No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Tibetan Documents concerning Chinese Turkestan. I: the Ha-za
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
Among the Tibetan MSS. recovered by Sir Aurel Stein from the now famous hidden library of Tun-huang (Ch'ien-fo-tung) is a roll of thin paper inscribed on one side with a part of a text of a Buddhist sūtra in Chinese. The reverse contains a Tibetan document, which, as we may infer from many similar instances, was inscribed later. The Tibetan text, which consists of 254 lines of writing (plus the lower half of a preceding line) is a chronicle, covering without interruption a period of seventy-six years. Each entry commences with the name of the year according to the twelve-year cycle, and then appends a brief resume of the leading events, usually ending with the phrase “[so] one year“. The text contains a large number of names, names of peoples, places, and persons, including royalties, generals, and ministers, Chinese envoys and Turkish khagans: and the whole conveys a lively impression of Tibetan activities during the period, especially of incessant campaigns against all co-terminous states, the Chinese, the Hbrog (nomads), and other tribes of Tibet. Of special interest for Indian history are the indications of Tibetan domination in Nepal.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1927
References
page 51 note 1 Provisionally, in anticipation of M. Bacot's conclusions.
page 52 note 1 For other literary Tibetan references see below, pp. 82–3.
page 53 note 1 In all the texts which follow partly legible akṣaras are enclosed between square brackets and corrections between round brackets. Conjectural insertions are in Italic. Missing akṣaras are indicated by a corresponding number of dots, except where, especially at the beginnings and ends of lines, the number is not sufficiently determinable. In all cases the irregular spellings and punctuation of the originals are preserved.
page 53 note 2 In view of the irregular spellings in the documents and the numerous words not hitherto recorded the translations are offered, especially in the case of fragmentary phrases, with some amount of reserve. In many cases, however, we have confirmatory evidence from other documents.
page 59 note 1 This syllable is inserted below the line.
page 65 note 1 Possibly, however, 1 10 indicates that he is dead, in which case it is the Ha-za party that is invited.
page 65 note 2 Conquered by the Tibetans soon after a.d. 634 (Bushell, p. 528).
page 68 note 1 Chinese Tsao, a family at Śa-cu (Serindia, index)?
page 68 note 2 Cor is perhaps identical with the tch'ouo (tchour) of Chavannes, index?
page 69 note 1 SirStein, A. records (Serindia, p. 716)Google Scholar a word ts'ang = “granary”. Stsaṅ recurs below (No. 13) and elsewhere.
page 69 note 2 Mṅan is found with stsaṅ in Ch. 80, v, 1, M.T., b. 1097, and elsewhere.
page 70 note 1 e.g. Bzaṅ-sum-tsal, Ñiṅ-sum-lchol (Chr. 11. 38, 62).
page 72 note 1 Or “a previously (bla.nas) not mentioned recommendation”(?).
page 75 note 1 “Not-liable to wrong judgment” ? or “against whom nothing is known ?
page 75 note 2 The phrase dpen.bahi.zo.śa recurs in M I. x, 2, which also has the chaṅ.khyu of 11. 45–6 and 48 below.
page 80 note 1 Is there a ru or duhere below the line ?
page 80 note 2 That this translation is open to no doubt will be shown below (p. 82).