Chinese-style roof tiles in a marmot burrow
Editorial contextHeikel describes the mound beside the Kul Tegin monument. Marmots had dug into it, and from one of their holes he pulled a quantity of half-round roof tiles 'such as are still used in China to cover the roofs of houses', with more scattered on the hill. He concluded the mound was a fallen building, a temple put up when the monument was erected. It is a first-hand archaeological observation that fits the inscription's statement about Chinese builders.
From one of the holes made by these animals I pulled out a quantity of half-round tiles, such as are still generally used in China to cover the roofs of houses. There were several others like them scattered over the hill and round about.
Working translation
Original wording
Je retirai d'un des trous faits par ces animaux une quantité de tuiles demi-rondes, telles qu'on les emploie encore généralement en Chine pour couvrir les toits des maisons. Il y en avait plusieurs autres semblables éparpillées sur la colline et aux alentours.
About Turks (Kok Turk), with Chinese builders
A note on this quote
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From tents to palaces: the Uighur khans' capital
Editorial contextIn notes to the same volume the French sinologist Deveria writes that the Uighur khanate set up its main seat on the Orkhon in 745, but that the khans only later replaced the tents of their royal camp with palaces: the Tang history mentions a palace built for the Uighur ruler in 780 as something new, and in 784 a khan had an inscription carved on a stone stele 'before the gate of his capital'. The capital was burned by the Kirghiz in 841. It is a clear dated sequence from tent camp to built city.
The founding of the Uighur khanate and the setting of its khagans' main seat on the banks of the Orkhon go back to 745, but only later did the khagans replace the tents of their royal camp with palaces. Indeed it is only in 780 that the Tang history speaks, as something new among the Uighurs, of the building of a palace.
Working translation
Original wording
La fondation du Khanat ouïgour et l'établissement du siège principal de ses Khakans sur les bords de l'Orkhoun remonte à l'année 745, mais ce ne serait que plus tard que les Khakans auraient substitué des palais aux tentes de leur camp royal. Ce n'est en effet qu'en 780 que l'histoire des T'ang parle, comme d'une chose nouvelle chez les Ouïgours, de la construction d'un palais
About Uighurs
Keep in mind
Deveria is summarising Tang annals.
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'Sweet words and soft silks': a khan's warning about China
Editorial contextBilge Qaghan tells his people that the forest of Otuken is the true centre of their realm. The Chinese give gold, silver and silk without trouble, but their words are sweet and their riches soft; with them they lure distant peoples close and many Turks who settled near China died. If the Turks stay in Otuken and send caravans, they will keep an eternal empire. It is the steppe ruler's own argument for staying nomads rather than moving into Chinese-style towns.
Living in this land I entered into relations with the Chinese people. The call of the Chinese people, who give us so much gold, silver, isigti and silk(?) without trouble, was sweet, and their riches were soft. Worming their way in with their sweet call and soft riches, they (the Chinese) drew distant peoples close to them.
Working translation
Original wording
Habitant ce pays j'entrai en relations avec le peuple chinois. L'appel du peuple chinois, qui nous donne sans peine tant d'or, d'argent, d'isigti, de soie(?), était doux, ses richesses étaient molles. En s'insinuant par leur doux appel et leurs richesses molles, ils (les Chinois) firent approcher d'eux le peuple lointain.
About Turks (Kok Turk)
Keep in mind
Thomsen marks 'silk' and some verbs as uncertain; the moral is the khan's political advice, not a neutral report.
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The dead in the yurt, faces cut, stones for the slain
Editorial contextHeikel quotes the Chinese account of Turk funerals: the body is laid in the yurt, relatives sacrifice horses and sheep, ride six times round the tent and gash their faces so that their tears run with blood. The body is burned with the dead man's horse and belongings, and the ashes are buried in autumn or spring. A statue of the dead is placed in a small building by the grave, with a painted record of his battles, and stones are set up for every enemy he killed, 'sometimes up to 100 and even 1000'.
'The body of the dead man is placed in the yurt, in front of which his children and other relatives of both sexes lay out as offerings horses and sheep that have been killed. They ride six times round the tent on horseback, gashing their faces with a knife, so that their tears are dyed with blood.'
Working translation
Original wording
»Le corps du défunt est placé dans la yourte, devant laquelle les enfants et autres parents du défunt des deux sexes déposent en offrandes des chevaux et des moutons qu'on a tués. Ils font à cheval six fois le tour de la tente, en se tailladant le visage avec un couteau, de telle façon que leurs larmes se teignent de sang.
About Tujue (Kok Turks)
Keep in mind
Heikel's version says six circuits; Thomsen's version of the same Chinese text (1896) says seven.
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Chinese annals: felt tents, grazing, and stones for enemies killed
Editorial contextThomsen quotes Chinese annals (through Stanislas Julien's translations) on the customs of the Turks, the 'Tou-kioue': they wear their hair loose, fold their robes to the left, and live in felt tents, moving wherever they find water and grass. At burials they set up stones beside the grave, one for each enemy the dead man had killed, sometimes a hundred or a thousand. Thomsen says these notices describe a time somewhat earlier than the inscriptions.
'The Tujue let their hair hang loose, fold the flap of their garment to the left, and live in felt tents. They move from one place to another according to where they find water and grass. Their main occupation is raising herds and hunting.'
Working translation
Original wording
«Les Tou-kioue laissent flotter leurs cheveux, jettent à gauche le pan de leur vêtement, et habitent sous des tentes de feutre. Ils se transportent d'un lieu à un autre, suivant qu'ils y trouvent de l'eau et des herbes. Leur principale occupation est l'élève des troupeaux et la chasse.
About Tujue (Kok Turks)
Keep in mind
An outside Chinese view, translated twice before reaching this page.
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The 'Thirty Tatars' mourn the first Turk khans
Editorial contextThe Kul Tegin stone opens with the Turks' own origin story and then says that when the first khans, Bumin and Istemi, died, peoples came 'weeping and lamenting' from the east: the Chinese, the Tibetans, the Kirghiz, the Three Qurıqan, the Thirty Tatars, the Kitay (Khitan) and the Tatabi. This is one of the oldest written uses of the name Tatar anywhere, carved in stone by the Turks themselves, and here the Tatars are one steppe people among many.
Weeping and lamenting there came from the front, from the side of the rising sun, the mighty peoples of the desert (that is, foreign peoples?): the Chinese, the Tibetans, the Apar and Apurim, the Kirghiz, the Three Qurıqan, the Thirty Tatars, the Kitay, the Tatabi … all these peoples came to lament and weep, so valiant had these khagans been.
Working translation
Original wording
Pleurant et se lamentant arrivèrent de l'avant, du côté du soleil levant, les puissants peuples du désert (c'est-à-dire étrangers?), les Chinois, les Thibétains, les Apar et Apourim, les Kirghiz, les Trois-Kourikans, les Trente-Tatars, les Kitaï, les Tatabi, … tous ces peuples vinrent se lamenter et pleurer: si vaillants avaient été ces kagans.
About Otuz Tatar (the Thirty Tatars), a Mongolic people east of the Turks
Keep in mind
Thomsen marks several words as uncertain; the list of mourners is a royal boast carved some 180 years after the funeral it describes.
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Thomsen: the Tatars of the stones were Mongols, not Turks
Editorial contextIn his notes Thomsen comments on 'Otuz Tatar' (Thirty Tatars) and 'Toquz Tatar' (Nine Tatars): the name meets us here 'for the first time in history', appears in Chinese books only in the ninth century, and belongs to the Mongols or one of their tribes, not to a Turkic people. He places them between the Oghuz (Uighurs) to the west and the Khitan to the east, near the Kerulen river. So the original Tatars were a real Mongolic group on the edge of the Turk empire.
a well-known name that we meet here for the first time in history. In Chinese literature, Ta-ta appears at the beginning of the ninth century. This name belongs to the Mongols, or rather to one of their tribes, and not to any people of Turkic race.
Working translation
Original wording
nom bien connu que nous rencontrons ici pour la première fois dans l'histoire Dans la littérature chinoise, Ta-ta se présente au commencement du IXe siècle. C'est aux Mongols ou plutôt à une de leurs tribus que revient cette dénomination, et non à aucun peuple de race turque
About Otuz Tatar and Toquz Tatar
Keep in mind
Thomsen's 1896 identification; later scholars still debate how Mongolic the eighth-century Tatars were.
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'Nine Tatars' join the Oghuz against the khan
Editorial contextIn the Bilge Qaghan inscription the khan says he campaigned against the Oghuz and 'devastated their houses and their buildings', and that the Oghuz then allied with the Nine Tatars and came against him. He fought two great battles at Agu, destroyed their army and enslaved their people. The Tatars appear here as a real political ally of the Oghuz, and the Oghuz are said to have houses and buildings.
I went on campaign and devastated their houses and their buildings. The [Oghuz] people allied with the Nine Tatars, and they came. Near Agu I fought two great battles; I destroyed their army and there I enslaved their people.
Working translation
Original wording
j'entrai en campagne et dévastai leurs maisons et leurs bâtiments. Le peuple [ogouz] s'allia avec les Neuf-Tatars, et ils vinrent. Près d'Agou, je livrai deux grandes batailles; je dévastai leur armée et j'asservis là leur peuple.
About Toquz Tatar (Nine Tatars) and Oghuz
Keep in mind
A victor's account; the word Thomsen renders 'bâtiments' (barq) is discussed by Radloff as 'buildings', while 'houses' (eb) may mean yurts.
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'Abakan Tatars': the Kirghiz' descendants in 1895
Editorial contextRadloff notes that the Yenisei inscriptions were left mostly by the Kirghiz, and that their descendants still form a large part of the Turkic population there, 'the Abakan Tatars and Soyots'. In the nineteenth century Russian usage called many Siberian Turkic groups 'Tatars'. The same people who carved runic stones in the early Middle Ages were called Tatars by the time Radloff wrote.
When the Russians came to know them in the sixteenth century in the southern part of the Yenisei province, the Kirghiz were complete Turks, and even now descendants of the Kirghiz form a large part of the Turkic population of that area, the Abakan Tatars and Soyots.
Working translation
Original wording
Als die Russen sie im XVI. Jahrhundert im südlichen Theile des Jenisseischen Gouvernements kennen lernten, waren die Kirgisen vollkommene Türken und noch jetzt bilden Nachkommen der Kirgisen einen grossen Theil der türkischen Bevölkerung desselben Gebietes, der Abakan-Tataren und Sojonen.
About Kirghiz (Khakas), called Abakan Tatars in Radloff's time
Keep in mind
Radloff's own ethnographic judgement; his claim that the Kirghiz were first a non-Turkic people rests on a Chinese remark about red hair and blue eyes.
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Headless statues and skull cups
Editorial contextHeikel found that all the carved stone figures at the first two monuments had lost their heads. He explains this by old Mongolian customs: enemies' heads were carried off as trophies, chiefs' skulls were made into drinking cups (the Irkutsk museum held one), and stones set round a grave stood for enemies killed. So attackers would naturally knock the heads off figures that stood for Turks. His explanation is a guess drawn from old accounts, not something he saw happen.
These, like all the other statues found near the first and second monuments, have no heads, which is not surprising to those who know the ancient customs of the peoples of Mongolia, among whom it was the practice to carry enemies' heads long distances as trophies. The skulls of chiefs killed in war were even made into cups.
Working translation
Original wording
Celles-là comme toutes les autres statues trouvées auprès de ce 1er monument et du 2e, n'ont pas de tête, ce qui n'a rien d'étonnant pour ceux qui connaissent les anciennes moeurs des peuples de la Mongolie, chez lesquels on avait coutume d'emporter à de longues distances les têtes des ennemis en guise de trophées. On façonnait même en coupes les crânes des chefs tués à la guerre.
About Turks and later steppe peoples
Keep in mind
The missing heads are observed; the explanation is Heikel's own guess from written sources.
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