The Tariat inscriptions appear on a

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

found near the Hoid Terhyin River in Doloon Mod district, Arkhangai Province, modern-day

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

(the forms Terkhin and Terhyin are also used). The

was erected by Bayanchur Khan of the

Uyghur Khaganate The Uyghur Khaganate (also Uyghur Empire or Uighur Khaganate, self defined as Toquz-Oghuz country; , Tang-era names, with modern Hanyu Pinyin: or ) was a Turkic empire that existed for about a century between the mid 8th and 9th centuries. It ...

in the middle of the eighth century (between 753 and 760 CE seems to be the best estimate).

Discovery

Archeologists already knew of the existence of this stele because it was mentioned in another Uighur stele found in 1909. But it took 47 years to discover and unearth the stele; finally being found by Mongolian archeologist T. Dorjsuren in 1956. The finds are now exhibited in the Mongolian Institute of Archeology in

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...

Uighurs

The Uyghur Khaganate replaced the

Second Turkic Khaganate The Second Turkic Khaganate was a khaganate in Central and Eastern Asia founded by the Ashina clan of the Göktürks that lasted between 682–744. It was preceded by the Eastern Turkic Khaganate (552–630) and the early Tang dynasty period ( ...

Inner Asia Inner Asia refers to the northern and landlocked regions spanning North Asia, North, Central Asia, Central, and East Asia. It includes parts of Western China, western and northeast China, as well as southern Siberia. The area overlaps with some d ...

in 745 CE. Its founder was Kutluk Bilge Köl (745-747). Unlike their predecessors, they were allies of the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

and in the early days of the khaganate the khagans (rulers) supported the Tang emperor against the rebellious general

An Lushan An Lushan (; 20th day of the 1st month (19 February) 703 – 29 January 757) was a Chinese military general and rebel leader during the Tang dynasty and is primarily known for instigating the An Lushan Rebellion which devastated China and kill ...

. They were one of the major powers of Asia. However, in 848 CE they were defeated by the Kyrgyz and were forced to move west to the

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

and

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

regions of modern-day China.

The Stele

The stele had been erected on a bixi or tortoise plinth and is made of light gray granite. There are 30 lines of text inscribed on each side of the stele in old Turkic using the Orkhon alphabet (Turkic runes) which was also used in the famous Khöshöö Tsaidam Monuments of

Bilge Khagan Bilge Qaghan (; ; 683 – 25 November 734) was the fourth khagan, Qaghan of the Second Turkic Khaganate. His accomplishments were described in the Orkhon inscriptions. Names As was the custom, his personal name and the name after assuming the t ...

and his brother Kül Tigin of the Turkic khaganate in 732 and 735 CE. Together with the Bain Tsokto monument of Tonyukuk, these remains are collectively called the Orkhon Monuments. The narrator is Bayanchur Khan of the Uighur khaganate who reigned between 747 and 759 CE.

The Narration

Bayanchor Khan refers to himself as El etmish Bilge Kagan (not to be confused with Bilge Kagan of the Turkic Khanate, who lived earlier). According to inscriptions appearing on the east side of the slab, during the interregnum following the death of his father, Bayanchor fought against the tribes supporting his elder brother Tay Bilge Tutuk. Among these tribes, the

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

seem to have been the most important enemy, for their names are mentioned several times. On the west face of the stele, a brief history of the Turkic peoples is given. It is notable that the names of

Bumin Khan Bumin Qaghan (, also known as Illig Qaghan ( Chinese: 伊利可汗, Pinyin: Yīlì Kèhán, Wade–Giles: i-li k'o-han) or Yamï Qaghan (, died 552 AD) was the founder of the Turkic Khaganate. He was the eldest son of Ashina Tuwu (吐務 / 吐� ...

and İstemi of the Turkic Khaganate are also mentioned in the inscriptions. This may mean that the power shift from the

to the (linguistically indistinguishable) Uighur Khanate was considered merely as a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

.Jean Paul Roux: ''Historie des Turcs'' (Translated by Aykut Kazancıgil,Lale Arslan Özcan), Kabalcı Yayınevi, İstanbul, p 159

Complete text

References

Notes

{{Turkic inscriptions Archaeology of Mongolia 8th-century inscriptions Uyghur inscriptions Speeches by heads of state