No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
Pelliot Tibétain (Pell. T.) no. 997, in Choix de Documents Tibétains, Biblioth`que Nationale (Paris, 1978), concerns the inventory of the property of Yu-lim gtsug-lag-khang in the Kva-cu district on Tibet's north-east frontier with China. It is in two parts. The first gives instructions for the revising of the existing inventory which had apparently suffered from some laxity in the past; the second is the fragmentary and somewhat damaged list of the subjects, cattle, crops and movable property, domestic and agricultural, of the lha-ris—the monastic estate. Sadly, it does not include the images, religious vessels, ornaments, etc. of the chapel.
1 dkor rkang-'gros. Property in cattle: cf. dkor-stsang below, property in crops.
2 The mngan were important fiscal and revenue officials. The mngan-chen the great mngan, is seen here to be responsible for the lha-ris of Kva-cu district as a whole while the sgo-mngan, the special mngan was in charge of the affairs of Yu-lim gtsug-lag-khang. Elsewhere (Pell. T. 1089) there is mention of a chu-mngan, water mngan.
3 Shi-bzhes. Unidentified.
4 ban-de. Sanskrit vandya, reverend, Buddhist monk.
5 ru-dpon. A high-ranking military officer.
6 ring-lugs. In general this denotes a court or similar body for ensuring compliance with established precedents and practice. In a religious context it means an abbot or monastic body responsible for the maintenance and transmission of the Buddhist doctrine, etc. I have translated it elsewhere, rather unsatisfactorily, as ‘registrars, commissioners’.
7 chos-kyi gzhi-'dzin. The abbot in charge of the chos-gzhi, the seat of the doctrine, the monastery.
8 I can find no other instance of a-rgya which I take to be for Sanskrit arya, Tibetan ’phags-pa, ‘noble’, ‘glorious’, signifying here an Indian monk.
9 spyan, ‘the Eye’, Inspector.
10 zhang, a relation by marriage of the royal family.
11 pho-brang. The name of the palace is omitted although a space is left for it in the document. A similar gap is seen in Pell. T. 1089 where the Bde-blon issue orders from an unnamed palace. Other documents give the names of Pho-brang Lhan-kar, Pho-brang Brag-mar, and ’On-cang-do.
12 Hva-shang is not found as a place name. It is the title of Chinese Buddhist priests and is particularly applied to the Hva-shang Mahayana, the opponent of Kamalashila in the great religious debate at Samye and who later became a supporter of the Tibetan régime at Tunhuang (Demiéville, La Concile de Lhasa, index, 589). Perhaps the reference is to an assembly promoted by him.
13 gra. Court? See Thomas, , TLTD, II 134, 149Google Scholar.
14 nang-khor. Khor, ’khor usually means ‘retinue’. It appears to refer here only to Gshen Rma-sbyin, perhaps with the meaning of ‘private attendant’. A gshen was a Bon priest but the syllable appears rarely to be a family name.
15 ru-'theb. Assistant or additional ru-dpon.
16 stong-pon (dpon). Military governor of a stang-sde, ‘thousand-district’.
17 khab-so. Earlier suggestions that these were some sort of palace or household guards are not tenable. The Lhasa Treaty Inscription V, 1. 33 shows them as being under the control of the mngan and cf. Tunhuang Annals, 23 (77), mngan gyi khab-so. They were therefore financial officials as is seen in the same passage—khab-so khrald-pa bskos-pa. Even a monk could be a khab-so, perhaps similar to the present-day spyi-so, administrator of a monastery.
18 brgal. Rgol, attack, dispute. I render ‘utinize’.
19 bcom-ldan- ’das kyi ring-lugs. Cf. Skar-cung, inscription, 11. 40, 41Google Scholar.
20 khams, province, region, cf. Mdo-khams.
21 dgog. for gog?; usually applied to ruinous buildings. Crippled, old?
22 The bran though bound to the estate on which they served seem to be of a higher status than the other subjects (’bangs).
23 gnag sding. Thomas, , TLTD, II, 98Google Scholar cites g-yag-sding ‘extra yaks’. gnag may mean cattle in general but here it may be accepted that yaks are intended although they do not figure much in Tunhuang documents.
24 ba-shad. Das, Dictionary, 1230 has shad-yar meaning a yak calf one year old; so here it may mean cows of that age, heifers.
25 sha-zan. ? Meat for eating, store cattle(?)
26 snyid denotes the relationship between brothers- and sisters-in-law and cannot apply strictly here. It does not appear to be in error for nyid as it occurs again below. Perhaps a mixed herd of cows and bullocks.
27 ra-skyes. Dictionaries agree on ‘gelded he goat’; ra pho snyid mo snyid presents the same problem as in note 26.
28 ra-thong. Jaeschke has ‘a he goat of two years’: Das, thong-pa ‘a ram two years old’. Both have the alternative of ‘a castrated he goat’. I prefer the former for there must surely have been some male for breeding purposes. Dictionary entries for these words about flocks and herds are very confusing and uncertain.
29 mkhal for khal, a bushel.
30 phyed for phye (?)
31 pha-lam, pha-lan. An unidentified weight or measure.
32 zung-cha. Things to hold (?) Utensils, implements.
33 The writing is very faint. I read tentatively gdan dang gdan ma and suppose the latter to mean floor coverings.
34 ther-po. In this context ther-ma, woollen cloth, is improbable. Perhaps there is a connexion with mthe'u, a small hammer.
35 khva-zang. A covered pot or kettle (?)
36 tshe'u. Tibetan–English dictionaries have ste-po, axe; and in an English–Tibetan dictionary by T. G. Dhongthog (1972). I find ‘adze’, slve'u.
37 mdo-ris. Unidentified.
38 dbyam. byam, phebs byam, a palanquin, carrying chair; bkra, brightly coloured(?), or of good quality (?)
39 dbyam-po phye. An open palanquin: but the addition of a large number of do tshad is obscure.
40 gar myig. ‘Tent-eye’. Circular wooden or metal frames for the smoke hole of a tent (?)
41 dre'u rngog. Literally ‘mule's mane’; but Dagyab has grum rts'i gdan ha bu, i.e. a sort of woollen rug or carpet.
42 an-pan. Cf. song pan, abacus (?)
43 phor-pa. Small, shallow wooden bowls sometimes lined with silver, for tea, tsampa, etc.
44 lu-ce. Lud (?), phlegm. Spitoons (?)
45 nang gzhong. Bowl for domestic use (?)
46 bong skor rkang tun dang bcas pa. A crushing mill pulled round by a donkey. Das, 523 has I gtun … ‘nether millstone’; rkang-tun may therefore refer to the millstones and not harness for the legs which is perhaps an improbable arrangement.