Western Xia Tibetan Paintings: Research on Western Xia Thangkas Excavated from Khara-Khoto (Volume I and II): Research on Western Xia Thangkas Excavated from Khara-Khoto

Author: Xie Jisheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: Based on reading and referencing articles and materials on the Black City from both domestic and international sources, the author explores the development of Western Xia Thangka art and further investigates its influence on Tibetan Buddhist art. This holds significant importance for studying the development of Western Xia and Tibetan cultures as well as the integration of multi-ethnic art. The color illustration collection includes nearly two hundred plates, with about 30 Thangkas from the Black City site, now stored in the Hermitage Museum in Russia. As a specialized work on Black City Thangkas, the color illustration collection includes all the main Thangka images discussed in the book to help readers better understand their color styles. The book is divided into five parts.
Chapter 1, "The Discovery and Research of Black City Thangkas," briefly describes the process of the discovery of the Black City site based on the descriptions in works by Kozlov and others, focusing on the excavation details related to Thangkas. The chapter also reviews the history of research on Black City Thangkas by scholars both domestically and internationally from the time of Russian scholar Odenburg to the author's writing of the paper. It pays special attention to the research conducted by Russian scholars on these works in the past decade, excerpts their main viewpoints, and provides commentary.
Chapter 2 is the highlight of the book, focusing on specific Thangka works. Starting from Chapter 3, the book shifts to longitudinal research, discussing several general issues summarized in Chapter 2. The last two chapters focus on specific research topics.