The mouth of the Baisigou valley, in the eastern face of the Helan northwest of the capital, is guarded by two Western Xia pagodas (the Baisikou twin pagodas); 10 km up the valley stood the Baisigou square pagoda, thirteen storeys of brick with a wooden central pillar, built about 1075 or 1076 under Huizong (an ink inscription dated 'Da'an 2' is 1076 and thought to be a mistake for 1075).
A large Western Xia site west of the pagoda, with roof tiles, points to a Buddhist temple; Niu Dasheng suggests it was the Temple of Five Platforms Mountain (Wutaishan si), but no historical record of it is known (English Wikipedia). Excavation of the pagoda in 1991 found a Tangut cursive scroll, more than thirty printed books and manuscripts in Chinese and Tangut, the earliest known wooden movable-type book (a nine-volume Tangut translation of a Tibetan tantra) and wooden tablets in Tangut datable to 1102 to 1114: the valley was a working monastic and printing centre in the early 12th century.
Who holds it
- Title
- Abbot or head monk of the Baisigou temple (name not known)
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No head or abbot is named for 1200 in the sources we could read.
Overlord
The emperor Huanzong, as patron and protector (the state protects all religious sites, English Wikipedia).
What it holds
- The valley temple site and the two pagodas at its mouth
How it was acquired
Built in the late 11th century (the square pagoda); the twin pagodas are undated in the page we read.
Allies and rivals
The throne, the imperial preceptors and the district officials; no quarrel recorded.
How things stand that morning
A mountain monastery within a day of the capital, in a valley with many Xia sites; its abbot and its patrons are not known.
Wealth
Not recorded in the sources we could read: no estate, toll or revenue is given for this house in 1200.
Military
None. A house of prayer; the state's garrisons protect it.
Patron
Not documented; the court and the capital's monks are the likely patrons.
Places of note
- Baisikou twin pagodas (valley mouth): Two Western Xia pagodas guarding the valley mouth.
- Baisigou square pagoda: Built about 1075; the 1991 finds.
Where the sources disagree
- Board (baisikou): 'twin pagodas and monastery ... a Tangut foundation of the twelfth century by the usual dating'. English Wikipedia dates the square pagoda in the same valley to about 1075 (late 11th century) and gives no date for the twin pagodas.
- The campaign board entry puts the place at 38.72, 105.985 (the valley mouth); the square pagoda is at 38.7, 105.9, 10 km up the valley (Wikipedia). Both are given as points.
Evidence: The pagoda and its finds are well documented; the monastery's people and estates are not.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A point or a small disc at the site; no estate is drawn because none is documented.
Primary sources for Great Xia
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
- Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
- Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
- The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Compendium of Chronicles: the Turkic and Mongol tribes and the life of Chinggis Khan, Rashid al-Din Hamadani (about 1300 to 1311, in the Ilkhanate). The fullest description of who held what on the steppe around 1200, written a century later from Mongol court records (the Altan Debter) and from informants such as Bolad Chingsang. Read online
- History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
- History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. Read online
5 more in the sources library for The Tarim, the Uyghurs and Xia.
Sources and studies
- Baisigou Square Pagoda (English Wikipedia)
- Western Xia (English Wikipedia, article reached as Hsi_Hsia_Kingdom)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.