"Hidden Manuscript"

This volume is dedicated to a text from a Turfan manuscript now "hidden" in a private collection. The anonymous compilation of textual units written on the blank back of an ancient Chinese scroll is about the importance and necessity of almsgiving by Buddhist lay people and was probably intended for use in rituals. The main text is written in late Uyghur. Interspersed are Sanskrit passages in Brāhmī script, such as stanzas from the Udānavarga, a eulogy of life in the wilderness and the beginning of the Puṇyakriyāvastu-sūtra, all with Uyghur translations. The study, conducted by a team of scholars led by Juten Oda, who "discovered" the manuscript in 1990, includes transliteration and transcription with facing black and white photographs, normalised text with translation, philological and exegetical notes, parallel texts, glossaries and colour photographs.

Preface

I Introduction 

1 From scroll to booklet and back
2 The structure of the booklet
3 The structure of the text
4 Parallels from other collections
5 Remarks on the scripts
6 Signs and symbols

II  Photographs of the manuscript with transliteration and transcription 

III Edition, translation and notes 

1 Sermon on the puṇyakriyāvastus
2 Ritual text on occasion of the transfer of puṇya to the deceased parents
3 Buddha sermon on the ten fruits of almsgiving
4 *Sermon on the reasons for almsgiving to seclusive monks

IV Glossaries

1 Uyghur glossary
2 Sanskrit-Uyghur glossary
3 Uyghur-Sanskrit glossary 

V Abbreviations and bibliography

VI Plates