28 Taenzer
to borrow all of their seeds.35 It has been suggested that there existed two
kinds of granaries:36 firstly, the office of permanent assets (Chin. changzhu chu
常住處) and secondly, the sacred assets or Buddha assets (Chin. fozhangwu
佛帳物) which would correspond to grain of the religious realm (Tib. lha ris
gyi stsang) and the grain of the three jewels (Tib. dkon mchog gsum gyi stsang)
respectively. But only the latter two expressions correspond; that is, the Tibetan
term ‘grain of the three jewels’ (Tib. dkon mchog gsum gyi stsang) corresponds
to the Chinese term ‘Buddha assets’ ( fozhangwu).37 In the extant Tibetan reg-
ister no such distinction is made and in another manuscript these two Tibetan
terms are used synonymously.38 It was not necessary to make this distinction
because the Tibetan Emperors of the time were dedicated to Buddhism and
all temples and their possessions were regarded as a gift for the benefit of the
Tibetan Emperor and could not be interfered with, no matter who sponsored
their establishment.39 Thus this is a distinction, which later became important
during the rule of the Return-to-Allegiance Army (see below). However, there
did exist a main storehouse at Longxing temple where scriptures written for
the benefit of Emperor Ralpacan were kept.40
The boundaries of the lands of the commoners as well as of the temples
seem to have been fixed at the land reform and no alterations were possible.
This may be the reason why fields are not included in the register of the mon-
astery’s possessions mentioned above.41
35 Taenzer, Dunhuang Region during Tibetan Rule, 343.
36 Trombert, Le crédit à Dunhuang, 64.
37 Takeuchi, Contracts, 197.
38 P. tib. 1297, pièce 1, ibid., 196.
39 P. tib. 2122—a fragment—implies that Yulin temple had become a permanent donation
of the Emperor. The Tshurphu (Tib. mTshur phu) inscription (discussed, transliterated
and translated in Li Fang Kuei and W. South Coblin, A Study of the Old Tibetan Inscriptions
(Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo, 1987), 302), gives a description of a
procedure like this.
40 In P. tib 999 it is stated that scriptures written for the benefit of Ralpacan were kept at
Longxing temple.
41 The only instance in which the religious realm gained land can be shown through the
case of monk Bam Kingkeng (Tib. Bam King keng). He was a monk owning bondservants
who had died, had not made a testament and forthwith his bondservants with their lands
became monastic property (P. tib. 1079 transliterated and translated in Richardson, Hugh,
“An Early Judicial Document from Tibet,” in High Peaks Pure Earth: Collected Writings
on Tibetan History and Culture, ed. Michael Aris (London: Serindia Publications, 1998),
149–166.