Sand Buried Ruin of Khotan 52 - Pan-darin, Amban of Khotan, with personal attendants - this photo also appears in several of Stein's reports, as well as other photos of Pan-darin. This Amban rendered the most assistance to Stein during his three expeditions. By the second Pan-darin had been promoted to Ak-su and by the third to Urumchi. Stein gained immediate friendship by showing Pan-darin the texts of medieval Buddhist pilgrims that he was following. Stein called Hsuan-tang his 'patron saint' whose memoir opened many doors for Stein.