HISTORY OF KHOTAN 
781 
were all covered with plates of gold. Separate rooms 
have been built for the priests, and they were extra- 
ordinarily beautiful and well decorated.” 
Thus we learn from the Chinese chronicle that about 
the year 400 Khotan was a city of some magnificence, 
and the seat of a vigorous and flourishing cult of 
Buddha. 
In another place the same chronicler tells us that there 
were many temples and towers round about the town, 
and a large crowd of temple servants of both sexes. 
The great quantity of images of Buddha which have 
been unearthed from the loess terraces of Borasan, some 
of which I discovered myself, bear witness to the 
credibility of the Chinese traveller. Even at the time 
of his visit Borasan, the Birasana of Indian writers, had 
beyond question been for centuries a focus of Buddhism, 
and a centre of pilgrimage in great favour with the 
faithful. And the same deductions may be drawn from 
the terra-cotta images, which are at least seven hundred 
years older ; in fact they date back to a time before 
there was any connection between China and Khotan. 
But since the fifth century the town .seems to have 
gradually declined in importance. The chronicles speak 
indeed of the embassies which the kings of Khotan sent 
to the Emperors of China ; but nothing more is said about 
magnificent festivals. 
We also possess a legend about an image of Buddha, 
dating from the year 632, and which at that time existed 
in the town of Pi-ma, west of Khotan (possibly to be 
identified wdth the existing Pialma). The image in 
question was twenty feet high, and was carved out of 
sandal- wood. It possessed certain wonderful properties, 
amongst others that of continuously emitting a bright 
light. In former times it was taken to the town of 
Ho-lao-lo-kia, whose wealthy inhabitants gave them- 
selves up to luxurious living, and neglected their gods. 
Then there came a rahan or learned man, seeking to 
worship the image. But the inhabitants of the place 
grew wroth with the rahan, and buried him up to the 
