Sizova A. Tibetan Manuscript on Birchbark from the Collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS // Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines. New Currents on the Neva River: Proceedings of the Fifth International Seminar of Young Tibetologists. Number 55, Juillet 2020. P. 462–474.
Using birchbark as a writing material is not extraordinary but
quite unusual for Tibetan manuscript culture. Agnieszka
Helman-Ważny, the author of the most comprehensive up to
date study on Tibetan codicology, gives only one example of a
manuscript on birchbark. However, the item she mentions is, in fact,
not written in Tibetan but in the Sanskrit Śāradā script.1 The Berlin
Turfan-Collection2 and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences 3 hold
several Tibetan birchbark manuscripts. When my colleague Kirill
Bogdanov drew my attention to the text that became the subject of the
present article, I realized that I had never seen anything like it before.
There was a multitude of fragile slips, so thin that they resembled
onionskin, covered with red and silver writing that was barely legible
without a magnifying glass (Fig. 1). The res accessoria and the archives
told a compelling story, but unfortunately, some pieces to the puzzle
are still missing...
The international conference “Seventh St. Petersburg readings in Mongolian Studies” will be held at the IOM RAS on October 2–3, 2024. The conference program is now available.
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