Edition of an Old Uighur poem preserved on the verso side of SI 4959
(Kr I 18) of the Serindia Collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts. The fragment
contains twelve stanzas а four lines. The contents is difficult to define, It is assumed that
stanzas I to VI refer to an unnamed young boy who may be a Buddhist novice, while
stanzas VII to XII emphasise the importance of doing puṇya, good deeds. The layman İndu
is presented as a model. In stanza IX he vows to encounter with Maitreya expressed in an
indirect way. Similar verses are known from Maitreya poems. The paper presents a full
edition of this fragment with some notes on problematic words and phrases.
The 8th All-Russian Conference of Young Orientalists “China and Its Neighbours” jointly organized by the IOM RAS and the Faculty of Asian and African Studies (Saint Petersburg University) will be held on March 2–3, 2023.