Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

THL Title Text
Date Of Record Release: 2007-11-02 13:58:51
THL Resource: Yes
Title: Beyond Anonymity: Paleographic Analyses of the Dunhuang Manuscripts
Language of title: English
Author/Creator: Sam van Schaik
Jacob Dalton
Tom Davis
One Sentence Summary: This article presents a method for analyzing handwriting in Tibetan manuscripts.

Description: Creator's Description: This article presents a new paleographic approach to the Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang. By adapting the techniques of forensic handwriting analysis to the Tibetan alphabet, we can identify groups of manuscripts written in the same hand. After introducing this new approach, the present paper applies it to the works of a single scribe, taken as an initial example. Once this particular group of manuscripts has been identified, a range of further insights into this person emerge—his many connections to the kingdom of Khotan, his unique writing style, and his interest in the external ritual practices relating to water and fire offerings, stūpas, rosaries, and the like. This new approach promises to alter significantly our understanding of the Tibetan Dunhuang documents. No longer are we confronted with a mass of undigested material; now we can begin to date and ascribe names to whole swathes of the collection.

Publisher: Tibetan and Himalayan Library
Normalized publisher place: Charlottesville, VA
Publisher country: United States
Publisher URL: http://www.thlib.org/
Published Date: 2007-12
URL: http://www.thlib.org/collections/texts/jiats/#jiats=/03/dalton/
Classification: Tibetan and Himalayan -- Journals -- THL-Hosted Online Journals -- JIATS -- Issue 3 (December 2007)
Tibetan and Himalayan -- Journals -- Journals Focused on Regions -- Tibet -- JIATS -- Issue 3 (December 2007)
Cultural Coverage: Tibet
Temporal coverage: 8th century CE
9th century CE
Language: English
Source URL: http://www.jiats.org/
Source: Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies
Source Editor: José Cabezón
Source Type: Journal
Source Number: 3

Table of Contents:

1. An introduction to the basic practice of forensic handwriting analysis and how it may be applied outside the courtroom.


2. A discussion of how these forensic techniques were adapted to the Tibetan script and how the handwriting of one scribe can be described by a few simple rules.


3. A brief overview of the writing practices and the social milieu of tenth century Dunhuang.


4. A review of further internal evidence indicating that the manuscripts written in the hand identified in part two are all the work of a single person.

ISBN/ISSN: 1550-6363

Means of availability: online

Access rights: public domain
Format: Online resource
Media type: Text
Resource Type: Article
Digital Encoding: xml
Release Flag: OK for viewing
Date Of Record Creation: 2007-11-08 10:30:41
Date Record Checked: 2005-09-20
Date Last Modified: 2008-11-20 19:11:59
Workflow Issues: No known issues.
Cumulative Rating: this resource has a 1 star rating
Resource Comments

(no comments available yet for this resource)

 
Copyright THL 1999-Present   |   Comments, Suggestions, Feedback? Use our feedback form.

Loading...