6th International Symposium Oriental Studies

The 6 th International Symposium on Oriental Ancient Documents Studies 106 of the corresponding Tangut character in black ink, although in a lighter tone, suggesting that the Tibetan transcription was not written at the same time as the Tangut characters. Line 1 has 13 Tangut characters in which the four characters below the 7 th character are written in smaller size in two columns (apparently in order to find room for placing the whole phrase on the same line). From line 2 to line 5 there are nine Tangut characters each, but the first three characters in line 5 are damaged (see our reconstruction of them below). Lines 2–4 are written with an indentation approximately equal to one character’s height, which could mean that line 1 and possibly line 5 (the text is damaged here, but it looks like it has no indentation, as is the case with line 1) could be the beginning of a paragraph. The Tibetan transcription only occurs from line 2 to line 4. On the top of line 1 there is a drawing of a cintāma ṇ i “wish-fulfilling jewel” or “wish- granting gem” (Tangut 拓讲 ; Chinese rúyì zhū 如意珠 or rúyì bǎozhū 如意 寶珠 ; Tibetan yid bzhin nor bu ) encompassed with a crowning aureole of flame , which corresponds to the Tangut text on line 4: 沪拓讲堡娇築萂 葏藑 “just like the precious jewel, [his] deportment [is] bright [and] burning”. On the top left corner there is some doubtful and damaged Tibetan writing (see picture below) which was previously read by scholars as “…se ’dzwar ’jo nye” (Tai 2008), “s[t?]e / ’dzwang / ’jo / te” (Arakawa 2008), “?se ’dzwar ’jo ste” and “?se ’dzwang ’jo ste” (West 2011). The meaning of it was completely unknown. S. Arakawa (2008) correctly pointed out that it can’t be writing in Tibetan language, and proposed that it is the Tibetan transcription of a Tangut or Chinese proper noun. After careful re- examination we provide a new reading for it, and explanation of its meaning: “□ l[d]e ’dzwar ’jo nye” which is the Tibetan transcription of the first five Tangut characters in line 5: 竀紴索洱腲 , represented the Tangut name of Tathāgata Indraketudhvajarāja (see explanation below). The verso side of the fragment is almost blank, with only old inventory number “KK.II 0280.s” written in black ink at the bottom left corner 1 . This 1 This old inventory number belongs to Sir Aurel Stein’s third Central Asian Expedi‑ tion (1913–1916), excavated from Khara-Khoto at the end of May 1914. The letters “K.K.” indicate Khara-Khoto and “II” indicates the spot where this object was found. In this case it is the ruined shrine, i.e. remains of the “famous” or “celebrated” suburgan