Ningxia and Inner Mongolia 2016
November 13, 2016
Travels in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia with @cosmicore from 17 to 31 August 2016, in search of relics of the Tangut and Khitan peoples.
Photo via @BabelStone
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 2, 2016
Yinchuan Day 2: Ningxia Musuem and Chengtian Temple Pagoda with @cosmicore (cloudy all day)
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 3, 2016
Yinchuan Day 3: 108 stupas at Qingtongxia (still cloudy, and raining on and off)
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 4, 2016
Clay elephant found at the 108 Stupas in Ningxia
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 5, 2016
Yinchuan Day 6: Still raining, and flooding cuts short our excursion to the Western Xia tombs and beyond
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 6, 2016
Day 7: Bus from Yinchuan to Bayanhot (阿拉善左旗) with @cosmicore (still cloudy and raining lightly)
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 7, 2016
Day 8: 10+ hour bus from Bayanhot (阿拉善左旗) to Dalaihob (额济纳旗) around the edge of the Gobi desert (still cloudy)
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 7, 2016
Day 8: Lunch break at Wuliji (乌力吉苏木) — colourful school and public toilets with emoji gender signs
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 8, 2016
Day 9: We reach the dead city of Kharakhoto in a minor sandstorm that clouds the cloudless sky (but soon clears).
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 8, 2016
Day 9: Stupas on the northwest corner of the walls of Kharakhoto.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 8, 2016
Day 9: Remains of the Western Xia stupa inside the city of Kharakhoto.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 8, 2016
Day 9: Islamic tomb ("Gumbaz") outside the walls of Kharakhoto.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 8, 2016
Day 9: The carefully laid-out path around Kharakhoto to the East Gate is blocked by a huge sand dune.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 8, 2016
Day 9: Pottery shards are scattered everywhere within the city of Kharakhoto.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 8, 2016
Day 9: The base of the "celebrated suburgan" where Kozlov found a huge hoard of Tangut texts and artefacts in 1908.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 8, 2016
What the suburgan (stupa) looked like during its process of destruction by Kozlov.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 8, 2016
Day 9: Datong Fort (大同城), several km west of Kharakhoto.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 8, 2016
Day 9: The Red Fort (红城), apparently dating back to the Han dynasty, near the start of the road to Kharakhoto.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 9, 2016
Day 10: In a change of plan, we travel to Hohhot by overnight train (16 hours), where we have a 6-hour stopover.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 9, 2016
Day 10: We visit the Nationalities Museum of IMU (内蒙古大学民族博物馆) which has the largest collection of Khitan epitaphs
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 9, 2016
Day 10: No Khitan epitaphs on display; but we find 3 unpublished Khitan Large Script epitaphs leaning against a wall
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 9, 2016
Day 10: After the museum we have time for book shopping, and I bought this important addition to my Tangut library.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 10, 2016
Day 11: Night train from Hohhot to Lindong (巴林左旗), site of Liao Upper Capital, and we head for Liao Shangjing museum
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 10, 2016
Day 11: No Khitan epitaphs on public display here either, but several fragments of Khitan Large Script inscriptions.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 10, 2016
Day 11: Next we go to the private Khitan Museum, but it is closed. However, we manage to gain entrance anyway.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 10, 2016
Day 11: Downstairs are piles of boxes and stones and stuff, including a *fantasy* Khitan Small Script dharani pillar
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 10, 2016
Day 11: Upstairs the gallery is ready for opening, and we see our first Khitan (Small Script) epitaph of the trip
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 10, 2016
Day 11: At the back of the public museum is an external gallery of dharani pillars that doubles as a bike shed
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 10, 2016
Day 11: At midday we go to the Liao pagoda south of town, and the clear sky turns to pouring rain and lightning.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 10, 2016
Day 11: By the time we get to the small (possibly Liao) North Pagoda in town the weather is clearing.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 10, 2016
Day 11: In the afternoon we explore the vast empty site of the Upper Capital, where the annual dig is under way ...
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 10, 2016
Day 11: Scattered across the Upper Capital site are pieces of Liao or Jin masonry (note the distinctive ridges)
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 10, 2016
Day 11: View of the South Pagoda from the Upper Capital site.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 11, 2016
Day 12: Early in the morning, before catching the train back to Hohhot, I head back to the Liao dynasty South Pagoda
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 11, 2016
Day 12: Train police and swat team investigate a crime that happened right under the chair I was sitting on.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 12, 2016
Day 13: An uneventful train journey from Hohhot to Yinchuan—giant and very tasteful statue of Genghis Khan at Wuhai.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 13, 2016
Day 14: Western Xia Imperial Tomb No. 3 (believed to be for Li Yuanhao, first Emperor of Western Xia)
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 13, 2016
Day 14: Western Xia Tombs 1 and 2, believed to be for Li Jiqian and Li Deming (father and grandfather of Li Yuanhao)
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 13, 2016
(I mean grandfather and father!) Here's a close-up of Tombs 1 (Li Jiqian) and 2 (Li Deming).
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 14, 2016
As we approach the Twin Pagodas at Baiskou I begin to appreciate the enormity of last week's flash floods.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 14, 2016
Day 14: The twin Western Xia pagodas of Baisikou (拜寺口双塔).
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 14, 2016
Day 14: The east pagoda.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 14, 2016
Day 14: The west pagoda.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 14, 2016
Detail of the west pagoda.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 14, 2016
Day 14:The remains of the Western Xia Basigou Square Pagoda 拜寺沟方塔 (https://t.co/$$$
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 14, 2016
Day 14: The Western Xia Hongfo Pagoda (宏佛塔), the final view of these fourteen days in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia.
Andrew West 魏安 @BabelStone September 14, 2016
One of several statues of Arhats discovered in a room in the peak of the pagoda during renovations in 1990.
