Iwao Kazushi, Hill Nathan (eds.) Old Tibetan inscriptions

Takeuchi Tsuguhito, Hoshi Izumi, Imaeda Yoshiro. — Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2009. — xxxviii, 98 p.: plates. — (Old Tibetan Documents Online Monograph Series Vol. II).The Old Tibetan inscriptions are, along with the Old Tibetan manuscripts discovered in Central Asia, among the most important materials for the study of the early Tibet. These inscriptions appear in various media, including stelae, walls, rocks, silver jugs, and clay. Their content varies as much as their material, from an international treaty to a soldier’s graffito; this variation consequently reflects many facets of early Tibetan culture. Despite this potential importance, in traditional Tibetan historiography these inscriptions were rarely recognised as historical materials. Few were the exceptions such as Rig’dzin Tshe dbang nor bu (1698-1755), who left copies of seven Old Tibetan inscriptions, now kept in Sikkim at the Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gantok. Although a passage of the Sino-Tibetan treaty is referred to in some texts of Tibetan historiography, generally speaking inscriptions became objects of veneration or were simply abandoned rather than being recognized as historical sources.