The Buddhist life of the Black City: stupas and temples in and around the walled garrison town on the Etsina.
The Kozlov excavations of 1908 and 1909 found over 2,000 Tangut books, Buddhist paintings and manuscripts in many languages, none later than 1212 among the Tangut texts (English Wikipedia); we recall that the main library came from a stupa outside the west wall (not read). The town's size and population in 1200 are not stated by any source we read.
Who holds it
- Title
- The Buddhist community of the garrison town (head monk 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
- Stupas and temples of the town
How it was acquired
The town was founded in 1032 (English Wikipedia).
Allies and rivals
The throne, the imperial preceptors and the district officials; no quarrel recorded.
How things stand that morning
The temples of a garrison town at the edge of the steppe; the books that will be dug out of the sand in 1908 and 1909 are in use or in the making here.
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 Heishui Zhenyan district commander and the garrison; not documented.
Places of note
- Khara-Khoto ruins: The ruined town today; the stupas stand outside the walls.
Where the sources disagree
- Board (khara-khoto): coordinates 41.766, 101.075; the Wikipedia article gives 41.765, 101.145 (used here).
Evidence: The finds are thick; the sites' life in 1200 is inferred.
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.