The Kingdom of Khotan (Tib. ལི་ཡུལ་, Wyl. li yul) is an ancient Buddhist kingdom that was located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim basin―the area lies in present day Xinjiang, China. It 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.
According to legend, the foundation of Khotan occurred when Kushtana, said to be a son of the Indian Buddhist emperor Ashoka, settled there in the early 3rd century BCE.
However, it is likely to have existed earlier than this as the Yuezhi (known later as the Kushans) had been trading the famous nephrite jade from the region to China for some centuries prior to this.<ref> Sir Harold Bailey, Indo-Scythian Studies: Khotanese Texts Volume VII</ref>
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