Khara-Khoto
Encyclopedia
Khara-Khoto was a Tangut city in the Ejin khoshuu
of Alxa League
, in western Inner Mongolia
, near the former Gashun Lake
. It has been identified as the city of Etzina, which appears in The Travels of Marco Polo
.
The walled fortress was first taken by Genghis Khan
in 1226, but—contrary to a widely-circulated misunderstanding—the city continued to flourish under Mongol overlordship. During Kublai Khan
's time, the city was expanded, reaching a size three times bigger than during the Tangut Empire. Togoontemur Khan concentrated his preparation for reconquest of China at Khara-Khoto. The city was located on the crossroads connecting Karakorum
, Xanadu
and Kumul.
In The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco Polo
describes a visit to a city called Etzina or Edzina, which has been identified with Khara-Khoto.
According to a legend by the local Torghut
population, in 1372 a Mongol military general named Khara Bator was surrounded with his troops by the armies of China's Ming dynasty
. Diverting the Ejin River
, the city's water source that flowed just outside the fortress, the Chinese
denied Khara-Khoto water for its gardens and wells. As time passed and Khara Bator realised his fate, he murdered his family and then himself. After his suicide, Khara Bator's soldiers waited within the fortress until the Ming finally attacked and killed the remaining inhabitants. Another version of the legend holds that Khara Bator made a breach in the northwestern corner of the city wall and escaped through it. The remains of the city has a breach through which a rider can pass.
After the defeat, and additionally possibly for real water shortage, the city was abandoned and left in ruins.
and Vladimir Obruchev
heard rumours that somewhere downstream Ejin River
an ancient city was waiting. This knowledge gave impetus to the Institute of Oriental Studies
, St. Petersburg, to launch a new Mongol-Sichuan expedition under the command of Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov.
During the 1907-1909 expedition to Central Asia, in 1908, Kozlov made the historical discovery of Khara-Khoto. With a dinner and gift of a grammophone to a local Torghut
lord Dashi Beile, Kozlov obtained a permission to dig in the site, arriving on May 1, 1908 to Khara-Khoto ruins. Over 2,000 books, scrolls and manuscripts in the Tangut language
were uncovered. Kozlov initially sent ten chests of manuscripts and Buddhist objects to St. Petersburg, returning again in May 1909 for more objects. The books and woodcut
s were found in June, while excavating a stupa outside city walls some 400 m (1,312.3 ft) westward.
Sir Aurel Stein excavated Khara-Khoto during his third Central Asian expedition in 1917, surveying Khara-Khoto for eight days. The findings from this research was incorporated in chapter 13 of Stein's first volume of Innermost Asia.
Langdon Warner
visited Khara-Khoto in 1925.
Folke Bergman
first travelled to Khara-Khoto in 1927, returning in 1929 and staying for a year and a half in the area. He made maps of Khara-Khoto and the Ejin River
area, surveyed watchtowers and fortresses, finding a large number of xylographs. Bergman noted that Kozlov's and Stein's visits were cursory and some of their published documentation was partially incorrect.
Sven Hedin
and Xu Bingchang led the Sino-Swedish Expedition on archaeological excavations of the site between 1927–31. After Hedin, John DeFrancis
visited in 1935.
Further Chinese excavations between 1983 and 1984 by Li Yiyou, Inner Mongolian Institute of Archaeology, have produced some 3,000 more manuscripts. In addition to books, these excavations unearthed building materials, daily items, production instruments and religious art.
, St. Petersburg, while the books and xylographs are at the Institute of Oriental Studies. These fortunately survived the Siege of Leningrad
and some of them were even lost until their rediscovery in 1991, forming the basis for research of the Tangut language
, written in Tangut script
in subsequent years. The books and manuscripts sent back to St. Petersburg by Kozlov were studied by Aleksei Ivanovich Ivanov
, who identified several Tangut dictionaries, including a Chinese-Tangut glossary titled Fanhan Heshi Zhangzhongzhu
(番汉合时掌中珠), compiled in 1190.
In addition to written artifacts, batik
-dyed silk fragments have also been found. A small mud wall painting fragment confirms use of cobalt as a pigment in the form of smalt
.
Ejin Banner
Ejin Banner is a banner of Inner Mongolia, China. It is under the administration of Alxa League.-Transportation:Eljin Banner is served by the Jiayuguan-Ceke and the Linhe-Ceke Railways.-References:*...
of Alxa League
Alxa League
Alxa League is one of 12 prefecture level divisions and three extant leagues of Inner Mongolia. The league borders Mongolia to the north, Bayan Nur to the northeast, Wuhai and Ordos to the east, Ningxia to the southeast, and Gansu to the south and west. The capital is Bayan Hot in the aimag's...
, in western Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
, near the former Gashun Lake
Juyan Lake Basin
The Juyan Lake for western lake, Sogo Nuur for eastern lake) is a former lake in the Gobi desert of western Inner Mongolia at the Alxa League near the border of eastern Xinjiang. Goshun Nur had an area of in 1958, of in 1960, and has dried up in 1961....
. It has been identified as the city of Etzina, which appears in The Travels of Marco Polo
The Travels of Marco Polo
Books of the Marvels of the World or Description of the World , also nicknamed Il Milione or Oriente Poliano and commonly called The Travels of Marco Polo, is a 13th-century travelogue written down by Rustichello da Pisa from stories told by Marco Polo, describing the...
.
History
The city was founded in 1032 and became a thriving center of Tangut Empire trade in the 11th century. There are remains of 30 feet (9.1 m)-high ramparts and 12 feet (3.7 m)-thick outer walls. The outer walls ran for some 421 m (1,381.2 ft) east-west by 374 m (1,227 ft) north-south.The walled fortress was first taken by Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
in 1226, but—contrary to a widely-circulated misunderstanding—the city continued to flourish under Mongol overlordship. During Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan
Kublai Khan , born Kublai and also known by the temple name Shizu , was the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from 1260 to 1294 and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China...
's time, the city was expanded, reaching a size three times bigger than during the Tangut Empire. Togoontemur Khan concentrated his preparation for reconquest of China at Khara-Khoto. The city was located on the crossroads connecting Karakorum
Karakorum
Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, and of the Northern Yuan in the 14-15th century. Its ruins lie in the northwestern corner of the Övörkhangai Province of Mongolia, near today's town of Kharkhorin, and adjacent to the Erdene Zuu monastery...
, Xanadu
Xanadu
-Description of Xanadu by Toghon Temur :The lament of Toghon Temur Khan , concerning the loss of Daidu and Heibun Shanduu in 1368, is recorded in many Mongolian historical chronicles...
and Kumul.
In The Travels of Marco Polo, Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
describes a visit to a city called Etzina or Edzina, which has been identified with Khara-Khoto.
According to a legend by the local Torghut
Torghut
The Torgut are one of the four major subgroups of the Four Oirats. The Torghut ruling dynasty traced its descent to the Kereit ruler Wang Khan's bodyguards....
population, in 1372 a Mongol military general named Khara Bator was surrounded with his troops by the armies of China's Ming dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
. Diverting the Ejin River
Ejin River
The Ejin River , also known as the Heihe River , is a major river system that originates on the northern Gansu side of the Qilian Shan mountains...
, the city's water source that flowed just outside the fortress, the Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
denied Khara-Khoto water for its gardens and wells. As time passed and Khara Bator realised his fate, he murdered his family and then himself. After his suicide, Khara Bator's soldiers waited within the fortress until the Ming finally attacked and killed the remaining inhabitants. Another version of the legend holds that Khara Bator made a breach in the northwestern corner of the city wall and escaped through it. The remains of the city has a breach through which a rider can pass.
After the defeat, and additionally possibly for real water shortage, the city was abandoned and left in ruins.
Exploration
Russian explorers Grigory PotaninGrigory Potanin
Grigory Nikolayaevich Potanin was a Russian explorer of Inner Asia who aligned himself with the Siberian separatist movement...
and Vladimir Obruchev
Vladimir Obruchev
Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev was a Russian and Soviet geologist who specialized in the study of Siberia and Central Asia. He was also one of the first Russian science fiction authors.- Scientific research :...
heard rumours that somewhere downstream Ejin River
Ejin River
The Ejin River , also known as the Heihe River , is a major river system that originates on the northern Gansu side of the Qilian Shan mountains...
an ancient city was waiting. This knowledge gave impetus to the Institute of Oriental Studies
Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences , formerly Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences, is Russia's leading research institution for the study of the countries and cultures of Asia and North Africa...
, St. Petersburg, to launch a new Mongol-Sichuan expedition under the command of Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov.
During the 1907-1909 expedition to Central Asia, in 1908, Kozlov made the historical discovery of Khara-Khoto. With a dinner and gift of a grammophone to a local Torghut
Torghut
The Torgut are one of the four major subgroups of the Four Oirats. The Torghut ruling dynasty traced its descent to the Kereit ruler Wang Khan's bodyguards....
lord Dashi Beile, Kozlov obtained a permission to dig in the site, arriving on May 1, 1908 to Khara-Khoto ruins. Over 2,000 books, scrolls and manuscripts in the Tangut language
Tangut language
Tangut is an ancient northeastern Tibeto-Burman language once spoken in the Western Xia Dynasty, also known as the Tangut Empire. It is classified by some linguists as one of the Qiangic languages, which also include Qiang and rGyalrong, among others...
were uncovered. Kozlov initially sent ten chests of manuscripts and Buddhist objects to St. Petersburg, returning again in May 1909 for more objects. The books and woodcut
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
s were found in June, while excavating a stupa outside city walls some 400 m (1,312.3 ft) westward.
Sir Aurel Stein excavated Khara-Khoto during his third Central Asian expedition in 1917, surveying Khara-Khoto for eight days. The findings from this research was incorporated in chapter 13 of Stein's first volume of Innermost Asia.
Langdon Warner
Langdon Warner
Langdon Warner was an American art historian and Harvard Professor. He was one of the models for Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones. As an explorer/agent at the turn of the 20th century he studied the Silk Road...
visited Khara-Khoto in 1925.
Folke Bergman
Folke Bergman
Folke Bergman was a Swedish explorer and archaeologist. He is best known for his discovery of the Xiaohe Tomb complex in Lop Nur, China in 1934.-Primary:...
first travelled to Khara-Khoto in 1927, returning in 1929 and staying for a year and a half in the area. He made maps of Khara-Khoto and the Ejin River
Ejin River
The Ejin River , also known as the Heihe River , is a major river system that originates on the northern Gansu side of the Qilian Shan mountains...
area, surveyed watchtowers and fortresses, finding a large number of xylographs. Bergman noted that Kozlov's and Stein's visits were cursory and some of their published documentation was partially incorrect.
Sven Hedin
Sven Hedin
Sven Anders Hedin KNO1kl RVO was a Swedish geographer, topographer, explorer, photographer, and travel writer, as well as an illustrator of his own works...
and Xu Bingchang led the Sino-Swedish Expedition on archaeological excavations of the site between 1927–31. After Hedin, John DeFrancis
John DeFrancis
John DeFrancis was an American linguist, sinologist, author of Chinese language textbooks, lexicographer of Chinese dictionaries, and Professor Emeritus of Chinese Studies at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa....
visited in 1935.
Further Chinese excavations between 1983 and 1984 by Li Yiyou, Inner Mongolian Institute of Archaeology, have produced some 3,000 more manuscripts. In addition to books, these excavations unearthed building materials, daily items, production instruments and religious art.
Findings
Kozlov's findings, some 3,500 paintings and other objects, are in the Hermitage MuseumHermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
, St. Petersburg, while the books and xylographs are at the Institute of Oriental Studies. These fortunately survived the Siege of Leningrad
Siege of Leningrad
The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last...
and some of them were even lost until their rediscovery in 1991, forming the basis for research of the Tangut language
Tangut language
Tangut is an ancient northeastern Tibeto-Burman language once spoken in the Western Xia Dynasty, also known as the Tangut Empire. It is classified by some linguists as one of the Qiangic languages, which also include Qiang and rGyalrong, among others...
, written in Tangut script
Tangut script
The Tangut script was a logographic writing system, used for writing the extinct Tangut language of the Western Xia Dynasty. According to the latest count, 5863 Tangut characters are known, excluding variants...
in subsequent years. The books and manuscripts sent back to St. Petersburg by Kozlov were studied by Aleksei Ivanovich Ivanov
Aleksei Ivanovich Ivanov
Aleksei Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian Sinologist and Tangutologist. Ivanov entered Saint Petersburg University in 1897, where he studied Chinese and Manchu. After graduating in 1902 he went to China for further study for two years, and on his return in 1904 he went on a study tour of England,...
, who identified several Tangut dictionaries, including a Chinese-Tangut glossary titled Fanhan Heshi Zhangzhongzhu
Pearl in the Palm
The Pearl in the Palm is a bilingual glossary between the Chinese language and Tangut which transcribes the pronunciation of Chinese words into Tangut characters, and the pronunciation of Tangut characters into Chinese characters...
(番汉合时掌中珠), compiled in 1190.
In addition to written artifacts, batik
Batik
Batik is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Batik or fabrics with the traditional batik patterns are found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore.Javanese traditional batik, especially from...
-dyed silk fragments have also been found. A small mud wall painting fragment confirms use of cobalt as a pigment in the form of smalt
Smalt
Smalt is powdered glass, colored to a deep powder blue hue using cobalt ions derived from cobalt oxide . Smalt is used as a pigment in painting, and for surface decoration of other types of glass and ceramics, and other media...
.