Dalton Davis van Schaik Dunhuang palaography JIATS_03_2007.pdf

8/14/2019 Dalton Davis van Schaik Dunhuang palaography JIATS_03_2007.pdf

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Journal of theInternational Association

of Tibetan Studies

Issue 3 December 2007

ISSN 1550-6363

An online journal published by the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (THDL)

www.jiats.org


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Editor:Jos Ignacio Cabezn

Book Review Editor:Kurtis Schaeffer

Assistant Editors:Alison Melnick, Zoran Lazovic, and Christopher Bell

Managing Director:Steven Weinberger

Technical Director:Nathaniel Grove

Contents

Articles

A Look at the Diversity of the Gzhan stong Tradition (24 pages) Anne Burchardi

Beyond Anonymity: Paleographic Analyses of the Dunhuang Manuscripts (23 pages) Jacob Dalton

Emperor Mu rug btsan and thePhang thang ma Catalogue(25 pages) Brandon Dotson

An Early Seventeenth-Century Tibeto-Mongolian Ceremonial Staff (24 pages) Johan Elverskog

The Importance of the Underworlds: Asuras Caves in Buddhism, and Some OtherThemes in Early Buddhist Tantras Reminiscent of the Later Padmasambhava

Legends (31 pages)

Robert Mayer

Re-Assessing the Supine Demoness: Royal Buddhist Geomancy in the Srong btsansgam po Mythology (47 pages)

Martin A. Mills

Modernity, Power, and the Reconstruction of Dance in Post-1950s Tibet (42 pages) Anna Morcom

Book Reviews

Review ofThundering Falcon: An Inquiry into the History and Cult of Khra brug,Tibets First Buddhist Temple, by Per K. Srensen et al (5 pages)

Bryan Cuevas

Review ofTibetan Songs of Realization: Echoes from a Seventeenth-Century Scholarand Siddha in Amdo, by Victoria Sujata (6 pages)

Lauran Hartley

Review ofHoly Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas, ed. Rob Linrothe and ReviewofThe Flying Mystics of Tibetan Buddhism, by Glenn H. Mullin (8 pages)

Serinity Young

ii


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Beyond Anonymity: Paleographic Analyses of the

Dunhuang Manuscripts

Jacob DaltonYale University

Tom DavisUniversity of Birmingham

Sam van SchaikThe British Library

Abstract: This article presents a new paleographic approach to the Tibetan

manuscripts from Dunhuang. By adapting the techniques of forensic handwriting

analysis to the Tibetan alphabet, we can identify groups of manuscripts written in

the same hand. After introducing this new approach, the present paper applies it

to the works of a single scribe, taken as an initial example. Once this particulargroup of manuscripts has been identied, a range of further insights into this

person emerge his many connections to the kingdom of Khotan, his unique writing

style, and his interest in the external ritual practices relating to water and re

offerings, stpas, rosaries, and the like. This new approach promises to alter

signicantly our understanding of the Tibetan Dunhuang documents. No longer

are we confronted with a mass of undigested material; now we can begin to date

and ascribe names to whole swathes of the collection.1

An Introduction to Forensic Handwriting Techniques

Working with manuscripts is certainly a laborious affair, but one that can havealmost magical moments. After years of careful analysis, one may begin to feelan almost personal bond with the scribes of the distant past. The present article

1 The authors thank the AHRC, the International Dunhuang Project, the American PhilosophicalSociety, and the American Academy of Religion for their support in funding this collaborative project.The original research began during a three-year AHRC-funded project on the tantric manuscripts from

Dunhuang, published in Jacob Dalton and Sam van Schaik, Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang:A Descriptive Catalogue of the Stein Collection at the British Library(Leiden: Brill, 2006).

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 3 (December 2007): 1-23.www.thdl.org?id=T3106.1550-6363/2007/3/T3106. 2007 by Jacob Dalton, Tom Davis, Sam van Schaik, Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library, and InternationalAssociation of Tibetan Studies. Distributed under theTHDL Digital Text License.
http://www.thdl.org/?id=T3106http://www.thdl.org/xml/showEssay.php?xml=/tools/THDLTextLicense.xmlhttp://www.thdl.org/xml/showEssay.php?xml=/tools/THDLTextLicense.xmlhttp://www.thdl.org/?id=T3106


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grew out of just such a strange and ill-dened series of experiences. Its goal,however, is to justify these intuitions in as much detail as possible, to shed lighton these murky insights. For three years, from 2002 to 2005, Jacob Dalton and

Sam van Schaik worked together on a project to catalogue the Tibetan tantricmanuscripts in the Stein collection, held at the British Library. After about a yearof working every day with these manuscripts, they began to recognize the individualhandwritings specic to certain scribes. Over the following months they becameincreasingly convinced of their identications, until many seemed quite obvious.When these theories were presented to other scholars they were met with interest,

but also with skepticism. More proof was required, and while their initial, largelyintuitive recognitions of different scribes handwritings had been relatively easy,it would be far more difcult to explain precisely what lay behind these

identications.2

In 2004 van Schaik and Dalton contacted Tom Davis, the third author of thisarticle and an expert in forensic handwriting analysis. Over the following year thethree authors met numerous times to develop a forensic-style approach to the

paleography found in the Dunhuang manuscripts. Developing a rm basis for theirtheories proved difcult, and some of the early identications had to be abandoned,

but a reliable method did nally emerge. What follows is an introduction to thisnew paleographic approach to the Tibetan Dunhuang collection. The article includesfour sections:

1. An introduction to the basic practice of forensic handwriting analysis andhow it may be applied outside the courtroom.

2. A discussion of how these forensic techniques were adapted to the Tibetanscript and how the handwriting of one scribe can be described by a fewsimple rules.

3. A brief overview of the writing practices and the social milieu of tenthcentury Dunhuang.

4. A review of further internal evidence indicating that the manuscripts

written in the hand identied in part two are all the work of a single person.

Terminology

First, a note on the terminology. When someone looks at handwriting, what theysee on the page is a series ofgraphs in an alphabetic script, the letters as theyactually appear on that particular page. Each graph is an individual, necessarilyunique, representation of a grapheme, which in our alphabetic writing means a

2 Cristina Scherrer-Schaub has discussed the paleography of early Tibetan manuscripts in CristinaA. Scherrer-Schaub, Towards a Methodology for the Study of Old Tibetan Manuscripts: Dunhuangand Tabo, in Tabo Studies 2: Manuscripts, Texts, Inscriptions and the Arts, ed. Cristina A.Scherrer-Schaub and Ernst Steinkellner, 3-36 (Rome: Istituto Italiano per lAfrica e lOriente, 1999);Cristina A. Scherrer-Schaub and George Bonani, Establishing a Typology of the Old TibetanManuscripts: A Multidisciplinary Approach, inDunhuang Manuscript Forgeries, ed. Susan Whiteld(London: The British Library, 2002), 184-215. However, these discussions have concerned scripttypologies rather than individual handwritings.

2Dalton, Davis, and van Schaik:Beyond Anonymity


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letter considered abstractly. A reader sees a graph (a unique mark on a piece ofpaper), recognizes a grapheme (thats an /a/), and is thus able to read.

If a given writer produces a graphic form of the grapheme /n/ that resembles

his (graphic) version of the grapheme /u/, so that the two cannot be distinguished,a reader may wonder which letter is that? What he or she is actually asking is,which grapheme am I seeing here? This kind of graphic habit, if it occurs regularlyin a particular hand, is idiographic. It is a variation in graphic form that ischaracteristic of that particular writer and thus provides evidence of individuality.The most valuable idiographic items for the purpose of identication are those thatare not entirely under his or her conscious control, as this makes them difcult

both to forge and to disguise. Also characteristic of individual writers is allographicvariation. Some writers, for instance, use a ourished cursive form of the capital

/T/, others a plain block capital form. This difference is common and normallyconscious, and so only weakly idiographic; it is a licensed and recognized variationin the representation of the grapheme and therefore allographic.

We have, then, a hierarchy that can be listed from most general to most specic:grapheme, allograph, idiograph, graph. The grapheme /a/ is the letter consideredindependently of any particular realization of it. An allograph is an accepted versionof that grapheme. An idiograph is the way (or one of the ways) in which a givenwriter habitually writes /a/. A graph is a unique instance of /a/, as it appears on a

particular page.

Forensic handwriting examination concerns itself with questioned documents.There will be a dispute, usually as to the authorship of a particular document. Inorder to decide that dispute, sample writing is obtained, writing that indisputablywas produced by the alleged author of the questioned document. Since in forensiccases there is always the possibility of deliberate deception, the sample writingwill be of two kinds: writing that was produced for the purpose of the examination(request writing), and writing that was produced without the knowledge that itwould be examined by an expert (naturally occurring writing). The function of

the latter is to act as a control sample, to test the validity of the request writing.Request samples must be treated with caution, since they may be disguised in orderto hinder identication of the questioned writing. Why then have request samplesat all? Because their content can be controlled. If the questioned writing is anextended text, the analyst can ask for the request writing to contain the same contentas the questioned writing. Handwriting identication depends on letter-by-lettercomparison, and if the same letters occur in the same place in each document, suchcomparisons are much easier.

Methodology

Step 1: Analysis

The normal practice of forensic handwriting examination is a three-stage process:rst the handwriting under examination is analyzed, then compared, and nally aconclusion is derived from the comparison. In the rst stage, the usual procedure

3Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 3 (December 2007)


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is to prepare analytic charts. These are tables containing cells for instances of eachof the graphemes that the writing contains, one cell for each of the lower caseletters, each of the upper case, punctuation, numerals, and common abbreviations

such as the ampersand. Each of the cells will be lled in (as far as possible, assome letters may not be represented in the documents examined) with a descriptionof each of the signicantly different forms of each letter in the hand underexamination. Verbal descriptions are not very useful for analysis of graphic shapes;the normal procedure is to draw the shape, with added arrows indicating linedirection and other signicant features, sometimes with a brief verbal comment.A certain skill ironically, a forgers skill is required in order to produce asatisfactory analytic chart.

The analytic chart is essentially a private document; it is part of a laboratory

notebook and will normally only be seen by the examiner and his colleagues inthe laboratory, though on occasion the defence will ask to see a prosecution expertsnotebook. The ability to create such a chart is very much based on experience. Theexaminer must know what is likely to constitute signicant variation for the

purposes of determining authorship. Supposing, for instance, the document beinganalyzed contains twenty instances of a lower-case /a/. Each of those graphs asthey appear on the document will be unique, but it will also be (usually)recognizable as representations of the same grapheme, because otherwise the handwould be illegible. The examiners experience enables him or her to assess the

signicance of these differences and similarities in each case and how they maybe of use in determining authorship. For this purpose there may be only one formof /a/ in the document, represented twenty times with sufcient delity to thewriters internal model as to make them, for purposes of identication, the same.Or there may be two, three, or even more idiographically distinct forms of /a/ inthe document, each one represented one or more times.

Once the sample writing has been analyzed in this way, the questioned writingis similarly analyzed, in a separate chart or charts. These analyses are kept separatein order to ensure a disciplined approach to the business of identication. It is easyto fall into the trap of hypothesizing a theory of authorship early in the procedure,and then looking for evidence that conrms the hypothesis and ignoring evidencethat refutes it. If the analysis takes place before the comparison, the analyst is

prevented from doing that.

Step 2: Comparison

The second step is to compare the two analyses of the questioned and samplewritings, with constant reference to the original documents. Each version of each

grapheme in the chart of sample writing is compared meticulously with the versionsof the corresponding grapheme in the chart of questioned writing. Again, this isexperience-based. The examiner must know which graphic forms are likely to beidiographic, and which allographic; in other words, which variations of thegrapheme are sufciently unusual as to be useful for identication. This requiresa familiarity with the way in which that particular language is written in a particular



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time, place, and by a particular kind of writer. It involves a knowledge of all ofthe factors that can inuence writing, particularly at the idiographic level. Onemust consider the physiology of the writing movement, the characteristics of the

writing implement used, the writing surface on which the inscription has takenplace, and the way in which all three of these interact.

However, in spite of the level of expert knowledge behind a given opinion,forensic experts are very conscious of the fact that at some point they may haveto convince a jury of their ndings. The comparison that is the basis of thesendings must contain a preponderance of judgments that are based on clear andevident similarities or differences. Although forensic experts are permitted to giveopinion evidence, they are not allowed to take refuge in a private, incommunicableexpertise an intuitive mystery, what lawyers call a black box. The basis of the

opinion must be expressible and comprehensible to non-experts.

Step 3: Opinion

Finally, as a result of this comparison, an opinion is formed. The rst thing to sayabout this opinion is that it will probably be qualied. Forensic expertise inhandwriting is as objective as possible, but complete objectivity simply cannot beattained. All the information on which a particular opinion is based can never befully available to consciousness: one cannot recall every instance of a particularkind of /o/ that one has seen, though that submerged knowledge provides the basisfor ones opinion. Moreover, since the opinion concerns the characterization ofaspects of a graphic shape, its basis cannot be made entirely available for inspection.An expert will say: this /o/ is not signicantly the same as that /o/ because itdiffers in certain respects. Yet the two /o/s are necessarily the same in otherrespects (they must be, or they would not be recognizable as instances of /o/). Thusin the case of these two different /o/s, the forensic opinion essentially decides thatthe differences are signicant while the similarities are not, simply because inones experience, the similarities are not idiographic. Ultimately, therefore, thedeciding factor remains:experience.

However, this is not a black box. All human beings (indeed, all sentient beings)are skilled recognizers and do it constantly. Handwriting experts can communicatetheir ndings on the basis of this shared ability. A jury can be shown what theexpert sees, usually in the form of enlarged photographs, and be persuaded to agreeon the basis of this universal ability to recognize.

And experts can be wrong. In order to minimize this possibility two strategiesare adopted by handwriting experts: caution and overkill. Handwriting experts arenotoriously cautious: the police frequently complain that it is hard to get a usable

opinion out of a handwriting expert. When they get one, they are happy to have it,because it will stand up well in court. This is because of the other strategy:handwriting analyses are exhaustive. Every letter in the document is examined,described, and compared with every other letter in all of the documents underconsideration. The effect of the evidence, when well presented, is intended to beoverwhelming. Thus the opinion will be supported by a second chart, for public



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consumption, that shows the evidence on which this opinion is based. This consistsof a photographic display, in which the actual idiographs, enlarged and in context,are shown. The examiner will use the display chart as the basis of his or her

evidence, adding a verbal commentary that points out the idiographic similaritiesor differences.

A Forensic Approach to Paleography

When a document examiner is given a non-forensic case to look at, a number ofdifferences between the forensic and non-forensic practice are apparent, some ofthem rather disconcerting. Foremost, in non-forensic work the writers are usuallydead, and can have been dead for a long time; the Tibetan manuscripts that are thefocus of the present study are at least a thousand years old. Their writers are thusnot available for questioning or for the provision of request samples. This and arange of other differences make paleography a very different affair from that offorensic science. After years of learning the extreme and unforgiving rigor requiredin forensics, it is not easy to make this adaptation to paleographic work.

There are compensations. Forensic handwriting analysis is used to put peoplein prison (or get them out). Huge amounts of money can be at stake. The utmostcaution is essential. Paleography, on the other hand, would rarely address issuesof anything like that importance, and normally investigates questions that are only

of interest to relatively few scholars. The standard of proof can afford to beconsiderably lower: one can, however reluctantly, relax a little.

Another reason for relaxing is that the forensic handwriting expert is alwaysaware of, and more often than not directly concerned with, the possibility of forgeryand deliberate disguise. Thus the examination must be conducted on an extremelysubtle level. Forged or disguised writing is by denition unnaturally written, andthis unnaturalness manifests in a lack of uency of line quality (among otherthings), which can sometimes only be seen under magnication. Forgery of olddocuments does of course occur, but the paleographer normally faces a much

simpler problem: basic identication. Were those two documents written by thesame person? At this level of examination the need to examine the originalmanuscripts is much less imperative.

Also helpful have been recent advances in technology. Digital cameras, scanners,entry-level computers, and high-level image editing programs are now easilyavailable, and can produce digital photographs of documents that can even, insome ways, be better than the original for identication purposes. Once the imagesare in the computer they can be manipulated in remarkable ways. Differentoccurrences of the same letter can be lifted from different documents and easily

juxtaposed, for instance. The routine procedure developed by Tom Davis in hispaleographic work is to create (for alphabetic writing) three PowerPointslideshows, for capitals, lower case, and numerals/punctuation. These are usedfor the initial step of analysis (described above). In creating these slideshows, eachdocument is rst scanned or photographed to produce a Photoshop le. Eachidiographically signicant form of, say, the letter /a/ can then quickly and easily



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be lifted in Photoshop from the image, together with the word in which it occurs,and pasted into the corresponding /a/ slide in the PowerPoint slideshow. This

process creates a complete picture of the handwriting as it is found in the document

under examination, and the PowerPoint slides can be annotated as required.The next step is to use the images of individual words and letters, to enable the

comparison. For this, HTML framesets are ideal; it is easy to create web pagesthat enable side-by-side comparison of any letter as it occurs in different documentsunder examination. HTML is easy to use and universally readable; moreover,whereas in forensic work ones examination is normally carefully kept condential,the scholarly tradition in paleographic work is to offer ones evidence for peer-groupconsideration and discussion, and, of course, the World Wide Web makes thisalmost absurdly easy.

The Adaptation of Forensic Techniques to the Tibetan Script

Building a Tool for Forensic Examination

Over several meetings the authors discussed the possible application of the forensicmethods outlined above to the Tibetan script. The advantage was that we weredealing with another alphabetic script. Before conducting our analysis, however,we rst had to decide how many graphemes the Tibetan alphabet contained. This

was not as simple as going through the standard alphabet ofka,kha,ga,nga, andso on, mostly due to the Tibetan practice of stacking letters. The shape of the letterka, for example, is signicantly altered by the addition of the subscribed ya (yabrtags), so thatkyabecomes a distinct grapheme. In some cases, vowel signs mayalso change the form of a letter so that the combination may be considered a separategrapheme. Thus, kuis often more than a mere combination ofkawith the uvowel (zhabs kyu). We also added non-letter forms, including the punctuationmarks shad (phrase-marker) and tsheg (dot). In all, we counted around 110individual graphemes. We also had to distinguish between the headed (dbu can)

and the headless (dbu med) forms of the letters, which, like our own roman upperand lower case letters, are actually different graphemes. Thus a manuscript inwhich the scribe has written both headed and headless letters may contain overtwo hundred graphemes.

Analysis

Having identied our objects of analysis, we were able to begin. Our work herewould be at a disadvantage, for we could never be as familiar with the scribalconventions of tenth-century Dunhuang as we are with those of our own alphabet.Despite having worked closely with the original manuscripts for a number of years,our relative lack of experience would inevitably make it difcult to distinguish

between which scribal characteristics were conscious stylistic features (allographicvariations) and which unconscious quirks (idiographic variations).



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For help in this regard we utilized contemporary Tibetan handwriting guides,though with caution, as their relationship to tenth-century handwriting practice hasyet to be established.3 Modern Tibetan calligraphy is a precisely prescribed practice,

but the scripts seen in the Tibetan Dunhuang documents are far less regular. In ouranalytic discussions (and in the present article), we adopted many of the standardmodern names for the individual strokes in a graph. Thus the top horizontal lineis designated the head (mgo), the main vertical line the leg (rkang ba), and soon.

With these modern terms and practices in mind, we began our analysis of thegraphs found in a particular manuscript that we suspected belonged to a widergroup of manuscripts in the same hand. For our starting point we chose ITJ425.In our analysis we employed the usual tools of the forensic handwriting analyst,

examining the order in which strokes were written, the length and angle of aparticular stroke, and superuous strokes known as ticks.4

We began by analyzing all of the graphs present in ITJ425. For the purposes ofthe intertextual comparisons to come, however, we soon realized we would haveto limit our scope. Given the number of graphemes in the Tibetan alphabet(sometimes over two hundred) and the size of the documents involved (here sixteenfolio sides, but often more), a comparison of every grapheme in both texts undercomparison would not be possible. For this reason, we used our analysis to reducethe scope of our comparisons to only those graphemes in which we perceivedsignicant idiographic variation. Our analysis of ITJ425 thus resulted in a set ofidiographic benchmarks that were unique to that hand. These benchmarks couldthen be used to identify other manuscripts in the same hand.

Comparison

Next we selected a group of manuscripts that we suspected contained the worksof no more than two to three different scribes. Working with high-resolution digitalimages of the manuscripts in question, we extracted several examples of every

grapheme we could nd in each manuscript (some were not represented) by cuttingthem out using Photoshop. The forensic method discussed in the previous sectionrequires one to enter each and every graph into the analytic chart, but this was not

possible in the case of our manuscripts, which can comprise over a hundred folios,much longer than the usual notes and letters analyzed by forensic experts. Insteadin constructing our charts, we tried to select a representative sampling of all thegraphs present. For each manuscript we cut out hundreds of thumbnail images,labeling them with their graph name and location, and linking them into a website.For the website we adopted the method of HTML framesets described above, the

3 See Rev. G. Tharchin, The Tibetan Primer of Current Hand Writing (Kalimpong: Tibet MirrorPress, 1970); and Dpa ris sangs rgyas, Bod yig bri tshul mthong ba kun smon (Beijing: Mi rigs dpeskrun khang, 1997).

4 Bystroke we mean a mark made by the pen between one pen-lift and the next. The Latin term ductusorductis often used in paleographic writings rather thanstroke.



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result of which can be found at the following URL:http://idp.bl.uk/handwritings/index.html.5

The website is divided into three columns, each with three sections. The upper

section contains a list of manuscripts to choose from. Selecting one of these bringsup a list of the available graphs from that manuscript in the middle section. Selectingone of these graphs brings up one or more examples of that graph, extracted fromthe selected manuscript, in the lower section. Using this website, graphs from threedifferent manuscripts can thus be displayed next to each other, allowing the kindof comparisons discussed in the previous section.

Let us now look at the list of benchmarks that grew out of our analysis of themanuscript ITJ425. In this particular case, we have established a list of four rm

benchmarks (other less rm benchmarks were proposed, but because they are lessreliable, we have not included them in the present article). Each benchmark isdescribed below, with a sample graph shown alongside a graph from anothermanuscript (in what we believe is another hand) for comparison. For furtherexamination beyond these basic examples, the reader is directed to consult thewebsite mentioned above.

Small Heads and Long Legs

First, in almost all of the graphs in this hand, the head (mgo) of the graph is

proportionately smaller and the leg (rkang ba) longer than in other handwritings.This can be demonstrated by comparing two sample graphemes,naandzha:

Images 1 & 2: A na graph from ITJ425 andITJ594.

Images 3 & 4: A zha graph from ITJ425 andITJ321.

5 The website is hosted by the International Dunhuang Project (see http://idp.bl.uk), under the auspicesof which the cataloguing work which resulted in the present paper took place.

http://idp.bl.uk/handwritings/index.htmlhttp://idp.bl.uk/handwritings/index.htmlhttp://idp.bl.uk/http://idp.bl.uk/http://idp.bl.uk/handwritings/index.htmlhttp://idp.bl.uk/handwritings/index.html


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Opinion

Individually, none of the above features may be unique to this handwriting, butthe occurrence of all of them in a manuscript is persuasive evidence, if not outright

proof, that the manuscript is from the same hand as ITJ425. Having developed thisset of benchmarks, we were able to apply them to a number of additionalmanuscripts. These comparisons resulted in a group of manuscripts that we judgedall to have been written by the same scribe who wrote ITJ425. Having identiedthis manuscript group, we found a range of further convincing reasons for seeingall these manuscripts as the work of a single person, and it is to this supportingevidence that we now turn.

Writing Practices around Dunhuang

Before we look in detail at the work of our scribe, however, we should perhapsbriey review his scribal setting. Most of his works are written on Tibetan-styleIndian-style book (po ti,pustaka) manuscripts, with a few written on Chinese-stylescroll sheets. He probably wrote with a wooden pen (of which some exampleshave been found in Central Asia), which he would dip regularly into an inkreceptacle.6

Although our scribe wrote in Tibetan, it is not clear that he was of Tibetanorigin. The colophons of many Tibetan stramanuscripts show that there werecertainly Chinese scribes at Dunhuang who were able to write Tibetan, and as wewill see below, there are indications that he may even have been Khotanese. Oneof the mysteries of the library cave manuscripts is why manuscripts in so manydifferent languages (Chinese, Tibetan, Khotanese, Uighur, and more) were storedtogether. If they mostly represent the small library of Sanjie Monastery (sanjie si),as Rong Xinjiang argues, then we are left with the question: Did people of differentlanguage groups live together in this monastery, or were the manuscripts collectedfrom elsewhere?7 Such questions remain to be answered.8

A related issue is the location of Sanjie Monastery. Rong Xinjiang has arguedfor a location directly in front of the cave site, perhaps in front of Cave 16 wheresome unidentied wooden ruins remain.9 Against this conclusion, Robert Sharfhas recently suggested that the monastery where the library originated, be it SanjieMonastery or otherwise, was likely not in the immediate vicinity of the Mogao

6 On the increased use of wooden and reed pens, rather than brushes, during and after the Tibetanoccupation of Dunhuang, see Fujieda Akira, Chronological Classication of Dunhuang BuddhistManuscripts, in Whiteld,Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries, 11112.

7 Rong Xinjiang, The Nature of the Dunhuang Library Cave and the Reasons for its Sealing,Cahiers dExtrme-Asie11 (1999-2000): 247-75.

8 See Tokio Takata, Multilingualism in Tun-huang,Acta Asiatica: Bulletin of the Institute of EasternCulture, no. 78 (2000), Tun-huang and Turfan Studies: 4970, for a discussion of the interaction ofdifferent cultures at Shazhou/Dunhuang.

9 Rong Xinjiang, The Nature of the Dunhuang Library Cave, 264.



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caves.10 According to Sharf, the caves themselves were less meditation caves thanmortuary shrines or temples under the jurisdiction of a number of powerful familiesand clans. There is also ample evidence that the site served as a place of pilgrimage

where large festivals took place. However, Sharf argues, we must be careful todistinguish the sites monumental functions from what we normally think of asmonastic practices, such as ascetic, repentance, and meditative practices, scripturalstudy, or scribal activities relating to the library discovered there. Such monasticactivities, and perhaps Sanjie Monastery itself, were more likely located somewhereoff-site, probably nearer to the town of Shazhou, a few miles away. In short, weare left with lamentably little clear evidence for the monastic setting within whichour manuscripts were penned.

Another question is the role of the writer: Was he a professional, writing out

manuscripts for others, or did he write manuscripts for his own use and that of hisimmediate circle? A clear thematic consistency to the writings in the hand of ourscribe, and what appear to be revisions of the same work, suggest that he was nota jobbing scribe writing for a variety of individuals, but that he wrote either forhis own benet or at least for another person with surprisingly specic interests.

An Example Scribe: Supporting Internal Evidence

The Identied Manuscript Group

We have shown how the method of forensic handwriting analysis can be adaptedto the Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts, using digital technology to facilitate boththe laboratory work and the dissemination of this technique. Now we will lookat the case of the particular scribe whose handwriting was identied using thistechnique. By examining the interrelationships and thematic consistencies withinthe group of manuscripts that we have attributed to this scribe, we can offersubstantial supporting evidence for our forensic handwriting identication.

The scribe here is one whom we have identied as responsible for the sample

manuscript ITJ425. By comparing a number of actual manuscripts against theisolated graphs in our table, we were able to expand signicantly the group ofmanuscripts attributable to this scribe. For the purposes of this article, the groupcomprises ITJ318, 338, 340, 341, 343, (344), 377, 407, 422, 423, 424, 425, and688.11 Within this group, we can discern a number of thematic links. There is alsoclear evidence that some manuscripts represent revisions of the same work. To

begin with, let us look at the thematic links.

10 Robert Sharf, The Enigma of the Dunhuang Caves (paper presented at the annual meeting of theAmerican Academy of Religion, San Antonio, TX, November 22, 2004). In forming his argument,Sharf points to evidence from other cave sites, such as Longmen and Yungang, which were clearly notsites for monastic practice, and to the lack of any hard evidence on the location of Sanjie Monastery.

11We believe the group could easily be expanded much further, but these are the manuscripts discussedherein.



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Thematic Links between the Manuscripts

The rst theme linking some of the manuscripts is a Khotanese connection. Thekingdom of Khotan was located on the southern Silk Route, to the west ofDunhuang. It was still active during the tenth century, though increasingly underthreat from Turks and Arabs, whose Islamic religion was to supplant and eventuallyeliminate Khotanese Buddhism in the eleventh century. During the tenth century,Dunhuang and Khotan enjoyed strong diplomatic ties, Khotanese Buddhists visitedfamous teachers in Dunhuang, and there also seems to have been a Khotanesesettlement in the area.12

Several of the manuscripts in our group contain Khotanese page numbers:ITJ338, 340, 423, 424, and 425. The numbers are either written in Tibetan

transcription or in Khotanese numerals. The use of Khotanese numbers is unusualin the Dunhuang Tibetan manuscripts and suggests that our scribe had a particularconnection to Khotan, perhaps even that he was of Khotanese origin.13

Another Khotanese connection can be seen in ITJ688, a treatise on the rosary(phreng ba, mla).14 This short treatise discusses the different kinds of rosariesappropriate for practitioners of the different buddha families. At the outset theauthor divides his discussion into seven topics, though he ends up addressing onlyfour of them and appends an additional one. The seven topics listed initially include:(1) the teacher responsible for it, (2) the tantra from which it is taken, (3) the

original source, (4) the class to which it belongs, (5) the method for counting,taught correctly for each buddhafamily, (6) the correct meditation, and (7) howit is said to surpass.15 These topics roughly correspond to those of a similarKhotanese treatise on rosaries found in the Dunhuang manuscript IOL Khot 55,fols. 1r.4-1v.1.16 Furthermore, the topics that are listed but not discussed in theTibetan treatise are addressed in the Khotanese treatise, and in a similar order.17

When the two treatises are compared in more detail, several differences emerge.The Tibetan text ascribes the teaching on rosaries to the well-known Indian scholar

Vimalamitra (eighth century), whereas the Khotanese text ascribes it to one

12See Takata, Multilingualism in Tun-huang, 5253. On the Khotanese manuscripts from Dunhuang,see Prods Oktor Skjrv, Khotanese Manuscripts from Chinese Turkestan in the British Library: AComplete Catalogue with Texts and Translations(London: The British Library, 2002).

13 These Khotanese numbers have been identied and discussed in Tsuguhito Takeuchi, Old TibetanBuddhist Texts from the Post-Tibetan Imperial Period (mid-9 C. to late 10 C.), in Proceedings of theTenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies(Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).

14 A discussion and French translation of this text can be found in Rolf A. Stein, Un genre particulierdexposs du tantrisme ancien tibtain et khotanais,Journal Asiatique, no. 275 (1987): 265-82.

15

ITJ688, fol. 1.1-1.3:slobs dpon gang gis mdzad pa dang / rgyud gang las dus pa dang / khungsgang las byung ba dang / mtshams gang du gtogs pa dang / so soi rigs ma nor bar bstan pa bgrangbai thabs dang / bsam rgyud ma nor ba dang / don las mtshan du gsol bao.

16 A transcription and translation of IOL Khot 55 can be found in Skjrv, Khotanese Manuscripts,292-96.

17 Stein claims that the Khotanese text is without doubt based on a Tibetan model (Stein, Un genreparticulier, 269). Unfortunately, he gives no reasons for this conclusion, and in this instance, the morecomplete Khotanese treatise seems more likely to have been the model for the Tibetan version.



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Barmajsu.18 Also, where the Khotanese treatise simply classies the teaching asVajrayna, the Tibetan text classies it as Mahyoga and goes on to say that it wasgathered from a tantra bearing the titleDescent of the Sage [Tantra](thub pa a ba

da ra, *Muni-avatra[-tantra]). This title remains unidentied, though it alsoappears in Pelliot tibtain 849.19 Despite these specic differences, the overallsimilarity between the Tibetan and Khotanese treatises indicates a close relationship,

perhaps that the somewhat garbled Tibetan version is a reworking of the Khotanesetext.

Even more interesting is the fact that several other manuscripts in our groupare also treatises divided into numbered topical divisions, a feature that is not atall common in the Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts in general. This feature can beseen in the treatise on stpas entitled Narrative Setting and Benets of Stpas

(mchod rten gyi gleng gzhi dang phan yon) in the manuscript ITJ338, a manuscriptthat also bears Khotanese page numbers. The same topical structure appears in theChu gtord gyi gzhung, which appears in two very similar versions in themanuscripts ITJ340 and 341/1. Again, both manuscripts contain Khotanesenumbering. Finally, we have a treatise on the re ritual (sbyin sreg,homa) calledAbridged Instructions on the Aspects of the Peaceful Fire Offering(zhi bai sbyinsreg lag len man ngag khol bur phyung ba). This also exists in two manuscriptversions, ITJ422 and 423.

A nal thematic coherence to this group of manuscripts may be their sharedconcern with the practice of external rituals: activities such as making and usingrosaries, making and worshipping atstpas, water offerings, and re rituals. Thisis not common elsewhere in the Tibetan Dunhuang texts, and thus is yet anotherfeature suggesting that this group of manuscripts reects the interest of a singlescribe.

Multiples and Revisions

Our group of manuscripts is lent still further coherence by the existence of multiple

revisions of the same work, seen in a number of the relevant manuscripts. Asalready mentioned, ITJ340 and ITJ341/1 are both versions of the Exposition onWater Offerings (chu gtor gyi gzhung).20 ITJ341 itself includes two quite different

18 Stein suggests that this person may be Rba Manydzu (also Dba Manydzu, Sba Manydzu).19 Pelliot tibtain 849, fol. 20. See also Joseph Hackin, Formulaire Sanskrit-Tibtain du Xe sicle

(Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthener, 1924), 7.20 Still another version of the same text is found in the Peking Bka gyur (Q. 4593), where it is titled

theRitual Manual for Water Offerings(chu gtor gyi cho ga). A comparison of ITJ340 to the canonical

edition shows that they are largely identical, apart from a few word changes and a couple of passagesthat are added or missing from each. More work needs to be done comparing these two versions to theone found in ITJ341. The colophon to the Peking edition attributes the authorship of the work toJayasena and its translation to Rin chen bzang po (958-1055). If we are to accept this attribution, wemust conclude that the Jayasena who authored this work is not the same person who translated a numberof Tibetan works contained in the Bstan gyur. The latter translator worked alongside Sum pa lo ts baDar ma yon tan and was active in the second half of the twelfth century (see Dan Martin, TibskritPhilology [Kurt Keutzer, 2006], 906-8, http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~keutzer/martin/TibskritUni.pdf

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variations on the same text (referred to here as ITJ341/1 and ITJ341/2), so that thetwo items begin with identical opening lines, but part ways on the second line. Afurther connection may be made between ITJ341 and ITJ407, yet another manuscript

from our handwriting group. The rst folio of ITJ341/2 (10v.2) goes on to directthe reader to mix the offering ingredients in a bowl, in accordance with theinstructions in the Eight Jewels.21 ITJ407 may contain precisely that work, as it

bears the titleAn Offering of the Eight Jewels.22 The latter seems to be a liturgy tobe recited in conjunction with an offering rite, possibly that being prepared inITJ341/2. In these ways the three manuscripts, ITJ340, 341, and 407, are closelylinked.

Two additional pairs of matching manuscripts are ITJ422 & 423 and ITJ424 &425. All four of these manuscripts are on the same topic the peaceful re

offering.23 The rst two, ITJ422 and 423, are variations on the same text, titled theAbridged Instructions on the Aspects of the Peaceful Fire Offering.24 Similarly,ITJ424 and 425 seem to be two versions of one text; both are arranged into thesame seven topics. Moreover there is clearly a relationship between the two pairsof manuscripts, as they share much of the same terminology.

A nal, though less certain, example of multiple copies of the same text maybe that of theNarrative Setting and Benets of Water Offerings (chu gtor kyi glenggzhi dang phan yon). This text is found in three manuscripts in the Stein collection:ITJ343, ITJ344, and ITJ377. The latter, ITJ377, is not written in our identiedhand. Signicantly however, the nal folio side of this manuscript, which followsthe close of the water offerings text itself, does contain four lines of writing by ourscribe.25 This is a particularly interesting case of our handwriting, as it includesexamples both of our scribes headless script common to the manuscripts we havestudied so far, and of his headed script.

A similar headed script also appears in ITJ343, another of our three copies ofthe Narrative Setting and Benets of Water Offerings. Unfortunately ITJ344 is

presently missing from the collection, so our identication of this text is based

solely on the relevant entry in de la Valle Poussins catalogue.26 While we cannot

[PDF]). Given the presence of theRitual Manual for Water Offerings among the Dunhuang manuscripts,the work was more likely authored by another Jayasena who lived in the eighth century. Note too that,given the ritual forms described in the text, we can safely date the work as post-seventh century, sothat its author must also be distinguished from still another Jayasena who is said to have taught Xuanzang(602-44) during the latters visit to India (Martin, Tibskrit Philology, 907).

21 rin po che sna brgyad.22Rin po che sna brgyad kyi mchod pa.23

zhi bai sbyin sreg,nti-homa.24Zhi bai sbyin sreg lag len man ngag khol bur phyung ba.25 In our forthcoming book-length study of the paleographic groups in the Tibetan Dunhuang

collections, we discuss the possible identity of the scribe responsible for ITJ344. We nd our presentscribes work on a number of manuscripts ascribed to this person, and it seems quite possible that thesetwo gures knew one another.

26 Louis de la Valle Poussin,Catalogue of the Tibetan Manuscripts from Tun-Huang in the IndiaOfce Library(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).



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be sure ITJ344 is another example of our scribe, the paper size is identical to thatused by ITJ343 (17.5 cm x 6.2 cm), and both have four lines to a page. Moreover,as we have already seen in ITJ338 (Narrative Setting and Benets of Stpas), the

same genre of narrative setting and benets (gleng gzhi dang phan yon) is usedelsewhere by our scribe.

Possible Headed Manuscripts

We have left until now a further speculation regarding the work of our identiedscribe. It seems quite possible that a number of manuscripts written in the headedscript can also be attributed to this same person. For the purposes of this study, wewould like to limit our suggestion to the manuscript ITJ377 (just mentioned) aswell as ITJ457, 584, and Pelliot tibtain 103.

ITJ457 is an unusually small scroll, mostly written in the same style of headedscript as ITJ584. It is an important piece of evidence for identifying the headedwith the headless script of our model scribe, as the handwriting transforms fromone script to the other and back over the course of the manuscript. The clearlyheadless sections closely resemble the style of handwriting we have analyzed abovein ITJ425, ITJ340, and so forth, and in this way, ITJ457 provides a kind of bridge

between our group of manuscripts written in headless script and the additionalheaded manuscripts being suggested here.

Still other thematic links can be made between ITJ457 and our other manuscripts.The prayer found in ITJ457s rst item deals with the many sufferings of deathand rebirth and how to avoid these. The same verses are also found written inTibetan on the verso of another Khotanese manuscript from Dunhuang, IOL Khot140. The Khotanese text is a record of a monastic shopping trip to Shazhou. Itsrelationship to the Tibetan text is unclear, but is further suggestion of closerelationships between Khotanese and Tibetan Buddhists at Dunhuang.

Like ITJ457, ITJ584 is also a confessional prayer. Matthew Kapstein hasdemonstrated that most of its verses are to be found in the Stainless ConfessionTantra (dri med bshags rgyud), a tantra of the Na rag dong sprugs cycle.27 Kapsteinsuggests that the prayer in ITJ584 may have been one of the source texts used bythe compilers of theStainless Confession Tantra. He goes on to suggest a possibleconnection between this headed manuscript (ITJ584) and another headlessmanuscript, ITJ318. The latter is, once again, an example of our scribes hand, butKapstein links the two manuscripts on the basis of their contents. ITJ318 describesa maalain the form of a 108-petalled lotus, a maala, Kapstein shows, thatcan also be linked with the Na rag dong sprugs cycle. In this way ITJ584 (in headed)

27 See Matthew T. Kapstein, La formation du Bouddhism tibtain travers les documents deDunhuang [in English; summary of the January 2001 EPHE Vme Section Lecture Series],IDP News,no. 17 (Winter, 2001), article 3,http://idp.bl.uk/archives/news17/idpnews_17.a4d#3; and Matthew T.Kapstein, Between Na-rak and a Hard Place: Evil Rebirth and the Violation of Vows in EarlyRnying-ma-pa Sources and their Dunhuang Antecedents, inAspects of Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang,ed. Matthew T. Kapstein and Sam van Schaik (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).

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and ITJ318 (in headless) both contain materials that were later to be incorporatedinto the Na rag dong sprugs.

Site NumbersIn addition to the thematic and stylistic links discussed so far, there is still anotherway in which our identication of this manuscript group is reinforced. When Steinrst discovered the Dunhuang manuscripts, he assigned site numbers to them,marking each according to where he found it. Questions remain about how preciselywe should understand these numbers.28 For now, however, we can point to a strikingfact about the site numbers borne by the Stein manuscripts discussed in the presentarticle: all of them come from the same bundle, labeled Ch.73.iii. This would seemto indicate that all of them were placed in the cave together, further evidence thatthey are the work of a single author.

Speculative Conclusions

With this article we have introduced a new paleographic approach to the Tibetanmanuscripts from Dunhuang. We have attempted to show how techniques fromthe eld of forensic handwriting analysis can be adapted for the ancient Tibetanhandwriting seen in the Dunhuang manuscripts. This approach can be applied toany number of manuscripts, but for the purposes of this introduction we have

focused on a single, relatively tightly dened group of manuscripts that we believewere penned by the same hand. A more extensive, book-length study of severalother handwriting groups that we have identied within the Dunhuang collectionsis forthcoming. For now, however, we close by outlining some of the widerconsequences that result from this new approach, consequences for ourunderstanding of the collection as a whole.

The identication of groups of manuscripts sharing the same hand signicantlyalters the shape of the Tibetan Dunhuang collections. No longer are we confrontedwith an overwhelming mass of manuscripts. Rather, we can begin to make sense

of large swathes of the collection by dividing it into a relatively small number ofmanuscript groups. This, in turn, allows us to assign scribal names to many of theDunhuang manuscripts; the Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts are only rarely signed,

but we need only a single signature on one manuscript to apply it to all manuscriptsin the same hand. From the names, we can often identify the cultural afliation ofthe writer, which reveals much about the shape of the Buddhist communities aroundDunhuang during the relevant period.

Similarly, few Tibetan items are dateable, but now once a single item has been

dated a range of manuscripts can be dated to roughly the same period. This helpsto correct a long-standing misconception regarding the dating of the Dunhuangcollection. For the past century scholars have commonly suggested that most of

28 For a preliminary analysis of Steins Tibetan site numbers, see Takeuchi, Old Tibetan BuddhistTexts.



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the Tibetan manuscripts probably date from around the time of the Tibetanoccupation of Dunhuang (c. 781-848 CE).29 Takeuchi has recently started toquestion this assumption by compiling a still-growing list of Tibetan Dunhuang

manuscripts that can be rmly dated to the tenth century.30

Our paleographicanalysis of the manuscripts strengthens the case for dating large portions of thecollection to the tenth century, as the dateable manuscripts can be linked to manymore manuscripts in the same hands. We may further speculate that a large numberof the manuscripts are the work of a relatively small number of scribes, many ofwhom may have known and worked alongside one another during the samehistorical period.31

Reading the manuscripts in this light also allows us to distinguish the interestsparticular to each scribe; each manuscript group reveals a surprisingly distinct set

of concerns. The sample scribe discussed here, for example, specialized in external,small-scale ritual texts relating to rosaries,stpas, water and re offerings, and soforth. Elsewhere we have shown how reading multiple works by a single scribecan reveal links between texts and topics that would otherwise be considereddistinct and unrelated.32 The present article is offered in the hope that at least someof the ideas contained here might help other scholars to make similar discoveriesabout the religious and social milieu behind these ancient treasures from Dunhuang.

29 The date of the Tibetan conquest of Dunhuang remains disputed. See Bianca Horleman, ARe-evaluation of the Tibetan Conquest of Eighth-Century Shazhou/Dunhuang, in Tibet, Past andPresent: Tibetan Studies 1, ed. Hank Blezer (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 49-65, for a summary of previousarguments and an argument that the conquest took place earlier than has previously been suggested,in the 760s.

30 Takeuchi, Old Tibetan Buddhist Texts, builds on the earlier work of Gza Uray, Lemploi duTibtain dans les Chancelleries des tats du Kan-sou et de Khotan postrieurs la DominationTibtaine, Journal Asiatique, no. 269 (1981): 81-90. See also Gza Uray, New Contributions toTibetan Documents from the post-Tibetan Tun-huang, in Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the FourthSeminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, ed. Helga Uebach and Jampa L. Panglung,

515-28 (Munich: Kommission fr Zentralasiatische Studien, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften,1988).31 Further evidence for these claims will be elaborated in our forthcoming book-length paleographic

study of the Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts.32 See Sam van Schaik and Jacob Dalton, Where Chan and Tantra Meet: Buddhist Syncretism in

Dunhuang, inThe Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith, ed. Susan Whiteld (London: The BritishLibrary, 2004), where we demonstrate a clear case of one scribes synthesis of Mahyoga and ChineseChan, two Buddhist traditions normally held never to have met.



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Glossary

Note:glossary entries are organized in Tibetan alphabetical order. All entries list

the following information in this order: THDL Extended Wylie transliteration of

the term, THDL Phonetic rendering of the term, English translation, equivalents

in other languages, dates when applicable, and type.

Ka

TypeDatesOtherEnglishPhoneticsWylie

TextualCollection

Kangyurbka gyur

Termlegkangwarkang ba

Ga


Termnarrative settingand benets

lengzhidang penyngleng gzhi dang phanyon

Termheadgomgo

Ca


TextNarrative Settingand Benets of

Water Offerings

Chutorkyi

Lengzhidang Penyn

chu gtor kyi gleng

gzhi dang phan yon

TextRitual Manual forWater OfferingsChutorgyi Chogachu gtor gyi cho ga

TextNarrative Settingand Benets of

Stpas

Chtengyi

Lengzhidang Penyn

mchod rten gyi gleng

gzhi dang phan yon

TextExposition onWater Offerings

Chutorgyi Zhungchu gtord gyi gzhung

Tha


TextSan.*Muni-avatra[-tantra]

Descent of the Sage

[Tantra]

Tuppa Abadarathub pa a ba da ra

Da


TextStainlessConfession Tantra

Drim Shakgydri med bshags rgyud

Na


DoxographicalCategory

Narak Dongtrukna rag dong sprugs

Pa


TermSan.pustakaIndian-style bookpotipo ti

Pha


TermSan.mlarosarytrengwaphreng ba



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Ba


PersonWa Mandzudba manydzu

Termheadeduchendbu can

Termheadlessumdbu med

PersonBa Mandzurba manydzu

PersonBa Mandzusba manydzu

TermSan.homare ritual; reoffering

jinseksbyin sreg

Tsha


Termdottsektsheg

Zha


Termu vowelzhapkyuzhabs kyu

TermSan.nti-homapeaceful reoffering

zhiw jinsekzhi bai sbyin sreg

TextAbridgedInstructions on the

Aspects of the

Peaceful Fire

Offering; Pith

Instructions on the

Practice of the

Peaceful Fire

Offering Arranged

into Sections

Zhiw Jinsek Laklen

Menngak Khlbur

Chungwa

zhi bai sbyin sreg lag

len man ngag khol

bur phyung ba

Ya


Termsubscribed yayatakya brtags

Ra


Person958-1055Rinchen Zangporin chen bzang po

Termeight jewelsrinpoch nagyrin po che sna brgyad

TextAn Offering of theEight Jewels

Rinpoch Nagyekyi

Chpa

rin po che sna brgyad

kyi mchod pa

Sha


PlaceChi.ShazhouShachusha cu

Termphrase-markershshad

Sa

TypeDatesOtherEnglishPhoneticsWyliePersonSumpa Lotswa

Darma Yntensum pa lo ts ba dar

ma yon tan

Sanskrit

TypeDatesSanskritEnglishPhoneticsWylie

PersonBarmajsu



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PersonJayasena

Termmaala


MahyogaGreat Yoga

Termstpa

Termstra


VajraynaDiamond Vehicle

Personeighthcentury

Vimalamitra

Chinese

TypeDatesChineseEnglishPhoneticsWylie

Doxographical

Category

Chan

PlaceDunhuang

CaveLongmen

CaveMogao

MonasterySanjie siSanjie Monastery

CaveYungang

Person602-644Xuanzang



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Bibliography

Dunhuang Manuscripts Discussed

IOL Tib J 318, 321, 338, 340, 341, 343, 344, 377, 407, 422, 423, 424, 425, 457,584, 594, 647, 688. (Note: in the body of the article ITJ is an abbreviation ofthe full pressmark IOL Tib J.)

Pelliot tibtain 103, 849.

IOL Khot 55, 140.

Canonical Primary Sources

Asc. Jayasena.Chu gtor gyi cho ga zhes bya ba. Q. 4593.Secondary Sources

Akira, Fujieda. Chronological Classication of Dunhuang Buddhist Manuscripts.In Whiteld,Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries, 103-14.

Dalton, Jacob, and Sam van Schaik. Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang:A Descriptive Catalogue of the Stein Collection at the British Library. Leiden:Brill, 2006.

de la Valle Poussin, Louis. Catalogue of the Tibetan Manuscripts FromTun-Huang in the India Ofce Library. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962.

Dpa ris sangs rgyas. Bod yig bri tshul mthong ba kun smon. Beijing: Mi rigsdpe skrun khang, 1997.

Hackin, Joseph. Formulaire Sanskrit-Tibtain du Xe sicle. Paris: LibrairieOrientaliste Paul Geuthener, 1924.

Horleman, Bianca. A Re-evaluation of the Tibetan Conquest of Eighth-Century

Shazhou/Dunhuang. InTibet, Past and Present: Tibetan Studies 1, edited byHank Blezer, 49-65. Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the InternationalAssociation for Tibetan Studies, Leiden, 2000. Leiden: Brill, 2002.

Kapstein, Matthew T. La formation du Bouddhism tibtain travers lesdocuments de Dunhuang [in English; summary of the January 2001 EPHEVme Section Lecture Series]. IDP News, no. 17 (Winter, 2001), article 3,http://idp.bl.uk/archives/news17/idpnews_17.a4d#3.

. Between Na-rak and a Hard Place: Evil Rebirth and the Violation of

Vows in Early Rnying-ma-pa Sources and their Dunhuang Antecedents. InAspects of Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang, edited by Matthew T. Kapsteinand Sam van Schaik. Leiden: Brill (forthcoming).

Martin, Dan. Tibskrit Philology. Kurt Keutzer, 2006.http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~keutzer/martin/TibskritUni.pdf(PDF).

http://idp.bl.uk/archives/news17/idpnews_17.a4d#3http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~keutzer/martin/TibskritUni.pdfhttp://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~keutzer/martin/TibskritUni.pdfhttp://idp.bl.uk/archives/news17/idpnews_17.a4d#3


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Rong Xinjiang. The Nature of the Dunhuang Library Cave and the Reasons forits Sealing.Cahiers dExtrme-Asie11 (1999-2000): 247-75.

Sharf, Robert. The Enigma of the Dunhuang Caves. Paper presented at theannual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, TX,

November 22, 2004.

Skjrv, Prods Oktor. Khotanese Manuscripts from Chinese Turkestan in theBritish Library: A Complete Catalogue with Texts and Translations. London:The British Library, 2002.

Scherrer-Schaub, Cristina A. Towards a Methodology for the Study of OldTibetan Manuscripts: Dunhuang and Tabo. In Tabo Studies 2: Manuscripts,Texts, Inscriptions and the Arts, edited by Cristina A. Scherrer-Schaub andErnst Steinkellner, 336. Rome: Istituto Italiano per lAfrica e lOriente, 1999.

Scherrer-Schaub, Cristina A., and George Bonani. Establishing a Typology ofthe Old Tibetan Manuscripts: A Multidisciplinary Approach. In Whiteld,Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries, 184-215.

Stein, Rolf A. Un genre particulier dexposs du tantrisme ancien tibtain etkhotanais.Journal Asiatique, no. 275 (1987): 265-82.

Takata, Tokio. Multilingualism in Tun-huang. Acta Asiatica: Bulletin of the

Institute of Eastern Culture, no. 78 (2000), Tun-huang and Turfan Studies:4970.

Takeuchi, Tsuguhito. Old Tibetan Buddhist Texts from the Post-Tibetan ImperialPeriod (mid-9 C. to late 10 C.). In Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of theInternational Association for Tibetan Studies. Leiden: Brill (forthcoming).

Tharchin, Rev. G. The Tibetan Primer of Current Hand Writing. Kalimpong:Tibet Mirror Press, 1970.

Uray, Gza. Lemploi du Tibtain dans les Chancelleries des tats du Kan-souet de Khotan postrieurs la Domination Tibtaine. Journal Asiatique, no.269 (1981): 81-90.

. New Contributions to Tibetan Documents from the post-TibetanTun-huang. In Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Fourth Seminar of theInternational Association for Tibetan Studies, edited by Helga Uebach andJampa L. Panglung, 515-28. Munich: Kommission fr ZentralasiatischeStudien,Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1988.

van Schaik, Sam, and Jacob P. Dalton. Where Chan and Tantra Meet: BuddhistSyncretism in Dunhuang. In The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith,edited by Susan Whiteld. London: The British Library, 2004.

Whiteld, Susan, ed. Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries. London: The BritishLibrary, 2002.
