BuddhistRoadPaper 6.3 "Inside Out: The Social Life of a Pair of Inscribed Book Covers from Ancient Khotan"

This paper presents the preliminary findings of an in-depth investigation of a pair of wooden book covers, each inscribed on the inside, which a Russian diplomat brought from the Tarim Basin to St. Petersburg. Pinpointing the find-spot of the covers as a significant archaeological site to the east of Khotan, the present research analyses the inscriptions, sheds new light on the materiality of the covers, and suggests that they were probably used as votive objects. A salient aspect of the covers is that they bear testimony to a close connection between the monastery, to which they once belonged, and some prestigious monasteries known from Chinese and Tibetan sources. Based on a careful reconstruction of the ties between these monasteries and their socio-religious implications, a tentative hypothesis is ventured on the nature of the binary system of Buddhist monasteries in the Kingdom of Khotan (ca. 1st c.?–1006).

Chinese Translation

本文是对一对木质书套进行深入研究的初步成果, 这对内侧都刻有文字的书套, 是一位俄罗斯外交官从塔里木盆地带到圣彼得堡的. 本文认定书套的发现地当为于阗东部一个重要的考古遗址, 在对刻文进行分析的基础上对书套的材料也进行了说明, 并认为它们可能是祭祀物品. 这对书套的特别之处在于其表明了它们曾经所属的寺院与一些在汉藏文献中著名的寺院之间的密切联系. 基于对这些寺院及其社会宗教影响之间关联的谨慎重构, 笔者对于阗王国 (约公元前1–1006年) 佛教寺院的二元系统的性质提出了一个初步的假设.