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In chapter 3, Brandon Dotson describes the "centuries-long process by which Tibetan religious memory transformed Songtsen Gampo (ca. 605–649), a great conquering emperor, into a Buddhist king subsumed into the emanational nexus of Chenrezik, the patron bodhisattva of Tibet"; and Xie Jisheng, in chapter 4, clarifies the crucial role of the "Tangut kingdom of Xixia, a small but significant power founded in 1038 astride the Silk Road" that formed a link in the 11th and 12th centuries between the period of the Tibetan Empire and the later Mongol and Chinese powers.