6th International Symposium Oriental Studies

The 6 th International Symposium on Oriental Ancient Documents Studies 98 Xu Lihua A Study on Several Examples of Tibetan Literature of the Tangut Period Kept in the Russian Collections The book, Lost Empire of the Silk road: Buddhist art from Khara Khoto (X–XIII Century) , published in 1993 has introduced the U ṣṇīṣ a Vijaya Dhāra ṇ ī and two pieces of Tibetan style paintings with some information. Later, A Study on earliest Tibetan xylograph published another two pages of U ṣṇīṣ a Vijaya Dhāra ṇ ī and half page of Eight Thousand Verses . This paper will discuss in detail these three pieces of print’s fonts, layout design, book format, and painting style. It asserts that the font and etc. of U ṣṇīṣ a Vijaya Dhāra ṇ ī shows its immature characteristics; there is no doubt that this is an early Tangut xylograph compare with two prints and Eight Thousand Verses . These xylographs and printing works appeared in different time. Two prints, and Eight Thousand Verses’ painting style and format, including “head, eyes, neck, shoulder, hand, bosom, waist, lip corner, leg”, and so forth of strokes are the same as the printing style in the time of Gtsang pa King in Tibet. Based on current evidence, we cannot prove if this is the xylograph of the Tangut period, and we need to do further research. This paper will also discuss the xylograph’s Mantra, symbolic meaning, origin and other aspects. Key words: Tibetan xylograph, Tangut xylograph, dharani, mantra, symbolic meaning.