Tangut script
On most dharani pillars, the dharani or dharani-sutras are written in Chinese characters, phonetically transcribing the original Sanskrit text. Occasionally the dharani text may be transcribed using other writing systems. In 1962 two Ming Dynasty Tangut dharani pillars were discovered in a village in the north of Baoding, where a Buddhist temple with a white, stupa-shaped pagoda once stood. These pillars were engraved with the "Dharani of the Victorious Buddha-Crown" transcribed in the Tangut script. According to a Chinese inscription on one of the pillars, they were erected in the 10th month of the 15th year of the Hongzhi era (1502), and are the latest known examples of the Tangut script.