Yunnan’s Old Tibetan Inscription

 

Photo taken by myself a few years back

This is a tomb inscription for a political figure of importance in 8th-century Yunnan-Tibet relations. I won’t even try to place it up against a historical backdrop, you can attempt to do that yourself by consulting the literature I’ve listed at the end of the blog. Just to give an idea of distances, by the modern roads of today, Lhasa and Lijiang are over 1700 kilometers apart. For now I just supply a very rough transcription only, not an exact one, followed by one meant to be more precisely scientific. You really ought to consult the original rubbings or photos in any case. (What you see are my own photos taken in 2016 at the museum in Lijiang, with the display glass creating photographic challenges.) Takata believes the inscription must predate 788 CE. The translation is redone here with reference to the translation in his essay, p. 162. I have to point out that the differences are not likely to seem very meaningful. For the OTDO transcription of the text, look here. I think if I’ve brought more attention to the existence of this pivotal piece of history carved in stone, it will be enough for me to do for now.

As for provenance, the museum label tells us it was excavated at “Gezi village in Shigu township of Lijiang in March 1992.” The out-of-this-world artwork is worthy of its own close study, but here is my smoothed-out version of the Tibetan-language inscription in normal Wylie:

Click to enlarge

mtsho rum long la dag thog ma / rgya 'bangs las rgya rje gtan gyi rjer myi rung nas // btsan po lha sras la glo ba nye ste // blon skyes bzang la / phyag 'tshal nas pho tshed zang mang ni / gser chen pho stsald // long la dag gtsang cen stsald pa las lo dgu bcu lon de gum ba'i mchad pa /

Now a transliterated text, line by line (reversed letter “i” not noted), with an attempt at scientific exactitude:

1. mtsho: rum: long: la dag: thog: ma / rgya: 'bangs: las:
2. rgya: rje: gtan: gyi: rjer: myi: rung: nas // btsan: po: lha: sras: la:
3. glo: ba: nye ste // blon: skyes: bzang: la: / phyag: 'tshal: nas: pho: tshed zang
4. mang: ni / gser: chen pho: stsald // long la: dag gtsang cen stsald pa: las lo
5. dgu bcu lon de gum ba'i mchad pa

Here is my translation, presented with no sense of perfection or finality:

[This is the tomb of] Long-la-dag of mTsho-rum. The origin [of the affair is as follows]: the Chinese subjects no longer accepted the Chinese monarch as being qualified to be a stable (or permanent) monarch; therefore, [Long-la-dag] pledged his allegiance* to the Tibetan Emperor, a descendent of gods, and made obeisance to the councilor Skyes-bzang [d. 757]. As a result, Pho Tshed-zang-mang was granted a great gold letter (mark of rank) and Long-la-dag was given an official rank of gtsang-chen. Finally, attaining the age of ninety, he died. [Here is] his tomb...

(*Actually used here is that endearing Old Tibetan phrase literally meaning '[getting] near to the lung,’ that in effect means to have a warming relationship, to grow fond of someone.)

 

Bibliocracy

For the text of the relevant inscription, that the OTDO dates to post-757 CE, look here. 

Megan Bryson, “Tsenpo Chung, Yunnan wang, Mahārāja: Royal Titles in Narratives of Nanzhao Kingship between Tibet and Tang China,” Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie, vol. 24 (2015), pp. 59-76.

Édouard Chavannes, “Documents historiques et géographiques relatifs à Li-kiang,” T'oung Pao, series 2, vol. 13 (1912), pp. 565-653. This ought to be available at the Brill website (brill.com).

___, “Une inscription du royaume de Nan-Tschao,” Journal Asiatique, series no. 9, vol. 16. Look here. It was thanks to the late Helga Uebach's bibliography that I could locate these two essays by Chavannes.

Nathan Hill, Old Tibetan Inscriptions, Old Tibetan Documents Online Monograph Series no. 2, Research Institute for Languages & Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Tokyo 2009). At p. 10 is an edition of the text, with references to the literature, including some not listed here. Look here.

Khagang Palchen Thar (Dpal-chen-thar), “South Jang or Ha Stele,” Tibet Journal, vol. 30, no. 2 (Summer 2005), pp. 61-68. 

Liang Yongjia, “Stranger-Kingship and Cosmocracy, or, Sahlins in Southwest China,” Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, vol. 12, no. 3 (2011), pp. 236-254.

Duncan J. Poupard, “Writings on the Wall: Powerful Inscriptions in the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands,” Asian Anthropology (2021), online publication: 

https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2021.1889788.

Takata Tokio, “A Note on the Lijiang Tibetan Inscription,” Asia Major, vol. 19, nos. 1-2 (2006), pp. 161-170.

Helga Uebach, “Tibetan Officials in the 8th-Century Southeastern Part of the Empire,” contained in: C. Scherrer-Schaub, ed., Old Tibetan Studies, Brill (Leiden 2012), pp. 53-64.

Wang Yao, “Yunnan Lijiang Tufan gubei shidu zhaji” (Notes on [an] Old Tibetan Inscription Found in Lijiang, Yunnan Province), Tang yanjiu (=Journal of Tang Studies), vol. 7 (2001), 421-427, 2 pls. Reference simply lifted from Nathan Hill, Old Tibetan Inscriptions.

Yamada Noriyuki. “The Mu Native Official’s Governance of the Tibetan World and His Sponsorship of Tibetan Buddhism,” contained in: Christian Daniels and Jianxiong Ma, eds., The Transformation of Yunnan in Ming China: From the Dali Kingdom to Imperial Province, Routledge (London 2020), pp. 111-136.

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PS: For our amusement, I transcribe the museum’s label as given in English (I suspect it is based on the Chinese, rather than directly on the Tibetan):

“The regional chieftain of Cuorong area was firstly elected by local people to supervise the local officers. However, the leader was not in a good relationship with officers of Han majority, he was getting on well with the emperor of Tubo, and eventually came over and pledged allegiance to Tubo. The emperor bestowed him a golden prize (the highest award). Thereafter, he died naturally at the age of ninety.”

Well, I hope you found it somehow instructive or otherwise worthwhile, if not I typed it out for nothing. You might notice, for one thing, that the name of the Tibetan minister Skyes-bzang has entirely disappeared. And then the rank of gtsang-chen is hardly the highest ministerial rank, but rather very close to the lowest, having nothing at all to do with any golden prize. And erased, too, is the clear statement that the Chinese subjects were the ones unhappy with their ruler. I believe this is said with reference to the An Lushan Rebellion. Gone, too, is the suggestion that the Yunnan leader regarded the Chinese Emperor as something less than permanent (gtan) or stable (brtan), depending on how we read that syllable. Oh, and see how cleverly the translator makes it less than explicit that it was after all the Tibetan Emperor (and not just any old emperor) who bestowed on Long-la-dag the ministerial rank of gtsang chen.

This Tibetan inscription doesn’t in the least aid those who nowadays spout the Beijing-approved claims that Yunnan and Tibet were always part of China, precisely the opposite. And this holds true regardless of whose translation you prefer.