The Mongolian Documents From The Northern Area Of Dunhuang's Mogao Caves

From 1988 to 1995, the Archeological Research Institute of the Dunhuang Academy organized personnel for the archeological excavation of all the caves in the northern area of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang in Gansu province. The project unearthed a large number of manuscripts written in different scripts, including page fragments in Tangut, Syriac, Uygur-Mongol and 'Phags-pa scripts, all of which had not been seen in the manuscripts from the famous Library Cave (or Cave 17). As for the Mongolian documents, 70 or more page fragments of Uygur-Mongol and 'Phags-pa scripts were discovered from 13 caves in the northern area. Although these are not complete, these fragments are an important discovery, because, as Prof. Peng Jinzhang, a researcher at the Dunhuang Academy, said, "they fill a gap in Dunhuang-Turfan Studies and Mongolian Studies, and from the perspective of Mongolian script manuscripts, these are entirely fresh materials."This dissertation endeavors to give a new interpretation of 51 medieval Mongolian fragments, which were first read by Prof. Gardi at Inner Mongolia Normal University, on the basis of the photographs published in 2004 by Prof. Peng Jinzhang. The work consists of the following parts:The first part, "Introduction", provides a survey of the Mongolian documents found in the northern area of the Dunhuang Mogao Caves and explains the purpose and perspective of this approach.The second and third parts are the main body of this dissertation. The second part, "Civil and Official Documents", covers 41 page fragments, with the main focus on 5 of them with distinctive characteristics, which are 1) a Mongolian script fragment of juridical content; 2) a contract in the Uyghur-Mongolian script; 3) a Mongolian script fragment of the manuscript order ("word") issued by Kedmen Baγatur; 4) a Mongolian script fragment of Prince Ratna(s|ˇ)r(?)'s (Aradna(s|ˇ)iri) edict (ling(?)i); 5) a Square Script fragment of Sonom Gara's Mongolian version of Sa-skya Pandita's Treasury of Good Sayings. The third part, "Buddhist Texts", deals with 10 page fragments, including 1) a study of the fragment of a xylograph edition of the Mongolian Bodhicary(a|^)vat(a|^)ra, different from, and probably earlier than, the famous Daidu print of 1312; 2) a similar study of the fragment of a Mongolian script manuscript of the Mongolian translation of the canonical Heart Sutra (Praj(n|⁾(a|^)-p(a|^)ramit(a|^)-hrdaya-s(u|^)tra); 3) identification of a fragment of a printed Mongolian translation of another Buddhist canonical text, the Ny(a|^)yaprave(?)a; 4) identification of a fragment of a printed Mongolian translation of Buddhist canonical text, the Sarva-durgati-pari(?)odhana-usnisa-vijay(a|-)-dh(a|-)ran(?).The fourth part, "Conclusion", is a brief summary of this dissertation.The Mongolian documents found in the northern area of Dunhuang's Mogao Caves consist of fragments of manuscripts and some printed books, dating from the 13^th. 14^th centuries. Needless to say, a find of documents which covers a vast range of topics such as that from Dunhuang's Mogao Caves sheds new light on the history of the society, culture and language of the Mongolian-speaking peoples and their medieval cultural relations to their neighbors.