Ho-t'ien

A form of Hetian — Synonym of Hotan: the Mandarin Chinese-derived name.

Meanings

proper noun
  1. alternativeAlternative form of Hetian (Hotan city).

    Again, Yü-tʻien or Ho-tʻien (Khotan), as it is now called, has been from time immemorial devoted to Mahometanism, as is amply borne out by Illustrated Notices of Western Countries, printed by Imperial authority.

    1923, The Travels of Fa-hsien, Cambridge University Press, →OCLC, →OL, pages 90–91
    3 more examples

    The Ho-t'ien Special District in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang, lying north of the K'un-lun Mountain and south of the T'a-k'o-la-ma-kan Desert, suffered regularly before the liberation from the menace of drought and sand storm.

    1966 May 31 [1966 March 11], “Managing Water Conservancy Through 500,000,000 Peasants”, in Translations on Communist China's Food and Agriculture, number 102, United States Joint Publications Research Service, sourced from Peiping, Jen-min Jih-pao (People's Daily), page 2, translation of original in Chinese, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16

    His last journey, begun in 1883, took him to the sources of the Hwang-ho, then to Lo-pu Po and finally to Ho-t'ien (Khotan), on the ancient Silk Road. He died at Karakol (near Lake Issyk-Kul), now named Przheval'sk after him.

    1974, “PRZHEVALSKY, NIKOLAI MIKHAILOVICH”, in Famous Explorers, David & Charles, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 102

    In September of 1937, two regiments of Soviet Kirghiz troops and one regiment of Russian troops equipped with forty airplanes and twenty tanks entered Sinkiang from Atushe and attacked Pa-ch'u, dividing Ma Hu-shan's 36th Corps into two sections. In October one Kirghiz regiment entered P'i-shan, and Ma Hu-shan fled to India. Kirghiz and Russian forces were now in occupation of Hami and poised to strike at Ho-t'ien in the extreme south of Sinkiang.

    1987, Arthur C. Hasiotis, Jr., “The Sheng Shih-ts'ai Regime and its Relations with the Soviet Union: 1933 to 1942”, in Soviet Political, Economic, and Military Involvement in Sinkiang from 1928 to 1949, Garland Publishing, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, pages 102–103
  2. alternativeAlternative form of Hetian (Hotan river).

    Ho-t’ien (hôʹtyěnʹ) or Kho·tan (kōʹtänʹ), town and oasis (1958 est. pop. 50,000), SW Sinkiang Uigur Autonomous Region, China, near the headstream of the Ho-t’ien River.

    1979, “Ho-t’ien or Kho·tan”, in The International Geographic Encyclopedia and Atlas, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 324, column 2
    4 more examples

    The Chinese side dismissed as of no account the Hsi yu t’u chih, a map from which the Indian side had brought forward as evidence. This disclosed a striking inconsistency, for the Chinese side themselves had elsewhere described the same work as “authoritative and comprehensive”, and “covering all important material”; and they had cited a passage from the 1782 edition of the work which vaguely referred to the sources of rivers being in Ho-t’ien, The Indian side pointed out that no specific conclusions about the boundary alignment could be drawn from this general statement. On the other hand, the 1762 edition of this work clearly stated that the “Ho-t’ien river rises from the Nan Shan” mountains, which were the same as the Kuen Lun mountains. Another map in the same work categorically affirmed that Sinkiang did not extend any further south than the Sanjutagh, which was nearly 60 miles north of the Kuen Lun mountains.

    1961 February, “Report of the Officials of the Governments of India and the People's Republic of China on the Boundary Question”, in Selected works of Jawaharlal Nehru (2nd), published 2016, →ISBN, →OCLC, page SW 103

    Yü-t’ien is a state located in an area known as Ho-t’ien since the eighteenth century (not to be confused with the Yü-t’ien District set up in late nineteenth century some 150 kilometers to the east). Ho-t’ien is situated in southwestern Sinkiang just below the northern foothills of the Karakorem Range and near the upper reaches of a water course, the Ho-t’ien or South Ts’ung-ling River. To the west is the Kashgar or North Ts’ung-ling River. The two join the Yerkand River and form the Tarim River system in south-central Sinkiang. These rivers have their headwaters in the Ts’ung-ling range, which is the general term for the eastern part of the Pamir Heights. The White-Jade River and the Green-Jade River, as mentioned in the present book, are probably the Ho-t’ien and the Kashgar.

    1966 [1637], Sung Ying-Hsing, translated by E-tu Zen Sun and Shiou-Chuan Sun, Chinese Technology in the Seventeenth Century: T'ien-kung K'ai-wu, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, published 1997, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 309, 356

    Khotan (Chinese Ho-t'ien) is a town and oasis on the Ho-t'ien river in southwestern Sinkiang Uighur, western China, about 160 miles southeast of So'ch'e^([sic – meaning So-ch'e]).

    1988 October, R. J. Hébert, “A Devotional Medal from Khotan”, in Numismatics International Bulletin, volume 22, number 10, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 236

    The Tarim basin receives its name from the river Tarim in Xinjiang, northwest China. Its headwaters, the Yarkand and Khotan (Ho-t’ien) rivers, are formed by snow and glacial streams in the Karakurum and Kunlun mountain ranges in the area in south-west Xinjiang bordering Kashmir.

    2002, Necati Polat, “Transboundary Waters”, in Boundary Issues in Central Asia, Transnational Publishers, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 131

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see

Origin

  1. Mandarin和田
  2. Mandarin和闐 /和阗
  3. EnglishHo-t'ien

From Mandarin 和闐 /和阗 (Hétián) Wade–Giles romanization: Ho²-tʻien². and/or From Mandarin 和田 (Hétián) Wade–Giles romanization: Ho²-tʻien².

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Ho-t'ien. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Ho-t'ien

MLA

“Ho-t'ien.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Ho-t'ien. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Ho-t'ien,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Ho-t'ien.

Source: Ho-t'ien on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.