Tariat inscriptions are on a stele found in on the north of Hoid Terhyin River, Doloon Mod district, Arkhangai Province of Mongolia. (The names Terkhin and Terhyin are also used). The stele had been erected by Bayanchur Khan of Uyghur Khaganate in the middle of eight century. (A date between 753 and 760 seems to be the best estimate)
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The archeolgists already knew the existence of this stele. [1]Because it was mentioned in another Uighur stele found in 1909. But it took forty seven years to unearth the stele. Finally the stele was found by Mongolian archeologist T.Dorzhsuren in 1956. The finds are now exhibited in of Mongolian Archeology institute.[2]
Uyghur Khaganate replaced the Turkic Khaganate in Central Asia in 745. The founder is Kutluk Bilge Köl (745-747). Unlike their predecessors they were allies of Tang China and in the early days of the khaganate the khagans supported Chinese empreror against rebellious general An Lushan. They were one of the major powers of Asia. However in 848 they were defeated by the Kyrgyz and forced to move west to Gansu and Xinjiang (also called East Turkestan) provinces of modern China.
The stele had been erected on a bixi. It is made of light gray granite.There are 30 lines of inscription on each side of the stele. The language is old Turkic and the alphabet is Orkhon alphabet (Turkic runes) which was also used in the famous Khöshöö Tsaidam Monuments of Bilge Khagan and his brother Kül Tigin of Turkic khaganatte in 732 and 735 [Note 1] The narrator is Bayanchur Khan of Uighur khaganate who reigned between 747-759.
Bayanchor Khan calls himself as El etmish Bilge Kagan. (Not to be confused with Bilge Kagan of Turkic khanatte who lived earlier). According to inscriptions on the east side, during the interregnum following the death of his father, Bayanchor had to fight against the tribes supporting his elder brother Tay Bilge Tutuk. Among these tribes Tatars seem to be the most important enemy, for their names has been mentioned several times [3]. On the other sides of the stele, a brief history of Turkic peoples has been given. It is notable that the names of Bumin Khan and İstemi of Turkic Khaganatte (reigned roughly 200 years ago) were also mentioned in the inscriptions. This may mean that the power shift from the Turkic khaganette to (linguistically indistinguisable) Uighur khanatte was considered merely as a coup d’etat. [4]