Das Buch von der Sündentilgung. SET

The book is the first comprehensive edition of all hitherto identified fragments of the Kšanti Kilguluk Nom Bitig in Old Uygur (Old Turkic) culled from several collections of Central Asian manuscripts in Germany, Russia, China and Japan. The text is a translation in 40 chapters of a Chinese Buddhist work (Cibei daochang chanfa) which belongs to the apocrypha. It testifies to the strong influence of Chinese Buddhism at the beginning of the second millennium A.D. among the Uygurs. The objective of the work, which was intended to be recited during a ritual, is the expiation of sins. Another aim was to rescue the patrons’ relatives from a life in unfavourable births among hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals etc. Remarkable is the insertion of what must have been originally about a thousand Buddha names numerous of which are preserved in the Old Uygur version. 

The Kšanti Kilguluk Nom Bitig is one of the most important Uygur Buddhist works and has been copied time and again. 44 different manuscripts from several sites have been identified. The edition is accompanied by a translation into German, an extensive commentary, a transliteration of all the fragments and a glossary (Uygur, Chinese, German).