Shaping the Stein collection’s Dunhuang corpus (2): the items from Cave 17’s ‘miscellaneous’ bundles

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In a previous blog post , we looked at the instrumental role played by Wang Yuanlu during the selection of the items from the Cave 17. Wang, who directly chose from the small repository what to hand over to Stein for inspection, was very keen to divert his attention from the so-called ‘regular’ bundles, which were composed for the most part of Buddhist sutras in Chinese and Tibetan. During their first ever transaction, which took place between 21 May and 6 June 1907, Wang Yuanlu therefore began by handing over the ‘miscellaneous’ bundles, which he seemed to hold in low estimation. To Stein’s delight, these contained mixed and diverse materials, such as manuscripts in non-Chinese languages, illustrated scrolls, paintings, drawings, ex-votos, textiles, etc. Stein picked out any of the items that jumped at him as being particularly interesting and made sure to put them aside for ‘further examination’, the phrase that he used to refer to their removal in his transaction with Wang. This
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New online resource for Tibetan and Chinese manuscripts

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A new scholarly resource for manuscript studies has been launched by IDP. It provides an introduction into the script types found in the Chinese and Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang. Each type of script is described, with examples, and a transcription exercise.

The resource is the result of the palaeographic project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and was developed by Imre Galambos, Sam van Schaik and Vic Swift. It can be found here on the Technical Resources page of the IDP website.

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 6, 2013 at 12:40 PM

    Hello,
    My name is Dawa Dhargye, I live Nepal, Kathmandu. I am very interested in ancient Tibetan scripts. I met a Tibetan fleeing Tibet who brought some manuscripts written on " palm leave"? some kind of leaf. These manuscripts to had
    reversed "gigu" or Tibetan vowel "I".

    He told me these are meant for the Dalai Lama. I took photos. The manuscripts come from his monastery 'Lhuntse Dzong".

    I would like to send you the picture in exchange with some of yours.

    Dawa Dhargye



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