The Bugut inscription, earliest monument of the Turkic Khaganate
A stele set up in the 580s at a funerary complex of the Turkic ruling house in central Mongolia bears the earliest surviving text of the Turkic Khaganate — written not in Turkic but in Sogdian, the language of the khaganate’s merchants and scribes, and recalling the first khagans from Bumin to Taspar. The fourth side carries a text in Brahmi script, now read as an early Mongolic language, probably that of the Rouran.
- Date
- between 581 and 587exact date unknown: an interval is given
- Place
- Bugut, Arkhangai (find site of the stele)approximate locationtoday: Ikh-Tamir district, Arkhangai Province, Mongolia; the stele is now in the museum at Tsetserleg · Central and Northern Asia
- Participants
- First Turkic Khaganate, Taspar Qaghan, Ishbara Qaghan, Sogdians
- Threads
- Central Asia and the steppe (6th–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Bugut stele; Nivar qaghan; Mahan tegin; Tatpar; Бугутская стела; Нивар-каган; Махан-тегин; Татпар
The stele, 1.98 m high and set on the back of a stone tortoise, was found in 1956 by the Mongolian archaeologist Ts. Dorzhsuren at a looted funerary complex of the Turkic period some 10 km west of Bugut in Arkhangai Province: an earthen platform with a stone cairn, a line of balbal stones and the bases of six wooden posts that had carried a tiled roof over the stele. The tortoise base, Sergei Kljashtorny and Vladimir Livshits argued, marks the buried man as a member of the khagan’s clan. The top of the stele shows a wolf with a small human figure beneath its belly, which they interpreted as the legend of the Turks’ descent from a she-wolf told in the Book of Zhou. The stele was moved to the museum at Tsetserleg.
Three sides carry a worn Sogdian text in Sogdian script. In their edition of 1971 Kljashtorny and Livshits read in it the names of the khagans Bumin, Muqan and Taspar, of Mahan tegin and of “Nivar qaghan”, that is Ishbara, and the command “Establish a great new sangha!” — a Buddhist community in the khagan’s camp. The Book of Sui relates that Taspar had been converted to Buddhism by Huilin, a monk of the Northern Qi taken captive by the Turks, built a monastery and asked the Qi court for sutras. The choice of Sogdian shows the weight of the Sogdians in the khaganate’s chancery a century and a half before the Old Turkic runic inscriptions of the Orkhon. The Brahmi text on the fourth side, long unread, was identified in the 2010s by Dieter Maue and Alexander Vovin as an early Mongolic language, probably the language of the Rouran.
Kljashtorny and Livshits dated the text to the reign of Taspar (572–581). It is now usually regarded as a memorial to Taspar erected under his successor Ishbara, about 584; Ishbara reigned until 587 — hence the interval.
Connections
Related events
- The Sogdian “Ancient Letters”between 312 and 314 · Central and Northern AsiaSogdian, the language of the Ancient Letters of about 313, served as a written language of the khaganate
- The Ashina become ironworkers of the Rouran in the Altaibetween 439 and 460 · Central and Northern Asiathe relief on the stele is thought to show the she-wolf legend of the Ashina told in the Book of Zhou
- Bumin overthrows the Rouran: the Turkic Khaganate is foundedbetween February and March 552 · Central and Northern Asiathe Sogdian text recalls Bumin and his successors
- Civil war and split of the Turkic Khaganate581–603 · Central and Northern Asiathe stele was set up under Ishbara, the “Nivar qaghan” of its Sogdian text
Same participants
- Embassies of Maniakh and Zemarchus: the Turks ally with Byzantium568 – between 570 and 571 · Central and Northern Asiavia Sogdians
- The Turks take Bosporusbetween 576 and 577 · Eastern Europevia First Turkic Khaganate
- Revolt of Bahram Chobin and the restoration of Khosrow II589–591 · Middle East and Egyptvia First Turkic Khaganate
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britainbetween 410 and 449 – between 550 and 625
Eastern Europe
- Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochinc. 450 – c. 700
- Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv: the legendary founding of Kyivbetween 500 and 700
Balkans and Anatolia
- Maurice’s Balkan campaigns582–602
Africa
South Asia
- Varahamihira compiles the Pancha-siddhantikabetween 505 and 587
East Asia
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Chenla absorbs Funanbetween 550 and 600 – between 627 and 637
- The inscriptions of Purnavarman, king of Taruma in western Javabetween 400 and 600
- Gold pendant copying a coin of Antoninus Pius at Óc Eobetween 152 and 600
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
North America
- Basketmaker III: pottery, beans and the bow on the Colorado Plateauc. 500 – c. 750
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
Latin America
- The great drought of 563–594 and the crisis of the Mochec. 563 – c. 594
- The burning of Teotihuacan’s ceremonial centrebetween 550 and 650
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Bugut inscription
- Wikipedia (English): Taspar Qaghan
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бугутская надпись
- Кляшторный С. Г., Лившиц В. А. Согдийская надпись из Бугута // Страны и народы Востока. — Вып. X. — М., 1971. — С. 121–146
- Вэй Чжэн и др. Суй шу (Book of Sui), гл. 84: жизнеописание тюрков.
- Vovin A. Groping in the Dark: The First Attempt to Interpret the Bugut Brāhmī Inscription // Journal Asiatique. — 2019. — Vol. 307, № 1. — P. 121–134.