The Stele of Sulaiman is a Yuan Dynasty stele that was erected in 1348 to commemorate the benefactors and donors to a Buddhist temple at the Mogao Caves southeast of Dunhuang in Gansu, China. The principal benefactor is named as Sulaiman (Chinese: 速來蠻; pinyin: Sùláimán), Prince of Xining (died 1351). The stele, which is now held at the Dunhuang Academy, is renowned for an inscription of the Buddhist mantra Om mani padme hum in six different scripts. Another stele, commemorating the restoration of the Huangqing Temple (皇慶寺) in 1351 by Sulaiman was found at the same location as the 1348 stele.
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The two steles were first recorded by the French explorer, Charles Eudes Bonin (1865–1929), during an expedition to western China from 1898 to 1900.[1] When Aurel Stein visited Dunhuang in 1900–1901 he found both steles outside a shrine next to Cave 96, the home of a colossal Buddha statue, 35.5 m in height. Stein supposed that the steles originally belonged in the cave of the colossal Buddha, and that the inscription "Cave of Unequalled Height" at the top of the 1348 stele referred to this particular cave rather than the caves in general as is now the case.[2]
| Om mani padme hum | |
|---|---|
| Lantsa | |
| Transliteration | auṃ maṇi pad me hūṃ |
| Tibetan | |
| Tibetan | ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པད་མེ་ཧཱུྃ |
| Transliteration | oṁ maṇi pad me hūṁ |
| Old Uyghur | |
| Transliteration | oom mani badmi xung |
| 'Phags-pa | |
| 'Phags-pa | ꡝꡡꡏ ꡏ ꡋꡞ ꡌꡊ ꡏꡠ ꡜꡟꡃ |
| Transliteration | 'om ma ni pad me hung |
| Tangut | |
| Transliteration | ·a mja nji pja mjij xo[note 1] |
| Chinese | |
| Hanzi | 唵嘛呢叭𠺗吽 |
| Pinyin | ǎn má ní bā mí hōng |
The 1348 stele is 140.5 × 61.5 cm in size.[3] The face of the stele has the words "Cave of Unequalled Height" (Mògāokū 莫高窟) written in large Chinese characters at the top, below which the Buddhist mantra Om mani padme hum is engraved in six different scripts around the engraved image of the four-armed Tibetan form of Avalokiteśvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, with whom this mantra is particularly associated:[2][3]
Smaller Chinese characters fills the background of the stele.
On the righthand side is a list of principal benefactors, headed by Sulaiman and his wife, Küčü (Chinese: Qu Shu 屈术), and their children.[4][5] Sulaiman was a fourth generation descendant of Temüge, the youngest brother of Genghis Khan, and according to the History of the Yuan Dynasty he was installed as Prince of Xining (Chinese: Xīníng Wáng 西寧王) in 1329.[1]
On the lefthand side it is recorded that the stele was erected on the 15th day of the 5th month of the 8th year of the Zhizheng era [of Emperor Huizong of Yuan] (i.e. 1348) by the monk Shoulang 守朗.[4] On the far left, outside the frame, is a single line recording that the stele was engraved by a certain Shelan Lingdan 奢藍令旃 (Chinese transcription of the Tibetan name Shes-rab rin-chen ཤེས་རབ་རིན་ཆེན).[5] At the bottom is a long list of other donors, many of them with Mongolian or Tibetan names.[4]
The 1351 stele was erected to commemorate the restoration of the Huangqing Temple (皇慶寺) by Sulaiman and other benefactors. The inscription text, composed by Liu Qi 劉奇, Director of Literary Studies of the Shazhou District, in the 8th month of the 11th year of the Zhizheng era (i.e. 1351) states that Sulaiman donated gold, silk, timber and other provisions for the temple's reconstruction, and that the monk Shoulang, who erected the 1348 stele, was responsible for keeping a register of donors. The inscription also notes that Sulaiman did when the restoration was completed, and so the principal benefactor listed at the end of the inscription is Sulaiman's son, Yaɣan-Šāh (Chinese: Yahansha 牙罕沙), the new Prince of Xining.[2][5]