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Ogihara H., Ching Chao-jung. SI 3656 and other Kuchean tablets related to the Kizil grottoes in the St. Petersburg Collection // Written Monuments of the Orient. 2(4), 2016. P. 44—67.
This paper introduces five wooden tablets written in Kuchean (Tocharian B)
and kept in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences (IOM,
RAS), namely SI 3656 (SI P/136в), 3669 (SI P/139д), 6385 (SI Strelkov-D/3), 1931
(SI Strelkov-D/51) and 6456 (SI Strelkov-D/85). THT4063, an unedited tablet kept in
Berlin, the text of which is largely parallel with SI 6456, is also introduced here.
According to the joint authors’ investigation, which has been ongoing since 2009, these
tablets are economic and administrative documents, and some of their features are comparable
with the Kuchean sale contract THT4001. The severely damaged SI 1931 is particularly
valuable because it proves that three currencies circulated in pre-Tang Kucha.
Together with THT4063, the other four tablets are closely related to the Yurpāṣka Monastery,
which is repeatedly mentioned in the findings from the Kizil grottoes as well as
the graffiti surviving there. Therefore, the content of these tablets helps scholars to restore
the history of this important Buddhist site as well as the activity of foreign expeditions
in Chinese Turkestan.
To WMO, 2(4) 2016...
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Keywords
Buddhism in Central Asia
Kizil
Kucha
Tocharian
wooden tablets
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