264 Tibetan Inscription on a Bhotian Banner. [May, 



II. — Interpretation of the Tibetan Inscription on a Bhotian Banner ; 

 taken in Assam, and presented to the Asiatic Society by Captain 

 Bogle. By M. Alexander Csoma Kokosi. [See PL VI. fig. 3.] 



[In a letter to the Secretary of the Asiatic Society ; see also Proceedings of the 

 Asiatic Society, 4th May, 1836.] 



According to the request conveyed in your letter of the 30th April, 

 I have translated the piece of magical superstition which you have 

 faithfully transcribed from the Bhotian board. With exception of the 

 salutation at the beginning and the conclusion, and a few terms in the 

 middle, the whole is in the Tibetan language. The purport of it, as 

 will be evident from the tenor of the translation, is, to obtain the 

 favour and protection of several inferior divinities, to increase the 

 prosperity, &c. of the person and family for whom the ceremony 

 was performed, and this magical piece was erected or set up. 



It may be that the flag-staff, with the wooden board containing 

 this inscription, was carried before the Tibetan chief in his march, and 

 so used as an ensign in war ; but it is more probable that it belonged 

 originally to the house top or terrace of the prince in Bhotan : for 

 the houses of great personages in that country are generally decorated 

 with such ensigns of victory at the four corners of the terraced roof. 

 They are called in Tibetan ifOr^T** 3 ) rgyal ratshan (ensign of victory), 

 and always contain inscriptions of similar purport with this. 



In regard to the orthography of the piece, it frequently occurs in 

 Tibetan writings and books, that the vowel signs are removed from 

 their proper places, on account of the dependent letters of the line 

 above ; several cases of this occur in your transcript. The intersylla- 

 bic points at the end of a line are generally also omitted, except with 

 the conjunction T > C 5 T which will also be remarked here. I have made 

 a copy in Roman characters, and have also endeavoured to make a lite- 

 ral translation : the words in Italics I cannot properly interpret. 



Om svasti, pronounced by the Tibetians om soti, is rendered by them 



in their language W ^[^ T Q| E l^V T 3 T ^i. T -3 s l om bd£-legs-su gyur-chig : 

 " Oh may it please, may it be prosperous." 



Inscription on the back of the wooden Board (fig. 3. PL Vl.J 



