Xining has Chinese Buddhist and Daoist temples on the Beishan (North Mountain) cliffs and in the town; Wikipedia gives no date for the Beishan temple, and the 'Qingtang' period's own Tibetan temples (Gusiluo's) are not described in anything we could read.
The Xia state licenses its clergy and approves newcomers from Tibet (Wikipedia, Tangut people), so the temples of Xining are under the prefect's eye. Kumbum (late 16th century) and the mosque are later. We cannot name a temple of 1200.
Who holds it
- Title
- Abbots and priests of the temples of Xining
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Wikipedia (Xining) names Beishan Si as undated and dates Kumbum to the late 16th century and the great mosque to 'over 600 years' ago: none to 1200.
Overlord
The Xia prefect of Xiningzhou (the temples answer to the Xia clergy offices, general pattern).
What it holds
- Temples in and above the town (none dated)
Allies and rivals
The prefect; the Tibetan lamas who visit.
How things stand that morning
Undated.
Places of note
- Xining: The town.
Where the sources disagree
- The assignment lists the Chinese temples of Xining; we found none dated to the 1190s.
Evidence: Wikipedia names the temples without dates.
On the map: Marker only.
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
- Wikipedia, Xining (read this session)
- Wikipedia, Tangut people (Minyak, Tibetan Buddhism at the Xia court; read this session)
- Wikipedia, Tsongkha (cites Twitchett 1994, Smith 2006, Tuttle 2013; read this session)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.