Illustrated Mongolian underworld tale in Old Mongolian script

[Mongolian Literature]. Coyijod Dagini-yin Tügüji [Tale of Choijid Dakini].

Auf Anfrage

Illustrated Mongolian manuscript of the widely disseminated didactic "Tale of Choijid Dakini", a popular narrative that stages visions of hell to teach merit, sin, and the consequences of moral action.

Rooted in a Tibetan original composed no later than the early 16th century, the story entered Mongolian literary culture through a 17th-century translation by the Oirat scholar Zaya-pandita and circulated in both early Mongolian and Oirat clear script versions; xylographic and lithographic printings in the early 20th century further broadened its reach. Central episodes depict the Lord of the Underworld passing judgment over the dead, with vivid lists of sins and torments; Mongolian redactions amplify the social critique by introducing figures such as corrupt clerics, predatory officials, and traffickers in girls. The present manuscript, written in the old Mongolian script and illustrated with pen-and-wash drawings, belongs to the vernacular devotional and didactic tradition that brought Buddhist ethics into the realm of popular reading and performance. The textile-covered wrappers with title slip and the lively, often naïve lines of the drawings underscore its use in a monastic or lay teaching context.

A resonant witness to the cross-regional transmission of Buddhist narrative between Tibet and Mongolia and to the ethical education of late Qing and early Republican Inner Asia.