HAMANAKA Saya

Positions, degrees

Research Associate; JSPS Research Fellowship

Research Keywords

Tangut State; Tangut Buddhism; Tangut textual materials; Tibetan Buddhism; Mongol period

Email

sy-hamanaka[at]aa.tufs.ac.jp

Interpreting the BuddhistWorld of EasternEurasia through TangutTextualMaterials

I focus on Tangut Buddhism and its connections with the Mongol Empire. The Tangut state, which flourished between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries in what is now the Ningxia region of China, was characterized by a strong commitment to Buddhism.
Located between Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the Tangut incorporated these forms of Buddhism and translated them into the Tangut language. The Tangut thus functioned as a hub of Buddhism in Eastern Eurasia, and Buddhist scriptures written in the Tangut script continued to be printed under Mongol rule even after the fall of the state.
Current scholarship on the Tangut primarily relies on excavated Tangut textual materials. Although the vast majority of these materials consist of Buddhist texts, such texts have not been fully utilized in historical studies of the Tangut.
In my research, I analyze these Tangut Buddhist texts in comparison with Tibetan and East Asian Buddhist literature, treating them as “historical sources” that allow us to examine how Tangut people positioned themselves within the broader Buddhist tradition of Eastern Eurasia. Through this approach, I explore the characteristics of Buddhism in the Tangut state and compare them with Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhist practices under Mongol rule.