-symbolic decoding-cultural interpretation” to reveal the dual function of Qushu carpets as religious vehicles and media for social memory. Its primary strength lies in the systematic reconstruction of the visual language of the Khotan civilization, a first in the field.

This work addresses the academic community’s need for studies of non-textual historical sources along the Southern Silk Road, providing a new paradigm for Buddhist art history and material culture studies. By deconstructing esoteric Buddhist rituals and creation myths within the patterns, it responds to inquiries in international Dunhuang studies regarding the fusion of diverse beliefs. Additionally, it offers the public a visual pathway to understanding Western Regions civilization, demonstrating both scholarly innovation and cultural dissemination value.

Professor Qing Duan (1953-2022), a distinguished Boya Chair Professor at Peking University, has dedicated her career to teaching and rigorously investigating Middle Iranian languages, Sanskrit, Pali, and Gandhari. Internationally renowned, her scholarly achievements are especially significant in the fields of Indology, Buddhist studies, Silk Road manuscript research, and the study of Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscripts.Her previous works includes the publication of An Introduction to Pāṇini’s Grammar (2001), Khotan, Buddhism, and Ancient Manuscripts (2013), Xiyu Documents in the National Library of China: Khotanese Volume (I) (2015), Kharoṣṭhī Correspondence in the Qinghai Tibetan Medicine Culture Museum (2016) and so on.