PT 1120 — A Tribute Assessment and Diplomatic Letter from the Dunhuang Period

PT 1120 is an administrative document from the Pelliot tibetain collection of the Bibliotheque nationale de France, written in Old Tibetan on paper. The recto preserves a tribute assessment — a detailed schedule of levies owed by Tibetan household units to a Chinese chiliarchy administration at Shazhou (Dunhuang), specifying precise quantities of gold, cloth, dyed fabrics, paper, beads, and other goods.

The document belongs to the transitional period after the collapse of the Tibetan Empire's governance in Dunhuang (post-848 CE), when the Guiyi jun (Return to Righteousness Army) under the Zhang family established Chinese-Tibetan hybrid administration in the Hexi Corridor. The tribute levy preserves the exact mechanics of post-imperial taxation: how many Tibetan households constitute a tax unit, how much gold each unit owes, what quality of cloth is required, which nine pigments must be manufactured, and who the assessing officials are.

The verso preserves the opening of a draft diplomatic letter from the Lord of Shazhou, using elaborate Buddhist honorifics — including the title "bodhisattva of the immeasurable" — to address a superior authority. The juxtaposition of the bureaucratic recto and the ceremonial verso on a single sheet suggests that administrative documents were reused for letter drafts, a common practice in the Dunhuang cave cache.

Recto — The Tribute Assessment

[...] from the levy, arising [...] in detail and with precision, accordingly [...] [...]

Four portions. Arrow-measured [...] when stretched to length — without defect or fault, converted into dye of fine quality [...]

Submit exactly as arising from the levy's own standard. For a Chinese chiliarchy having ten and a half Tibetan households, the levy [...]

For the five households, the levy is: gold — two and a half srang and three zho. The Divine Prince Gcen-phangs and [...] [...]

[...] the lord of the fortress, the myriarch, and the officials having gathered — for a long period from the service — in the Dog Year, first month of summer [...] [...]

the tribute to be paid: each bolt of cloth also at the standard of Shazhou's regional rate, at two loads each in value, from Shazhou's Chinese regulation [...] [...]

Tribute payment: from the two hundred households, the six lesser agricultural militias were separated from the Chinese myriarchy's general patrol and cut off from the side. The tribute is to be submitted at Bde-gams,

along with what remained after the inspection of the orchards of Mnabs-tog was transferred — the price was stated. For one Chinese chiliarchy:

two hundred and thirty-three and a half households levied. Shazhou's primary cloth — white silk of firm quality, fifteen-arrow width, per bolt — of the finest grade, per bolt:

two hundred and thirty-five and a half. The funerary implements were levied as a supplement. The cloth and these are to be submitted at the assembly point at the same time. For the gift expenditure materials, paper —

[...] nine types of dye manufactured from [...] — each type fifty bolts, as arising from the levy. The nine dyes are: leb-rgan, indigo, ja-gong, green,

[...] red, lac-dye, deep blue, and rma-pigment. Each type also sixteen bolts. Many-eyed beads — white and black, polished —

[...] one hundred. Paper: Shazhou paper — three thousand three hundred and forty bolts. The gold and silver items also, with the paper and cloth,

submit at the same time. Assessed by Mol-go Lha-bzang.

(seal)

According to the official seal of the levy, as arising therefrom: for one chiliarchy, one thousand-

unit — for ten and a half Tibetan households — gold: seven srang and one zho. For the five lesser households — gold:

two and a half srang and three zho. Total gold summed: nine srang levied. Five and a half srang and three zho [...]

submitted. Subsequently: gold — four srang and one zho. In actual gold,

six each submitted. Summing: silver — twenty-four srang and six zho. For the chiliarchy, one thousand-unit [...]

cloth of fifteen-arrow width, one bolt each collected. Total cloth: two hundred and thirty-three and a half [bolts] [...]

gift expenditure materials — paper, dyed goods of nine pigments manufactured, each type [...]

each type of dye also sixteen each. Tribute [...]

three thousand three hundred and forty bolts — these [...]

of the chiliarchy's unit: Cang Klu-rton and [...] [...]

Gzig-bzher Smon-legs [...]

Verso — Draft Letter of the Lord of Shazhou

[...] bodhisattva of the immeasurable [...] Yu-then of the Shezhin-then [...]

[...] The Lord of Shazhou, the Jiedushi, hereby submits this petition. Before the face of the emanation lord, Shezhin [...]

[...] who exercises dominion over heaven and earth, whose subjects of the four directions, like the stars of the sky [...]

[...] under the shelter of devotion, whose mind encompasses all, and the many circles of the subjects' treasury [...]

Colophon

PT 1120 (Pelliot tibetain 1120). Old Tibetan tribute assessment (recto) and diplomatic letter draft (verso) from the Dunhuang cave library. Translated from Old Tibetan by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, April 2026. First English translation.

The source text was accessed from the Old Tibetan Documents Online (OTDO) database maintained by Osaka University. The transliteration follows OTDO's conventions, which preserve the archaic Old Tibetan orthography.

Translation notes:

Administrative terminology: "Stong sar" (chiliarchy, lit. "thousand-place") is the Tibetan rendering of the Chinese administrative unit of one thousand households. "Rkya" is the Tibetan household tax unit. "Dpya'" is tribute or tax. "Srang" and "zho" are units of weight for precious metals — one srang equals ten zho. "Mda'" (arrow) is a unit of cloth width measurement, likely derived from the span of a drawn bow.

Quantities: The document lists the following tribute for one chiliarchy: gold totalling nine srang (split between ten-and-a-half and five household groups); cloth of fifteen-arrow width totalling approximately 233-235 bolts of white silk; nine types of dyed fabric at fifty bolts each (plus sixteen bolts of a second grade); 3,340 bolts of Shazhou paper; polished beads in white and black; and silver totalling twenty-four srang and six zho. The slight numerical discrepancies between the main assessment and the recapitulation after the seal may reflect rounding, partial payments already made, or scribal adjustment.

The nine dyes: The levy specifies nine pigments (mtshon sna dgu): leb-rgan (unidentified), mthon (indigo), ja-gong (unidentified), ljang-ku (green), dmar-po (red), rgya-skegs-kha (lac, lit. "Chinese lac-face"), mthing-ka (deep blue), and rma-pigment. Only eight are legible; the ninth is lost to damage. The dye requirements confirm Dunhuang's role as a textile manufacturing centre on the Silk Road.

Officials: "Mol-go Lha-bzang" (line 14) is the assessing official who sealed the levy. "Lha sras" (Divine Prince) in line 4 is a Tibetan honorific that could indicate a member of the royal lineage or a high-ranking aristocratic official. "Gtse rje" (lord of the fortress) and "khri spyad" (myriarch, commander of ten thousand) are military-administrative titles. "Cang Klu-rton" and "Gzig-bzher Smon-legs" (lines 23-24) appear to be officials of the chiliarchy unit, possibly with Chinese and Tibetan names respectively — "Cang" may render the Chinese surname Zhang.

The verso: The diplomatic letter addresses a superior with elaborate Buddhist and imperial honorifics. "Sha cu'i dbangs po" (Lord of Shazhou) refers to the Guiyi jun military governor. "Dzo shang shi" is almost certainly a Tibetan phonetic rendering of a Chinese title — possibly jiedushi (military commissioner) or a similar designation. The use of "byang chub sems pa'" (bodhisattva) as a political title is characteristic of the Sino-Tibetan Buddhist diplomatic register of the ninth-tenth centuries, when rulers routinely adopted Buddhist honorifics to legitimise their authority. The letter breaks off after the formal salutation.

Historical context: The Guiyi jun (Return to Righteousness Army) governed Dunhuang from 848 to 1036 CE, after Zhang Yichao led a rebellion that expelled the Tibetan administration from the Hexi Corridor. The continued use of Old Tibetan for administrative documents — including tribute levies directed at Tibetan households — demonstrates that Tibetan remained an administrative language even under Chinese-led governance, and that Tibetan household units persisted as the basis of taxation long after the political transition.

Lacunae are indicated by [...] where the manuscript is damaged. All damaged or uncertain readings in the source are indicated in the OTDO transliteration by square brackets.

This is a Good Works Translation. The English is independently derived from the Old Tibetan source text. The OTDO transliteration was the primary source. No prior English translation was available for consultation.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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Source Text: PT 1120

Old Tibetan source text from the Old Tibetan Documents Online (OTDO) database, Osaka University. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

Recto

(r1) [k]y[i]s / bab las 'byu[ng ba] [-]s [bab pa]'[i] [r]nams phr[a] bd[a]r gyis phy[a?]n c[a]r / ch[a]gs d[-] [n-] [s-] / [---]
(r2) phye bzhi / zheng mda' gang m[-] [---] du phyin pa / lhad dang skyon ma mchis pa mtshon du bsgral ba'I kha leg[-] [---]
(r3) bab kyi rang nan las 'byung ba bzhin phul cig / / rgya stong sar la bod rkya phyed dang bcu mchis pa la bab [---]
(r4) khyim lnga mchis pa la bab pa / gser srang phyed dang gnyis dang zho gsum / / lha sras gcen phangs dang / [-]o [---]
(r5) [---] pa / gtse rje dang / khrI spyad dang / dpon snas bsdus nas / / slungs las rings par / / khyI'i lo'i dbyar sla ra br[a?] [---]
(r6) 'bul ba / / ras yug gcig kyang sha cu'i yul thang bzhin nas khal gnyis gnyis kyi thang du / rin sha cu'i rgya las [---] [-]u[-] [-]u[-] [---]
(r7) dpya' 'bul ba / / rkya nyis brgya' mchis pa las / slad kyis drug chun kyI zhing dmag nI rgya khrI sde spyi bskor te zur las bchad nas / / dpya' bde gams
(r8) su 'bul bar chad pa dang / mnabs tog gI shing ra'I spyan zigs kyi lhag nas su bsgyur ba las rin kha bstan te / / rgya stong sar stong sde gcig la / /
(r9) rkya nyis brgya' sum cu rtsa phyed dang gsum mchis pa la phab pa / / sha cu gtso ras dar kar thub pa mda' bco lnga pa yug du phyin pa bzang rab yug
(r10) [ny?]is brgya' sum cu rtsa phyed dang lnga / / mdad kyI yo byad bla thabs su phab ste / ras dang dus gcig du 'dun sar 'bul ba / gtang sol kyi rgyu la shog
(r11) [---] [tsh?]on sna dgu las bsgral ba sna chig kyang yug lnga bcu lnga bcu zhes bab las 'byung ba / sna dgu la leb rgan / mthon / ja gong / ljang ku /
(r12) [-o] dmar po / rgya skegs kha / mthing ka / rma las bsgral / sna cig kyang yug bcu drug bcu drug / / dmyig mangs kyi rde'u dkar nag srub
(r13) [-]yad ma brgya' / / shog shog sha cu pa yug sum stong sum brgya' bzhi bcu / / gser dngul gyi rnams kyang / shog ras dang /
(r14) dus gcig du phul chig / / mol go lha bzang gis spad / /:/ / babs kyi phyag rgya las byung ba bzhin / / stong sar s[t]ong
(r15) sde gcig la / / bod rkya phyed dang bcu la / / gser srang bdun dang zho gcig / / stong kud pa khyim lnga la / / b[s]e[r?] [---]
(r16) dang gnyis dang zho gsum / / gser spyir bsdoms na srang dgu bab pa / / srang phyed dang lnga dang zho gsum [---]
(r17) phul / / slad na gser srang bzhi dang zho gcig / / gser dngosudngos su
(r18) drug drug phul ba / / sdoms na / dngul srang nyi shu rtsa bzhI dang zho drug dang / / stong sar stong sde [---]
(r19) ras mda' bco lnga pa yug re bsdus te / bsdoms na / ras yug nyis brg[y]a s[u]m c[u] rtsa ph[y]ed dang g[sum?] [---]
(r20) sol gyi rgyu / shog shog mtshon chan sna dgu sbgral pa / sna chig [---]
(r21) mtshon sna cig kya[ng] bcu drug bcu drug / / dp[ya'?] [---]
(r22) yug sum stong [s]u[m] brgya' bzhi bcu 'di [---]
(r23) sar gyi sde / cang klu rton dang [-o] [---]
(r24) gzig bzher s[m]on le[gs?] [---]

Verso

(v1) [---] pa ba' tha yas kyi byang cub sam pa' / yu then gyi she zhin then [---] / /
(v2) [---] / sha cu'i dbangs po dzo shang shi gyis mchis gsol ba' / / she zhin rje 'phrul kyi zha snga nas
(v3) [---] / / gnam sa la mnga' mdzad cing / / phyogs bzhi 'i 'bangs / / nam ka'i skar ma la /
(v4) [---] mos pa'i skyib su / / thugs kun la khyengs cings / / bangs mrdzod kying kor mang por ma

Source Colophon

Old Tibetan source text from the Old Tibetan Documents Online (OTDO), https://otdo.aa-ken.jp/archives?p=Pt_1120, maintained by Osaka University's Research Institute for Humanity and Nature. The OTDO transliteration preserves archaic Old Tibetan orthography. Square brackets indicate damaged or uncertain readings as marked by the OTDO editors. The original manuscript is held by the Bibliotheque nationale de France as part of the Pelliot tibetain collection. A seal mark is present between lines 14 and 15 (marked /:/), dividing the document into the main assessment and a recapitulation.

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