The Praise of Mahakala

Mahakala

Mahākāla is a Dharmapala in Vajrayana Buddhism, and a deity in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, particularly in the Vajrayana school. He is known as Daheitian in Chinese and Daikokuten in Japanese...

is a Mongolian Buddhist poem written in Mongolian script

Mongolian script

The classical Mongolian script , also known as Uyghurjin, was the first writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most successful until the introduction of Cyrillic in 1946...

 by the Mongolian Sakya

Sakya

The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...

 scholar Choiji-Odser. The poem is one of the many manuscripts found at Turfan. It dates from around 1305 and shows evidence of woodblock printing

Woodblock printing

Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper....

 during that time. The poem is written in traditional Mongolian poetical style and rhyme (such as that found in the Secret History of the Mongols) and provides a valuable insight into Middle Mongolian language.

Choiji Odser

Choiji Odser, whose name may be translated as Light of Dharma, was a famous Mongolian

Mongols

Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...

 scholar during the early Yuan dynasty

Yuan Dynasty

The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...

 who played a major role in standardizing the Mongolian language

Mongolian language

The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...

 and script. He produced the first work on Mongolian grammar in 1305 and translated many works from Sanskrit and Tibetan. There is a great deal of information about him in Mongolian, Chinese and Tibetan sources. He was the guru and spiritual advisor to Emperor Wuzong of Yuan (Khayishan Kulug). In the 24th book of the Yuanshi

Yuanshi

Yuanshi may refer to:*Yuanshi Era, in Han Dynasty*Yuanshi County, in Hebei, China*History of Yuan, official Chinese historical work for the Yuan Dynasty*Yuanshi Tianzun, one of the highest deities of religious Taoism...

 his erudition is praised and it is written that he was awarded ten thousand paper money notes. Only the 12 last pages remain from his ten chapter Commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara (also found at Turfan) and it is written at the end of this same work that he had it printed in 1,000 copies at the White Stupa of Dadu

Khanbaliq

Khanbaliq or Dadu refers to a city which is now Beijing, the current capital of the People's Republic of China...

(Beijing) in 1312.