The Great Buddha temple of Ganzhou was built in 1098 under Xia (the campaign board and the recalled Chinese tradition; the Xia year is Yong'an 1 on the reign count of Chongzong) around a very large clay reclining Buddha.
Ganzhou is the old Uyghur capital and the seat of the Gansu district; most of the town is Buddhist, the Uyghurs of the city being the old ruling people (English Wikipedia, Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom). Nothing is known of the temple's estates or abbot in 1200.
Who holds it
- Title
- Abbot of the Great Buddha 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
- Temple and reclining Buddha
How it was acquired
Built 1098.
Allies and rivals
The throne, the imperial preceptors and the district officials; no quarrel recorded.
How things stand that morning
A great temple of the corridor's central city; peaceful.
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
The Xia court and the city's Uyghur and Han believers (not documented).
Places of note
- Great Buddha temple, Zhangye: In the old city of Ganzhou.
Where the sources disagree
- The founding year 1098 comes from the campaign board's town note (ganzhou-zhangye) and from memory; we did not read a source that states it.
Evidence: The campaign board's note and memory; no source we read states the foundation year.
"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
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.