Ksenia Kepping

Ksenia Borisovna Kepping (Russian: Ксе́ния Бори́совна Ке́пинг, Chinese: 克平; pinyin: Kè Píng, 7 February 1937 – 13 December 2002) was a Russian Tangutologist, known principally for her study of Tangut (or Mi-nia) grammar. She is also known for her theories on the tantric nature of the Tangut state, and for her proposition of the existence of two contrasting forms of Tangut language, the common language used in most surviving Tangut texts, and a ritual language preserved only in a few ritual odes.

Kepping was born in Tianjin, China on 7 February 1937. Her father, Boris Mikhailovich von Kepping (1896–1958), had been an officer in the White Army who lived in Harbin in north-east China after the Russian Civil War (1917–1923). He subsequently married Olga Viktorovna Svyatina (1900–1992), and moved to Tianjin where her brother, the future Metropolitan Viktor (Leonid Viktorovich Svyatin, 1893–1966), was a priest (he was later appointed Bishop of Beijing and head of the Russian Spiritual Mission in China).

Kepping grew up in Tianjin, and from 1945 to 1954 she was educated at a Russian school in Tianjin. During her childhood in China she learnt to speak the local Tianjin dialect of Chinese fluently. In 1955 the Russian Spiritual Mission was closed, and Kepping's family were voluntarily repatriated to the Soviet Union. Her uncle Viktor was appointed Archbishop of Krasnodar and Kuban, while her parents were sent to Central Asia. She was initially admitted into the Central Asian State University in Tashkent, but with help from her uncle she was able to transfer to the prestigious Leningrad State University in Leningrad. She studied Chinese Philology at the Faculty of Oriental Studies from 1955 to 1959, and after graduation she joined the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, where she remained until her death in 2002.

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