ABSTRACT
From the 1st century BC until the Tibetan conquest in the second half of the 8th century, the southern fringes of the Takla-makan desert were dominated by two political entities, Khotan in the West and Shanshan in the East. The political power centre of Khotan seems to have been very stable through the centuries, situated in Yotkan a few kilometres to the west of present-day Khotan." In Shanshan, also known as Loulan or Kroraina, the situation was less stable. The first capital may have been the city of Loulan, once situated on the western shore of Lake Lop-nor and for environmental reasons abandoned in the 4th century (and finally rediscovered in 1901 by Sven Hedin). The cities of Miran, Cherchen and Vash-shahri might also at various times have served as capitals of the kingdom.12 This political, and to some extent cultural, division of the southern Silk Road between the two states was in effect from at least the first century BC until the Tibetan conquest of the whole area in the 8th century.
