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FOREIGN DEMONS IN MONGOLIAN AND CENTRAL ASIAN BUDDHISM THROUGHOUT THE TIME 9933 e) Fragments I[/dAr-3Br from Olon Süme with "Rauchopfergebetes""? mention more complete sets of demons as a result of syncretic processes: virudaga magaranja terigiiten. erlig üd-tür ariyun takil takimui. ..... virubagsa magaranja terigüten. luusun Ciyulyan-dur ariyun takil takimui. visravana magaranja terigüten. ragsasun Ciyulyan-dur ariyun takil takimui. adi ubagadi terigüten. luusun Ciyulyan-dur ariyun takil takimui. “Dem Kreis der Dämonen mit dem Mahäräja Virüdhaka an der Spitze opfere ich ein reines Opfer! Dem Kreis der Drachen mit dem Mahäräja Virupäksa an der Spitze opfere ich ein reines Opfer! Dem Kreis der Räksasas mit dem Maharaja Vaisravana an der Spitze opfere ich ein reines Opfer! Dem Kreis der Drachen mit Adi ubagqadi an der Spitze opfere ich ein reines Opfer!” But translation of the term /uus as “dragons” in the example above is not ideal and it may be better to keep the term /uus without translation as a word for Mongolian deity. Besides independent development in Mongolian it is also good to wait for better Sino-Tibetan lexical data, since there are still irregularities connected with translation of this theonym. Usually Mongolian plural /uus is translated as “spirits” or “dragons” and there is no firm consensus about the origin and semantics. For example Bawden*™ does not mention the source of the word “dragon” even if it is generally considered as a Chinese word. On the contrary Lessing** mentions only Tibetan origin. Then similarly to Bawden Kara* published textual distinction between plurals Jus “spirits” vs. Juus “dragons” (i.e. Juus-un qad “the kings of the nagas” vs. lus sabdag “genii loci”). But later Kara? specified: “/uu [Phagspa /u] ‘dragon’ = Skt. naga borrowed from Uyghur /uu / ulu with source in Western Middle Chinese from Hexi / North-Chinese long.” But on the same page Kara connects the plural form luus with Tibetan klu and similar connections can be found in Ramstedt’s dictionary.** Fortunately this inconsistency may not represent a real problem because East Asian mythological texts allow to trace original Sino-Tibetan meaning of "serpentdemon” back to both dragon and snake even if secondarily this word was later used Heissig, Walther: Die mongolische Steininschrift und Manuskriptfragmente aus Olon süme in der Inneren Mongolei. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1966, 52-54. Bawden, Charles: Mongolian-English Dictionary, 204. Lessing, Ferdinand D.: Mongolian-English Dictionary. University of California Press, Berkeley — Los Angeles 1960, 517. Kara, György: Late Mediaeval Turkic Elements in Mongolian. In: De Dunhuang a Istanbul: Hommage a James Russell Hamilton. Ed. Bazin, Louis — Zieme, Peter. Brepols, Turnhout 2000/2001, 100. Kara, György: Dictionary of Sonom Gara 5 Erdeniy-in Sang..., 170. 38 Ramstedt, Gustaf John: Kalmiickisches Wörterbuch. Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, Helsinki 1935, 253 mentions: Kalmyk lus, pl. lus"D as "die naturgeister" without any etymology; /ü "drache? he mentions as a loanword from both Chinese /ui and Tibetan klu. 97
