468 ruth dunnell
already in the 1094 court-sponsored Liangzhou stele inscription (Dun-
nell 1996). Certainly the most important function of the clerical and
Buddhist arm of the Xia governing apparatus from its beginning was
precisely apotropaic—protection of the state and dynasty, hence the
enthusiasm with which Xia emperors patronized Buddhist clerics
(Tibetan and otherwise) who evinced knowledge of tantric rites and
other esoteric techniques, old and new, associated with defense against
various kinds of hostile forces, or with the cultivation of strength and
health.
Tantra, Esoteric Buddhism, and Translations from Chinese, Tibetan,
and Sanskrit
Over 80 percent of the Tangut and Chinese texts recovered from Khara
Khoto are Buddhist in content, among which by Shen Weirong’s
count are about 283 more or less whole works. Of this number, about
a hundred comprise standard Chinese works such as Huayanjing
(Avataṃsaka sūtra), Jin’gang polomiduojing (Prajñāpāramitā sūtra),
Miaofa lianhuajing (Sūtra of the Wonderful Lotus), etc. Another sixty
or so are printed fragments of other common Chinese Buddhist works;
thirty are fragments of commentaries, hagiographies, Chinese apocry-
pha, and other less common items.
The remaining ninety-three or so items comprise esoteric works,
both printed and manuscript texts (complete and fragmentary), that,
apart from some popular dhāraṇī texts found in the Chinese canon,
by and large did not make it into any standard Buddhist canon. Most
were translated from Tibetan (a few from Sanskrit) into Tangut and/
or Chinese, and are ritual guides (man ngag) for various types of yogic
practices, meditation manuals (sgrub thabs, sādhana), or compilations
of dhāraṇīs and mantras (Shen 2006, 2007a). The existence of so many
ritual guides of one sort or another, in both Tangut and Chinese, tes-
tifies to the apparent popularity among local residents in the twelfth
to fourteenth centuries of such practices as worship of Vajravārāhī
(consort of Heruka-Saṃvara) and the protector deity Mahākāla (who
became the Mongols’ tutelary deity), along with various healing and
protective cults. Saṃvara-Vajravārāhī mandalas and thangkas are
particularly numerous in the Khara Khoto collection, along with at
least sixteen ritual texts in Tangut and seven in Chinese devoted to
Vajravārāhī (Samosiuk 2006; Shen 2007c).