An further tribe founding a dynasty after Chinese pattern were the Tanguts (Chinese: Dangxiang 黨項), relatives to the Tibetians, who founded a Western Xia Dynasty (Xixia 西夏) in 1038. This people was controlling the routes to Inner Asia and demanding high tributes from the Song 宋 emperors, after the Song had to sign a peacy treaty with them in 1044. The Tangut people of the Western Xia kingdom did not adopt Chinese customs and habits as quick as the Liao-Khitan 遼 ruling class had done; the main part of their ruling class remained to be nomads. But they adopted an own script, modeled after the Chinese script, because the Indian or Tibetian alphabet proved not to be suitable for their languge. The Xixia empire was conquered by the Mongols in 1227. The name of the Xia Empire still lives in the modern self-governing Muslim region of Ningxia 寧夏回族自治區).

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