Tangut people

<p>The Tangut people  were a <a href="/facts/Sino-Tibetan_languages/kfdM7pTx">Sino-Tibetan</a> people who founded and inhabited the <a href="/facts/Western_Xia/KjwJctSc">Western Xia dynasty</a>. The group initially lived under <a href="/facts/Tuyuhun/qFpRupkh">Tuyuhun</a> authority, but later submitted to the <a href="/facts/Tang_dynasty/FFhmVfwM">Tang dynasty</a>. After the collapse of Tang dynasty, the Tanguts established the Western Xia. They spoke the <a href="/facts/Tangut_language/zM5okvzA">Tangut language</a>, which was previously believed to be one of the <a href="/facts/Qiangic_languages/sAS7Ubxe">Qiangic languages</a> or <a href="/facts/Nuosu_language/lgUuxw4Y">Yi languages</a> which belong to the <a href="/facts/Tibeto-Burman_languages/H7kY9J5E">Tibeto-Burman</a> family." Phylogenetic and historical linguistic accounts, however, reveal that Tangut belonged instead to the <a href="/facts/Gyalrongic_languages/dA0Mshk8">Gyalrongic branch</a> of Tibeto-Burman. Western Xia was annihilated by the <a href="/facts/Mongol_Empire/cfddtfIK">Mongol Empire</a> in 1227, most of its written records and architecture were destroyed. Today the Tangut language and its <a href="/facts/Tangut_script/An8NhS2q">unique script</a> are extinct; only fragments of <a href="/facts/List_of_Tangut_books/DTmU1mjc">Tangut literature</a> remain.
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Tangut people open-in-new

Tangut people