buddhism in the west uyghur kingdom and beyond 197
In the following, I would like to highlight some aspects of Uyghur Buddhist
culture and try to sort out some characteristics that define Uyghur Buddhism
in the West Uyghur Kingdom and beyond. A particular interest is the manner in
which the relationship of Buddhism to the rulers and their family and to other
important members of Uyghur society is mirrored in the sources. The follow-
ing remarks and quotations should be considered preliminary because impor-
tant texts such as some of the inscriptions mentioned below were published in
rather unreliable editions. A revision of several sources based on an inspection
of the originals would be highly desirable.
2.1 After the Demise of the Uyghur Empire in Mongolia
After the collapse of their empire in Mongolia, the Uyghur tribes split and
moved into different directions.29 Various groups were wiped out in a rather
short time. Regarding the subject of this volume, two groups subsequently
became important: one group settled in Gansu (甘肅, the co called Hexi 河
西 Uyghurs) and founded the principality of Ganzhou30 (甘州, around 880)
which was destroyed by the Tanguts (known in Chinese sources as Xixia 西夏)
around the year 1035.31 Their ruler was designated as a hagan, the traditional
title of a powerful ruler in the steppes of Inner Asia. The ruling clan of the
Ganzhou Uyghurs was the Yaglakar, who formerly were the leading political
text no. 11.155–158; Tezcan, Semih, Das uigurische Insadi-Sūtra (Berlin: Akademie Verlag,
1974). On Buddhist and Muslim encounters in Central Asia in general see Elverskog, Johan,
Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road (Philadelphia, Oxford: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 2010).
29 See the dramatic events summarised in Drompp, Michael R[obert], Tang China and the
Collapse of the Uighur Empire: A Documentary History (Leiden: Brill, 2005).
30 See on this principality Pinks, Elisabeth, Die Uiguren von Kan-chou in der frühen Sung-Zeit
(960–1028) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1968), a monograph that deals with the Chinese
sources concerning the Ganzhou Uyghurs. Yang states that there was a community of
Uyghurs in Ganzhou before 840 Cf. Yang, Fu-Hsüeh, “On the Sha-chou Uighur Kingdom,”
Central Asiatic Journal 38.1 (1994): 83.
31 Hamilton, James, Manuscrits Ouïgours du IX–X siècle de Touen-Houang. Textes établis,
traduits, et commentés, vol. I (Paris: Peeters, 1986), XVIII. Uyghur Buddhism still influenced
this region after the destruction of the realm. The Yellow Uyghurs (Sarıg Yugur) are today
part of the multi-linguistic Yugur nationality in Gansu, and speak a Turkic language. In
scholarly literature, they are said to be the heirs of the Ganzhou Uyghurs. The Yellow
Uyghurs are quite often mentioned in Mongol sources (see, e.g., Elverskog, Johan, The
Jewel Translucent Sūtra: Altan Khan and the Mongols in the Sixteenth Century (Leiden:
Brill, 2003), 94 [English translation], 234 [Mongolian text]). The Shira Yugur who belong
to the Yugur nationality too, speak a Mongolic language (Šira Yugur). Others are speakers
of Chinese and Tibetan.