Other lordship · Great Xia, the Tangut empire · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Lamas at the Xia court

The Tangut court takes Tibetan teachers, and two lines are on record.

First, Tishri Repa (1164-1236), a pupil of Jigten Sumgon (Drigung), who by Treasury of Lives came to the Tangut court in 1196 and stayed about thirty years as imperial preceptor, so he is in post in 1200 and about 36. Second, Wikipedia's Tangut article says a disciple of Dusum Khyenpa (the first Karmapa, died 1193) was given the title 'Supreme Teacher' by a Xia king; it gives no name and no date. Texts of the Tibetan Mahamudra tradition found in Tangut suggest that Tangut Buddhism took its Tibetan side first from the Karma Kagyu rather than from the Sakya (the same article).

The Xia state controls the clergy closely: newcomers from Tibet need local approval to teach. The Chinese Huayan-Chan tradition is still the most influential at court (the Tarim sheet, Imperial preceptors, writes the court's own preceptors).

Who he is

Name
Tishri Repa Sherab Drakpa (Ti shri ras pa Shes rab grags pa)
Title
Imperial preceptor (dishi) of the Xia, a Tibetan lama of the Drigung Kagyu
Since
1196 (Treasury of Lives, as cited in the Tarim sheet)
Born
1164
Family
Tibetan; a disciple of Jigten Sumgon of Drigung
Confidence
medium

Dates 1164-1236 and 'at the Tangut court from 1196 for thirty years' are Treasury of Lives as cited in txi_REPORT (Tarim sheet, point 13). We could not read the biography. Who held the title of preceptor on 1 January 1200 is not pinned, as the Tarim sheet says.

Overlord

Huanzong (Li Chunyou) and the Xia court at Xingqing.

What it holds

  • The court office of imperial preceptor (dishi) and the revenues and honours that go with it (general pattern)
  • Teaching places at Xingqing (not named in our sources)
  • A standing in Kham and Amdo as the Kagyu's door to a rich patron

How it was acquired

Tishri Repa from 1196; the Karma Kagyu disciple's title: no date.

Allies and rivals

Drigung Til in central Tibet (Tishri Repa's home school); the Karma Kagyu of Tsurphu and Karma Gon (the unnamed disciple's master); the Chinese and Tangut clergy at court; the Xia censorate and Buddhist offices that approve teachers.

How things stand that morning

In favour. The Drigung and the Karma Kagyu both reach the throne through these men. Nothing is known of rivalry between them.

Wealth

Court gifts and, if the later pattern holds, a share of Xia donations sent home to Tibet (not documented for 1200).

Threats

  • Court faction: the dowager Luo and Li Anquan against Huanzong breaks out only in 1206 (Tarim sheet)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. 1206-1226Huanzong is deposed by his cousin Li Anquan in 1206 (Timeline of the Tanguts); Tishri Repa's thirty years end about 1226.Depends on: Court politics; the preceptor's survival of the change of emperor. Stopped by: Tishri Repa leaving earlier than the thirty years in the record.

Places of note

  • Xining, the nearest Xia town on this sheet: A marker only. The masters serve at the court of Xingqing (Yinchuan, 106.3 E), which lies off this sheet and is the Tarim sheet's ground; the road to it from the Tibetan side passes the Kokonor country and Xining (general pattern, not documented for these lamas).

Where the sources disagree

  • The Tarim sheet (txi_REPORT, point 13) records that the date the preceptor's office began is disputed: 'probably 1170s' (Dunnell, Sperling), Renzong's reign 1139-1193 (Wikipedia) or 1196 (Treasury of Lives for Tishri Repa). Not pinned.

Evidence: One biography date from Treasury of Lives as cited by a sister sheet; one Wikipedia sentence without a name; no document of 1200.

On the map: No ground of their own on this sheet; the marker stands at Xining because the court itself (Xingqing, Yinchuan) lies off the sheet.

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

  1. Treasury of Lives (treasuryoflives.org), Tibetan biographies: recalled, and as cited in the OMNIA txi_REPORT; the site refused the fetch, so not read
  2. Wikipedia, Tangut people (Minyak, Tibetan Buddhism at the Xia court; read this session)
  3. Wikipedia, Jigten Sumgon (read this session)
  4. Wikipedia, Dusum Khyenpa (read this session)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.