Guest Lecture: "Star Prophecy, Massacre of the Innocents, Baby in a Basket, and other legends about the origin of the Tangut state"

The Tanguts emerged onto the stage of Central Asian history in the 10th century and quickly became a force to be reckoned with by their neighbours. However, the bright star of the Tangut people soon set: in 1227, their state fell under the onslaught of Mongol troops, and their language, culture, and complex writing system gradually fell into oblivion.

Scholars derive knowledge about Tangut history mainly from Chinese sources. There are also some Tibetan historical works. One of them is the “Red Annals” by Künga Dorje (1309–1364). This work contains an intriguing account of the origin of the ruling Tangut clan Ngwemi. The birth and childhood of the legendary ancestor of this clan were accompanied by episodes familiar to anyone from a Christian cultural background: the appearance of a star interpreted as a prophecy of the ruler’s birth, an order to kill all infants in the neighbourhood, and the protagonist being hidden in a box among reeds. In the lecture, we will discuss how these motifs might have entered Tangut culture, what they tell us about Tangut history, and, using this example, how wandering folklore motifs function in historical texts.

Lecturer: Alla Sizova (Doctoral student at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the École pratique des hautes études)

Research interests: Tibetan Buddhism in the Tangut state (Xi Xia), Tibetan and Mongolian manuscript studies, codicology, lexicography

The guest lecture will be held in Lossi 3-328, 14:15-16:00