Apropos E-pas
Who or what is an e
pa? My initial interests in the term e pa was roused
by dGe-’dun-chos-’phel, who states that the e pas in dBus and
gTsang still write ’a with a tsa lag/rtags (dGe-chos-1:
268). And of course a number of scholars (both Tibetan and non-Tibetan) have
already clarified the term. But what difference would the existence of facts
make to us unless we start getting interested in it? In my case, had I not
started getting interested in the Tibetan textual/manuscript/xylograph/print/book
cultures, I might have died without really knowing the term e pa.
One could have simply picked up Goldstein 2001 (s.v. e pa), where the
meaning is given as “a person trained for copying government document who works
in the e khang.” What is an e khang? Again the same
work states explains “an office in the traditional Tibetan society where
letters and documents were copied.” Dan Martin also points out to
Goldstein 1989 (i.e. History of Modern Tibet): 151, according to which “it is supposed to be the name of the
secretarial position of the calligraphers who inscribed serial numbers on
Tibetan currency notes.” Dan Martin has already pointed this
out in his Tibetan Vocabulary (begun in Bloomington, Indiana, on
April 10, 1987; the version I have is from September 7, 2009). There e
pa and e phrug pa are said to be synonymous. Martin there writes: “An e pa had the task of inscribing the
serial nos. by hand on each Tibetan banknote.” Although
there is not an independent entry devoted to e pa in the Tshig mdzod chen mo, it can be found under e pa yon
bdag and e drung, both of which even provides an etymology of e
pa. So an e drung or e pa drung yig is a clerk
or a secretary in the Tibetan civil administrative system in the
past, whose job was to write documents and letters in a special style of
writing called ’Bru-tsha (Tshig mdzod chen
mo, s.v.
e drung & e pa yon bdag). See also Goldstein 2001 (s.v. e drung), which states “a
clerk in e khang.” The chief among such clerks were called e pa
yon bdag (Tshig mdzod chen mo, s.v. & Goldstein 2001: s.v.), and e phrug must
have been young clerks with lower ranks. According to Dan’s Tibetan
Vocabulary (s.v.), an e drung was a “government
messenger,” which is evidently synonymous of a drung (Tshig mdzod chen mo, s.v.). Now returning to the etymology
of e pa. There is a place called E in lHo-kha area
(Chu-gsum-rdzong), and the place is said to be named as such because its shape
resembled that of the letter e. I suspect, however, that
it could not have been meant, if at all, like a Tibetan e but rather
triangular e (e gru gsum, i.e. something like ∆).
Obviously people from this region were known for their calligraphic skills and
particularly for writing in ’Bru-tsha style of Tibetan script. So it seems that
the term e pa came to be used to designate a professional calligrapher
who specialised in the ’Bru-tsha style of writing associated with E region
in lHo-kha. According to Gu-ge Tshe-ring-rgyal-po (Zhol shul, p. 377) those
calligraphists stemmed from E-lha-rgya-ri in lHo-kha and hence were called e
pas. They lived in house or complex in Zhol in lHa-sa called rTsis-khra-khang.
The existence of a welfare society in Lhasa called “E-pa-skyid-sdug”* (Tibetan
Vocabulary, s.v.) suggests that they were socially quite organised.
Their office or institution was called e khang (Tshig mdzod chen mo, s.v.). Cf. also Goldstein 2001: s.vv. e phrug, e pi
gsar spel las khang, e bris/ris. See also Zhwa-sgab-pa, Srid don
rgyal rabs (vol. 1, p. 33): de bzhin bka’ shog dang | she bam
| bca’ yig rtsa tshig sogs kyi ’bru tsha bris mi e pa dang |. A much better
definition of e pa but what is she bam? A she
bam (also called she tham) according to Dung-dkar (s.v.)
is a letter of authority issued by the Dalai Lama, Paṇ-chen Bla-ma,
or government bestowing a rank or property to a person.
Some more discussions on e pa can be found in the Ri mo’i rnam gzhag (p. 115.6–12).
* Cf. For spar pa’i skyid
sdug, see Robin 2010 (in
French).
Dear D,
ReplyDeleteWould that one place be Goldstein's 1989 "History of Modern Tibet" p. 150? It's supposed to be the name of the secretarial position of the calligraphers who inscribed serial numbers on Tibetan currency notes. (Didn't *every* official have to be a calligrapher?) How to explain the "e"? Because it's the first letter of Buddhist sutras? I give up.
Yours,
D
Environmental Protection Agency
ReplyDeleteDear D-chen,
ReplyDeleteDid you press the wrong key?
Yours,
D-chung
I was hoping it would be Bo-dong E, but that was in Gtsang, wasn't it? Not in Lho-kha? Bo-dong E was where you found most of the early Kavya specialists and Sanskritists in older centuries (but after the time of 'Phags-pa). But I never heard that they were calligraphers, so I guess Lho-kha it is. Is this one of those cases where different areas traditionally supplied expert artisans, dancers and so forth to the central government as part of their tax/corvée obligations? Would it be fair to say that people training for official jobs would learn calligraphy in old Tibet, just like Americans in the '50's concentrated on typing with the idea to land secretarial jobs? (Now I'm so happy I was required to take a typing class, since it comes in very handy in these days of communication through the computer keyboard.) G'night for now.
ReplyDeleteYours,
D