Two cave-temple sites in the hills of Guazhou, the heart of Xia's far west.
English Wikipedia lists forty-two caves at Yulin 'some 100 km east of Dunhuang', four of them Western Xia (caves 2, 3, 10 and 29), and twenty-three caves at the Eastern Thousand Buddha caves, eight decorated, with caves 2, 4, 5 and 8 Western Xia. The pages give no coordinates and no year for the Xia work. The Xia painting we recall (esoteric Buddhism, Avalokitesvara, scenes of ploughing and smithing in Yulin cave 3) is from memory and not read.
Yulin lies in a gorge of the Qilian foot about 70 km from Guazhou; the Eastern caves lie further east in the hills, near the campaign board's coordinates.
Who holds it
- Title
- The Buddhist community of the Yulin gorge (caretaker 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 cave temples of the Yulin gorge
- The Eastern Thousand Buddha caves
How it was acquired
Under Xia since 1030 (Guazhou's surrender).
Allies and rivals
The throne, the imperial preceptors and the district officials; no quarrel recorded.
How things stand that morning
Cave temples in the hills of Guazhou with four Xia caves at Yulin and four at the Eastern Thousand Buddha caves (English Wikipedia).
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 Guazhou officers and the Uyghur and Tangut donors; not documented.
Places of note
- Yulin Caves (approximate): Yulin river gorge; approximate.
- Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves (approximate): Shuixiakou gorge; approximate.
Where the sources disagree
- Board (yulin-caves): coordinates 40.05, 96.4. The Wikipedia pages give none. From the stated distance (about 100 km east of Dunhuang for Yulin; Yulin about 70 km from Guazhou) we place Yulin at about 39.98 N, 95.9 E (approximate, up to 10 km), and we think the campaign board's point fits the Eastern Thousand Buddha caves (about 39.9 N, 96.4 E, also approximate) better than Yulin.
- Board: 'the finest Tangut painting in the corridor'. English Wikipedia lists four Xia caves at Yulin and four at the Eastern Thousand Buddha caves; it says nothing of their quality.
Evidence: The caves and their Xia attribution are documented; the coordinates and the life of the sites in 1200 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: Both positions are approximate, within about ten kilometres.
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
- Yulin Caves (English Wikipedia)
- Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves (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.