‘The Tale of the Moon Cuckoo’: Tibetan- and Mongolian-language xylographic editions revisited (a case study of materials stored in the National Museum of the Tuva Republic and the Archive of Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25178/nit.2019.4.8Keywords:
Buddhism; written sources; Buddhist literature; Tuva; Kalmykia; museum; archive; xylographs; Tale of the Moon Cuckoo; Tibetan language; Mongolian languageAbstract
The article describes one Buddhist text with a plot basis widely spread among the Mongols, Buryats, Kalmyks, and also known to the Tuvans. This composition is the well-known essay ‘The Tale of the Moon Cuckoo’. The fact that this monument was known to Tuvan Buddhists is indicated by a Tibetan-language xylographic edition of this work (code 3-96 // 3676/378) stored in the Aldan Maadyr National Museum of the Tuva Republic.
The mentioned Tibetan-language xylograph is titled ‘The Tale of the Bird Aspiring after Enlightenment, Nicknamed the Blue-Necked Moon Cuckoo, and Known as ‘Delight to the Hearing of Those Who Have Conceived That All Objects of the Material World Have No Essence’ (Tib. Byang chub kyi sems mnga' ba'i bya mgrin sngon zla ba rtogs pa brjod pa 'khor ba mtha' dag la snying po med par mthong ba rnams kyi rna rgyan ces bya ba bzhugs so). The Mongolian-language xylographic edition from the Archive of the Kalmyk Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences bears the title ‘The Tale of the Bird-Bodhisattva Named the Blue-Necked Moon Cuckoo, Entitled ‘Delight to the Hearing of Those Who Have Conceived That the Material World Has No Essence” (Mong. Bodi sedkil tegüsügsen köke qoγolai-tu Saran kökege neretü sibaγun-u tuγuǰi orčilang-un bükün-i ǰirüken ügei kemen medegčid-üÔ čikin-ü čimeg).
The paper provides a description of the Tuva-based woodblock publication and compares it with the Mongolian-language translation according to the xylograph from Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS.
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Muzraeva D. N. and Sumba R. P. ‘The Tale of the Moon Cuckoo’: Tibetan- and Mongolian-language xylographic editions revisited (a case study of materials stored in the National Museum of the Tuva Republic and the Archive of Kalmyk Scientific Center of the RAS). The New Research of Tuva. 2019, № 4. URL: https://nit.tuva.asia/nit/article/view/886 (access date ...). DOI: 10.25178/nit.2019.4.8
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