An Interpretive Translation of the Bon Religious Text “Auspicious Sutra,” Transcribed in Naxi Dongba Script with Tibetan Pronunciation
This article by He Jiquan identifies and translates a special category of Naxi Dongba manuscript, long known to dongba priests only by sound, as a phonetic transcription in Dongba script of the Tibetan-language Bon "Auspicious Sutra." Used in rituals for delivering the souls of deceased dongba priests, the text survives in several manuscripts (Harvard, Lijiang, Shangri-La, Sichuan) with similar three-part structures combining Naxi-language blessing invocations with the Tibetan-pronunciation core sutra. The author reconstructs the underlying Tibetan wording syllable by syllable, comparing it with attested Bon terminology (e.g., Olmo Lungring, Tonpa Shenrab), and produces the first full translation: a sequence of invocations calling blessings from heaven, earth, sacred sites, deities, and ritual objects. The article also notes Tibetan dialectal sound features preserved in the transcription and highlights the document's value for studying Dongba-Bon historical relations and language contact.
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