Ch.75.iii.3 (vol. 56, fol. 39; 25 x 52 cm.; ll. 35 of good dbu
can script, part of a carefully inscribed document).
[1]dge slong ma Kwang 'gam//Sha cu [pha] Rgod....bang Shang za Dza'
ch-//dge slong ma L[a]ng c[a]'u/Sha cu pha Dar pha'i sde Beg za Hye wi['u?]/[dge
sl]o[ng] ma...
It is needless to proceed with this lengthy document, which consists entirely of
entries of the types: -
(a) Sha cu pha Rgod gyi sde Leng za Se'u se'u//dge slong ma The'i
cing//
"Sha cu, Rgod division: Leng za Se'u
se'u; bhikṣuṇī (nun) The'i cing."
(b) Sha cu pha Rgod gyi sde Then za Beng 'em//dge slong ma 'Bye'u
'dzi//Sha cu pha dge slong ma Kwag za Ji lim gyi bran mo Kwag za Tam tam dge slong
ma Thong ce'u
"Sha cu, Rgod division: Then za Beng
'em; bhikṣuṇī'Bye'u 'dzi; female servant of Sha cubhikṣuṇīKwag za Ji lim, Kwag za Tam tam, bhikṣuṇīThong ce'u."
In a portion of the instances the "division" (sde) specified is not Rgod, but Dar pa. In most cases the mistress of a female
servant or slave (bran mo) is described not merely as bhikṣuṇī, but as "bhikṣuṇī
of Sha cu or of a Sha cu man" (Sha cu pha dge slong ma).
Two women are called "subject of the Sha
cu queen" (Sha cu pha Btsan mo'i 'bangs); five are
servants of a bhikṣu, and about fourteen of persons not
stated to be bhikṣus, but who probably are men; many are not
servants at all, and one is granddaughter (tsha mo) of a bhikṣu.
What then is the relation of the bhikṣuṇī to the person,
probably always a woman, whose name precedes? The obvious interpretation is that the
relationship was some kind of guardianship. It may be suggested that the function
was that of spiritual adviser or "pious friend" (kalyāṇa-mitra), abundantly exemplified (vol. i Thomas_1935, see Index) in the case of members of Khotan royal families.
In any case we have a good number of feminine names, which may prove linguistically
instructive. From evident instances, such as Hwa sim"Flower-heart", Meng tig
"Prabhā-śrī", Tig nem"Obtain-memory", Hwa 'gem"Flower-mass", Bo de sim
"Bodhi-hṛdaya (citta)", we infer that the majority will be
recognizable as Chinese. These names of bhikṣuṇīs lack for
the most part the clan-prefix.
The feminine names are partly of the same appearance as those in the other
documents. In about a score of cases the second syllable is nyang.
Instances such as Shib nyang, Shib lug nyang, Shib si
nyang, Shim si nyang, commencing with
what we can prove to be the Chinese for "10", "16", and "14", suggest that nyang is nothing else than the Chinese niang"girl", perhaps used in large families, where the female children
bore no special names.
A feature of the clan-prefixes is the addition of the syllable za
to forms which elsewhere we find not so attended; thus in this document we have not
Cang and Sag, but Cang za and Sag za. The phenomenon has presented
itself before (p. 50: Ch.73.iv.14, IOL Tib J 134): it is usual in the surnames of
Tibetan women, being in fact, merely a form of bza'"woman", "wife".
All the names will be found in the general list.