Lop County
county in Hotan Prefecture, China
Lop County (, Uyghur: لوپ ناھىيىسى), also Luopu (from Mandarin Chinese), is a county in Hotan Prefecture, in the southwest of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. Almost all the residents of the county are Uyghur and live around oases situated between the desolate Taklamakan Desert and Kunlun Mountains. The county is bordered to the north by Aksu and Awat County in Aksu Prefecture, to the east by Qira/Chira County, to the northwest by Karakax County, to the west by Hotan (Khotan) and to the south and west by Hotan County.
History
Local inhabitants at Sampul cemetery (Shanpula; سامپۇل / 山普拉) around 14 km (8.7 mi) where art such as the Sampul tapestry has been found, buried their dead from roughly 217 BCE to 283 CE. The analysis of mtDNA haplogroup distribution showed that the Sampula inhabitants had a large mixture of East Asian, West-Asian and European characteristics. According to Chengzhi et al. (2007), analysis of maternal mitochondrial DNA of the human remains has revealed genetic affinities at the maternal side to Ossetians and Iranians, an Eastern-Mediterranean paternal lineage.
Archaeologist Aurel Stein visited Rawak Stupa during his First Central Asian expedition in April 1901.
Lop County was established in August 1902.
In May 1956, Abdimit, a Sufi shaykh from Khotan, attempted to incite insurrection in the county which was put down by armed troops and police forces.
The Sampul tapestry was discovered in Sampul in the mid-1980s.
The public source identifies “Lop County” as county in Hotan Prefecture, China. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around County, county and Hotan.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Lop County”, the useful work is to connect “county in Hotan Prefecture, China” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 4, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q929803. Authority coordinates are 37.073, 80.181. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2007, 1901, 1902 and 1956.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Lop County”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Lop County primary sources, Lop County archive and County research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lop County”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Lop County” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.