HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The ''Tibetan Annals'', or ''Old Tibetan Annals'' (''OTA''), are composed of two manuscripts written in
Old Tibetan Old Tibetan refers to the period of Tibetan language reflected in documents from the adoption of writing by the Tibetan Empire in the mid-7th century to works of the early 11th century. In 816 CE, during the reign of Sadnalegs, literary Tibetan ...
language found in the early 20th century in the "hidden library", the Mogao Grottoes near
Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major s ...
in northwestern
Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibe ...
province,
Western China Western China (, or rarely ) is the west of China. In the definition of the Chinese government, Western China covers one municipality ( Chongqing), six provinces (Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Qinghai), and three autonomou ...
, which is believed to have been sealed in the 11th century CE. They form Tibet's earliest extant history. The two manuscripts are known as the "civil" and "military" versions of the Annals. The "civil" version is designated in the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
in London and in the
Bibliothèque Nationale A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...
in Paris are originally from the same original roll, 4.34 metres long and 0.258 metres wide. The "civil" version covers the years 650–748 with some gaps.Dotson 2009, p. 15 The "military" version is designated Or.8212/187 is also held at the British Library. This version is much shorter and covers the years 743–765 with some gaps.


Discovery

An enormous number of early manuscripts in a variety of languages were collected by A. Stein and P. Pelliot at the famous sealed-up Library Cave (no. 17) of the Mogao Grottoes and sent back to London and Paris respectively. Among these ''
Dunhuang manuscripts Dunhuang manuscripts refer to a wide variety of religious and secular documents (mostly manuscripts, but also including some woodblock-printed texts) in Chinese and other languages that were discovered at the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China, dur ...
'', ''The Tibetan Annals'' (or "Tibet’s First History") were found along with the "''
Old Tibetan Chronicle The ''Old Tibetan Chronicle'' is a collection of narrative accounts and songs relating to Tibet's Yarlung dynasty and the Tibetan Empire. The three manuscripts that comprise the only extant copies of the Chronicle are among the Dunhuang Manuscr ...
''", which was probably compiled between 800 and 840 CE.


Contents

The ''Annals'' begin with a very brief account of the early events of the reign of
Songtsen Gampo Songtsen Gampo (; 569–649? 650), also Songzan Ganbu (), was the 33rd Tibetan king and founder of the Tibetan Empire, and is traditionally credited with the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet, influenced by his Nepali consort Bhrikuti, of Nepa ...
, the first Tibetan Emperor. From the time the Chinese
Princess Wencheng Princess Wencheng (; ) was a member of a minor branch of the royal clan of the Tang Dynasty who married King Songtsen Gampo of the Tibetan Empire in 641. She is also known by the name Gyasa or "Chinese wife" in Tibet. Some Tibetan historians cons ...
arrived in 643 CE until Songtsen Gampo's death in 650 it is possible to accurately date the entries. It then gives a dated, year-by-year précis of important events from 650 to 764 CE. For example, in 763 CE, Tibetan soldiers captured the Chinese capital of
Chang'an Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin ...
for fifteen days when the ruling
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
was recovering from the
An Lushan Rebellion The An Lushan Rebellion was an uprising against the Tang dynasty of China towards the mid-point of the dynasty (from 755 to 763), with an attempt to replace it with the Yan dynasty. The rebellion was originally led by An Lushan, a general off ...
. Of course, annals continued to be recorded after this date but, unfortunately, only one or two other minor fragments have survived. The Tibetan cyclic system dates are in much-faded red ink. These accounts, generally accepted as sober court records, provide a priceless view of Tibet in its early phase of expansion and establishment as a powerful empire. They also provide a valuable way of checking and dating events mentioned in later Tibetan and Chinese historical records. Neither the Annals nor the Chronicle make any mention of Buddhism in the reign of Songtsen Gampo."Preface to the Asianart.com edition of this article."
By Amy Heller, Jan 21, 2007.


Footnotes


References

* Bacot, Thomas and Toussaint (1940–1946). ''Documents de Touen-houang relatifs a l'histoire de Tibet''. J. Bacot, F. W. Thomas, Ch. Touissant. Paris. Libraire orientaliste Paul Geunther. * * Choephel, Gedun (1978). ''The White Annals''. Library of Tibetan Works & Archives Dharamsala, H.P., India. * Dotson, Brandon (2009). ''The Old Tibetan Annals: An Annotated Translation of Tibet's First History''. VÖAW, Austria. (book); (online edition). *


External links

{{Wikisourcelang, wikisource, དོན་ཆེན་གནད་བསྡུས་ཀྱི་ལོ་ཚིགས།
Free access to the original Tibetan texts online
Tibet History of Tibet Tibetan literature 11th-century books Dunhuang manuscripts