Tibetan sound glosses

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The ink was used to add phonetic transcriptions of Chinese texts using the Tibetan script. These 'sound glosses' follow the orientation of the original Chinese characters (p. 334). This practice likely started during the Tibetan control of Dunhuang but continued into the tenth century (p. 334). The transcriptions were likely used by Chinese-speaking inhabitants who were not proficient at reading Chinese characters, serving as a vocalization aid (p. 334).

Evidence

"The Tibetan transcriptions, in turn, raise the question of who added them and why. As the Tibetan sound glosses follow the orientation of the Chinese, they are effectively truncated into single words"

Remarks

The manuscript dates from the tenth century, with transcriptions added during the same period before the library cave's closure in the early eleventh century (p. 334). The additions provide evidence of different stages of the manuscript's history, often added after the codex became unbound (p. 335). The exercise was specifically for annotating or practicing Chinese reading skills rather than recitation of specific sutras (p. 334).