On the Earliest Known Clear (Todo) Script Xylographic Book Called Xutuqtu Mayidariyin Sudur Kemēkü Orošibo ‘Sutra Entitled Holy Maitreya’
On the Earliest Known Clear (Todo) Script Xylographic Book Called Xutuqtu Mayidariyin Sudur Kemēkü Orošibo ‘Sutra Entitled Holy Maitreya’

Summary/Abstract: This article re-examines the dating of Xutuqtu Mayidariyin sudur kemēkü orošibo, a Clear (Todo) script xylograph. Through a philological and palaeographic analysis of its colophon, the authors suggest its publishing date is reconsidered from being 1747 to actually being 1735 (the Year of the Wooden Rabbit). Until recently, researchers of Mongolian scripts considered that the earliest known Oirat, i.e., Clear (Todo) script xylographic book was published in 1741. As a result of the evidence presented in this study, the date of the beginning of Todo script block-printing can be advanced by six years. This re-dating of the sutra is important in the history of Mongolian scripts, particularly in the early history of xylographic printing in the Todo script.

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