Photo: Collection of Bon scriptures in a Tibetan village home

On August 11, news from the Ethnic Affairs Commission of Gansu Province stated that a group of experts who have been studying a large number of rare and ancient Bon texts found in Zhouqu County, Gansu believe that the collection of documents were likely written around the 10-13th centuries, though the content belongs to an even earlier history, which may be traced to an ancient Tibetan civilization. The content of the texts mainly relates to the astronomical calendar, climate and meteorology, and prayer documents. The texts have important value as a collection of cultural relics as well as historical, cultural, and academic value.

According to statistics, at present within China 82 cases, 1,500 scrolls, and 9,600 pages of Bon texts have been discovered and collated in Gansu ,Qinghai and Sichuan provinces; 31 cases, 560 scrolls, and 7,100 pages of Bon texts have been collated in Dangchang, Gansu; and 188 cases and 36,000 pages of Bon texts have been collated in Zhouqu, Gansu. Out of these, Zhouqu has the largest number of Bon texts, with “unprecedented” preservation of the integrity, rich content, beautiful editions, and ancient heritage.

Nearly 20 Tibetology scholars from the Central University for Nationalities, Tibet Social Sciences Academy, Southwest University for Nationalities, Lanzhou University, Northwest University for Nationalities, and Qinghai University for Nationalities believe that the rare Bon texts discovered in Zhouqu provide an important foundation for studies into the ancient Tibetan civilization in the Bailong river basin, and may become a new field within Tibetan studies.

Bon culture is the “living fossil” of ancient civilization on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, including early systems of religion, language, culture, and daily customs of Tibetan society. It has an extremely profound influence on Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan social life. 

Since 2014, large numbers of ancient Bon texts have been discovered in the homes of Tibetan villagers among 10 villages in Zhouqu County, including 80 images that have survived disasters, more than 40 woodblock printing templates, and more than 40 kinds of dharma instruments.

Soon after, officials in Zhouqu launched a rescue work project for the Bon texts. As of today, they have completed the collation of 26 scrolls, and they plan to collate at least around 80-90 scrolls in total. In addition, local private entrepreneurs have contributed funds to order safes to protect items used in Bon religious rituals.

After conducting field visits, the Tibetology scholars believe that to protect these ancient Tibetan cultural relics as living forms of heritage, they first need to protect Bon folk literature, Bon religious masters, and Bon religious rituals. Next, they need to use digitalmeans to establish a language and video database of Tibetan Bon folk texts, to fill in the gaps in Tibetology research, academic materials and research methods.

Due to some confusion during the process to collate the page numbers of the many cases, scrolls, and pages, the scriptures became extremely dilapidated. The Tibetan language editor of the Gannan Daily Newspaper collated the texts without page numbers one by one, and made annotated notes for those cases and scrolls which were unable to be collated.

Guo Ziwen, country magistrate of Zhouqu County, said that his county has set up small work groups for the excavation, collation, and protection of Bon culture and has allocated an appropriate sum of money towards the collection, excavation, collation, and protection of these ancient texts, creating a cultural business opportunity for Zhouqu County.