An Early Judicial Document from Tibet

Abstract

Several of the manuscripts from Tunhuang in the invaluable Choix de Documents Tibétains conservés à la Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris, 1978 and 1979) record cases of civil litigation and administrative or judicial decisions on them in some instances. Fewer deal with criminal matters. Although students of Tibetan have referred to such documents in books and articles, published translations of any of them appear to be rare. In Journal Asiatique, 1955, Mlle Marcelle Lalou, a pioneer in studies of the Tunhuang material, translated Fonds Pelliot Tibétain (Pell. T.) 1089 concerning the appointment of a wide range of officials in the border region. The translation of orders on two short petitions from citizens of Shacu is included in Tsipon Shakabpa's Tibet, a Political History (1967). F. W. Thomas translated the “Law of theft in Chinese Kansu, a IXth–Xth century fragment from Tunhuang”, in Zeitschrift für Verglekhende Rechtswissenschaft, L (1936).