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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Copies of early inscriptions from the collection of the Lama Rig-'dzin Tshe-dbang Nor-bu (RT) have been the basis of articles in JRAS, 1969 and 1972. Another of his texts, described as “from the rdo-rings at sKar-cung rgyal-sde itself”, is the inscription on a stone pillar at Ra-ma-sgang near Lhasa which I edited with some remarks on its site and history in JRASB, 1949. It was included also by Professor G. Tucci in Tombs of the Tibetan kings, Rome, 1950 (TTK), where it was brought more fully into relation with a connected edict (bka'-tshigs) of Khri lDe-srong-brtsan recorded in vol. ja of the Chos-'byung of dPa'-bo gTsug-lag Phreng-ba (PT).
1 RT reads brtan pa'i. Tucci and I agree on brtan bar; cf. Thomas, F. W., Tibetan literary texts and documents(TLTD), II, pp. 94 (A2), 95 (A1), 98Google Scholar.
2 RT reads bsnan pa. My photograph is not clear but in 1. 55, where RT again reads bsnan, the word is unmistakably brnand.
3 RT reads brtsigs ste which appears also in ll. 9, 11, 14, and 17. The pillar is slightly damaged but Tucci and I both read brtsigs shing, which I have retained. The meaning is not affected.
4 The reading tsu in my edition and Tucci's may be due to an accidental mark on the stone; and I accept RT's kva-cu, which is also found in the edicts of Khri Srong-lde-brtsan and Khri lDe-srong-brtsan (TTK, pp. 98; 101).
5 RT correctly reads dbung. In my text and Tucci's dbud is in error.
6 RT reads mi mdzad do, which is clearly mistaken. I have discussed the word chis in Asia Major, XIV, 2, pp. 254–256.
7 This and the parallel passage in the edict (TTK, pp. 51, 52) are the earliest evidence, little more than 150 years after Srong-brtsan sGam-po's death, that he was regarded as the founder of Buddhism in Tibet.
8 'Dus-srong was at Khri-rtse in 701 and 702 and at gLing in 703, in which year he was also campaigning in 'Jang—the Nanchao kingdom (Bacot, J., Thomas, F. W., and Toussaint, C., Documents de Touen-houang relatifs à l'histoire du Tibet, Paris, 1940 = THD, pp. 39, 40)Google Scholar. Although the identification of early place names with those of the present day is not always reliable, those activities on the border make it probable that the gLing of the inscription is the region in eastern Tibet north of sDe-dge.
9 The temple of Kva-cu in Brag-mar survived as the small chapel of Ka-chu in the neighbourhood of bSam-yas. Its name perhaps commemorated the destruction by the Tibetans in 727, during the reign of Khri lDe-gtsug-brtsan, of the fortress of Kua-chou on the far north-western frontier of China, not far from Tun-huang. From about 776 the city, which appears in Tibetan records as Kva-cu, was regularly occupied by them.
10 dbung-mtha', “centre and periphery”, might be an epithet describing the great temple of bSam-yas, which stands at the centre of a circular walled precinct with subsidiary temples at cardinal points all round it in representation of the Buddhist concept of the universe. But a wider reference is suggested by THD, p. 114, where Khri Srong-lde-brtsan is said to have founded temples “everywhere, in the centre and on the borders”—dbus mtha' kun tu gtsug lag khang brtsigs te | chos btsugs.
11 I do not think that either Professor Tucci or I got this passage right, gces spras ci la yang appears to be part of what the unbelievers may say.
12 The construction of the greater part of the text is impersonal, with rare indications of the agent. There is only one personal pronoun—nged … kyis in 1. 44. Here we might understand either that the teachers taught the kings, or the kings learned, as much religion as possible.
13 ring lugs, which is quite common in MSS from Tun Huang of this period, seems to have a wide range of meaning. In TLTD, II, pp. 59, 162, and 406 Thomas translates it as “old usage”, but that is dubious, for in a large number of other instances it implies an official function connected with the attesting of documents: e.g. Lalou, Inventaire des manuscrits… de Touen-houang… (LINV), no. 1078, ring lugs gyi sug rgya; no. 1081, ring lugs gyis zhus pa; no. 1084, ring lugs gyis bris ste; or with the communication of orders, e.g. THD, p. 23, zlugs gyi ring lugs bkye; p. 27, gcod pa'i ring lugs … bkye; or with records, e.g. TLTD, II, p. 139, zhing 'god kyi ring lugs. In such cases Thomas suggests the meaning “courier” or “commissioner” (TLTD, II, 16); the former is too restricted and, in view of the mention of a ring lugs blon (LINV, 2204), too lowly. “Commissioner” is better; but the apparent connexion with custom and precedent suggests something like “registrar”. The term is found less often in MSS in a religious context: e.g. ring lugs bande (LINV, 1002), but is quite specific in the inscriptions at ICang-bu and Zhwa'i Lha-khang (TTK, p. 89; JRAS, Oct. 1952, p. 154). The former mentions the bcom ldan 'das ring lugs kyi 'dun sa—“the assembly of the Buddha ring-lugs”; the latter (ll. 59–62) directs that a repository be secured, in the presence of more than three reliable ring-lugs, with the seal of the ring-lugs. In current Tibetan the word refers to tradition or doctrine, e.g. Grub-mtha' shel gyi me-long, kha f.44 a, rje bla ma'i ring lugs. A senior teacher or abbot who transmits a doctrine or carries on a religious tradition may be described as ring-lugs-'dzin; and it is to that sort of duty that the passage in ll.40–43 of our inscription relates.
14 “The Wheel of the Law”: the preaching of the Buddha.
15 bskar-ba is not clear to Tibetans I have consulted. A connexion with dgar-ba (Jäschke, p. 20) suggests the meaning “set apart, restrict”.
16 mgo-nan. Das, p. 285, translates “first, foremost” but gives no examples. As nan connotes pressure or urgency perhaps the sense is, rather, “to give priority”. I have taken it here to refer to important rules for safeguarding monastic endowments.
17 ll. 51–55 repeat almost exactly the last lines of the bSam-yas pillar, which is probably the rdo-rings referred to in 1. 28.
18 zla-la, literally, “as a pair to”.