In 2010 a new Tibetan inscription on a bell was found at dPa' ris, in the county of the same name, south of Wuwei city, Gansu. The bell is cast in iron with a Tibetan inscription. The bottom of the bell has projecting tongues or lobes on each of which is a small lion-like face. The inscription and lion faces appear as lines raised in relief, having been included in the design of the bell when it was cast.
The inscription is in three lines in dBu can. It has been published by Lha mchog skyabs, a Professor at North West Nationalities University, Lanzhou, with photographs, in Bod ljongs zhib 'jug (Tibetan Studies) 1 (2011).
The inscription's main historical interest is the mention of the Tibetan king Khri gtsug lde brstan (circa 704-55). The record, however, does not appear to belong to the time of the king it mentions because the paleography is mature Tibetan, with none of the archaic features seen at bSam Yas. This is therefore an anachronistic record, made to celebrate or construct an earlier king's association with a particular place. Iron Buddhist objects are known especially from the 10th century, see the Buddha head in the British Museum with the number 1943,0215.1 (visible online via the Museum's website). It is likely that the motivation for making the inscription was to confirm, through historic precedent, the privileges or properties of the temple mentioned.
TEXT:
bod kyi lha btsan po khri gtsug lde brstan mched kyi sku yon du bsngo ste zhang rgya sgra rgyal slebs spad kyis jag rong dga' ldan byin cen gtsug lag khang gi rkyen du dril chen cik pul ba'i yon bdag dang sems can thams cad bla na myed de byang cub kyi ryub bar smon to | drill 'di lcags kong gis yi ge bri ste dge slong chos prin gyis blugso |
བོད་ཀྱི་ལྷ་བཙན་པོ་ཁྲི་གཙུག་ལྡེ་བརྩན་མཆེད་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ཡོན་དུ་བསྔོ་སྟེ་ཞང་རྒྱ་སྒྲ་རྒྱལ་སླེབས་སྤད་ཀྱིས་ཇག་རོང་དགའ་ལྡན་བྱིན་ཅེན་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་གི་རྐྱེན་དུ་དྲིལ་ཆེན་ཅིཀ་པུལ་བའི་ཡོན་ཀྱིས་ཡོན་བདག་དང་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅེད་བླ་ན་མྱེད་དེ་བྱང་ཅུབ་ཀྱི་རྱུབ་བར་སྨོན་ཏོ་༑དྲིལླ་འདི་ལྕགས་ཀོང་གིས་ཡིགེ་བྲི་སྟེ་དགེ་སློང་ཆོས་པྲིན་གྱིས་བླུགསོ༑
Pasang Wandu offered this translation at a conference in Vienna in 2011.
As a religious for the god, btsan po of Tibet, Khri gTsug lde brstan and his brother, The zang lha sgra rgyal slebs spad, mad and offer this big bell to the Jag rong dg's ldan cen gtsug lag khang, in order to wish donor and all living beings will be perfected in the highest enlightenment. The inscription of the the bell was written by lcags kong, it was cast by dge slong (monks who have taken the highest monastic vows) chos prin.
The inscription is in three lines in dBu can. It has been published by Lha mchog skyabs, a Professor at North West Nationalities University, Lanzhou, with photographs, in Bod ljongs zhib 'jug (Tibetan Studies) 1 (2011).
The inscription's main historical interest is the mention of the Tibetan king Khri gtsug lde brstan (circa 704-55). The record, however, does not appear to belong to the time of the king it mentions because the paleography is mature Tibetan, with none of the archaic features seen at bSam Yas. This is therefore an anachronistic record, made to celebrate or construct an earlier king's association with a particular place. Iron Buddhist objects are known especially from the 10th century, see the Buddha head in the British Museum with the number 1943,0215.1 (visible online via the Museum's website). It is likely that the motivation for making the inscription was to confirm, through historic precedent, the privileges or properties of the temple mentioned.
TEXT:
bod kyi lha btsan po khri gtsug lde brstan mched kyi sku yon du bsngo ste zhang rgya sgra rgyal slebs spad kyis jag rong dga' ldan byin cen gtsug lag khang gi rkyen du dril chen cik pul ba'i yon bdag dang sems can thams cad bla na myed de byang cub kyi ryub bar smon to | drill 'di lcags kong gis yi ge bri ste dge slong chos prin gyis blugso |
བོད་ཀྱི་ལྷ་བཙན་པོ་ཁྲི་གཙུག་ལྡེ་བརྩན་མཆེད་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ཡོན་དུ་བསྔོ་སྟེ་ཞང་རྒྱ་སྒྲ་རྒྱལ་སླེབས་སྤད་ཀྱིས་ཇག་རོང་དགའ་ལྡན་བྱིན་ཅེན་གཙུག་ལག་ཁང་གི་རྐྱེན་དུ་དྲིལ་ཆེན་ཅིཀ་པུལ་བའི་ཡོན་ཀྱིས་ཡོན་བདག་དང་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅེད་བླ་ན་མྱེད་དེ་བྱང་ཅུབ་ཀྱི་རྱུབ་བར་སྨོན་ཏོ་༑དྲིལླ་འདི་ལྕགས་ཀོང་གིས་ཡིགེ་བྲི་སྟེ་དགེ་སློང་ཆོས་པྲིན་གྱིས་བླུགསོ༑
Pasang Wandu offered this translation at a conference in Vienna in 2011.
As a religious for the god, btsan po of Tibet, Khri gTsug lde brstan and his brother, The zang lha sgra rgyal slebs spad, mad and offer this big bell to the Jag rong dg's ldan cen gtsug lag khang, in order to wish donor and all living beings will be perfected in the highest enlightenment. The inscription of the the bell was written by lcags kong, it was cast by dge slong (monks who have taken the highest monastic vows) chos prin.
Tibetan bells are so fascinating! Especially, I think, the one at Etchmiadzin, the Jo-khang of Armenia. And now to find one in Gansu! I've taken the liberty of putting a link to your blog at my own, on this particular blogpage in the comments section:
ReplyDeletehttp://tibeto-logic.blogspot.com/2009/06/bell-envy.html
Best to you and good day!
Are you sure about the reference to the bell article in
ReplyDeleteBod ljongs zhib 'jug (Tibetan Studies) 1 (2011) ?
Couldn't see it there, in the online edition.
Cheers,
Charles
Sorry for the very late reply. The bibliographic reference was from Pasang Wangdu himself and I have not been able to check it or trace down the original. Perhaps in due time....
ReplyDelete