Pelliot tibétain 1039
A pre-Buddhist Tibetan counter-sorcery ritual from the sealed cave library at Dunhuang, written in Old Tibetan on a scroll now held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The beginning is missing. The verso carries a Chinese Buddhist text — the scroll was repurposed, the Bon ritual relegated to the recto.
The text is a liturgical manual for breaking sorcery (byad dgrol) — the technical term for dissolving a curse that has been placed upon a person. The rite is performed by a named Bon priest, ‘Bo-bu Lag-ngan (‘Evil Hand’), who erects a ritual arena called the sorcery-house mixing-ground (byad khyim sre ga). Five kingdoms are summoned by name — Myi Mching, the Six Lands of Dbye Mo, Rngegs, the Four-Cornered Land of ‘Ga’-shul, and Mchims — each with their lord, ministers, and servants, each contributing their spiritual authority to the ceremony. Hostility-copper vessels are erected, curse-sheep are slaughtered, hostility-beer is brewed, and the sorcery-bird is caught and bound. The curse is dissolved through nine sky-rites and nine earth-rites.
The most remarkable passage is the first-person testimony of the cursed individual: mute, jaw contracted, hands pressed to the breast, heart frozen like calf-fat — then after the rite, the bee arises, the cockerel hatches from the egg, and the person is ‘better now than before,’ protected in the four quarters of the sky. This shift from liturgical formula into the voice of the healed is unique among the Dunhuang Bon texts translated to date.
This is the first English translation. The Old Tibetan source text is from the critically edited transliteration at the Old Tibetan Documents Online (OTDO) database, maintained by Tsuguhito Takeuchi, Nathan W. Hill, and colleagues at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
The Summoning
[beginning lost]
…the upper portion within the father…
The joyful child above. Blow forth the lamentation! Destruction and boiling water! The remainder embraced! In the depths, the bent bird! Let a divination-ground of joy — let a divination-ground come!
For the Kingdom of Mching, destruction and sorcery — the nine rites. Though the father’s fee is owed:
Let the child of Da-bo-ma, the earth-demon Byed-myed-ma, come from the wound-house narrow-enclosure, from the sorcery-house mixing-ground — hurrying, come! Come! Call!
Call with joy!
To the Kingdom of Myi Mching — Ministers: Lord and Gnubs, two. Lho and Rngegs, two. Servants: Lde-khol and Thog-stong. The woman Lde-za Gag-kar-zhib, this person — bound in evil first-garments, afflicted by evil outer food as poison-demon — from the poison-house secret-enclosure, from the sorcery-house mixing-ground — come! Call, call!
To the Six Lands of Dbye Mo — Lord: Dbye Rje Khar-ba. Ministers: Gro and Rme’u, two. Servants: Dbye-khol Lug-dgra. The woman Dbye-za Ko-ma-ma. Person Rma Bu Mching-rgyal — bound in evil first-garments like a bird, afflicted by evil outer food — come!
To the Land of Rngegs, the Three Valleys of Sre Mo — Lord: Rjes. Gling Brag-tshe’u. Ministers: Gsas-pa and Myas, two. Inner: Bod and Gdug, two. The woman Rngegs-za Kar-sman. Person Mching-rgyal — bound in evil first-garments, afflicted by evil outer food as demon — come!
To the Four-Cornered Land of ‘Ga’-shul — Lord: Gdad-rgyal Sprog-zin. Ministers: Dgum and Phog-rol, two. Inner: Stong-bcu. The woman Dga’-za Khug-phangs. Person Mching-rgyal — thrust into evil first-garments, evil outer food as poison-demon — to the hostility-house hatred-enclosure, the wound-house narrow-enclosure, the sorcery-house mixing-ground — hurrying, come! Call, call!
To the Land of Mchims, the Land of Hostility — Lord: Mchims Rje. Ministers: Rde’u and Phyags, two. Servants: Mchims-khol, with ten fathers. The woman Sha-chang-ma. Person Rma Bu Mchims-rgyal — bound in evil first-garments.
The First Breaking
The hostility-copper and the sorcery-copper are erected. The hostility-beer, the embracing beer, is brewed. The hostility-sheep, the hatred-sheep, the sorcery-sheep are slaughtered. The sorcery-goat — the piebald one — and the sorcery-offerings are laid. The sorcery-bird — the small female — is caught, and the sorcery is bound.
By releasing the conditions, the sorcery is released. By skill, the sorcery is dissolved.
Thrown to the heights, proclaimed! At the pass, joined! The nine sky-sorcery rites, the nine heights, the nine knives are built upon their defeat. The father-sorcery rites, the nine mother-rites, are deliberated in assembly.
The calculations: the upper of the white, the lower result, the upper result, the universal lower result, the emerging lower result, the result. The work is set.
From the sheep-bone water at the shore and from the yak-horn water — released!
Made to fly like a plumed bird! Made to gallop like a horse!
The Testimony of the Cursed
I who was nourished — when it descended upon me: speech mute, sitting still. Jaw contracted into shadow. Hands pressed to the breast in shadow. Face dull as a cow’s face, forever pressed down. Heart frozen solid like calf-fat.
I who was nourished — the bee arises! The cockerel from the egg! Better now than before! By strength, white and gleaming! Cast forth as it was before!
The Rite of Bon Priest ‘Bo-bu Lag-ngan
Now this person, Rma Bu Mching-rgyal — the hostility has descended upon him. The nine rites are performed. As the summer-sorcery woman worked her sorcery, so it is made to fly. Made to gallop like a horse. Above and below, this way and that, speech and form — folded and layered.
Bon Priest ‘Bo-bu Lag-ngan erects the sorcery-house and the mixing-ground.
The hostility-copper is erected. The hostility-sheep, the sorcery-sheep, the hatred-sheep are slaughtered. The hostility-beer, the hatred-beer, the sorcery-beer, the embracing beer is brewed. The sorcery-goat — the grey one. The sorcery-bird — the small female — caught.
The nine sky rite-mother rites — the nine inner, the nine written — calculated beneficially. The nine earth-sorcery rite-mother rites — calculated upon the fierce and the massive.
The white division, the lower, the lower, the cord’s upper, the emerging lower, the upper. The work. The dance.
From the yak-horn water of the ten males, from the yak-horn water —
The sorcery is dissolved! Dissolved!
The stain of Mching, the skill of Mching — the person is freed! By skill, freed completely!
Beneficial before, beneficial now. Fortunate before — now protected in the four quarters of the sky!
Colophon
Pelliot tibétain 1039. A pre-Buddhist Tibetan counter-sorcery ritual, Old Tibetan, ninth century or earlier. From the sealed library cave (Cave 17) at Mogao, near Dunhuang. Recto: 35 lines. Verso: Chinese Buddhist text. Beginning missing.
First English translation from Old Tibetan. Translated by Tanken (探検, Expeditionary Tulku) of the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026, from the digital transliteration at Old Tibetan Documents Online (OTDO), maintained by Tsuguhito Takeuchi, Nathan W. Hill, and colleagues at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
The text contains specialized Bon ritual vocabulary, much of which has no established English rendering. The terms byad (sorcery, curse), dku (hostility, enmity), sdang (hatred), and dgrol (dissolve, release) are translated consistently throughout. The ‘sorcery-house mixing-ground’ (byad khyim sre ga) appears to be the designated ritual arena for curse-breaking ceremonies. The five kingdoms and their officials are preserved in transliteration. The ritual calculations (lines 21–22, 32–33) use technical divinatory terminology that remains partially obscure; the translation follows the apparent structure without claiming full understanding of the calculation system. The first-person passages (lines 23–26) are interpreted as the testimony of the cursed person before and after the rite, based on the shift from symptoms of affliction to images of liberation.
This counter-sorcery ritual represents a new genre in the archive’s Bon corpus. The ten previously represented genres are: funeral rites, legal codes, political and historical texts, divination and cosmology, mythological narrative, medical narrative, wisdom literature, funeral narrative with bride-quest, ritual compendium, and royal charter. This text adds an eleventh: sorcery and exorcism.
No reference translation was consulted — none exists. All English is independently derived from the Old Tibetan.
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Source Text: Pelliot tibétain 1039
Old Tibetan source text from the digital transliteration at Old Tibetan Documents Online (OTDO). Pelliot tibétain 1039. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Presented for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
(1) [—] khag gun ma pha na khog
(2) gun ma bu dga' / mya 'bud phung chu skol / lhag bye khyud mo / gting bya gnur / mo thang dga'
(3) mo thang zhig shog / phung dang / mching rgyal la phung byad cho dgur / pha gla'o yang
(4) da bo ma sa srin byed myed ma / rma khyim 'phrang ra / byad khyim sre ga na ku ru ga shog shog / 'bod
(5) 'bod dga' dang / myi mching rgyal / blon po dang gnubs gnyis / lho dang rngegs gnyis
(6) khol lde khol thog stong / lde za gag kar zhib myi la snga gos ngan las bcings phyi zas
(7) ngan dug du gdon na / dug khyim gsang ra byad khyim sre ga shog / 'bod 'bod yul dbye mo
(8) yul drug ku na rje dbye rje khar ba gro dang / rme'u gnyis / khol dbye kol lug dgra / dbye za ko ma ma zhig
(9) myi rma bu mching rgyal la snga gos ngan la bya du bcings / phyi zas ngan la na / shog /
(10) yul rngegs yul sre mo lung sum na rje rjes / gling brag tshe'u blon gsas pa dang / myas gnyis /
(11) khong bod gdug gnyis / rje rngegs za kar sman zhig myi mching rgyal snga gos ngan
(12) du bcings phyi zas ngan la gdon shog / yul 'ga' shul gru bzhi na rje gdad rgyal sprog
(13) zin blon po dgum dang / phog rol gnyis / khong stong bcu dga' za khug phangs zhig myi mching rgyal la
(14) snga gos ngan la bcug / phyi zas ngan la dug du gdon / dku khyim sdang ra / rma khyim phrang ra byad khyim
(15) sre ga'i ku ru ru shog / 'bod 'bod / yul mchims yul / dku yul na rje mchims rje blon po rde'u
(16) dang phyags gnyis / khol mchims khol / pha bcu mchis / za sha chang ma zhig myi rma bu mchims rgyal la
(17) snga gos ngan la bcings / zangs dku zangs byad zangs ni btsugs dku chang
(18) hug pa ni btsos / dku lug sdang lug byad lug ni bsad / byad ra rgya mo dang byad byad / bye se mo ni bzung ste
(19) byad bcings / rkyen bkrol gyi ni byad bkrol skyen gyis byad dgrol / gong dram ta la bor glengs / la bcar
(20) gnam byad cho dgu gong dgu gri dgu pham la btsigs / pha byad cho ma cho dgu ni tshog mor mol
(21) btsis kar gyi yan kal / man gal / yan gal / skun gyi man gal / thon kyi man gal
(22) man gal / las bkol / sha bo 'gam gyi tsa dang / g.yag po gnya'i chu las / dgrol
(23) nas / spus bya tsam ba ltar bsgyud / rta ltar bsgrogs / nga bshos gsung lkugs bzhugs na / pa thebs
(24) pa nga bshos zhve bzha 'gab du khums / phyag zha 'gab brang la zha / ba yang bshes zhal ba ba tag ltar
(25) nan pa dang / thugs re'u tshil ltar 'khyags pa / nga bshos bu bung ni bzhengs / ke ge kog ni gna'
(26) bas da bzang / phrum bas lo lo dkar / gna' de ltar 'phan te / da myi rma bu mching rgyal 'di dku
(27) babs ni dgu bgyis / dbyar byad mas ni byad bgyis ba ltar ni bsgyud / rta ltar ni bsgrogs / yan dang ni
(28) man sna dang ni yan gsung dang ni gsugs / zhud dang ltebs / bon po 'bo bu lag ngan gyis byad khyim sre
(29) ni phub / dku zangs ni btsugs pa lug dku lug / byad lug / sdang lug ni bsad / chang dku chang sdang /
(30) byad chang hug pa chang ni btsos / ra byad ra skya mo dang / bya byad bya se mo ni bzung ste / gnam cho ma
(31) cho dgu ni / khong dgu bri dgu la phan du btsis / sa byad cho ma cho dgu ni tsig mo rom mo la btsis /
(32) dkar gyi kal gi / man kal / man gal / kal skud kyi yan kal / thon gyi man gal /
(33) yan kal / las / bro le / pho bcu ru gnya'i chu / g.yag po gnya'i chu las / / byad ni dgro
(34) dgro lo / dri mo mching skyen mching gi myi thi grol skyen grol gyi the gna' phan da phan
(35) gna' bsod na da gnam gyi bzhir bso / /
Source Colophon
Old Tibetan source text from the critically edited transliteration at Old Tibetan Documents Online (OTDO), maintained by Tsuguhito Takeuchi, Nathan W. Hill, and colleagues at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Pelliot tibétain 1039, Bibliothèque nationale de France.
URL: https://otdo.aa-ken.jp/archives?p=Pt_1039
The transliteration follows OTDO editorial conventions: square brackets indicate uncertain readings, parenthetical numbers indicate line divisions, and annotations note physical features of the manuscript. The text is freely accessible for scholarly use.
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