Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies

Issue 3 December 2007

ISSN 1550-6363 An online journal published by the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (THDL) www.jiats.org

Editor: Jos Ignacio Cabezn Book Review Editor: Kurtis Schaeffer Assistant Editors: Alison Melnick, Zoran Lazovic, and Christopher Bell Managing Director: Steven Weinberger Technical Director: Nathaniel Grove

Contents
Articles

A Look at the Diversity of the Gzhan stong Tradition (24 pages)

Anne Burchardi

Beyond Anonymity: Paleographic Analyses of the Dunhuang Manuscripts (23 pages)

Jacob Dalton

Emperor Mu rug btsan and the Phang thang ma Catalogue (25 pages)
Brandon Dotson

An Early Seventeenth-Century Tibeto-Mongolian Ceremonial Staff (24 pages)

Johan Elverskog

The Importance of the Underworlds: Asuras Caves in Buddhism, and Some Other
Themes in Early Buddhist Tantras Reminiscent of the Later Padmasambhava Legends (31 pages) Robert Mayer

Re-Assessing the Supine Demoness: Royal Buddhist Geomancy in the Srong btsan
sgam po Mythology (47 pages) Martin A. Mills

Modernity, Power, and the Reconstruction of Dance in Post-1950s Tibet (42 pages)
Anna Morcom Book Reviews

Review of Thundering Falcon: An Inquiry into the History and Cult of Khra brug,
Tibets First Buddhist Temple, by Per K. Srensen et al (5 pages) Bryan Cuevas

Review of Tibetan Songs of Realization: Echoes from a Seventeenth-Century Scholar

and Siddha in Amdo, by Victoria Sujata (6 pages) Lauran Hartley

Review of Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas, ed. Rob Linrothe and Review
of The Flying Mystics of Tibetan Buddhism, by Glenn H. Mullin (8 pages) Serinity Young

ii

Beyond Anonymity: Paleographic Analyses of the Dunhuang Manuscripts

Jacob Dalton
Yale University

Tom Davis
University of Birmingham

Sam van Schaik

The British Library

Abstract: This article presents a new paleographic approach to the Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang. By adapting the techniques of forensic handwriting analysis to the Tibetan alphabet, we can identify groups of manuscripts written in the same hand. After introducing this new approach, the present paper applies it to the works of a single scribe, taken as an initial example. Once this particular group of manuscripts has been identified, a range of further insights into this person emerge his many connections to the kingdom of Khotan, his unique writing style, and his interest in the external ritual practices relating to water and fire offerings, stpas, rosaries, and the like. This new approach promises to alter significantly our understanding of the Tibetan Dunhuang documents. No longer are we confronted with a mass of undigested material; now we can begin to date and ascribe names to whole swathes of the collection.1

An Introduction to Forensic Handwriting Techniques

Working with manuscripts is certainly a laborious affair, but one that can have almost magical moments. After years of careful analysis, one may begin to feel an almost personal bond with the scribes of the distant past. The present article

1 The authors thank the AHRC, the International Dunhuang Project, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Religion for their support in funding this collaborative project. The original research began during a three-year AHRC-funded project on the tantric manuscripts from Dunhuang, published in Jacob Dalton and Sam van Schaik, Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Stein Collection at the British Library (Leiden: Brill, 2006).

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, no. 3 (December 2007): 1-23. www.thdl.org?id=T3106. 1550-6363/2007/3/T3106. 2007 by Jacob Dalton, Tom Davis, Sam van Schaik, Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library, and International Association of Tibetan Studies. Distributed under the THDL Digital Text License.

Dalton, Davis, and van Schaik: Beyond Anonymity

grew out of just such a strange and ill-defined series of experiences. Its goal, however, is to justify these intuitions in as much detail as possible, to shed light on these murky insights. For three years, from 2002 to 2005, Jacob Dalton and Sam van Schaik worked together on a project to catalogue the Tibetan tantric manuscripts in the Stein collection, held at the British Library. After about a year of working every day with these manuscripts, they began to recognize the individual handwritings specific to certain scribes. Over the following months they became increasingly convinced of their identifications, until many seemed quite obvious. When these theories were presented to other scholars they were met with interest, but also with skepticism. More proof was required, and while their initial, largely intuitive recognitions of different scribes handwritings had been relatively easy, it would be far more difficult to explain precisely what lay behind these identifications.2 In 2004 van Schaik and Dalton contacted Tom Davis, the third author of this article and an expert in forensic handwriting analysis. Over the following year the three authors met numerous times to develop a forensic-style approach to the paleography found in the Dunhuang manuscripts. Developing a firm basis for their theories proved difficult, and some of the early identifications had to be abandoned, but a reliable method did finally emerge. What follows is an introduction to this new paleographic approach to the Tibetan Dunhuang collection. The article includes four sections: 1. An introduction to the basic practice of forensic handwriting analysis and how it may be applied outside the courtroom. 2. A discussion of how these forensic techniques were adapted to the Tibetan script and how the handwriting of one scribe can be described by a few simple rules. 3. A brief overview of the writing practices and the social milieu of tenth century Dunhuang. 4. A review of further internal evidence indicating that the manuscripts written in the hand identified in part two are all the work of a single person.

Terminology
First, a note on the terminology. When someone looks at handwriting, what they see on the page is a series of graphs in an alphabetic script, the letters as they actually appear on that particular page. Each graph is an individual, necessarily unique, representation of a grapheme, which in our alphabetic writing means a
2 Cristina Scherrer-Schaub has discussed the paleography of early Tibetan manuscripts in Cristina A. Scherrer-Schaub, Towards a Methodology for the Study of Old Tibetan Manuscripts: Dunhuang and Tabo, in Tabo Studies 2: Manuscripts, Texts, Inscriptions and the Arts, ed. Cristina A. Scherrer-Schaub and Ernst Steinkellner, 3-36 (Rome: Istituto Italiano per lAfrica e lOriente, 1999); Cristina A. Scherrer-Schaub and George Bonani, Establishing a Typology of the Old Tibetan Manuscripts: A Multidisciplinary Approach, in Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries, ed. Susan Whitfield (London: The British Library, 2002), 184-215. However, these discussions have concerned script typologies rather than individual handwritings.

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 3 (December 2007)

letter considered abstractly. A reader sees a graph (a unique mark on a piece of paper), recognizes a grapheme (thats an /a/), and is thus able to read. If a given writer produces a graphic form of the grapheme /n/ that resembles his (graphic) version of the grapheme /u/, so that the two cannot be distinguished, a reader may wonder which letter is that? What he or she is actually asking is, which grapheme am I seeing here? This kind of graphic habit, if it occurs regularly in a particular hand, is idiographic. It is a variation in graphic form that is characteristic of that particular writer and thus provides evidence of individuality. The most valuable idiographic items for the purpose of identification are those that are not entirely under his or her conscious control, as this makes them difficult both to forge and to disguise. Also characteristic of individual writers is allographic variation. Some writers, for instance, use a flourished cursive form of the capital /T/, others a plain block capital form. This difference is common and normally conscious, and so only weakly idiographic; it is a licensed and recognized variation in the representation of the grapheme and therefore allographic. We have, then, a hierarchy that can be listed from most general to most specific: grapheme, allograph, idiograph, graph. The grapheme /a/ is the letter considered independently of any particular realization of it. An allograph is an accepted version of that grapheme. An idiograph is the way (or one of the ways) in which a given writer habitually writes /a/. A graph is a unique instance of /a/, as it appears on a particular page. Forensic handwriting examination concerns itself with questioned documents. There will be a dispute, usually as to the authorship of a particular document. In order to decide that dispute, sample writing is obtained, writing that indisputably was produced by the alleged author of the questioned document. Since in forensic cases there is always the possibility of deliberate deception, the sample writing will be of two kinds: writing that was produced for the purpose of the examination (request writing), and writing that was produced without the knowledge that it would be examined by an expert (naturally occurring writing). The function of the latter is to act as a control sample, to test the validity of the request writing. Request samples must be treated with caution, since they may be disguised in order to hinder identification of the questioned writing. Why then have request samples at all? Because their content can be controlled. If the questioned writing is an extended text, the analyst can ask for the request writing to contain the same content as the questioned writing. Handwriting identification depends on letter-by-letter comparison, and if the same letters occur in the same place in each document, such comparisons are much easier.

Methodology
Step 1: Analysis The normal practice of forensic handwriting examination is a three-stage process: first the handwriting under examination is analyzed, then compared, and finally a conclusion is derived from the comparison. In the first stage, the usual procedure

Dalton, Davis, and van Schaik: Beyond Anonymity

is to prepare analytic charts. These are tables containing cells for instances of each of the graphemes that the writing contains, one cell for each of the lower case letters, each of the upper case, punctuation, numerals, and common abbreviations such as the ampersand. Each of the cells will be filled in (as far as possible, as some letters may not be represented in the documents examined) with a description of each of the significantly different forms of each letter in the hand under examination. Verbal descriptions are not very useful for analysis of graphic shapes; the normal procedure is to draw the shape, with added arrows indicating line direction and other significant features, sometimes with a brief verbal comment. A certain skill ironically, a forgers skill is required in order to produce a satisfactory analytic chart. The analytic chart is essentially a private document; it is part of a laboratory notebook and will normally only be seen by the examiner and his colleagues in the laboratory, though on occasion the defence will ask to see a prosecution experts notebook. The ability to create such a chart is very much based on experience. The examiner must know what is likely to constitute significant variation for the purposes of determining authorship. Supposing, for instance, the document being analyzed contains twenty instances of a lower-case /a/. Each of those graphs as they appear on the document will be unique, but it will also be (usually) recognizable as representations of the same grapheme, because otherwise the hand would be illegible. The examiners experience enables him or her to assess the significance of these differences and similarities in each case and how they may be of use in determining authorship. For this purpose there may be only one form of /a/ in the document, represented twenty times with sufficient fidelity to the writers internal model as to make them, for purposes of identification, the same. Or there may be two, three, or even more idiographically distinct forms of /a/ in the document, each one represented one or more times. Once the sample writing has been analyzed in this way, the questioned writing is similarly analyzed, in a separate chart or charts. These analyses are kept separate in order to ensure a disciplined approach to the business of identification. It is easy to fall into the trap of hypothesizing a theory of authorship early in the procedure, and then looking for evidence that confirms the hypothesis and ignoring evidence that refutes it. If the analysis takes place before the comparison, the analyst is prevented from doing that. Step 2: Comparison The second step is to compare the two analyses of the questioned and sample writings, with constant reference to the original documents. Each version of each grapheme in the chart of sample writing is compared meticulously with the versions of the corresponding grapheme in the chart of questioned writing. Again, this is experience-based. The examiner must know which graphic forms are likely to be idiographic, and which allographic; in other words, which variations of the grapheme are sufficiently unusual as to be useful for identification. This requires a familiarity with the way in which that particular language is written in a particular

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 3 (December 2007)

time, place, and by a particular kind of writer. It involves a knowledge of all of the factors that can influence writing, particularly at the idiographic level. One must consider the physiology of the writing movement, the characteristics of the writing implement used, the writing surface on which the inscription has taken place, and the way in which all three of these interact. However, in spite of the level of expert knowledge behind a given opinion, forensic experts are very conscious of the fact that at some point they may have to convince a jury of their findings. The comparison that is the basis of these findings must contain a preponderance of judgments that are based on clear and evident similarities or differences. Although forensic experts are permitted to give opinion evidence, they are not allowed to take refuge in a private, incommunicable expertise an intuitive mystery, what lawyers call a black box. The basis of the opinion must be expressible and comprehensible to non-experts. Step 3: Opinion Finally, as a result of this comparison, an opinion is formed. The first thing to say about this opinion is that it will probably be qualified. Forensic expertise in handwriting is as objective as possible, but complete objectivity simply cannot be attained. All the information on which a particular opinion is based can never be fully available to consciousness: one cannot recall every instance of a particular kind of /o/ that one has seen, though that submerged knowledge provides the basis for ones opinion. Moreover, since the opinion concerns the characterization of aspects of a graphic shape, its basis cannot be made entirely available for inspection. An expert will say: this /o/ is not significantly the same as that /o/ because it differs in certain respects. Yet the two /o/s are necessarily the same in other respects (they must be, or they would not be recognizable as instances of /o/). Thus in the case of these two different /o/s, the forensic opinion essentially decides that the differences are significant while the similarities are not, simply because in ones experience, the similarities are not idiographic. Ultimately, therefore, the deciding factor remains: experience. However, this is not a black box. All human beings (indeed, all sentient beings) are skilled recognizers and do it constantly. Handwriting experts can communicate their findings on the basis of this shared ability. A jury can be shown what the expert sees, usually in the form of enlarged photographs, and be persuaded to agree on the basis of this universal ability to recognize. And experts can be wrong. In order to minimize this possibility two strategies are adopted by handwriting experts: caution and overkill. Handwriting experts are notoriously cautious: the police frequently complain that it is hard to get a usable opinion out of a handwriting expert. When they get one, they are happy to have it, because it will stand up well in court. This is because of the other strategy: handwriting analyses are exhaustive. Every letter in the document is examined, described, and compared with every other letter in all of the documents under consideration. The effect of the evidence, when well presented, is intended to be overwhelming. Thus the opinion will be supported by a second chart, for public

Dalton, Davis, and van Schaik: Beyond Anonymity

consumption, that shows the evidence on which this opinion is based. This consists of a photographic display, in which the actual idiographs, enlarged and in context, are shown. The examiner will use the display chart as the basis of his or her evidence, adding a verbal commentary that points out the idiographic similarities or differences.

A Forensic Approach to Paleography

When a document examiner is given a non-forensic case to look at, a number of differences between the forensic and non-forensic practice are apparent, some of them rather disconcerting. Foremost, in non-forensic work the writers are usually dead, and can have been dead for a long time; the Tibetan manuscripts that are the focus of the present study are at least a thousand years old. Their writers are thus not available for questioning or for the provision of request samples. This and a range of other differences make paleography a very different affair from that of forensic science. After years of learning the extreme and unforgiving rigor required in forensics, it is not easy to make this adaptation to paleographic work. There are compensations. Forensic handwriting analysis is used to put people in prison (or get them out). Huge amounts of money can be at stake. The utmost caution is essential. Paleography, on the other hand, would rarely address issues of anything like that importance, and normally investigates questions that are only of interest to relatively few scholars. The standard of proof can afford to be considerably lower: one can, however reluctantly, relax a little. Another reason for relaxing is that the forensic handwriting expert is always aware of, and more often than not directly concerned with, the possibility of forgery and deliberate disguise. Thus the examination must be conducted on an extremely subtle level. Forged or disguised writing is by definition unnaturally written, and this unnaturalness manifests in a lack of fluency of line quality (among other things), which can sometimes only be seen under magnification. Forgery of old documents does of course occur, but the paleographer normally faces a much simpler problem: basic identification. Were those two documents written by the same person? At this level of examination the need to examine the original manuscripts is much less imperative. Also helpful have been recent advances in technology. Digital cameras, scanners, entry-level computers, and high-level image editing programs are now easily available, and can produce digital photographs of documents that can even, in some ways, be better than the original for identification purposes. Once the images are in the computer they can be manipulated in remarkable ways. Different occurrences of the same letter can be lifted from different documents and easily juxtaposed, for instance. The routine procedure developed by Tom Davis in his paleographic work is to create (for alphabetic writing) three PowerPoint slideshows, for capitals, lower case, and numerals/punctuation. These are used for the initial step of analysis (described above). In creating these slideshows, each document is first scanned or photographed to produce a Photoshop file. Each idiographically significant form of, say, the letter /a/ can then quickly and easily

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 3 (December 2007)

be lifted in Photoshop from the image, together with the word in which it occurs, and pasted into the corresponding /a/ slide in the PowerPoint slideshow. This process creates a complete picture of the handwriting as it is found in the document under examination, and the PowerPoint slides can be annotated as required. The next step is to use the images of individual words and letters, to enable the comparison. For this, HTML framesets are ideal; it is easy to create web pages that enable side-by-side comparison of any letter as it occurs in different documents under examination. HTML is easy to use and universally readable; moreover, whereas in forensic work ones examination is normally carefully kept confidential, the scholarly tradition in paleographic work is to offer ones evidence for peer-group consideration and discussion, and, of course, the World Wide Web makes this almost absurdly easy.

The Adaptation of Forensic Techniques to the Tibetan Script Building a Tool for Forensic Examination
Over several meetings the authors discussed the possible application of the forensic methods outlined above to the Tibetan script. The advantage was that we were dealing with another alphabetic script. Before conducting our analysis, however, we first had to decide how many graphemes the Tibetan alphabet contained. This was not as simple as going through the standard alphabet of ka, kha, ga, nga, and so on, mostly due to the Tibetan practice of stacking letters. The shape of the letter ka, for example, is significantly altered by the addition of the subscribed ya (ya brtags), so that kya becomes a distinct grapheme. In some cases, vowel signs may also change the form of a letter so that the combination may be considered a separate grapheme. Thus, ku is often more than a mere combination of ka with the u vowel (zhabs kyu). We also added non-letter forms, including the punctuation marks shad (phrase-marker) and tsheg (dot). In all, we counted around 110 individual graphemes. We also had to distinguish between the headed (dbu can) and the headless (dbu med) forms of the letters, which, like our own roman upper and lower case letters, are actually different graphemes. Thus a manuscript in which the scribe has written both headed and headless letters may contain over two hundred graphemes.

Analysis
Having identified our objects of analysis, we were able to begin. Our work here would be at a disadvantage, for we could never be as familiar with the scribal conventions of tenth-century Dunhuang as we are with those of our own alphabet. Despite having worked closely with the original manuscripts for a number of years, our relative lack of experience would inevitably make it difficult to distinguish between which scribal characteristics were conscious stylistic features (allographic variations) and which unconscious quirks (idiographic variations).

Dalton, Davis, and van Schaik: Beyond Anonymity

For help in this regard we utilized contemporary Tibetan handwriting guides, though with caution, as their relationship to tenth-century handwriting practice has yet to be established.3 Modern Tibetan calligraphy is a precisely prescribed practice, but the scripts seen in the Tibetan Dunhuang documents are far less regular. In our analytic discussions (and in the present article), we adopted many of the standard modern names for the individual strokes in a graph. Thus the top horizontal line is designated the head (mgo), the main vertical line the leg (rkang ba), and so on. With these modern terms and practices in mind, we began our analysis of the graphs found in a particular manuscript that we suspected belonged to a wider group of manuscripts in the same hand. For our starting point we chose ITJ425. In our analysis we employed the usual tools of the forensic handwriting analyst, examining the order in which strokes were written, the length and angle of a particular stroke, and superfluous strokes known as ticks.4 We began by analyzing all of the graphs present in ITJ425. For the purposes of the intertextual comparisons to come, however, we soon realized we would have to limit our scope. Given the number of graphemes in the Tibetan alphabet (sometimes over two hundred) and the size of the documents involved (here sixteen folio sides, but often more), a comparison of every grapheme in both texts under comparison would not be possible. For this reason, we used our analysis to reduce the scope of our comparisons to only those graphemes in which we perceived significant idiographic variation. Our analysis of ITJ425 thus resulted in a set of idiographic benchmarks that were unique to that hand. These benchmarks could then be used to identify other manuscripts in the same hand.

Comparison
Next we selected a group of manuscripts that we suspected contained the works of no more than two to three different scribes. Working with high-resolution digital images of the manuscripts in question, we extracted several examples of every grapheme we could find in each manuscript (some were not represented) by cutting them out using Photoshop. The forensic method discussed in the previous section requires one to enter each and every graph into the analytic chart, but this was not possible in the case of our manuscripts, which can comprise over a hundred folios, much longer than the usual notes and letters analyzed by forensic experts. Instead in constructing our charts, we tried to select a representative sampling of all the graphs present. For each manuscript we cut out hundreds of thumbnail images, labeling them with their graph name and location, and linking them into a website. For the website we adopted the method of HTML framesets described above, the

3 See Rev. G. Tharchin, The Tibetan Primer of Current Hand Writing (Kalimpong: Tibet Mirror Press, 1970); and Dpa ris sangs rgyas, Bod yig bri tshul mthong ba kun smon (Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1997). 4 By stroke we mean a mark made by the pen between one pen-lift and the next. The Latin term ductus or duct is often used in paleographic writings rather than stroke.

Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 3 (December 2007)

result of which can be found at the following URL: http://idp.bl.uk/handwritings/ index.html.5 The website is divided into three columns, each with three sections. The upper section contains a list of manuscripts to choose from. Selecting one of these brings up a list of the available graphs from that manuscript in the middle section. Selecting one of these graphs brings up one or more examples of that graph, extracted from the selected manuscript, in the lower section. Using this website, graphs from three different manuscripts can thus be displayed next to each other, allowing the kind of comparisons discussed in the previous section. Let us now look at the list of benchmarks that grew out of our analysis of the manuscript ITJ425. In this particular case, we have established a list of four firm benchmarks (other less firm benchmarks were proposed, but because they are less reliable, we have not included them in the present article). Each benchmark is described below, with a sample graph shown alongside a graph from another manuscript (in what we believe is another hand) for comparison. For further examination beyond these basic examples, the reader is directed to consult the website mentioned above. Small Heads and Long Legs First, in almost all of the graphs in this hand, the head (mgo) of the graph is proportionately smaller and the leg (rkang ba) longer than in other handwritings. This can be demonstrated by comparing two sample graphemes, na and zha:

Images 1 & 2: A na graph from ITJ425 and ITJ594.

Images 3 & 4: A zha graph from ITJ425 and ITJ321.

5 The website is hosted by the International Dunhuang Project (see http://idp.bl.uk), under the auspices of which the cataloguing work which resulted in the present paper took place.

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Ticks Our second distinguishing benchmark is that the leg of the da graphs are often finished with a small tick at the bottom. This unusual feature occurs frequently (in about fifty percent of cases) and appears to be an unconscious idiographic element of the handwriting.

Images 5 & 6: A da graph from ITJ425 (with tick) and from ITJ321.

The Grapheme Ga Our third benchmark is the unusual form of the ga grapheme. As can be seen here, the leg of the graph rises some way above the head before descending below it, an unusual feature.

Images 7 & 8: A ga graph from ITJ425 and ITJ594.

The Grapheme Nya Fourth, we have the grapheme nya, which is usually written in a single pen stroke. In most examples of handwriting in the Dunhuang manuscripts (as indeed in later Tibetan model handwriting), the pen is lifted after the first curve of the graph, and then placed down again for the second curve, as in the example to the right from ITJ647.

Images 9 & 10: A nya graph from ITJ425 and ITJ647.

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Opinion
Individually, none of the above features may be unique to this handwriting, but the occurrence of all of them in a manuscript is persuasive evidence, if not outright proof, that the manuscript is from the same hand as ITJ425. Having developed this set of benchmarks, we were able to apply them to a number of additional manuscripts. These comparisons resulted in a group of manuscripts that we judged all to have been written by the same scribe who wrote ITJ425. Having identified this manuscript group, we found a range of further convincing reasons for seeing all these manuscripts as the work of a single person, and it is to this supporting evidence that we now turn.

Writing Practices around Dunhuang

Before we look in detail at the work of our scribe, however, we should perhaps briefly review his scribal setting. Most of his works are written on Tibetan-style Indian-style book (po ti, pustaka) manuscripts, with a few written on Chinese-style scroll sheets. He probably wrote with a wooden pen (of which some examples have been found in Central Asia), which he would dip regularly into an ink receptacle.6 Although our scribe wrote in Tibetan, it is not clear that he was of Tibetan origin. The colophons of many Tibetan stra manuscripts show that there were certainly Chinese scribes at Dunhuang who were able to write Tibetan, and as we will see below, there are indications that he may even have been Khotanese. One of the mysteries of the library cave manuscripts is why manuscripts in so many different languages (Chinese, Tibetan, Khotanese, Uighur, and more) were stored together. If they mostly represent the small library of Sanjie Monastery (sanjie si), as Rong Xinjiang argues, then we are left with the question: Did people of different language groups live together in this monastery, or were the manuscripts collected from elsewhere?7 Such questions remain to be answered.8 A related issue is the location of Sanjie Monastery. Rong Xinjiang has argued for a location directly in front of the cave site, perhaps in front of Cave 16 where some unidentified wooden ruins remain.9 Against this conclusion, Robert Sharf has recently suggested that the monastery where the library originated, be it Sanjie Monastery or otherwise, was likely not in the immediate vicinity of the Mogao

6 On the increased use of wooden and reed pens, rather than brushes, during and after the Tibetan occupation of Dunhuang, see Fujieda Akira, Chronological Classification of Dunhuang Buddhist Manuscripts, in Whitfield, Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries, 11112. 7 Rong Xinjiang, The Nature of the Dunhuang Library Cave and the Reasons for its Sealing, Cahiers dExtrme-Asie 11 (1999-2000): 247-75.

See Tokio Takata, Multilingualism in Tun-huang, Acta Asiatica: Bulletin of the Institute of Eastern Culture, no. 78 (2000), Tun-huang and Turfan Studies: 4970, for a discussion of the interaction of different cultures at Shazhou/Dunhuang.
9

Rong Xinjiang, The Nature of the Dunhuang Library Cave, 264.

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caves.10 According to Sharf, the caves themselves were less meditation caves than mortuary shrines or temples under the jurisdiction of a number of powerful families and clans. There is also ample evidence that the site served as a place of pilgrimage where large festivals took place. However, Sharf argues, we must be careful to distinguish the sites monumental functions from what we normally think of as monastic practices, such as ascetic, repentance, and meditative practices, scriptural study, or scribal activities relating to the library discovered there. Such monastic activities, and perhaps Sanjie Monastery itself, were more likely located somewhere off-site, probably nearer to the town of Shazhou, a few miles away. In short, we are left with lamentably little clear evidence for the monastic setting within which our manuscripts were penned. Another question is the role of the writer: Was he a professional, writing out manuscripts for others, or did he write manuscripts for his own use and that of his immediate circle? A clear thematic consistency to the writings in the hand of our scribe, and what appear to be revisions of the same work, suggest that he was not a jobbing scribe writing for a variety of individuals, but that he wrote either for his own benefit or at least for another person with surprisingly specific interests.

An Example Scribe: Supporting Internal Evidence The Identified Manuscript Group

We have shown how the method of forensic handwriting analysis can be adapted to the Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts, using digital technology to facilitate both the laboratory work and the dissemination of this technique. Now we will look at the case of the particular scribe whose handwriting was identified using this technique. By examining the interrelationships and thematic consistencies within the group of manuscripts that we have attributed to this scribe, we can offer substantial supporting evidence for our forensic handwriting identification. The scribe here is one whom we have identified as responsible for the sample manuscript ITJ425. By comparing a number of actual manuscripts against the isolated graphs in our table, we were able to expand significantly the group of manuscripts attributable to this scribe. For the purposes of this article, the group comprises ITJ318, 338, 340, 341, 343, (344), 377, 407, 422, 423, 424, 425, and 688.11 Within this group, we can discern a number of thematic links. There is also clear evidence that some manuscripts represent revisions of the same work. To begin with, let us look at the thematic links.

10 Robert Sharf, The Enigma of the Dunhuang Caves (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, TX, November 22, 2004). In forming his argument, Sharf points to evidence from other cave sites, such as Longmen and Yungang, which were clearly not sites for monastic practice, and to the lack of any hard evidence on the location of Sanjie Monastery. 11 We believe the group could easily be expanded much further, but these are the manuscripts discussed herein.

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Thematic Links between the Manuscripts

The first theme linking some of the manuscripts is a Khotanese connection. The kingdom of Khotan was located on the southern Silk Route, to the west of Dunhuang. It was still active during the tenth century, though increasingly under threat from Turks and Arabs, whose Islamic religion was to supplant and eventually eliminate Khotanese Buddhism in the eleventh century. During the tenth century, Dunhuang and Khotan enjoyed strong diplomatic ties, Khotanese Buddhists visited famous teachers in Dunhuang, and there also seems to have been a Khotanese settlement in the area.12 Several of the manuscripts in our group contain Khotanese page numbers: ITJ338, 340, 423, 424, and 425. The numbers are either written in Tibetan transcription or in Khotanese numerals. The use of Khotanese numbers is unusual in the Dunhuang Tibetan manuscripts and suggests that our scribe had a particular connection to Khotan, perhaps even that he was of Khotanese origin.13 Another Khotanese connection can be seen in ITJ688, a treatise on the rosary (phreng ba, mla).14 This short treatise discusses the different kinds of rosaries appropriate for practitioners of the different buddha families. At the outset the author divides his discussion into seven topics, though he ends up addressing only four of them and appends an additional one. The seven topics listed initially include: (1) the teacher responsible for it, (2) the tantra from which it is taken, (3) the original source, (4) the class to which it belongs, (5) the method for counting, taught correctly for each buddha family, (6) the correct meditation, and (7) how it is said to surpass.15 These topics roughly correspond to those of a similar Khotanese treatise on rosaries found in the Dunhuang manuscript IOL Khot 55, fols. 1r.4-1v.1.16 Furthermore, the topics that are listed but not discussed in the Tibetan treatise are addressed in the Khotanese treatise, and in a similar order.17 When the two treatises are compared in more detail, several differences emerge. The Tibetan text ascribes the teaching on rosaries to the well-known Indian scholar Vimalamitra (eighth century), whereas the Khotanese text ascribes it to one
12 See Takata, Multilingualism in Tun-huang, 5253. On the Khotanese manuscripts from Dunhuang, see Prods Oktor Skjrv, Khotanese Manuscripts from Chinese Turkestan in the British Library: A Complete Catalogue with Texts and Translations (London: The British Library, 2002). 13 These Khotanese numbers have been identified and discussed in Tsuguhito Takeuchi, Old Tibetan Buddhist Texts from the Post-Tibetan Imperial Period (mid-9 C. to late 10 C.), in Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming). 14 A discussion and French translation of this text can be found in Rolf A. Stein, Un genre particulier dexposs du tantrisme ancien tibtain et khotanais, Journal Asiatique, no. 275 (1987): 265-82. 15 ITJ688, fol. 1.1-1.3: slobs dpon gang gis mdzad pa dang / rgyud gang las dus pa dang / khungs gang las byung ba dang / mtshams gang du gtogs pa dang / so soi rigs ma nor bar bstan pa bgrang bai thabs dang / bsam rgyud ma nor ba dang / don las mtshan du gsol bao. 16 A transcription and translation of IOL Khot 55 can be found in Skjrv, Khotanese Manuscripts, 292-96.

Stein claims that the Khotanese text is without doubt based on a Tibetan model (Stein, Un genre particulier, 269). Unfortunately, he gives no reasons for this conclusion, and in this instance, the more complete Khotanese treatise seems more likely to have been the model for the Tibetan version.

17

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Barmajsu.18 Also, where the Khotanese treatise simply classifies the teaching as Vajrayna, the Tibetan text classifies it as Mahyoga and goes on to say that it was gathered from a tantra bearing the title Descent of the Sage [Tantra] (thub pa a ba da ra, *Muni-avatra[-tantra]). This title remains unidentified, though it also appears in Pelliot tibtain 849.19 Despite these specific differences, the overall similarity between the Tibetan and Khotanese treatises indicates a close relationship, perhaps that the somewhat garbled Tibetan version is a reworking of the Khotanese text. Even more interesting is the fact that several other manuscripts in our group are also treatises divided into numbered topical divisions, a feature that is not at all common in the Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts in general. This feature can be seen in the treatise on stpas entitled Narrative Setting and Benefits of Stpas (mchod rten gyi gleng gzhi dang phan yon) in the manuscript ITJ338, a manuscript that also bears Khotanese page numbers. The same topical structure appears in the Chu gtord gyi gzhung, which appears in two very similar versions in the manuscripts ITJ340 and 341/1. Again, both manuscripts contain Khotanese numbering. Finally, we have a treatise on the fire ritual (sbyin sreg, homa) called Abridged Instructions on the Aspects of the Peaceful Fire Offering (zhi bai sbyin sreg lag len man ngag khol bur phyung ba). This also exists in two manuscript versions, ITJ422 and 423. A final thematic coherence to this group of manuscripts may be their shared concern with the practice of external rituals: activities such as making and using rosaries, making and worshipping at stpas, water offerings, and fire rituals. This is not common elsewhere in the Tibetan Dunhuang texts, and thus is yet another feature suggesting that this group of manuscripts reflects the interest of a single scribe.

Multiples and Revisions

Our group of manuscripts is lent still further coherence by the existence of multiple revisions of the same work, seen in a number of the relevant manuscripts. As already mentioned, ITJ340 and ITJ341/1 are both versions of the Exposition on Water Offerings (chu gtor gyi gzhung).20 ITJ341 itself includes two quite different
18 19

Stein suggests that this person may be Rba Manydzu (also Dba Manydzu, Sba Manydzu).

Pelliot tibtain 849, fol. 20. See also Joseph Hackin, Formulaire Sanskrit-Tibtain du Xe sicle (Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthener, 1924), 7.
20 Still another version of the same text is found in the Peking Bka gyur (Q. 4593), where it is titled the Ritual Manual for Water Offerings (chu gtor gyi cho ga). A comparison of ITJ340 to the canonical edition shows that they are largely identical, apart from a few word changes and a couple of passages that are added or missing from each. More work needs to be done comparing these two versions to the one found in ITJ341. The colophon to the Peking edition attributes the authorship of the work to Jayasena and its translation to Rin chen bzang po (958-1055). If we are to accept this attribution, we must conclude that the Jayasena who authored this work is not the same person who translated a number of Tibetan works contained in the Bstan gyur. The latter translator worked alongside Sum pa lo ts ba Dar ma yon tan and was active in the second half of the twelfth century (see Dan Martin, Tibskrit Philology [Kurt Keutzer, 2006], 906-8, http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~keutzer/martin/TibskritUni.pdf

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variations on the same text (referred to here as ITJ341/1 and ITJ341/2), so that the two items begin with identical opening lines, but part ways on the second line. A further connection may be made between ITJ341 and ITJ407, yet another manuscript from our handwriting group. The first folio of ITJ341/2 (10v.2) goes on to direct the reader to mix the offering ingredients in a bowl, in accordance with the instructions in the Eight Jewels.21 ITJ407 may contain precisely that work, as it bears the title An Offering of the Eight Jewels.22 The latter seems to be a liturgy to be recited in conjunction with an offering rite, possibly that being prepared in ITJ341/2. In these ways the three manuscripts, ITJ340, 341, and 407, are closely linked. Two additional pairs of matching manuscripts are ITJ422 & 423 and ITJ424 & 425. All four of these manuscripts are on the same topic the peaceful fire offering.23 The first two, ITJ422 and 423, are variations on the same text, titled the Abridged Instructions on the Aspects of the Peaceful Fire Offering.24 Similarly, ITJ424 and 425 seem to be two versions of one text; both are arranged into the same seven topics. Moreover there is clearly a relationship between the two pairs of manuscripts, as they share much of the same terminology. A final, though less certain, example of multiple copies of the same text may be that of the Narrative Setting and Benefits of Water Offerings (chu gtor kyi gleng gzhi dang phan yon). This text is found in three manuscripts in the Stein collection: ITJ343, ITJ344, and ITJ377. The latter, ITJ377, is not written in our identified hand. Significantly however, the final folio side of this manuscript, which follows the close of the water offerings text itself, does contain four lines of writing by our scribe.25 This is a particularly interesting case of our handwriting, as it includes examples both of our scribes headless script common to the manuscripts we have studied so far, and of his headed script. A similar headed script also appears in ITJ343, another of our three copies of the Narrative Setting and Benefits of Water Offerings. Unfortunately ITJ344 is presently missing from the collection, so our identification of this text is based solely on the relevant entry in de la Valle Poussins catalogue.26 While we cannot
[PDF]). Given the presence of the Ritual Manual for Water Offerings among the Dunhuang manuscripts, the work was more likely authored by another Jayasena who lived in the eighth century. Note too that, given the ritual forms described in the text, we can safely date the work as post-seventh century, so that its author must also be distinguished from still another Jayasena who is said to have taught Xuanzang (602-44) during the latters visit to India (Martin, Tibskrit Philology, 907).
21 22 23 24 25

rin po che sna brgyad. Rin po che sna brgyad kyi mchod pa. zhi bai sbyin sreg, nti-homa. Zhi bai sbyin sreg lag len man ngag khol bur phyung ba.

In our forthcoming book-length study of the paleographic groups in the Tibetan Dunhuang collections, we discuss the possible identity of the scribe responsible for ITJ344. We find our present scribes work on a number of manuscripts ascribed to this person, and it seems quite possible that these two figures knew one another.
26 Louis de la Valle Poussin, Catalogue of the Tibetan Manuscripts from Tun-Huang in the India Office Library (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).

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be sure ITJ344 is another example of our scribe, the paper size is identical to that used by ITJ343 (17.5 cm x 6.2 cm), and both have four lines to a page. Moreover, as we have already seen in ITJ338 (Narrative Setting and Benefits of Stpas), the same genre of narrative setting and benefits (gleng gzhi dang phan yon) is used elsewhere by our scribe.

Possible Headed Manuscripts

We have left until now a further speculation regarding the work of our identified scribe. It seems quite possible that a number of manuscripts written in the headed script can also be attributed to this same person. For the purposes of this study, we would like to limit our suggestion to the manuscript ITJ377 (just mentioned) as well as ITJ457, 584, and Pelliot tibtain 103. ITJ457 is an unusually small scroll, mostly written in the same style of headed script as ITJ584. It is an important piece of evidence for identifying the headed with the headless script of our model scribe, as the handwriting transforms from one script to the other and back over the course of the manuscript. The clearly headless sections closely resemble the style of handwriting we have analyzed above in ITJ425, ITJ340, and so forth, and in this way, ITJ457 provides a kind of bridge between our group of manuscripts written in headless script and the additional headed manuscripts being suggested here. Still other thematic links can be made between ITJ457 and our other manuscripts. The prayer found in ITJ457s first item deals with the many sufferings of death and rebirth and how to avoid these. The same verses are also found written in Tibetan on the verso of another Khotanese manuscript from Dunhuang, IOL Khot 140. The Khotanese text is a record of a monastic shopping trip to Shazhou. Its relationship to the Tibetan text is unclear, but is further suggestion of close relationships between Khotanese and Tibetan Buddhists at Dunhuang. Like ITJ457, ITJ584 is also a confessional prayer. Matthew Kapstein has demonstrated that most of its verses are to be found in the Stainless Confession Tantra (dri med bshags rgyud), a tantra of the Na rag dong sprugs cycle.27 Kapstein suggests that the prayer in ITJ584 may have been one of the source texts used by the compilers of the Stainless Confession Tantra. He goes on to suggest a possible connection between this headed manuscript (ITJ584) and another headless manuscript, ITJ318. The latter is, once again, an example of our scribes hand, but Kapstein links the two manuscripts on the basis of their contents. ITJ318 describes a maala in the form of a 108-petalled lotus, a maala, Kapstein shows, that can also be linked with the Na rag dong sprugs cycle. In this way ITJ584 (in headed)

27 See Matthew T. Kapstein, La formation du Bouddhism tibtain travers les documents de Dunhuang [in English; summary of the January 2001 EPHE Vme Section Lecture Series], IDP News, no. 17 (Winter, 2001), article 3, http://idp.bl.uk/archives/news17/idpnews_17.a4d#3; and Matthew T. Kapstein, Between Na-rak and a Hard Place: Evil Rebirth and the Violation of Vows in Early Rnying-ma-pa Sources and their Dunhuang Antecedents, in Aspects of Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang, ed. Matthew T. Kapstein and Sam van Schaik (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).

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and ITJ318 (in headless) both contain materials that were later to be incorporated into the Na rag dong sprugs.

Site Numbers
In addition to the thematic and stylistic links discussed so far, there is still another way in which our identification of this manuscript group is reinforced. When Stein first discovered the Dunhuang manuscripts, he assigned site numbers to them, marking each according to where he found it. Questions remain about how precisely we should understand these numbers.28 For now, however, we can point to a striking fact about the site numbers borne by the Stein manuscripts discussed in the present article: all of them come from the same bundle, labeled Ch.73.iii. This would seem to indicate that all of them were placed in the cave together, further evidence that they are the work of a single author.

Speculative Conclusions
With this article we have introduced a new paleographic approach to the Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang. We have attempted to show how techniques from the field of forensic handwriting analysis can be adapted for the ancient Tibetan handwriting seen in the Dunhuang manuscripts. This approach can be applied to any number of manuscripts, but for the purposes of this introduction we have focused on a single, relatively tightly defined group of manuscripts that we believe were penned by the same hand. A more extensive, book-length study of several other handwriting groups that we have identified within the Dunhuang collections is forthcoming. For now, however, we close by outlining some of the wider consequences that result from this new approach, consequences for our understanding of the collection as a whole. The identification of groups of manuscripts sharing the same hand significantly alters the shape of the Tibetan Dunhuang collections. No longer are we confronted with an overwhelming mass of manuscripts. Rather, we can begin to make sense of large swathes of the collection by dividing it into a relatively small number of manuscript groups. This, in turn, allows us to assign scribal names to many of the Dunhuang manuscripts; the Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts are only rarely signed, but we need only a single signature on one manuscript to apply it to all manuscripts in the same hand. From the names, we can often identify the cultural affiliation of the writer, which reveals much about the shape of the Buddhist communities around Dunhuang during the relevant period. Similarly, few Tibetan items are dateable, but now once a single item has been dated a range of manuscripts can be dated to roughly the same period. This helps to correct a long-standing misconception regarding the dating of the Dunhuang collection. For the past century scholars have commonly suggested that most of

28 For a preliminary analysis of Steins Tibetan site numbers, see Takeuchi, Old Tibetan Buddhist Texts.

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the Tibetan manuscripts probably date from around the time of the Tibetan occupation of Dunhuang (c. 781-848 CE).29 Takeuchi has recently started to question this assumption by compiling a still-growing list of Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts that can be firmly dated to the tenth century.30 Our paleographic analysis of the manuscripts strengthens the case for dating large portions of the collection to the tenth century, as the dateable manuscripts can be linked to many more manuscripts in the same hands. We may further speculate that a large number of the manuscripts are the work of a relatively small number of scribes, many of whom may have known and worked alongside one another during the same historical period.31 Reading the manuscripts in this light also allows us to distinguish the interests particular to each scribe; each manuscript group reveals a surprisingly distinct set of concerns. The sample scribe discussed here, for example, specialized in external, small-scale ritual texts relating to rosaries, stpas, water and fire offerings, and so forth. Elsewhere we have shown how reading multiple works by a single scribe can reveal links between texts and topics that would otherwise be considered distinct and unrelated.32 The present article is offered in the hope that at least some of the ideas contained here might help other scholars to make similar discoveries about the religious and social milieu behind these ancient treasures from Dunhuang.

29 The date of the Tibetan conquest of Dunhuang remains disputed. See Bianca Horleman, A Re-evaluation of the Tibetan Conquest of Eighth-Century Shazhou/Dunhuang, in Tibet, Past and Present: Tibetan Studies 1, ed. Hank Blezer (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 49-65, for a summary of previous arguments and an argument that the conquest took place earlier than has previously been suggested, in the 760s.

Takeuchi, Old Tibetan Buddhist Texts, builds on the earlier work of Gza Uray, Lemploi du Tibtain dans les Chancelleries des tats du Kan-sou et de Khotan postrieurs la Domination Tibtaine, Journal Asiatique, no. 269 (1981): 81-90. See also Gza Uray, New Contributions to Tibetan Documents from the post-Tibetan Tun-huang, in Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Fourth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, ed. Helga Uebach and Jampa L. Panglung, 515-28 (Munich: Kommission fr Zentralasiatische Studien, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1988).
31 Further evidence for these claims will be elaborated in our forthcoming book-length paleographic study of the Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts. 32 See Sam van Schaik and Jacob Dalton, Where Chan and Tantra Meet: Buddhist Syncretism in Dunhuang, in The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith, ed. Susan Whitfield (London: The British Library, 2004), where we demonstrate a clear case of one scribes synthesis of Mahyoga and Chinese Chan, two Buddhist traditions normally held never to have met.

30

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Glossary
Note: glossary entries are organized in Tibetan alphabetical order. All entries list the following information in this order: THDL Extended Wylie transliteration of the term, THDL Phonetic rendering of the term, English translation, equivalents in other languages, dates when applicable, and type.
Ka Wylie bka gyur rkang ba Ga Wylie Phonetics English narrative setting and benefits head Other Dates Type Term Term Phonetics Kangyur kangwa leg English Other Dates Type Textual Collection Term

gleng gzhi dang phan lengzhidang penyn yon mgo Ca Wylie chu gtor kyi gleng gzhi dang phan yon chu gtor gyi cho ga Phonetics go

English

Other

Dates

Type Text

Narrative Setting Chutorkyi Lengzhidang Penyn and Benefits of Water Offerings Chutorgyi Choga Ritual Manual for Water Offerings

Text Text

Narrative Setting mchod rten gyi gleng Chtengyi gzhi dang phan yon Lengzhidang Penyn and Benefits of Stpas chu gtord gyi gzhung Chutorgyi Zhung Tha Wylie thub pa a ba da ra Da Wylie Phonetics English Stainless Confession Tantra Other Dates Phonetics Tuppa Abadara English Other Dates Exposition on Water Offerings

Text

Type Text

Descent of the Sage San. *Muni[Tantra] avatra[-tantra]

Type Text

dri med bshags rgyud Drim Shakgy Na Wylie na rag dong sprugs Pa Wylie po ti Pha Wylie phreng ba Phonetics trengwa Phonetics poti Phonetics Narak Dongtruk

English

Other

Dates

Type Doxographical Category

English Indian-style book

Other San. pustaka

Dates

Type Term

English rosary

Other San. mla

Dates

Type Term

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Ba Wylie dba manydzu dbu can dbu med rba manydzu sba manydzu sbyin sreg Tsha Wylie tsheg Zha Wylie zhabs kyu zhi bai sbyin sreg Phonetics zhapkyu zhiw jinsek English u vowel peaceful fire offering Abridged Instructions on the Aspects of the Peaceful Fire Offering; Pith Instructions on the Practice of the Peaceful Fire Offering Arranged into Sections San. nti-homa Other Dates Type Term Term Text Phonetics tsek English dot Other Dates Type Term Phonetics Wa Mandzu uchen um Ba Mandzu Ba Mandzu jinsek fire ritual; fire offering San. homa headed headless English Other Dates Type Person Term Term Person Person Term

zhi bai sbyin sreg lag Zhiw Jinsek Laklen len man ngag khol Menngak Khlbur bur phyung ba Chungwa

Ya Wylie ya brtags Ra Wylie rin chen bzang po Phonetics Rinchen Zangpo eight jewels An Offering of the Eight Jewels English Other Dates Type Phonetics yatak English subscribed ya Other Dates Type Term

958-1055 Person Term Text

rin po che sna brgyad rinpoch nagy rin po che sna brgyad Rinpoch Nagyekyi kyi mchod pa Chpa Sha Wylie sha cu shad Sa Wylie sum pa lo ts ba dar ma yon tan Sanskrit Wylie Phonetics Phonetics Sumpa Lotswa Darma Ynten Phonetics Shachu sh

English

Other Chi. Shazhou

Dates

Type Place Term

phrase-marker

English

Other

Dates

Type Person

English

Sanskrit Barmajsu

Dates

Type Person

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Jayasena maala Great Yoga Mahyoga stpa stra Diamond Vehicle Vajrayna Vimalamitra Chinese Wylie Phonetics English Chinese Chan Dunhuang Longmen Mogao Sanjie Monastery Sanjie si Yungang Xuanzang 602-644 Dates eighth century

Person Term Doxographical Category Term Term Doxographical Category Person

Type Doxographical Category Place Cave Cave Monastery Cave Person

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Bibliography
Dunhuang Manuscripts Discussed IOL Tib J 318, 321, 338, 340, 341, 343, 344, 377, 407, 422, 423, 424, 425, 457, 584, 594, 647, 688. (Note: in the body of the article ITJ is an abbreviation of the full pressmark IOL Tib J.) Pelliot tibtain 103, 849. IOL Khot 55, 140. Canonical Primary Sources Asc. Jayasena. Chu gtor gyi cho ga zhes bya ba. Q. 4593. Secondary Sources Akira, Fujieda. Chronological Classification of Dunhuang Buddhist Manuscripts. In Whitfield, Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries, 103-14. Dalton, Jacob, and Sam van Schaik. Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Stein Collection at the British Library. Leiden: Brill, 2006. de la Valle Poussin, Louis. Catalogue of the Tibetan Manuscripts From Tun-Huang in the India Office Library. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962. Dpa ris sangs rgyas. Bod yig bri tshul mthong ba kun smon. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang, 1997. Hackin, Joseph. Formulaire Sanskrit-Tibtain du Xe sicle. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthener, 1924. Horleman, Bianca. A Re-evaluation of the Tibetan Conquest of Eighth-Century Shazhou/Dunhuang. In Tibet, Past and Present: Tibetan Studies 1, edited by Hank Blezer, 49-65. Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Leiden, 2000. Leiden: Brill, 2002. Kapstein, Matthew T. La formation du Bouddhism tibtain travers les documents de Dunhuang [in English; summary of the January 2001 EPHE Vme Section Lecture Series]. IDP News, no. 17 (Winter, 2001), article 3, http://idp.bl.uk/archives/news17/idpnews_17.a4d#3. . Between Na-rak and a Hard Place: Evil Rebirth and the Violation of Vows in Early Rnying-ma-pa Sources and their Dunhuang Antecedents. In Aspects of Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang, edited by Matthew T. Kapstein and Sam van Schaik. Leiden: Brill (forthcoming). Martin, Dan. Tibskrit Philology. Kurt Keutzer, 2006. http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~keutzer/martin/TibskritUni.pdf (PDF).

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Rong Xinjiang. The Nature of the Dunhuang Library Cave and the Reasons for its Sealing. Cahiers dExtrme-Asie 11 (1999-2000): 247-75. Sharf, Robert. The Enigma of the Dunhuang Caves. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, TX, November 22, 2004. Skjrv, Prods Oktor. Khotanese Manuscripts from Chinese Turkestan in the British Library: A Complete Catalogue with Texts and Translations. London: The British Library, 2002. Scherrer-Schaub, Cristina A. Towards a Methodology for the Study of Old Tibetan Manuscripts: Dunhuang and Tabo. In Tabo Studies 2: Manuscripts, Texts, Inscriptions and the Arts, edited by Cristina A. Scherrer-Schaub and Ernst Steinkellner, 336. Rome: Istituto Italiano per lAfrica e lOriente, 1999. Scherrer-Schaub, Cristina A., and George Bonani. Establishing a Typology of the Old Tibetan Manuscripts: A Multidisciplinary Approach. In Whitfield, Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries, 184-215. Stein, Rolf A. Un genre particulier dexposs du tantrisme ancien tibtain et khotanais. Journal Asiatique, no. 275 (1987): 265-82. Takata, Tokio. Multilingualism in Tun-huang. Acta Asiatica: Bulletin of the Institute of Eastern Culture, no. 78 (2000), Tun-huang and Turfan Studies: 4970. Takeuchi, Tsuguhito. Old Tibetan Buddhist Texts from the Post-Tibetan Imperial Period (mid-9 C. to late 10 C.). In Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies. Leiden: Brill (forthcoming). Tharchin, Rev. G. The Tibetan Primer of Current Hand Writing. Kalimpong: Tibet Mirror Press, 1970. Uray, Gza. Lemploi du Tibtain dans les Chancelleries des tats du Kan-sou et de Khotan postrieurs la Domination Tibtaine. Journal Asiatique, no. 269 (1981): 81-90. . New Contributions to Tibetan Documents from the post-Tibetan Tun-huang. In Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Fourth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, edited by Helga Uebach and Jampa L. Panglung, 515-28. Munich: Kommission fr Zentralasiatische Studien, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1988. van Schaik, Sam, and Jacob P. Dalton. Where Chan and Tantra Meet: Buddhist Syncretism in Dunhuang. In The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith, edited by Susan Whitfield. London: The British Library, 2004. Whitfield, Susan, ed. Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries. London: The British Library, 2002.