National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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| 0339 |
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 |
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after bundle was brought out by the priest to be opened by
us with an eagerness which it was hard to disguise, there
emerged also in plenty Tibetan manuscripts, long rolls as
well as whole packets of leaves, both belonging to the huge
Buddhist canon of Tibet. These obviously dated from the
period of Tibetan domination which we know in this frontier
region of China to have extended from the middle of the
eighth to the middle of the ninth century. That the closing
up of the chapel had taken place some time after this period
was clear from a fine Chinese inscription on stone dated
A.D. 851 which the priest had first come upon within the
recess and subsequently set up outside.
Mixed up with the Chinese and Tibetan texts (Fig. 91) and
in utter confusion there were plenty of oblong paper leaves
with Indian script belonging to different manuscripts, some in
Sanskrit, some in one or another of the indigenous languages
which the Buddhists of Turkistan had used for their trans-
lations of the sacred texts (Fig. 92). None of my previous
finds of such manuscripts equalled these in extent or in
excellence of preservation.
But even more grateful I felt for the protection afforded
by this strange place of deposit when, on opening a large
packet, carelessly wrapped in a discoloured sheet of stout
canvas, I found in it paintings mostly on fine gauze-like
silk or else on linen. They were mixed up with miscellaneous
papers as well as a mass of small pieces from fine figured
and printed silk textiles suggesting ex-votos. Most of the
paintings first found were narrow pictures from two to three
feet in length. By their triangular tops and floating streamers
they could at once be recognized as having been intended
for temple banners. When unfurled, these silk banners showed
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537
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550
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561
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571
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578
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