Oldal 96 [96]
MICHAL SCHWARZ
the time of Han dynasty with subseguent Tocharianization of originally undeclined
Sino-Tibetan stem and development of a new semantics in Tocharian. Semantically
possible Sino-Tibetan source-words comprise:
“sheep” "/ó(-k), Old Chin. "/o "sheep", Tib. /ug "sheep", Lushei Kham /ü"
"deer" lu, L. lowk, E. lowk!
“dragon” Y. ljun, L. lywy, E. luawy”®
“snake, snail” *lö(w), Old Chin. *lo “snail”, Tib. klu “hooked snail, serpent¬
demon”?!
Recent archaeological findings show more examples of bronze mirrors with snake¬
like dragons from Niya and Loulan from the beginning of Common Era.” It means
that people had to use word for snake or dragon and Tibetan term /u for serpent¬
demon is known from Dunhuang texts from 7~9" centuries”, thus it is sure that
this cultural word is of high antiquity and even without respect to Tocharian, the
Turco-Mongolian word for “dragon” and term /uus represent the oldest layer of
demonic-like borrowings in oldest Mongolian Buddhist texts found in Turfan and
South Inner Mongolia.
Chronology and Layers of Words in Mongolian Tradition
For simplicity and only for the purpose of this paper I divide “demonic” borrowings
in Mongolian into two specific layers: A: The first is the oldest layer also connected
with pre-Buddhist contexts and later development of Mongolian mythology. B: The
second is newer layer connected with influence of Tibetan Buddhist canon and also
with modern innovations or marginal homophony of originally unrelated words from
Russian and Tibetan or Sanskrit.
Ad A: for the beginnings and oldest layer there are attestations of /uus (also in the
meaning of “dragon” in plural) in very old Mongolian Buddhist texts and this word
continues in all subsequent stages. In later use this word has two different meanings.
In ritual manuscripts from Olon Siime or in editions of such manuscripts by Ondrej
Srba in one context /uus appear as negative group of demons and beings of hell and
in another manuscripts and in other contexts on the contrary as a type Mongolian
Peiros, Ilia — Starostin, Sergei: A Comparative Vocabulary of Five Sino-Tibetan Languages. Fascicle
III. Laterals. The University of Melbourne, Parkville 1996, 31.
' Pulleyblank, Edwin G.: Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese, Late Middle
Chinese, and Early Mandarin. UBC Press, Vancouver 1991, 201.
20 Pulleyblank, Edwin G.: Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese ..., 199.
2! Peiros, Ilia — Starostin, Sergei: A Comparative Vocabulary of Five Sino-Tibetan Languages, 37.
Ding Xiaolun et al. (eds.): Niya yizhi. Xinjiang meishu sheying chubanshe, Wulumuqi 2003a, 40; Ding
Xiaolun et al. (eds.): Loulan gucheng. Xinjiang meishu sheying chubanshe, Wulumuqi 2003b, 30.
Berounsky, Daniel: Archaicka tibetska literatura (7-10. stoleti). Masarykova univerzita, Brno 2013,
40-42.
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