1. Text number 

Drangsong 119

2. Text title (where present) in Tibetan

༄༅།།ལྷ་སེལ་བའི་བོན་བཞུགས་སོ།།

3. Text title (where present) in Wylie transliteration 

lHa sel ba’i bon bzhugs so//

4. A brief summary of the item’s contents

A ritual text that recounts the myth of the four clans (mi’u rigs bzhi) of traditional Tibetan society: birds, acting as intermediaries between humans and the gods, reinforce  the relationship between them by inviting the gods to perform purification rituals for humans.

5. Number of folios

14

6. Scribe’s name

None

7. Translation of title

Ritual (bon) of divine purification

8. Transcription of colophon

ces  mchod par bya’o/ pha wang krung krung lco ga rnams/ lha khyims nang gis sna yu’i dung stang du zhags so/ bkra shis par shog/

lha bsel ba’i bon mang po thong skyangs/ sprang khro ming pas zhibs par yang thag rang byas pas bon ’dra chags pa khung rtsan pa’i ’di ltar yin pa ’dug/ rgyud mang po’i nang nas sprang po nga yis dus[btus] pa yin pas ’gal sogs bder gshegs rtso[tshogs] la zhegs[bshags] zod[so] zhes bca’ thabs zin bris dang bcas yod legs/ lha bsel[sel] rgyas dus[bsdus] snying po gang byas kyang tsang ma yod legs/ ’gro pa sems cen[can] lha med mi la phen[phan] thogs par shog cig/ sbar m+gang lȧ/ bkra shis/ bca’ thabs rnams lha bsel dus[bsdus] pa’i bca’ zhi de byas nas ’os par shes/ phrin las rgyas dus snyis skar stang skyangs cig pa yin legs/ kha babs sgo de kha ru dpag ch ud pa ’dra zos yod legs/  

9. Translation of colophon

In this way, offerings are made. Then, the [tormas of bats, cranes and larks] are placed in the…? of the shrine. Blessings! I, the beggar, assembled the contents of many sources (rgyud), and if there are errors, I beg forgiveness of the hosts of Blessed Ones. For method of performing it, there is a rubric (zin ris). There are also an extended, an abbreviated and a condensed version of this purification ritual text. May it benefit living beings and godless humans. May all be auspicious. Blessings. The method of making the preparations is based on the abridged version, which is appropriate. It is the same for both the extended and abridged versions, with the necessary additions being written in the form of notes.

10. General remarks

The colophon of the text seems to contain dialect forms. Although the author states that he drew on numereous sources, it is impossible to determine from which ones the text was copied. However, there is one version in the Bon po bKa’ brten collection and another contained in The Call of the Blue Cuckoo, edited by Samten G. Karmay and Yasuhiko Nagano. A comparison with these two versions would be useful for the study of the circulation of the text.

11. Remarks on script

dpe tshugs, ’khyug ma tshugs

12. Format

Loose leaves

13. Size

9.2 × 34.2 cm

14. Layout

15. Illustrations and decorations

16. Paper type

Woven (clear textile sieve print on the paper surface), 1-2 layers, soft

17. Paper thickness

0.14–0.16 mm

18. Nos of folio sampled

f. 1

19. Fibre analysis

20. AMS ¹⁴C dating

21. XRF analysis

22. RTI

23. GCMS