Ching Chao-jung, Grenet F. The Golden Poluo in Sogdiana: An In-depth Analysis of the Suishu and Tongdian Passages // Pis'mennye pamiatniki Vostoka. Vol. 18, no. 3 (46), 2021, pp. 127–147.
This paper is based on our preparation of the seminar ‘Nouvelle approche des sources
chinoises (principalement le Tongdian) sur l’Asie centrale a l’ouest des Pamirs’ at the College de France
since autumn 2020. We assume that the ‘golden poluo’ (ultimately from Sanskrit pātra- ?) mentioned in
the entry on Cao (Ishtīkhan) in the Suishu was a huge container of sharbat or another beverage or soup,
serving the poor people and worshippers around the temple of Takhsīch. The big cauldron at Khodja
Akhmed Yasawi (Kazakhstan) may be a continuation of this Zoroastrian practice, of which evidence in
the Anthologie de Zādspram is detectable. As to the gold poluo presented by the Tsenpo of Tubo to the
Tang court in 658 and the silver one by the king of Qiuci in 675, they were both likely wine drinking
vessels carefully chosen for celebrating the restoration of the Tang power in the Tarim Basin after the
turbulence in the middle 650s and in the late 660s, respectively.
The 13th St. Petersburg Tibetological Seminar dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the RAS will be held at the IOM RAS on November 13‒14, 2024. The conference program is now available.
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