Western Xia Imperial Tombs: Echoes of a Forgotten Civilization

Today, we’ll talk about a millennium-old tomb complex in northwest China that has received global recognition for its outstanding testament to a vanished dynasty even though its historical records and tangible architectural legacy has largely been lost to time.

Transcript

Western Xia Imperial Tombs: Echoes of a Forgotten Civilization

Today, we’ll talk about a millennium-old tomb complex in northwest China that has received global recognition for its outstanding testament to a vanished dynasty even though its historical records and tangible architectural legacy has largely been lost to time.

Earlier this July, China’s Western Xia Imperial Tombs were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, bringing the total number of World Heritage sites in the country to 60.

Located about 30 kilometers west of Yinchuan, capital of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the Western Xia Imperial Tombs are a complex of imperial mausoleums from the Western Xia Dynasty, existing during the 11th to the 13th centuries. Hailed as the “Oriental Pyramids”, these tombs are the largest, highest-ranked, and most intact archaeological site from the Western Xia Dynasty that has survived to the present day.

Nestled at the foot of the Helan Mountain, the core site covers an area of about 40 square kilometers and comprises nine imperial mausoleums, 271 accompanying tombs, a northern architectural complex, and 32 flood control structures.

According to the World Heritage Committee, the site bears witness to the unique role of the Western Xia Dynasty in the cultural and commercial exchanges along the Silk Road, standing as a testament to the cultural fusion and interactions of diverse traditions.

The story of the Western Xia Dynasty begins with the rise of the Tangut, an ethnic group once roaming the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Since the 7th century, the Tangut tribes began to settle along the western frontiers of the Tang empire and gradually expanded their influence within Tang’s political and military command. Their leaders were even granted the surname Li, the surname of Tang’s imperial family. The Tangut had been content with being a vassal state of the Chinese until the Song Dynasty, which ruled China from year 960 to 1279 and was known more for its cultural brilliance than military strength.

In the year 1038, Tangut leader Li Yuanhao proclaimed outright independence from the Song Dynasty and declared himself emperor of the Great Xia. Li established his capital in the present-day Yinchuan, and his dynasty is referred to in history as Western Xia. The dynasty spanned around 1.15 million square kilometers in northwest China at the peak of its territorial reach, and served as an important hub on the ancient Silk Road.

At that time, the Song Dynasty ruled central and south China, while the Khitan and the Jurchen established the Liao Dynasty (916-1,125) and the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) in success to the north. The rise of Western Xia shattered the delicate balance of power, triggering decades of wars among these aspiring powers. With long-lasting wars draining its resources, coupled with persisting internal power struggles, Western Xia finally fell before the formidable Mongols under the command of Genghis Khan, in the year 1227 after 10 imperial reigns.

During its 200 years of history, Western Xia created a distinctive civilization combining its native Tangut elements with borrowings from its neighboring powers. Historical records indicate that various ethnic groups, including the Tangut, Han, Uygur and Tibetan, coexisted during Western Xia’s reign. Their diverse livelihoods, cultural customs, and religious practices enriched Western Xia’s heritage.

To strengthen its cultural identity, founding emperor Li Yuanhao commissioned the creation of a Tangut script, which was modeled on Chinese characters in structure and form. The Tangut script drew inspiration from the refined Tang Dynasty style, while introducing new strokes and patterns not seen in Chinese characters.

After Western Xia’s fall, its capital was reduced to ruins, and the entire Western Xia civilization was lost in history, because Western Xia was not documented in the official history books by its successors as most other Chinese dynasties were. The Tangut script also faded from use and became an extinct language by the 16th century.

It wasn’t until 700 years later that Russian linguist Nikolai Aleksandrovich Nevsky rediscovered the Tangut script and rekindled interest in deciphering the enigmatic characters. In the 1920s, a Chinese-Tangut glossary put together by the Chinese diplomatic service in the 12th century was excavated to become the key for decoding the writing system of Western Xia. To date, more than 6,000 Tangut characters have been deciphered.

What earned Western Xia Imperial Tombs the World Heritage recognition is that it testifies to the profound cultural interchange of its time and offers exceptional evidence of a vanished civilization.

The tombs’ location, layout, architecture and artifacts stand as a powerful testimony to the unique Western Xia civilization and demonstrate how the Western Xia Dynasty adapted the Han Chinese models while integrating distinctive features of ethnic styles and religious beliefs.

The Tangut did not originally have the tradition of building tombs but started doing so under the influence of the Han Chinese. Facing the Yellow River and backed by the Helan Mountain, the Western Xia Imperial Tombs were obviously constructed mirroring the traditional mausoleum locations of the Song Dynasty. But unlike the more familiar circular mounds of Chinese imperial tombs, the Western Xia tombs present a pagoda-like structure. These distinctive earthen monuments could reach over 20 meters in height and feature, for example, stupas with solid earth rammed interiors that not only echo the Khitan styles but also embody the Buddhist beliefs.

While drawing from the traditions of other cultures, the Tangut also showcased their own creations. For example, though the Western Xia tombs were in general arranged symmetrically along a central axis, the arrangements of sacrificial halls, burial chambers and pagodas departed from this norm. Instead, they were located along a skewed line, reflecting the Tanguts’ belief of reserving the central axis to paying homage to ghosts and deities.

According to Chen Tongbin, honorary director of the Institute of Architectural History affiliated with the China Architecture Design and Research Group, the value of the Western Xia Imperial Tombs lies in providing a tangible testimony to the Western Xia Dynasty, as well as telling the story of the Tangut people, both of which have long been obscured in time. Chen is also a main drafter of the document for the tombs’ seeking World Heritage site status.

Artifacts unearthed from the tombs tell the same story. Archaeological excavation at the site started in the 1970s, followed by periods of research and conservation work that have continued until the present day. More than 7,100 cultural relics have been unearthed, including broken pieces of stele that are inscribed with both Tangut scripts and Chinese characters, as well as architectural components, gold, bronze and iron items, sandstone statues, ceramics, and more.

More than 150 kalavinka figurines, literally melody birds in Sanskrit, were unearthed from Tomb No. 3. Kalavinka is the mythical bird with a human head and bird body. Believed to originate from India, it traced a journey along the Silk Road to appear in Buddhist temples and murals during the Tang and Song dynasties and finally flourished in the Western Xia Dynasty as proof of cross-civilization dialogues.

These unearthed artifacts are now housed at the Western Xia Museum located within the Western Xia Mausoleum National Archaeological Park. The collection’s highlights include intricately carved dragon-adorned pillars, stone horses, silk paintings, clay Buddha heads, and wooden figures of female performers, 23 of which have been listed as national first-class cultural relics.

These artifacts, coupled with knowledge of the Tangut script, helped to solve one critical task confronting the archaeological team – the identity of each occupant of the nine tombs.

In the case of other dynasties, the burial place of every emperor – the size, form, and exact location of his tomb – was usually documented and could be verified. However, no surviving Chinese source provided any direct information concerning the attribution of the nine tombs.

In 1978, archaeologists discovered a large number of stone stele fragments with Western Xia script inscriptions, while clearing the mausoleum area. Tangutologist Li Fanwen was able to confirm that Tomb No. 7 was dedicated to Li Renxiao, the fifth emperor of Western Xia, because his name appeared on one fragment from the tomb.

Unfortunately, among the nine tombs, Tomb No. 7 remains to be the only one whose occupant has been identified by archaeological research, and still a large part of Western Xia history awaits to be decoded.

As most of the remains of the Western Xia Imperial Tombs are earthen ruins, over the past two decades, the tombs’ management office has partnered with the Dunhuang Academy, one of the world’s leading institutions in earthen heritage conservation, to carry out protective reinforcement on the tombs, essentially resolving challenges in terms of their structural stability.

While many structures of the Western Xia Imperial Tombs have weathered naturally over the millennium, the sheer scale, unique forms, and enduring presence of the surviving ruins still evoke a profound sense of history, mystery, and resilience. The discovery of the tombs has cast new light on the forgotten dynasty of Western Xia. Continuous studies on the tombs may open a new horizon to restore Western Xia’s place in the grand narrative of Chinese civilization and serve as essential resources for understanding medieval East Asian history in its full scope.

Well, that’s the end of our podcast. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Song Yimin, translator Wang Yuyan, and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.