buddhism in the west uyghur kingdom and beyond 243
This epithet testifies to the long-term memory of dynastic origins of the
Uyghurs because Bokok Kagan is the founder of the Ädiz dynasty260 of
the East Uyghur Empire in the late 8th century (reigned 795–808).261 The
West Uyghurs are descendants of Bokok, whereas the Ganzhou Uyghur rulers
trace themselves back to the Yaglakar Dynasty, which preceded the Ädiz.
The Commemorative Inscription preserves mythical accounts about Bokok
and his family as well as about the dynastic origins of the Uyghurs which have
a close parallel in the account given by the Persian historian Juwainī (1226–
1283) dealing with an inscribed stone tablet disovered in Qara Qorum during
Ögedei’s reign (1229–1241).262
A very close parallel can be found in a manuscript which is conspicuously
several centuries older because it was translated from Tocharian (B):
T(ä)ŋrikän263 Takın Kız T(ä)ŋrim, the lotus flower of Bokok origin264
The epithet comprises, in fact, more elements. Before the word bokok we find
among others four words which have been read ʾwd// ugušnuŋ ud[u]mbar
len[hua]sı in Kasai’s edition. After checking the manuscript, we can now
tözlüg is rendered as “knospen(tragende)”. Similarly, in Zieme, “bazı düşünceler”, 234, it
is assumed that bokok tözlüg does not refer to the famous ruler but rather as an attribute
describes the lotus flower. But the attestation in U 971 with the genitive bokok töznüŋ
quoted below shows that Geng’s and Hamilton’s old interpretation is correct. The same
opinion is expressed in Clark, Larry, “Manichaeism Among the Uygurs: The Uygur Khan of
the Bokug Clan,” in New Light on Manichaeism: Papers from the Sixth International Congress
on Manichaeism Organized by The International Association of Manichaean Studies, ed.
Jason David BeDuhn (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2009), 64; OU bokok tözlüg pundarik čäčäk oŋ
tegin bägi, CI I, 29) Geng, Hamilton, “Stèle commémorative,” 18.
260 A preliminary chronology of the Ädiz dynasty is found in Moriyasu, Takao, Die Geschichte
des uigurischen Manichäismus an der Seidenstraße: Forschungen zu manichäischen
Quellen und ihrem geschichtlichen Hintergrund, trans. Christian Steineck (Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz, 2004), 222.
261 On the numismatic attestation of this ruler see Thierry, François, “Les monnaies de Boquq
qaghan des Ouïgours (795–808),” Turcica 30 (1998): 263–278. There is an allusion to the
story of the five princes known from the legend of Bokok Kagan in III, 12 of the inscription
(see Geng, Hamilton, “Stèle commémorative,” 37).
262 See Atwood, “The Uyghur Stone”.
263 On t(ä)ŋrikän as a title of female persons see Moriyasu, “Stake Inscriptions,” 166.
264 (OU bokok töznüŋ punḍarik čäčäki t(ä)ŋrikän takın kız t(ä)ŋrim, U 971 [T II S 20] /v/15–16/)
Ed. Kasai, Yukiyo, “Ein Kolophon um die Legende von Bokug Kagan,” 内陸アジア言語
の研究 Nairiku ajia gengo no kenkyū [Studies on the Inner Asian Languages] 19 (2004):
15–16. See also the new edition with the joined fragment U 2105 in Kasai, Kolophone, 204
(text no. 107).