24 Taenzer
of scribes were carried out by the subunit (Tib. tshan). When IOL Tib J 135915
was written, on average three people per tshan, per fifty families, could write
Tibetan script. The scribes were predominantly lay people. Members of the
clergy proofread the texts. The same can be said for the Aparimitāyurnāmasūtra
(which was certainly copied for the benefit of Ralpacan).16 This became
evident when the subscripts of P. tib. 3503–3766 and P. tib. 3940–3998 were
analysed by the present author. These manuscripts were proofread three times.
For example, P. tib. 3941 reads: “Written by Bam Takzang (Tib. Bam Stag bzang);
proofread by the fully ordained monk (Tib. dge slong) Lengcheu (Tib. Leng ce’u,
probably Chin. 靈照), and proofread by Dronma (Tib. Sgron ma) and Shindar
(Tib. Shin dar).”17 The proofreaders bore Chinese and rarely Tibetan Buddhist
given names and the same names recur.18 Thus it is evident that there existed a
group of monks whose task it was to proofread these scriptures.
Apparently Tibetan versions of Buddhist scriptures were already propa-
gated at an early stage of Tibetan rule over Dunhuang since one of the man-
uscripts written at the end of the first third of Tibetan rule (at the beginning
of the 9th century) shows that Tibetan monks were working side by side with
Śatasāhasrikā Prajñāpārāmitāsūtra written in Dunhuang (70 × 20cm, consisting of two
layers of thin paper pasted together).
15 IOL Tib J 1359 A/B/C is a suite of manuscripts listing the names of scribes and the
paper owed after they had completed the writing of the Śatasāhasrikā Prajñāpārāmitā
sūtra. It is discussed and partly translated in: Takeuchi, Tsuguhito, “Tshan: Subordinate
Administrative Units,” 849 and note 8; and transliterated and translated in: Thomas,
Frederick William, Tibetan Literary Texts and Documents Concerning Chinese Turkestan,
vol. 2 (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1951), 80. It was written after the three military units
had been established, after the second third of Tibetan rule had begun.
16 P. tib. 999: [.. .] sngun lha sras khri lde gtsug brtsan gyi sku yon du // sha cur rgya bod gyi
dar ma tshe dpag du myed pa bris te // [.. .]. “[.. .] Earlier on, for the benefit of the divine
son Tri De Tsugtsen (Tib. Khri lde gtsug brtsan) the Aparimitāyurnāmasūtra in Chinese
and Tibetan was copied in Shazhou [.. .].” This text certifies the taking out of the depot in
Longxing temple of 135 Chinese and 615 Tibetan copies of this sūtra.
17 P. tib. 3941: as read on microfilm of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
18 According to 286 subscripts, the scriptures were written by 86 Chinese lay people; 36 of
them wrote more than one, 11 more than 4 and two wrote 10–11 scriptures; 17 were written
by members of the clergy, out of which 9 also appear as proofreaders; only three Tibetans,
one Azha (Tib. ’A zha) and nine members of five so far unknown families wrote scriptures
in Dunhuang. 36% of the Chinese lay writers bore Chinese given names, all the others had
taken on Tibetan names, which is a sign that they were written not earlier than the second
third of the Tibetan rule (Takeuchi, Contracts, 19). Among the clergy Chinese Buddhist
names are prevalent.