104 chapter two
previous marriage in 788 A.D., the ruler sent only 2000 horses.^66 Prob-
ably the gifts sent in return by the Chinese were even more abundant,
as the tradition prescribed the value of the presents donated to the
nomad chiefs by the Empire to be higher than the ones received in
the emperor’s court.^67
Let us return to the coronation rite. The princess went out together
with her mother and bowed to the west. After that she put on the offi-
cial clothes of the khagan’s wife and went out again to bow once more.
After sitting on a special stretcher she was taken by the so-called nine
ministers of the state and they made nine circles following the Sun’s
path. Only after that she sat by the khagan and glanced at the East
waiting for the dignitaries to present themselves. She also installed two
ministers in her yurt and organized an official feast before the Chi-
nese ambassador’s departure, where she wept a lot for her relatives
and close persons.^68 The sacralization of the rite is just as obvious as
are the concrete elements constructing it: the bows to the East and
to the West, special ninefold (!) circulation of the stretcher follow-
ing the Sun’s path on the sky, putting on first the clothes typical for
Uighur women and only after that—the official khatun’s ones (this act
obviously symbolizing the ‘death’ of the Chinese and the ‘birth’ of the
Uighur in the princess in order for her to be accepted as our in the
Uighur society), etc.
However, it had happened for the Uighur khagan’s wives to use
other means, beside peaceful ones, in order to achieve their interests
and to impose their influence and in such cases a well-tested weapon
like poison had proven very helpful. For example, one of the khagans
managed to stay in power only a year before been poisoned by his
wife.^69
Due to such marriages foreign penetrated the core of Uighur culture
but, at the same time, it asserted the strategic relations between China
(^66) Jagchid and Symons 1989, 160.
(^67) Jagchid and Symons 1989, 161.
(^68) Bichurin 1950, 333; Jagchid and Symons 1989, 161 f. This princess, namely
T’ai-ho, lived among the Uighurs for 22 years! She was wife of three khagans who
ruled one after the other and came back to China only after the collapse of the khagan-
ate in 840 A.D.—for this see, Sinor 1998, 197. 69
Mackerras 1972 (2nd ed.), at http://depts.washington.edu/uwch/silkroad/texts/
tangshu/tangshu.html.