Tibetan Buddhist Icons Produced in Silk

Xie Jisheng, Translated by Xinhui Yang
Blue-skinned deity raises sword in dynamic pose against orange nimbus; features portraits at top, bottom, and in corners

Achala; composition designed in Tangut Xixia, possibly produced/woven in Dingzhou (present-day Baoding, Hebei Province, China); early–mid-13th century; kesi silk tapestry with seed pearl; 35 3/8 × 22 in. (90 × 56 cm); Potala Palace Collection, Lhasa; image after Tibet Museum. 2001. Beijing: Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, 4

Achala Silk Tapestry

Composition: Tangut Kingdom (Xixia), possibly produced in Dingzhou (present-day Baoding, Hebei Province, China) early to mid-13th century

Achala; composition designed in Tangut Xixia, possibly produced/woven in Dingzhou (present-day Baoding, Hebei Province, China); early–mid-13th century; kesi silk tapestry with seed pearl; 35 3/8 × 22 in. (90 × 56 cm); Potala Palace Collection, Lhasa; image after Tibet Museum. 2001. Beijing: Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, 4

Summary

Tibetologist Xie Jisheng examines how the highly technical tradition of kesi (“carved silk”) in a woven silk thangka testifies to a cosmopolitan culture under Tangut rule that embraced Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism. The exceptional weaving skills of Uyghur craftsmen helped give rise to new artistic forms of Buddhist icons in the luxury medium of silk. A monk from Tsongkha commissioned this image as a gift for his guru in central Tibet.

Key Terms

deity

Different Asian religious traditions posit different types of divine beings. Hindus generally believe in an all-encompassing God-like being, called Brahman. They also believe in a variety of other gods (deva), including Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Early Buddhists denied the existence of a single, all-powerful creator god. Nevertheless, they always recognized a variety of powerful spirits, like gandharvas and nagas. Mahayana Buddhists came to see bodhisattvas as beings of enormous power, and buddhas themselves as cosmic beings with the ability to create entire universes. Buddhist and Bon traditions in Tibet worshiped a variety of other gods (Tib. lha), like the mountain gods, or gods of the land. According to Buddhist tradition, enlightened deities are seen as beyond the cycle of death and rebirth, whereas gods (including Hindu gods) are not.

donor

In Buddhist context, donor is a person who contributes to or commissions a religious work of art. This act is intended to increase merit on behalf of the benefactor and is dedicated to the benefit of all. It is also usually done for a specific purpose, such as longevity, prosperity, or well-being; to advance religious practice; or to ensure a good rebirth of a deceased relative, teacher, or friend. A similar practice is also known in Hinduism and Bon.

kesi

Kesi is a type of silk weaving known from China and eastern Central Asia, originally associated with the Sogdian and Uyghur peoples. Kesi uses raw silk for the warp and boiled silk of various colors for the weft, producing vivid blocks of color. As the finished surface has a carved-like effect, giving the textile a three-dimensional quality, the technique became known as kesi, which literally means “carved silk.” By the early thirteenth century, the Tanguts employed this luxury medium for the creation of Tibetan Buddhist icons, which would be emulated by other courts, such as the Mongols, Chinese, and Manchus.

mantra

In Hinduism and Buddhism, mantras are short syllables or phrases that are thought to have power. Mantras may be chanted by devotees as part of daily practice, or pronounced during rituals to invoke the deity’s power. In tantric Hinduism and Vajrayana Buddhism, practitioners perform meditative deity-yoga by first visualizing “root” or “seed” syllables, and then generating the yidam deities out of these mantras during the process known as visualization.

Tanguts

The Tanguts were an ethnic group in medieval East-Central Asia, who called themselves Minyak and spoke a language distantly related to Tibetan. Between 1038 and 1227 CE the Tanguts ruled a state in what is now the Chinese provinces of Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai. This state took the Chinese dynastic name of Xia, also called Xixia “Western Xia.” The Tangut-Xixia emperors were major patrons of Buddhism, inviting both Chinese and Tibetan monks to teach in the capital, and instituting major Buddhist translation and printing projects in three languages. The Tangut state was destroyed by the armies of Chinggis Khan, leading to their absorption into the Mongol Empire, where many Tanguts served as officials.

Tibetan script

The Tibetan script is used to write the Tibetan language, as well as several other smaller Himalayan languages. Based on the Brahmi script used in the Gupta Empire in India, the Tibetan script was developed under the Tibetan Empire in the seventh century and is credited to minister Tonmi Sambhota (b. 619?). Two important forms of the Tibetan script are “Uchen” (Tib. “having a head”), a standard type used in printed texts, and “Umey” (Tib. “headless”), a cursive form sometimes used in manuscripts. There are many other cursive and decorative forms of the script.

The Tangut kingdom of (1038–1227) was a small but significant multiethnic kingdom that ruled the eastern end of the trade routes that connected east with west, known as the Silk Road. Tangut integrated Tibetan and Chinese religious and artistic traditions and established many practices, including the use of silk for the production of Tibetan Buddhist images. The created with the technique known as (carved silk) because of the effect it produced appeared as a special form of Tibetan art around the thirteenth century. The technique combined influences from Tibet, Tangut Xixia, and Chinese Song in the Amdo area, testifying to the exchange among different peoples during the period.

Achala

In esoteric Buddhist practice the primordial buddhas have in their retinue five deities (vidyarajas) to guard four cardinal directions and the center. , one of the vidyarajas, is an emanation of and often served as guardian in early central Tibetan monasteries. He seems to have been a popular among the Tanguts, as many depictions of Achala can be found among extant Xixia hanging scrolls (thangka) (fig. 2).

Silk Tapestry

The kesi weaving technique, introduced to China from Central Asia during the Tang dynasty (618–907), was at first employed mainly for book decoration. From the tenth century (Five Dynasties period), artisans began to produce works of calligraphy and painted compositions by means of this weaving technique. This method uses raw silk (shengsi) as the warp and boiled silk (shusi) of various colors as the weft. Wielding a shuttle, the artisan weaves the pattern based on a painted design specially prepared for this technique. As the finished surface produces a carved-like effect, giving the textile a three-dimensional quality, the technique became known as kesi, which literally means “carved silk.” Many silk tapestries produced in the Tang and Song dynasties (960–1279) feature patterns of flowers and birds; figural images did not become popular until the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279).

The Tanguts innovatively produced silk tapestry featuring Tibetan Buddhist images, or thangkas, by employing artisans (a people from today’s region) who migrated to the Xixia territory. The Uyghur had learned the kesi technique in the Dingzhou region (in modern-day northwest Hebei Province) during the Northern Song (960–1127), where they had settled previously. Their creative efforts generated a new artistic idiom that was followed in most silk tapestry thangkas of the Yuan (1271–1368) and Ming (1368–1644) periods, such as seen in the famous Vajrabhairava silk tapestry (ca. 1329) now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Examples of Tangut kesi, including the Green (fig. 3) excavated at Khara-Khoto, the portrait of Lama Zhang (1123–1194) (fig. 4) preserved in the Potala Palace, and the Achala seen here, possess high artistic and historical value.

Green-skinned goddess seated underneath arched structure bearing deity portraits and floral motifs in light blues
Fig. 3

Green Tara; Khara-Khoto, Inner Mongolia, China; Western Xia; late 12th–13th century; silk tapestry with slits (kesi); 39 3/4 × 20 5/8 in. (101 × 52.5 cm); State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg; photograph by Vladimir Terebenin © The State Hermitage Museum

Monk wearing saffron and red robes, hands posed in mudras, seated on lotus pedestal surrounded by miniature portraits
Fig. 4

Lama Zhang; Tangut Xixia (1032–1227); kesi silk tapestry; 33 1/8 × 21 1/4 in. (84 × 54 cm); Potala Palace Collection, Lhasa; image after Xizang bowuguan, p. 4

Composition and Iconography

This Achala silk tapestry was based on an initial drawing or painting. The motifs of this relatively simple composition are highly decorative, with highly contrasting colors.

At the very top of the thangka (fig. 1) sit the Five Tathagatas of the (diamond realm): from left to right, Amoghasiddhi of the north, of the east, Vairochana of the center, performing the gesture of ultimate enlightenment (uttarabodhi or bodhyagri mudra), of the west, and of the south. A large image of blue Achala, situated inside a red aureole, takes up the center of the thangka. He has one face and three eyes. His hair is tied up in a three-petaled crown commonly worn by . An image of Akshobhya embellishes his hair bun. Achala is kneeling with one knee touching the ground, a position often seen in Xixia thangkas, termed Achalasana, or the “posture of Achala.” Dressed in a lower garment () with multicolored bands, he raises his right hand, holding a sword, while his left hand performs the threatening (tarjani) with a lasso around his index finger.

Above Achala, a black cartouche is inscribed in gold with the Three-Syllable Root Mantra and of bodhisattvas. From the left side: 1) the Three-Syllable Mantra, Om a hum; 2) the mantra of , Om mani padme hum; 3) the mantra of Achala, Om tsen da ma ha ro sha na hum pat; 4) the mantra of Tara, Om ta re tu ta re tu re swaha; and 5) the mantra of the Crown: Om bhum swaha.

In the lower corners adjacent to the primary deity’s lotus are the three-faced, six-armed Vajrasarasvati and the three-faced, eight-armed (White Parasol). Green Tara, at the center of the bottom register, is flanked by Four-Armed Avalokiteshvara and (Victorious Crown Ornament). At the lower corners are two protective deities of the tradition: the standing two-armed (left), who holds a gandi stick, and (right).

The combination of Achala and the Five Tathagatas symbolizes right effort in practicing the Buddha . Vajrasarasvati and Sitatapatra indicate the guru’s unhindered capacity of speech and auspiciousness, respectively. Green Tara, Avalokiteshvara, and Ushnishavijaya represent the salvation of sentient beings.

The Patron and Recipient

At the bottom of the composition, a golden inscription names both the patron and recipient: “The Khampa disciple Chang Tsondrudrak offers [this image] to Jetsun Khon Drakpa Gyeltsen, the great spiritual guide.” The recipient named here, Khon Drakpa Gyeltsen, refers to the famous third patriarch of the Sakya tradition, who lived from 1147 to 1216. The fact that the patron named in the inscription, Chang Tsondrudrak, was able to commission such an expensive silk tapestry thangka signals his high status. In the colophon of his Precious Rosary of Religious Practice, Drakpa Gyeltsen suggests, “The Sakya upāsaka (lay practitioner) Drakpa Gyeltsen received a request from Tsongkha’s [Changton] bhiku (fully ordained monk) Tsöndrüdrak, by which [this text was] perceptively written after the foremost meritorious one.” Another text by the same author, Noble Ornament of the Tent, relates that “(a student named) Chenton Tsondrudrak delightfully participated in copying in the sixth month, the year of male iron-horse (1210), at the in Tsang.” Genealogy of the Sakya contains a list of Drakpa Gyeltsen’s disciples, among whom four had names with the element drak. One of them, Tsangton Tsondrubdrak, appears to be the name of this thangka , his name spelled slightly differently.

It is interesting to note that the patron calls himself a Khampa. Before the thirteenth century, “” often refers to the two regions of northeast and southeast Tibet, Do Kham, combined. The region of , where Drakpa Gyeltsen’s colophon tells us that the patron was from, is near the Huang River and is a part of Do (northeast Tibet), called Dome during the Yuan period. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, people of Tsongkha occasionally referred to themselves as Khampa. The who lived in Tsongkha were sometimes called Tanguts of Kham (Kham Minyak). For example, the two famous Xixia translators Tsami Lotsawa (twelfth century) and Ga Lotsawa (1110–1198) were both born in Tsongkha.

The people of the kingdom of Tsongkha (1008–1104) were self-proclaimed inheritors of the Tibetan Empire in the east, their ruler Gyelse (Chinese: Gusiluo; 997–1065), a descendant of the Tibetan emperors, using the old Tibetan imperial dynastic title . Monastic flourished in Tsongkha, and it played an important role in the revival of Buddhism in central Tibet as well as the transmission of to Tangut Xixia when they absorbed it.

Dating

The figure depicted above Achala at right can be identified as the first Sakya patriarch Kunga Nyingpo (1092–1158), and the figure above him at left, the second patriarch Sonam Tsemo (1142–1182). However, it is rare that the recipient of this thangka as mentioned in the inscription, Drakpa Gyeltsen—who was the last of the Three Lay Patriarchs of Sakya—does not appear in the composition, which suggests that Drakpa Gyeltsen was still alive when the original design of the thangka was commissioned. This also corresponds well with the date 1210, when Chang Tsondrudrak reportedly joined the sutra copying event held by Drakpa Gyeltsen at Sakya Monastery. Thus, the original painting this silk tapestry is based on was likely created in the early thirteenth century.

This Achala composition and other extant early kesi thangkas are related to the of Sakya or sect, roughly in the early to mid-thirteenth century. Just at this period, in Hangzhou and other Southern Song locations, no kesi technique for producing Tibetan Buddhist icons existed. From the ninth to the twelfth century, many Uyghur artisans migrated to the and North China, bringing new kesi skills with them, and the places where they settled became centers of kesi production. However, there was no tradition of kesi technique in the Tsongkha River basin or in central Tibet. Monk donors in the Xixia court who offered or donated a kesi thangka to his lama (guru) had to commission its weaving in the areas adjacent to Xixia. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, China’s kesi centers included Dingzhou, which linked Tangut Xixia, Khitan Liao (916–1125)/Jurchen Jin (1115–1234), and Chinese Northern Song by trade routes.

Footnotes
1

Śubhakarasiṃha, Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra, Tripitaka, vol. 18, no. 906, https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T18n0906_p0912b07?q.

2

Achala and Hayagriva protected the ritual precinct of the mandala, as in Yulin Cave 29 and Cave 7 at the Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves complex; Xie Jisheng, “Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhist Art in the Xixia Kingdom,” in Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, ed. Karl Debreczeny, trans. Michelle McCoy, Exhibition catalog (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2019), 83–103, http://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/faith_and_empire, 88.

3

Hong Hao 洪浩 (1088–1155), “Songmo Jiwen 松漠紀聞, Vol. 1,” in Quansong Biji全宋筆記, vol. 7 of part 3, Buddha and Buddha Worlds (Zhengzhou: Daxiang chubanshe, 208AD), 117; Zhou Mi 周密, “Shaoxing yufu shuhuashi紹興御府書畫式,” in Qidong yeyu 齊東野語, vol. 6, Shuhua zhuangbiao jiyi jishi書畫裝裱技藝集釋, ed. Du Bingzhuang 杜秉莊 and Du Zixiong 杜子熊 (Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1232), 210.

4

Cao Zhao曹昭 (ca. 13–14th century), Gegu Yaolun 格古要論 (Zhonghua shuju中華書局, 2012), 231; “Yuandai Huasu Ji 佚名 元代畫塑記 (ca. 13th Century),” in Sita Ji. Yizhou Minghua Lu. Yuandai Huasu Ji寺塔記·益州名畫錄·元代畫塑記 (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 2005), 1–3.

5

Dingzhou of the Northern Song (today’s Baoding, Hebei Province) was not only a center of silk tapestry production but also a pathway connecting the Xixia and the Liao. Until the Hongzhi period of the Ming dynasty, there still were Xixia descendants living in this region. See Hong Hao 洪浩 (1088–1155), “Songmo Jiwen 松漠紀聞, Vol. 1,” in Quansong Biji全宋筆記, vol. 7 of part 3, Buddha and Buddha Worlds (Zhengzhou: Daxiang chubanshe, 208AD), 117; Zhuang Chuo 莊綽, Jilei bian 雞肋編 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1983), 33.

6

yongs kyi dge ba’i bshes gnyen chen po/ rje btsun mkhon grags pa rgyal mtshan la/ khams pa slob ma cang brtson ’grus grags kyis phul ba lags/.

7

Tsangwang Gendun Tenpa, “Tibetan Buddhism and Art in the Mongol Empire According to Tibetan Sources,” in Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, ed. Karl Debreczeny, trans. Eveline Washul, Exhibition catalog (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2019), 105–23, http://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/faith_and_empire, 106; Grags pa rgyal mtshan 2007a, 241. 

8

Per K. Sørensen and Guntram Hazod, Rulers on the Celestial Plain: Ecclesiastic and Secular Hegemony in Medieval Tibet: A Study of Tshal Gung-thang (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007), 2:367–68; Grags pa rgyal mtshan, “Phags pa rdo rje gur gyi rgyan zhes bya ba,” in Gsung rab dpe bsdur ma pod gnyis pa, vol. 2 (Pe cin: Krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang, 2007), 247–48.

9

For Tsangton Tsondrubdrak (Gtsang ston brtson ’grub grags}, see Ngag dbang kun dga’ bsod nams, Sa Skya’i Gdung Rabs Ngo Mtshar Bang Mdzod (Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1986), 83.

10

Per K. Sørensen and Guntram Hazod, Rulers on the Celestial Plain: Ecclesiastic and Secular Hegemony in Medieval Tibet: A Study of Tshal Gung-thang (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007), 2:368.

11

Per K. Sørensen and Guntram Hazod, Rulers on the Celestial Plain: Ecclesiastic and Secular Hegemony in Medieval Tibet: A Study of Tshal Gung-thang (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007), 2:368.

12

The kingdom of Tsongkha is primarily known through Chinese sources, such as the Qingtang lu 青唐录.

13

See Xie Jisheng 謝繼勝, “Tubo Xixia lishi wenhua yuan yuan yu Xixia Zang chuan huihua” 吐蕃西夏历史文化渊源与西夏藏传绘画 [Tibetan-Xixia historical and cultural origins and Xixia-Tibetan painting],” Xizang yanjiu 西藏研究 3 (2001): 35–48; Xie Jisheng, “Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhist Art in the Xixia Kingdom,” in Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, ed. Karl Debreczeny, trans. Michelle McCoy, Exhibition catalog (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2019), 83–103, http://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/faith_and_empire, 83–85.

14

For different opinions on the dating of this silk tapestry, see Su Bai 宿白, “Yuan dai Hangzhou de Zang chuan mijiao ji qi you guan yiji” 元代杭州的藏传密教及其有关遗迹,” in Zang chuan fojiao siyuan kaogu 藏传佛教寺院考古 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1996), 375; James C.Y. Watt and Anne E. Wardwell, eds., “When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian and Chinese Textiles,” in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Cooperation with the Cleveland Museum of Art, Exhibition catalog (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in cooperation with the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1997), 91–93; Xie Jisheng 謝繼勝, “Tubo Xixia lishi wenhua yuan yuan yu Xixia Zang chuan huihua” 吐蕃西夏历史文化渊源与西夏藏传绘画 [Tibetan-Xixia historical and cultural origins and Xixia-Tibetan painting],” Xizang yanjiu 西藏研究 3 (2001): 35–48, 106–7; Per K. Sørensen and Guntram Hazod, Rulers on the Celestial Plain: Ecclesiastic and Secular Hegemony in Medieval Tibet: A Study of Tshal Gung-thang (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007), 367–76; Bernadette Broeskamp, “Dating the Kesi-Thangka of Acala in the Tibet Museum, Lhasa,” in Han Zang Fojiao Meishu Yanjiu—Di San Jie Xizang Kaogu Yu Yishu Guoji Xueshu Taolun Hui Lunwen Ji 漢藏佛教美術 研究—第三屆西藏考古與藝術國際學術討論會論文集 / Studies on Sino-Tibetan Buddhist ArtProceedings of the Third International Conference on Tibetan Archaeology and Art, ed. Xie Jisheng 謝繼勝 and Luo Wenhua 羅文華 (Beijing: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2009), 185–97; Tsangwang Gendun Tenpa, “Tibetan Buddhism and Art in the Mongol Empire According to Tibetan Sources,” in Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, ed. Karl Debreczeny, trans. Eveline Washul, Exhibition catalog (New York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2019), 105–23, http://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/faith_and_empire, 106–7.

Further Reading

Xie Jisheng. 2019. “Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhist Art in the Xixia Kingdom.” In Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddism, edited by Karl Debreczeny, 82–103. Exhibition catalog. New York: Rubin Museum of Art. https://issuu.com/rmanyc/docs/faith_and_empire. 

Watt, James C. Y., and Anne E. Wardell. 1997. When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian and Chinese Textiles, esp. 53–63, 90–103,202–9. Exhibition catalog. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sørensen, Per K., and Guntram Hazod. 2007. Rulers on the Celestial Plain: Ecclesiastic and Secular Hegemony in Medieval Tibet; A Study of Tshal Gung-thang, 2:253–38. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Citation

Xie Jisheng, translated by Xinhui Yang, “Achala Silk Tapestry: Tibetan Buddhist Icons Produced in Silk,” Project Himalayan Art, Rubin Museum of Art, 2023, http://rubinmuseum.org/projecthimalayanart/essays/achala-silk-tapestry.

deity

Different Asian religious traditions posit different types of divine beings. Hindus generally believe in an all-encompassing God-like being, called Brahman. They also believe in a variety of other gods (deva), including Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Early Buddhists denied the existence of a single, all-powerful creator god. Nevertheless, they always recognized a variety of powerful spirits, like gandharvas and nagas. Mahayana Buddhists came to see bodhisattvas as beings of enormous power, and buddhas themselves as cosmic beings with the ability to create entire universes. Buddhist and Bon traditions in Tibet worshiped a variety of other gods (Tib. lha), like the mountain gods, or gods of the land. According to Buddhist tradition, enlightened deities are seen as beyond the cycle of death and rebirth, whereas gods (including Hindu gods) are not.

donor

In Buddhist context, donor is a person who contributes to or commissions a religious work of art. This act is intended to increase merit on behalf of the benefactor and is dedicated to the benefit of all. It is also usually done for a specific purpose, such as longevity, prosperity, or well-being; to advance religious practice; or to ensure a good rebirth of a deceased relative, teacher, or friend. A similar practice is also known in Hinduism and Bon.

kesi

Language:
Chinese
Alternate terms:
silk tapestry

Kesi is a type of silk weaving known from China and eastern Central Asia, originally associated with the Sogdian and Uyghur peoples. Kesi uses raw silk for the warp and boiled silk of various colors for the weft, producing vivid blocks of color. As the finished surface has a carved-like effect, giving the textile a three-dimensional quality, the technique became known as kesi, which literally means “carved silk.” By the early thirteenth century, the Tanguts employed this luxury medium for the creation of Tibetan Buddhist icons, which would be emulated by other courts, such as the Mongols, Chinese, and Manchus.

mantra

Language:
Sanskrit

In Hinduism and Buddhism, mantras are short syllables or phrases that are thought to have power. Mantras may be chanted by devotees as part of daily practice, or pronounced during rituals to invoke the deity’s power. In tantric Hinduism and Vajrayana Buddhism, practitioners perform meditative deity-yoga by first visualizing “root” or “seed” syllables, and then generating the yidam deities out of these mantras during the process known as visualization.

Tanguts

Alternate terms:
Xixia, Tangut-Xixia

The Tanguts were an ethnic group in medieval East-Central Asia, who called themselves Minyak and spoke a language distantly related to Tibetan. Between 1038 and 1227 CE the Tanguts ruled a state in what is now the Chinese provinces of Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai. This state took the Chinese dynastic name of Xia, also called Xixia “Western Xia.” The Tangut-Xixia emperors were major patrons of Buddhism, inviting both Chinese and Tibetan monks to teach in the capital, and instituting major Buddhist translation and printing projects in three languages. The Tangut state was destroyed by the armies of Chinggis Khan, leading to their absorption into the Mongol Empire, where many Tanguts served as officials.

Tibetan script

The Tibetan script is used to write the Tibetan language, as well as several other smaller Himalayan languages. Based on the Brahmi script used in the Gupta Empire in India, the Tibetan script was developed under the Tibetan Empire in the seventh century and is credited to minister Tonmi Sambhota (b. 619?). Two important forms of the Tibetan script are “Uchen” (Tib. “having a head”), a standard type used in printed texts, and “Umey” (Tib. “headless”), a cursive form sometimes used in manuscripts. There are many other cursive and decorative forms of the script.