The Tangut dharani pillars () are two stone dharani pillars, with the text of a dhāraṇī-sutra inscribed on them in the Tangut script, which were found in Baoding, Hebei, China in 1962. The dharani pillars were erected during the middle of the Ming dynasty, in 1502, and they are the latest known examples of the use of the Tangut script. They are also very rare examples of Tangut monumental inscriptions outside of the territories ruled by the Western Xia dynasty. The only other known example of an inscription in the Tangut script that has been found in north China is on the 14th-century Cloud Platform at Juyongguan in Beijing. These pillars indicate that there was a vibrant Tangut community living in Baoding, far from the Tangut homeland in modern Ningxia and Gansu, during the early 16th century, nearly 300 years after the Western Xia was conquered by the Mongol Empire. History The two pillars were discovered in 1962 in the village of Hanzhuang () in the northern suburbs of the city of Baoding, in Hebei province, south-west of Beijing. After receiving information from the Hebei Nationalities Affairs Committee, the Cultural Relics Working Group of the Hebei Bureau of Cultural Affairs sent a team to investigate and excavate a site at Hanzhuang, on the south side of the road leading into the village from the west. The site was a square platform (150m × 150m), about 2m above the surrounding ground, on which was scattered broken pieces of tiles and bricks dating to the Ming and Qing dynasties. According to elderly inhabitants of the village, the platform was the site of a temple, locally known as the "Big Temple" () or the "West Temple" () or the "Pagoda Temple" (). Some of the temple buildings were still standing during the latter years of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), but all the remaining buildings were destroyed during the first half of the 20th century. The distinctive feature of the temple was a Tibetan-style stupa-shaped white pagoda, similar to the Yuan Dynasty white dagoba at Miaoying Temple in Beijing. The two Tangut dharani pillars were discovered on the site of the temple. The name of the temple where the pillars were found is given in the Tangut inscription, and has been transcribed into Chinese as Xishi Temple (), but according to Shi Jinbo and Bai Bin the Tangut transcription probably represents the Chinese name