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The Orkhon Inscriptions

Being a Translation of Professor Vilhelm Thomsen's final Danish rendering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

E. Denison Ross
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Extract

The two famous monuments known as the Orkhon Inscriptions, erected in honour of the two Turkish princes, Kül-Tegin and his brother Bilgä Kagan, though mentioned in Chinese histories, remained forgotten and ignored down to quite recent times. They stand near the Lake Kocho Tsaīdam, to the west of the River Orkhon, about 50 miles north of the monastery of Erdentso (the site of the ancient city of Kara Korum), and about 25 miles to the north-west of the ruins of the capital of the Uighurs, Kara-Balgassun. They are two great square monoliths, which originally reposed in two sockets. Both these sockets are still in their original position, but the monuments have been thrown down, with the result that Monument II is in four pieces. They contain long Turkish inscriptions in Runic characters on three sides, and on one side (the western) the inscription is in Chinese. The Chinese inscriptions are very beautifully cut; the Runic inscriptions, which are also probably the work of the Chinese stonecutters, are less elegant. It may be mentioned that the Chinese inscriptions differ entirely in their contents from the Turkish.

Type
Papers Contributed
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , February 1930 , pp. 861 - 876
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1930

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References

page 861 note 1 Inscriptions de l'Orkhon, Helsingfors, 1896.Google Scholar

page 861 note 2 Samlede Afhandlinger, vol. 3, Copenhagen, 1922.Google Scholar

page 863 note 1 It is interesting to note that the combination ung which Thomsen following Radloff originally read as unug ═ beloved, he now reads as on og or the Ten Arrows.

page 866 note 1 It was a custom of the Turks to set up stones round the tomb of a fallen prince, each stone representing an enemy he had slain during his lifetime. Such stones were called balbal.

page 868 note 1 A children's deity.

page 870 note 1 It is interesting to note the Turkish transcription of the Tibetan word blon— pointing to the pronunciation of the initial “ b ” which has only an orthographical value to-day (═ lon-po, an official).

page 874 note 1 Which kagan is here spoken of is not clear; perhaps Bögü kagan (p. 188 f.) (?)

page 875 note 1 While up to now it has been always the dead kagan who is represented as speaking [except in II E 1–2], here it is suddenly the new kagan that starts speaking without any transition.