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II. Notes on Sir Aurel Stein's Collection of Tibetan Documents from Chinese Turkestan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

A. H. Francke
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Extract

This collection of ancient Tibetan documents, of which I have been engaged in preparing an inventory under an arrangement sanctioned by the India Office, contains close on two thousand pieces, none of them probably of a later date than the ninth century A.D., and is certain to shed a flood of new light on Tibetan archæology, history, grammar, culture, religion, and folklore. Most of the documents were found at two sites, viz. Mīrān and Mazārtāgh. Mīrān is situated a few miles south of the westernmost end of the present Lop-nōr marshes, while Mazār-tāgh is a low barren ridge rising in the middle of the Taklamakān desert, on the left bank of the Khotan River. In his Ruins of Desert Cathay, vol. i, pp. 350 seqq., 439 seqq., Sir Aurel Stein has described the remains of the ruined fort which yielded these Tibetan records at the former site. For an account of the excavations which brought to light Tibetan and other documents in abundance from the refuse-layers adjoining the small ruined station on the Mazār-tāgh hill, vol. ii, pp. 417 seqq., may be consulted.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , January 1914 , pp. 37 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1914

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References

page 38 note 1 gSas seems to be a Bonpo deity. “Shrines of gSas” are mentioned in the Bonpo chronicles, revised by DrLaufer, : T'oung-Pao, vol. ii, No. 1.Google Scholar

page 40 note 1 Several Bonpo deities have names composed with the syllable khro. There are four great Khro-bo.

page 41 note 1 [This name may be connected with the title A-mo-chih, attested by the Chinese historical records for the rulers of Khotan in the eighth century; see Ancient Khotan, vol. i, pp. 176, 266, 523.Google Scholar—Stein.]

page 41 note 2 Mu-khri occurs as a minister's name.

page 43 note 1 “Historische Dokumente von Khalatse”: ZDMG, Bd. Ixi.

page 43 note 2 Indian Antiquary, vol. xxxiv.Google Scholar

page 53 note 1 [Judging from the shape of these small tablets and the analogy of many Chinese documents of the Han period found along the ancient Tun-huang Limes, it seems more probable that missives of this kind were meant merely to authenticate verbal messages and orders which the person carrying the tablets was to deliver.—Stein.]

page 54 note 1 [Marco Polo records exactly the same relative value of gold and silver for Western Yünnan at the close of the thirteenth century; cf. Yule, , Marco Polo, iii, ii, pp. 79, 90.Google Scholar—Stein.]

page 54 note 2 [Carpet-weaving was an ancient art of Khotan; cf. Ancient Khotan, i, p. 134.Google Scholar—Stein.]