1. Text number

Drangsong 123

2. Text title (where present) in Tibetan

༄༅།།བྱིས་པ་གདོན་ཆེན་བཅོ་ལྔའི་མདོས་པེ[དཔེ]བཞུགསྷོ།།

3. Text title (where present) in Wylie transliteration

Byis pa’i gdon chen bco lnga’i mdos dpe bzhugs+ho/

4. A brief summary of the item’s contents

A mdos ritual to protect children from fifteen demons

5. Number of folios

10

6. Scribe’s name

Drangsong Khro bo

7. Translation of title

A mdos ritual [for the protection of] children from the fifteen great gdon demons.

8. Transcription of colophon

Ces pa yi ge ’di yang/ ’a ba bya ra rgang pa’i rgyud pa’i tha shal pa/ khro ming zer pa’i la khis byas spur lung khyer ’dra pa khos/ dbe’ [dben] nas[gnas] bsam gling rgon[dgon] pa ru/ yang rgon[dgon] g.yung drung ’khang bzang nang ’du/ stag lha’i thun bsang bris/ khas pa rnams gyi thugs khrel ma rnang mdzod/ bkra shis/

9. Translation of colophon

This text was written by me, named Khro bo, an inferior member of the Bya ra rgang clan, who float around like a bird’s feather in wind, when I was working hard in the practice of sTag la tantra in Yungdrung Khangzang, the upper building of the remote site of Samling monastery. May wise people not be embarrassed [at this text]. Blessings.

10. General remarks

11. Remarks on script

Mainly tshugs thung, with instruction passages in ’khyug ma tshugs.

12. Format

Loose leaves

13. Size

9.3 × 35 cm

14. Layout

15. Illustrations and decorations

This folio with red margins, the last of the manuscript, is drawn on its left side with the image of a mdos construction, elements of which are identified by captions, in order to protect children from the fifteen great gdon demons.

The mdos possesses a tapered base shaped like a lotus flower with two rows of petals. Above the latter, Mt Meru (ri rab) is represented with some sense of depth as a three-tier, stepped, square structure. There are no figures visible around this superstructure but the caption written at its bottom indicates that the images of a parrot, a peacock, a vulture should be placed there as ransom articles.[1] On top of the first tier are drawn six gtor ma simply crowned with a circular design on the left, and another one crowned with a moon crescent-like symbol on the right.[2] The top of the second tier is adorned at its centre and its left corner with two arrows, while the related caption indicates that there should be thirteen such arrows in total.[3] Two human figures identified as the images of children are also represented on this storey.[4] On top of the structure is placed the image of a bull.[5]

Instructions for making such a mdos construction are found at the beginning of the text in a section written in cursive dbu med script. Several differences between this section of the text and the drawing of the last folio and its captions show that the latter were not, properly speaking, based on the former but on an extended knowledge of the ritual itself. Comparing text and image contributes nonetheless to a refined understanding of this ritual.

In the textual instructions, the lotus-base is not mentioned but numerous ransom articles, called gdon zla, are listed meticulously from the top down. Only some of these articles were actually represented in the drawing or mentioned in the related captions. While it is prescribed that the images of a bull, a deer (ri dwags), a child, and a crow should be fixed on top of the mdos construction on its four sides, only the bull, mentioned first in the text and associated with the east side, was depicted. Similarly, among the fourteen other animals listed in this section of the text without information about their location, only three were indicated by a caption. Among the fifteen children, the nine young goats and sheep, and the stag listed in the text for the second storey, only two children were drawn, and among the ting lo, the chang phud, the theb kyu, and the fifteen gtor ma mentioned in the text, only some of the latter were drawn. As for the thirteen arrows of variegated colours indicated by a caption of the drawing, they are not mentioned in the textual instructions but further in the text, where they are described as the ornaments of the precious ransom (rin chen glud).[6]

[1] The caption reads: ne tshoṃ rma bya bya rgod rlud dzas rnaṃs /.

[2] The caption reads: st-n stor ma.

[3] The caption reads: mda’ khra bcu gsuṃ gzugs.

[4] The caption reads: byis pa’i gzugs.

[5] The caption reads: byol bsong zug.

[6] See fol. 3095B.

16. Paper type

Woven, 2 layers

17. Paper thickness

0.34–0.36 mm

18. Nos of folio sampled

f. 1

19. Fibre analysis

Daphne sp. with singular cotton fibres

20. AMS ¹⁴C dating

21. XRF analysis

Main elements: Fe, Ca, K, S, Si, Cl

Trace elements: P, Ti, Mn, Cu, Al

22. RTI

A)    Rendering mode:  Default                     B) Rendering mode: Diffuse Gain

23. GCMS