Early history
- They were of Tibetan ethnicity, with significant Altaic input.
- They were assaulted in 700CE by Tengrida Bilge of the Gök Türks.
- In the 900s when the Tang collapsed the Tangut established themselves as an independent state.
- They then fought with Khitan, Chinese Song and Tibetans.
- Having passed through a phase of sinophilia, they settled on heavy indic nAstika influence.
- See MT article.
End
Around the time of Muqali’s death, the Tangut of Xixia empire got a new aggressive emperor Li Dewang. He decided to launch a massive attack on his old enemies, the Mongols. For this, he formed an alliance with the Jin and also mobilized the Yellow Uighurs against the Mongols. The Mongol generals Boro and Tash staved off the immediate attacks till Chingiz Khan returned. … the Khan surprised them by assembling a large Mongol force to the west and attacking them from Gansu corridor in 1225 CE. … Taking their old capital, Qara-Qoto, the Khan steadily advanced eastwards and by August of 1226 CE despite fierce resistance from the Tangut aided by the Jin from the East the Khan forced their second largest city, Wuwei to surrender. (MT)
“At this point, Li Dewang died and Li Xian ascended the throne as the emperor. Li Xian claimed he was the Buddha of the Age but that did not seem to help much. Advancing further Chingiz Khan then besieged the fort of Lingwu which was just a short distance from the capital Yinchuan. Li Xian sent a massive army of 300000 Tanguts hoping that he could comprehensively overwhelm the Mongol army. But in the battle fought on the banks of the Yellow River the outnumbered Mongol forces under the inspired leadership of the great Khan nearly completely annihilated this Tangut army in November of 1226 CE. In 1227 CE the Mongol army besieged Yinchuan the capital of the Tangut.” (MT)
In September 1227 CE Li Xian unable to hold the capital surrendered to the Mongols. They had is name changed from the Buddha of the Age to Shidurgu – the one who has been made a vassal. Thus, having stripped him of his divinity they immediately executed him as a treacherous vassal. Then they erased the city of Yinchuan with its citizens except for the bauddha teachers of the Karma Kagyu tradition and their monastery. The Mongols demolished and dug up all the graves of the Tangut emperors and dispersed their remains.
Flight to Sikkim
The Tangut had ties with the Pāla and Sena dynasties of Vaṇga before the devastation of their land by the Mohammedans. Thus, several of Li Xian’s surviving relatives fled towards Vaṇga but with the ongoing Mohammedan depredations throughout the region, they settled in the more inaccessible domain of Sikkim.
Guru Tashi was a 13th-century prince from the Minyak House of the Kham region of Eastern Tibet. According to legend, he had a divine revelation one night instructing him to travel south to seek his fortunes. He travelled south to the present day Indian state of Sikkim. His descendants, beginning with Phuntsog Namgyal, were later to form the royal family of the Kingdom of Sikkim, known as the Chogyal Monarchy, which ruled from 1642 to 1975.