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A Study on the Pattern of Tibetan Coins

  • The Journal of Chinese Cultural Studies
  • 2018, (41), pp.473-512
  • DOI : 10.18212/cccs.2018..41.020
  • Publisher : The Society For Chinese Cultural Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature > Chinese Literature > Chinese Culture
  • Received : July 10, 2018
  • Accepted : August 17, 2018
  • Published : August 30, 2018

Lee Junghuan 1

1배재대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study is about the pattern on the Tibetan coins. Tibetan coins have gold coins, silver coins, copper coins. Among them, gold coins are very few, most of them are silver and copper coins. In Tibet, the use of silver coins was more common than copper coins. The silver coin that was first used in Tibet was Moha silver made in Nepal, and it was in the 18th century that Tibet began to produce its own silver coins. ‘Tam ka’ silver coins and silver coins of the ‘cig sums’ series were made at this time, and its shape and engraved patterns were different from those of Nepal, which was also applied to the later copper coins. The pattern on the Tibetan coins include sun, moon, mountain, cloud, lion, mandala, ‘nor bu’, ‘bkra shis rtags brgyad’. The sun, moon, mountain, cloud, and lion are associated with pre-Buddhist Tibetan traditional beliefs(Bon). Nor bu means "treasure", and is used in the name of the precious object. In a coin, it appears alone in the center. Mandala is found in most of the coins and is a good representation of Tibetan world view. ‘bkra shis rtags bygyad’ is the Tibetan lucky symbol composed of 8 kinds of gter gyi bum pa, vkhor lo, gdugs, gser nya, rgyal mtshan, pad ma, dung g'yas vkhyil and dpal bevu. This symbol has a very close relationship with Buddhism. Of these, the wheel(vkhor lo) is related to the first turning of the wheel of the Dharma, which have been used ever since the early coins. In this study, we tried to see what kind of symbol have on some coins and what their meanings are. As a result, we could see that the pattern on the Tibetan coins contains the history, culture, religion and ideology of Tibet.

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