1. Text number 

Drangsong 133

2. Text title (where present) in Tibetan

༄༅།།བླ་བླུ་སྣང་བསྲིད་ཞི་པའི་ལྷ་ཆེན་ཆེན་མོ་བཞུགས་སོ།།

3. Text title (where present) in Wylie transliteration 

Bla blu[bslu] snang bsrid[srid] zhi pa’i[ba’i] lha chen chen mo bzhugs so/

4. A brief summary of the item’s contents

Ransom ritual to recover human souls (bla) that have been captured by demons (bdud), thus achieving an extended life span.

5. Number of folios

6

6. Scribe’s name

None

7. Translation of title

“The Peaceful Great Gods of the Phenomenal World,” a great ritual for recovering souls.

8. Transcription of colophon

Bla ’dos[mdos] shogs rgyu bsdeb bu cig rang grub po[bo]/ ’di thams cad skun[kun] skyi shogs phyung yin/ bzhus bdag[zhus dag]/ 

9. Translation of colophon

The text of the mdos ritual for [recovering] souls is written on a single sheet of paper. This is a small sheet of paper (shogs phyug < shog chung?) for all [such rituals?]. Copy-edited.

10. General remarks

The text written in a dialect different from the others in this collection. The narrative section in particular includes many popular local metaphors, idioms, and so on.

The content enables us to see clearly the difference in meaning between the terms bla bslu and bla glud. Bla bslu refers to the deceptive exchange of a soul that is either at risk of being or has already been taken by demons. In this context, bla bslu is actually the name of the ritual.Bla glud, on the other hand, denotes a ransom effigy for the redemption of a soul.

11. Remarks on script

dpe tshugs, ’khyug ma tshugs

12. Format

Loose leaves

Various sizes of leaves

8.3 × 27.2 cm (f. 1)

Loose leaves

7.5 × 34.8 cm

9.1 × 33.4 cm

13. Size

14. Layout

15. Illustrations and decorations

16. Paper type

Woven, 2-3 layers, soft and absorbent

17. Paper thickness

0.23–0.25 mm

18. Nos of folio sampled

f. 6

19. Fibre analysis

20. AMS ¹⁴C dating

21. XRF analysis

22. RTI

23. GCMS