Rituals and Myths： Exploring the Primitive Religious Beliefs of Ancient Khotan

This chapter investigates the primitive religious beliefs of ancient Khotan by analyzing the five Qushu woolen carpets dating to circa 560 CE as evidence of ritual altars. Specifically, the two large carpets depict a pantheon of underworld and immortality deities—including Hermes, Persephone, Hephaestus, and Inanna—which are framed by griffin motifs symbolizing the separation between divine and mortal realms. The three square carpets feature the Khotanese inscription, “spāvatä meri sūmä hoḍä” (meaning “Sūma offered to Sapōmeri”), thereby identifying sūmä (cognate with Vedic Soma / Iranian Haoma) as an elixir of immortality. By correlating these findings with Xuanzang’s Legend of the Dragon Drums and the Tibetan Prophecy of the Khotan Kingdom, the author posits that these carpets were commissioned for a state ritual. This ritual involved Minister Meri voluntarily sacrificing himself to a river dragon during a period of drought. Through the act of drinking sūmä and descending into the river, Meri was deified as Sūmapauña (the presumed etymological source of “Shanpula”). This entire iconography embodies a profound syncretism, fusing Mesopotamian, Greek, and Iranian mythological elements into a localized Khotanese belief system centered on resurrection and immortality.