Suvarnaprabhasottamaraja Sutra

• Two volumes with two chapters　
• 10.4 x 19.4 cm

This sutra is an important scripture in the Mahayana sect of Buddhism. After it was introduced from India, it became popular among Chinese believers. Historically, there are three translations. This one is a Tangut edition translated from the Chinese translation by the Tangut monk Bo Zhiguang, active under Emperor Huizong of Western Xia (r. 1068-1086). Composed of ten volumes in ten books, this edition was printed in 1247, twenty years after the destruction of the Tangut Western Xia dynasty by the Mongols. Only Chapters Seven and Nine survive in this particular imprint. Of folding mount, each side has six lines, each with 16 characters. At the beginning are four pages of illustrations with three records, which are followed by the text itself. Shown here is Chapter Seven.


The Western Xia (1038-1227) was a state established by the Dangxiang clan. Their state was in the area of modern Gansu and Ningxia provinces, and Xingzhou (Yinchuan) was their capital. In 1036, Zhao Yuan-hao (Emperor Jingzong of Western Xia) ordered the high official Yeli Renrong to imitate the Chinese written language to create the Tangut script, which became known as "tribal script." Zhao Yuan-hao actively promoted its use, referring to it as the "national script." At the time, the Western Xia used Tangut script in their relations with the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties as well as with the Tibetans and Uyghur s. Culturally, the Tanguts also used this script for writing, using it to translate many of the Chinese Classics such as "The Analects," "The Book of Filial Piety," and a large number of Buddhist scriptures.

In 1227, Genghis Khan annihilated the Western Xia dynasty and assimilated their country into the Mongol Empire. The ruling Dangxiang clan was classified as one of the ethnic groups . Their status, however, was only lower than that of the Mongols, being higher than that of northern or southern Chinese. In socio-political and cultural terms, the Tanguts stood out in their achievements under the Mongols, and their language continued to be used in the Yuan dynasty. For example, Kublai Khan ordered the Tangut printing of the Buddhist compendia (tripitaka), a collection finished in 1302 and composed of more than 3,620 chapters. In the reigns of Emperors Chengzong, Wuzong, and Renzong, 190 printings were made, which were placed in Buddhist temples throughout the former Western Xia territory of Ningxia and Gansu. In 1345, Buddhist stone inscriptions were carved north of the capital in Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Phags-pa, Uyghur, and Tangut scripts.