or Mugala Town : 木尕拉镇, Pinyin : Mùgǎlā Zhèn; Ugyhur : كېرىيە /
Keriyə), is a town in Keriya County , Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region , on the old Southern Silk Road . As the commercial and
administrative centre of Keriya County, it is about 166 km east
of Khotan , 80 km east of Qira, and 120 km west of Niya . Yutian
County has a population of about 160,000. During the Han Dynasty
the kingdom based on the Keriya Oasis was known as Jumi (拘彌).
The Hou Hanshu records that during the Later Han Dynasty (25-220
CE) there were "2,173 households, 7,251 individuals, and 1,760
people able to bear arms" in Jumi. The small modern town of
Keriya is situated on the western bank of the Keriya River.
Approximately 180 km north along the Keriya River is the ancient
fortified site of Karadong where the world's oldest Buddhist
murals have been found. It was abandoned in the 4th century CE.
Another site, Yuan Sha, some 40 km north of Karadong, dates from
the Iron Age but was abandoned by about 130 BCE. There is a
village about 7