36 Taenzer
Tibetan army who were most likely stationed in Changle (near today’s Anxi),
about 80 km to the East of Dunhuang.71
Why then did the clergy of Dunhuang cooperate in the local rebellion? At
the time of the overthrow of the Tibetan government of Dunhuang (848),
in China the persecution of Buddhism and the closure of monasteries had
already begun under Emperor Tang Wuzong (唐武宗, 814–846) in the
Huichang period (會昌, 841–846). The news of these events must have reached
Dunhuang as well. Thus, the clergy may have reasoned, why take any risk? All
the last Tibetan Emperors were devoted to Buddhism.72
There might also have been economic reasons for the cooperation of the
clergy. As the boundaries of fields were fixed and the sale of land was illegal
the monasteries could not extend their lands. They could not ask for inter-
est for the grain they lent out. The scriptures of the pothi ̄ type Śatasāhasrikā
Prajñāpārāmitāsūtra were probably written to be distributed to other areas
of the Tibetan Empire.73 The Aparimitāyurnāmasūtra—written for the pur-
pose to accumulate merit through writing it—was stored in Dunhuang. But
as testified by P. tib. 999, which refers to the reign of Osung (after 841), merit
could also be gained by taking it out of the depot on the occasion of a Buddhist
celebration.74
Thus, taking the exported sūtras and the other tribute payments into
account, a constant material drain from Dunhuang to Degam (Tib. bDe gams)75
and Central Tibet apparently took place.
71 The only reference to the Tibetan army stems from a manuscript (S. 1438) in which events
from the end of the 8th century are recorded. It is not known whether the army quarters
were still there in 848 or whether the only defence consisted of the members of the mili-
tary thongkhyab units (Tib. mthong khyab) and the ‘military’ citizens of Dunhuang.
72 Yamaguchi, “King Dar-ma,” 231–258.
73 Iwao, “Sūtra Copying.”
74 Imaeda, Yoshiro, “À propos du manuscrit Pelliot Tibétain 999,” in Sūryacandrāya: Essays
in Honour of Akira Yuyama on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, ed. Peter Harrison and
Gregory Schopen (Swisttal-Odendorf: Indica-et-TibeticaVerlag, 1998), 91. He refers to the
taking out of the depot of the scriptures for a celebration of ‘grand don de la loi’ (Tib. chos
gyi sbyin ba chen po). In the manuscript it is stated that it is a certificate, which should
be kept so that the numbers of sūtras could be compared at the next census. Therefore it
seems that the sūtras were not returned to the depot after the celebration.
75 Degam is the area South East of Dunhuang (in today’s Eastern Gansu and Qinghai prov-
inces) in which the seat of the administration of the region was situated. See Taenzer,
Dunhuang Region during Tibetan Rule, 34, for a discussion of its boundaries.