Sum-pa Language?

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pemachophel
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Sum-pa Language?

Post by pemachophel »

can anyone tell me what the "sum-pa" laguage is (as in sum-pa'i ked-du)?

e.g.,

Zhang-zhung-gi ked-du: Ta-la-pa-ta-ya-na-ha
Sum-pai ked-du: A-ra-na-ba-li-ya
Gya-gar ked-du: Naga Raja Dhaya
Bod ked-du: Lui Pang-kong
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Caoimhghín
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by Caoimhghín »

pemachophel wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:15 pm can anyone tell me what the "sum-pa" laguage is (as in sum-pa'i ked-du)?

e.g.,

Zhang-zhung-gi ked-du: Ta-la-pa-ta-ya-na-ha
Sum-pai ked-du: A-ra-na-ba-li-ya
Gya-gar ked-du: Naga Raja Dhaya
Bod ked-du: Lui Pang-kong
This is probably a moron answer, and please forgive me, but it looks like several varieties of Tibetan.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
Malcolm
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by Malcolm »

pemachophel wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:15 pm can anyone tell me what the "sum-pa" laguage is (as in sum-pa'i ked-du)?

e.g.,

Zhang-zhung-gi ked-du: Ta-la-pa-ta-ya-na-ha
Sum-pai ked-du: A-ra-na-ba-li-ya
Gya-gar ked-du: Naga Raja Dhaya
Bod ked-du: Lui Pang-kong
Sum pa is a region in northern Tibet.
pemachophel
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by pemachophel »

sorry.

at the beginning of tibetan canonical texts, there is always a statement og where the text came from. usually this is only two lines: gyagar ked-du, i.e., in the indian language, and bod ked-du, in the tietan language. however in one text i've been working on for some time, it lists two orther language sources: zhang zhung gi ked-du, the shangshung language, and sum-pa'i ked-du, the sum-pa language. so what i'm trying to determine is what is the sumpa language in english terms. sogdian? drushta? something else?
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pemachophel
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by pemachophel »

loppon-la,

is that the same sumpa as in sumpa khenpo? if so, that'd place it in amdo. Yes?

in any case, thanks once again for your erudition.
Pema Chophel པདྨ་ཆོས་འཕེལ
Malcolm
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by Malcolm »

pemachophel wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:44 pm loppon-la,

is that the same sumpa as in sumpa khenpo? if so, that'd place it in amdo. Yes?

in any case, thanks once again for your erudition.
It is the same sum pa.

Perhaps at the time the text was written, people in that region spoke a language substantially different than Tibetan. Usually, the list follows the order of languages it has been translated from, in this case from Zhang Zhung language, to Sum pa, then into Chinese, and then finally into Tibetan, meaning it is a text of Bonpo origin in all likelihood.
pemachophel
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by pemachophel »

thanks for the heads up on the order of languages listed. didn't know that at all.

after sum-pa, goes to gya-gar, not gya-nag. so indian/sanskrit, not chinese.

in any case, part of the text -- i'd say the major part and definitely the first part -- is spoken by Buddha to Ananda. the bon-po section is easily identified since all the spirits listed are called bon nyen this or that. the sumpa section i have yet to identify.

have now read up on the sum-pa (what there is on line). interesting.

thanks again. sorry for the non-caps and any typos. one-finger typing due to broken forearm
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tingdzin
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by tingdzin »

In case it wasn't in the stuff you read, a theory is that the Sumpa are the same people earlier described as the Hsien-pi in older Chinese sources, i.e. proto-Monolians.
Malcolm
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by Malcolm »

tingdzin wrote: Tue Jan 09, 2018 9:01 am In case it wasn't in the stuff you read, a theory is that the Sumpa are the same people earlier described as the Hsien-pi in older Chinese sources, i.e. proto-Monolians.
That makes sense phonetically.
pemachophel
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by pemachophel »

the sources i read said they were also referred to by the shang dynasty as qiang, and that later they were called the sun-po in chinese.
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tingdzin
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by tingdzin »

"Qiang" is an inexact catch-all term for nomadic people the Chinese had no real interest in, ethnographically. I believe the Hsien-pi followed the Hsiung-nu on the Mongolian steppes, and were sometimes taken to be ancestors of the Jurchen (Jin) Dynasty. Been a while since I read this stuff, so I'm not 100% on it, but anyway it's probably more than the OP cares about.
MiphamFan
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by MiphamFan »

There was a mysterious people called the A zha by the Tibetans and Tuyuhun by the Chinese who lived around Qinghai. Wonder whether they were related.
tingdzin
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by tingdzin »

As I recall, they are usually discussed as separate peoples, but that's not to say that there wasn't some connection. The Qinghai area was an is an amazing ethnic mosaic. Inner Asian nomadic and semi-nomadic polities often incorporated different peoples under their umbrellas, so that, for example, a lot of the soldiers in Chinggis (a.k.a. Genghis) Khan's army were not strictly Mongols but rather Turks. The fall of a nomadic empire often just meant that people had a new group of rulers rather than that they were displaced altogether (though that sometimes happened too).
PeterC
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by PeterC »

tingdzin wrote: Thu Jan 11, 2018 6:55 am As I recall, they are usually discussed as separate peoples, but that's not to say that there wasn't some connection. The Qinghai area was an is an amazing ethnic mosaic. Inner Asian nomadic and semi-nomadic polities often incorporated different peoples under their umbrellas, so that, for example, a lot of the soldiers in Chinggis (a.k.a. Genghis) Khan's army were not strictly Mongols but rather Turks. The fall of a nomadic empire often just meant that people had a new group of rulers rather than that they were displaced altogether (though that sometimes happened too).
Did the Xianbei ever get that far Southwest - I thought their territory was mostly to the North/East of the Xia/Tangut? Though it's entirely possible that their language was in use outside that area. They would have spoken a Turkic-Mongolic dialect presumably, not a Tibetan dialect?
tingdzin
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Re: Sum-pa Language?

Post by tingdzin »

Well, the Xian pi as a polity had fallen by the time the Sumpa first appear in Tibetan sources. It's always difficult to be sure about the extent of these Inner Asian groups' territories. As I recall, Stein has a map in "Tibetan Civilization: which has them mgrating widely to the south and west. It's also possible that new information has come to light since I studied this stuff -- it's hard to keep up sometimes. Yes, I think the consensus was that their language was Turco-Mongol.
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