Three Old Tibetan contracts in the Sven Hedin collection

Abstract

Among the Tibetan texts in the Sven Hedin Collection now preserved in the Ethnographical Museum (Folkens Museum), Stockholm, there are three documents which are considered to belong to the Old Tibetan period. Their photos were first published in Bailey (1973), together with comments on a few Khotanese-related words, the texts being numbered Hedin 1, 2 and 3. But since then, they have not been paid due attention. In May 1990, I was able to examine these three manuscripts by courtesy of the Folkens Museum and Professor Staffan Rosén, secretary of the Hedin Collection.On examination, I realized that all three texts are contracts, but of different kinds: that is, Hedin 1 is a sale contract, Hedin 2 a loan contract, and Hedin 3 a contract of hiring. Each exemplifies one of the three major types of Old Tibetan contract. Although different in kind, they show a close resemblance in both form and content: they are written on paper of similar size and quality. The left edge of each document is torn off in a similar way, but my attempts to join them together showed that they were not likely to have formed one piece. Paleographically, the three texts are written in similar styles, though apparently by different hands. They also have in common somenames of the persons concerned (cf. §IV). All these shared features clearly suggest that these three texts, even though they were not originally one, belong to the same period and location.