Emperor Ming promotes Ban and commissions him to next visit Yutian (Khotan), at this time the most powerful kingdom in southern Xiyu, which has a strong alliance with the North Xiongnu.

Guangde, the King of Yutian, trusts his chief warlock, who demands Ban's horse.

Ban agrees to give him the horse, and then, when the warlock arrives to pick up the horse, immediately executes him, and sends his head back to Guangde.

Impressed, Gunagde submits to Han suzerainty.

With Yutian having submitted, the Xiyu kingdoms largely all submit as well.

Emperor Taizong of Tang in 640 had launched a campaign against the Western Regions and the Kingdom of Khotan had submitted to the Tang emperor.

The Four Garrisons of Anxi had been established, one of them at Khotan.

The Tibetans had subsequently defeated the Chinese and had taken control of the Four Garrisons, and the Khotanese had helped the Tibetans to conquer Aksu.

Tang China under Empress Wu in 692 regains control.

Khotan is made a protectorate.

The Sakas (also called Kshatrapas), a name deriving from the native word in northwestern India for Scythian, refers to either of two dynasties of satraps in northwestern India who ruled in the first four centuries CE with considerable independence on behalf of the Pahlava suzerains.

The extinct Middle Iranian Saka language, also called Khotanese, is last spoken in Sinkiang, in northwestern China, by the Saka tribes of the kingdom of Khotan.

The main Khotanese dialect (the other Saka dialect, known from only one Buddhist fragment, is the closely related Tumshuq, formerly known as Maralbash) appears in Buddhist and other texts dating from the seventh to the tenth century.

Written in Brahmi script, the texts contain many loanwords from the Prakrit languages of India.