Tibetan seal

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tibetan seal is the name given to both the seal stamp (this could also be referred to as “ seal ” with the Slavic term ) and the associated seal impressions. Seal impressions served as a means of authentication for Tibetan documents and as an equivalent for the signature at the end of a letter, which is customary in the western world. There is also evidence of the use of imprints on sealing wax to seal letters.

The history of the origins of the use of seals in Tibet has not yet been researched. The early use of seals during the Yarlung dynasty (7th – 9th centuries AD) has been proven.

Throughout its history, the developed Tibetans their own seal forms and used different native or India originating decorative fonts .

Research history

Partially gold-plated seal with wooden handle
Seal with 'Phags-pa' script. Sun and moon symbol at the top

The first Tibetan researchers who dealt with the deciphering of official Tibetan seals were the German missionary and Tibet researcher AH Francke and the Englishmen Walsh and Wadell. They used an earlier publication by Sarat Chandra Das, which dealt with various Tibetan scripts, including the Phagspa script , which is often used on official seals, as the basis for their attempts at deciphering . Reverend G. Tharchin published a book in 1956 in which official Tibetan seals are discussed. The systematic research and complete reading of the often trilingual (Tibetan, Chinese and Manchurian) official seals was carried out by the German Tibetologist Dieter Schuh. Work on official seals by Tibetan and Chinese researchers followed. In contrast, the numerous private seals and those that were used in monasteries and subordinate government offices have so far been little researched and published.

Use of Tibetan seals

Gilded iron seal, very artistically openwork
Iron seal with engraved decoration

The oldest known seal impressions are on Tibetan documents that were discovered in various places in Chinese Turkestan (now Xinjiang ), especially those that come from a Buddhist cave temple in Dunhuang . Most of these documents date back to the late 8th century to the middle of the 9th century, when large parts of Chinese Turkestan were occupied by Tibet. Since the vast majority of the population of Tibet was ignorant of writing, seals were used instead of a signature.

Official seal

Formerly gilded iron seal with cloud decoration
Square iron seal that could be used as a ring

Since the time of the Yuan dynasty, Chinese emperors have awarded seals to numerous Tibetan potentates, most of which were made of precious materials such as gold, silver, jade or ivory. The seals given to Panchen Lamas , Dalai Lamas and regents are particularly impressive due to their size and the artistic design of the inscriptions .

Monastery and private seals

Iron seal with 'Phags-pa' inscription
Private seal with bronze handle; the upper part with mushroom decoration. The model is the Ganoderma lucidum mushroom
Private seal with inscription in dbu can , sun and moon symbols on the upper edge

In addition, monastery and private seals were used to seal documents such as purchase or donation contracts. Private seals are usually made of iron, or of chased silver sheet, which forms a cylinder in which a round iron plate with the seal inscription is embedded. Monastery seals are usually more complex. They can have a finely carved wood or ivory handle, into which a square iron plate is inserted, or they can be made entirely of metal, the handle often being made in an intricate wrought ironwork with openwork ornaments. The use of iron as a material for the manufacture of seals is a peculiarity of Tibet that was only able to develop because of the dry highland climate, which hardly causes any corrosion.

Seal inscriptions

Partially gold-plated seal with a finely carved wooden handle
Iron seal with inscription in Lantsa, set in an ornamental frame
Gilded iron seal with lotus blossom decoration in the lower part

The official seals awarded by China are often trilingual: Tibetan script , Chinese script and Manchurian script . Private and monastery seals generally only use Tibetan, but it appears in different scripts. On monastery seals, which are mostly square, one finds above all the square script developed by Phagspa in the 13th century, which is also called Phagspa script after the inventor . Ornamental fonts such as Lantsa (Ranjana) also occur. The Tibetan dbu-can script, which often abbreviates the name of the seal owner, is found on the mostly round and occasionally square private victories. Some private seals do not have an inscription and instead only show one lucky symbol, which is often one of the eight Buddhist symbols ( Ashtamangala ). Round private seals usually show a sun and moon symbol or three dots on the edge. The latter probably represent the Buddhist symbol Triratna , which designates Buddha , Sangha (the monastic community) and Dharma (the teaching). These symbols show the unfamiliar owner which is the upper area of ​​the seal and thus prevent the seal from appearing upside down. The seals were printed on the document with red (only for the seals of the highest dignitaries such as Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas) or black ink. Sealing wax or wax was only occasionally used to seal documents for shipping, but not to give authority to the document. The widespread use of these substances in a western style did not come into fashion until after 1900, after the establishment of the Tibetan postal system, when letters were sealed with sealing wax and the lacquer was provided with a private seal. Seal impressions in clay, such as those found in Tibet's southern neighbors India and Nepal, are not known from Tibet.

bibliography

JRAS = Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, London

  • Wolfgang Bertsch: A Tibetan Official Seal of Pho lha nas. In: The Tibet Journal. vol. 29, no. 1, Dharamsala, Spring 2004, pp. 3-8.
  • Wolfgang Bertsch: Tibetan Seals. A Rejoinder to Armand Singer's review of Some Tibetan Seals Illustrated and Described by Derrick Dawson. In: Postal Himal. no. 107, 3rd quarter 2001, pp. 3-8.
  • Chab-spel tshe-brtan phun-tshogs & Ma-grong mi-'gyur rdo-rje; Bod kyi gal che'i lo rgyus yig cha bdams bsgrigs. (A Collection of Important Tibetan Historical Materials). Bod ljongs bod yig dpe rnying dpe skrun khang, Lhasa 1991.
  • Sarat Chandra Das: The sacred and ornamental characters of Tibet. In: Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. vol. 57 (1888), pp. 41-48 and 9 plates. (This is probably the first scientific publication of the 'Phags-pa script, which in Tibetan is called hor yig. ("Mongolian script"). (See Das' script tables V and VII). The publication of Das served AH Francke as Basis for deciphering the inscription of a Dalai Lama seal imprint)
  • Derrick Dawson: Some Tibetan Seals Illustrated and Described. Geoffrey Flack, [Vancouver] 1997.
  • August Herrmann Francke: Note on the Dalai Lama's Seal and the Tibeto-Mongolian Characters . In: JRAS. London, October 1910, pp. 1205-1214.
  • August Herrmann Francke: A seal in Tibetan-Mongolian script from Bhutan. In: Journal of the German Oriental Society. vol. 64, Leipzig 1910, pp. 553-554.
  • August Herrmann Francke: The Dalai Lama's Seal. In: JRAS. London 1911, p. 528-
  • Lin Tung-Kuang: Antique Tibetan Thog-chags and Seals. Liao, Yue-Tao, Taipei 2003
  • Ou Chaogui, Qi Mei: Xizang lidai zangyin (Tibetan Seals of Various Dynasties). Xizang renmin chubanshe (Tibet People's Publishing House), Lhasa 1991.
  • John Rockwell: The Labyrinth of Tibetan Seals. In: Vajra Dhatu Sun. vol. 6, no.5, June / July 1985, p. 15.
  • Hanna Schneider: Tibetan Legal Documents of South-Western Tibet. Structure and Style. In: Henk Blezer (Ed.): Tibet, Past and Present. (= Tibetan Studies. I; PIATS [Publications of the International Association for Tibetan Studies], 2000. Proceedings of the ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Brill's Tibetan Studies Library vol. 2/1). Brill, Leiden / Boston / Cologne 2002, pp. 415-427.
  • Dieter Schuh: Basics of Tibetan sealing knowledge. In: Monumenta Tibetica Historica: Dept. III, Diplomata et Epistolae. vol. 5, St. Augustin 1981.
  • G. Tharchin (Ed.): Letter-Writers (Yik bskur rnam gshag by HE Kalon Shadra, Kadrung Nornang) and Various other collections of modern letter-writers. Short History of Ancient Kings, H .H. The Dalai Lamas & their Regents. The Thirteen Code laws by king Srongtsen Gampo, list of seals and their sizes as used by the Dalai Lamas & Regents. Tibet Mirror Press, Kalimpong 1956.
  • Austine L. Wadell: Seal of the Dalai Lama. In: JRAS. 1911, pp. 204-206.
  • Austine L. Wadell: The Dalai Lama's Seal. In: JRAS. 1911, pp. 822-825.
  • Austine L. Wadell: Seal of the Dalai Lama. In: JRAS. 1911, pp. 206-207.
  • EH Walsh: Examples of Tibetan Seals. In: JRAS. January 1915, pp. 1-15.
  • EH Walsh: Examples of Tibetan Seals: Supplementary Note. In: JRAS. July 1915, pp. 455-459.

See also

Web links

Commons : Tibetan Seals  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files