Irk Bitig: Divinations of the Uyghur Ancients

The oldest surviving document in Old Turkic, the Irk Bitig is the Book of Omens for the ancient Uyghur culture of Central Asia. Written around 1200 years ago, this small book was found in the Thousand Buddha Caves outside Dunhuang in Gansu, western China. Containing 65 omens that could be divined by the use of prayer sticks or bone dice, these were likely an animist oral tradition that predates the written word and Buddhism in the region. This episode became as much about crafts and texts as it did voice and images. Divination is a cultural tradition that is nearly universal across all regions and eras. So I bought knucklebones on Etsy and a woodburning tool. I fashioned prayer sticks and I made my own artful little book. To better understand the document, I adapted the Book of Omens from its transliteral versions into a more accessible attempt. The original as translated by Talat Tekin can be found here: Talat/Tekin_Irk Bitig - The Book of Omens