Mi-Niah

The Tangut, who called themselves Mi-niah, were a Sino-Tibetan people of Qiangic speech from the mountains of northwestern Sichuan and southeastern Qinghai. Under Tibetan pressure in the early eighth century they migrated north into the Ordos and Gansu corridor. In 881 their general Li Sigong helped the Tang suppress Huang Chao and received hereditary prefectures.

From this base Li Yuanhao proclaimed Western Xia in 1038, with its capital at Xingqing. He commissioned the Tangut script and imposed native dress and hairstyle; the Buddhist canon was translated into Tangut and printed around 1090. Western Xia fought the Song, Liao and Jin until Genghis Khan's campaigns ended with its capital's fall in 1227.

Many Tangut entered Mongol service, ranking as Semu under the Yuan. Communities in Anhui and Henan spoke their language into the sixteenth century, while refugees carried the Mi-niah name west into Sichuan and Tibet.