Pearl in the Palm

It survives as a single complete copy of a 12th-century woodblock printed book that was discovered in the Tangut city of Kharakhoto.

In addition, a single page from a different copy of the same edition of the Pearl in the Palm was found at the Northern Mogao Caves in 1989.

In 1909, the Russian explorer Pyotr Kozlov unearthed a number of texts and artefacts in Ejin Banner, Inner Mongolia, including the Pearl in the Palm and transported them back to St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 1912, Chinese scholars Luo Zhenyu and Feng Ge visited Ivanov upon learning about the work in his possession, and were given access to nine pages, which they photocopied for study.

The Belgian scholar Luc Kwanten visited the Soviet Union in the late 1970s, and was able to photograph the whole of "The Pearl in the Palm".