buddhism in the west uyghur kingdom and beyond 229
Sulaymān himself is praised in a Uyghur alliterative poem.165 The number of
Uyghur Buddhist inscriptions, manuscripts and block-prints with a Tantric
background found in Dunhuang suggests that Uyghur Buddhism in its last phase
in the Gansu corridor (14th century) was dominated by a Tantric ‘mainstream’
of Tibetan descent.166 In Turfan, too, Tantric texts prevail in late Uyghur manu-
scripts; and even as far as Kharakhoto, located in modern day’s Inner Mongolia,
Tantric texts in Old Uyghur were found.167 One fragment bears on the verso
of an Islamic text on sand divination a colophon of a Lamdre (Tib. lam ’bras,
Skt. mārgaphala) treatise.168 This tradition is well known from Tangut sources
found in Kharakhoto.169 Contacts between Uyghur and Tangut Buddhists have
to be studied in greater detail in the future. Recently it was argued by Ruth
Dunnell that Uyghur monks from Ganzhou and from the Western borders of
the Tangut Empire spread Esoteric Buddhist doctrines among the Tanguts.170
Lilla Russell-Smith has detected “simultaneous regional influence” of Uyghur
and Tangut artistic styles in a Dunhuang painting from the Pelliot Collection in
the Musée Guimet known as Mañjuśrī on Mount Wutai.171
Personal names bear witness to the importance of Tibetan Buddhism
among the Uyghurs. The name of a Uyghur ruler (OU ıdok kut) at the beginning
of the 14th century, Könčök (reigned from 1309–1334), in all probability derives
Kasai, Yukiyo, Die uigurischen buddhistischen Kolophone (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008), 214
(n. 794), as well with additional references.
165 Cf. Yakup, Abdurishid, “Two Alliterative Uighur Poems from Dunhuang,” Linguistic
Research 17–18 (1999): 11–12. The princes of Xining, Sulaymān and Sulṭān Šāh, were
Buddhists despite their Muslim names. Cf. Matsui, Dai, “Revising the Uighur Inscriptions
of the Yulin Caves,” 内陸アジア言語の研究 Nairiku ajia gengo no kenkyū [Studies on the
Inner Asian Languages] 23 (2008): 26.
166 Matsui (“Mongolian Decree,” 169) concludes “that Uigur Buddhists of Gansu played the
role of a bridge between Tibetan Buddhism and the Eastern Chaghataids”. For a survey
of Old Uyghur manuscripts and wall inscriptions of Buddhist content from the Mogao
Caves many of which are Tantric see Yakup, Abdurishid, “Uighurica from the Northern
Grottoes of Dunhuang,” in Shōgaito Masahiro sensei tainin kinen ronshū 庄垣内正弘
教授最終講義録 [A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Masahiro Shōgaito’s Retirement]
(Kyōto: Yūrashia shogengo no kenkyū, 2006), 4–8.
167 See Kara, “Mediaeval Mongol Documents”.
168 See Kara, “Mediaeval Mongol Documents,” 32 (and fig. 6.17).
169 See Dunnell, Ruth, “Esoteric Buddhism under the Xixia (1039–1227),” in Esoteric Buddhism
and the Tantras in East Asia, ed. Charles D. Orzech, Henrik H. Sørensen and Richard K.
Payne, (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2011), 469.
170 Dunnell, “Esoteric Buddhism,” 472.
171 Russell-Smith, Uygur Patronage, 215–221 (reproduced on colour plate 54).