Zhang-Zhung language

A Cavern of Treasures () is a terma uncovered by Shenchen Luga () in the early eleventh century. Martin identifies the importance of this scripture for studies of the Zhangzhung language: ==External relationships==

Bradley (2002) says Zhangzhung "is now agreed" to have been a Kanauri or West Himalayish language. Guillaume Jacques (2009) rebuts earlier hypotheses that Zhangzhung might have originated in eastern (rather than western) Tibet by having determined it to be a non-Qiangic language. Widmer (2014) classifies Zhangzhung within the eastern branch of West Himalayish, and lists the following cognates between Zhangzhung and Proto-West Himalayish. ==Scripts==

A number of scripts are recorded as being used for writing the Zhangzhung language. These are the Marchen script and its several descendants: • Marchen or Greater Mar script () • Marchung or Lesser Mar script () • Pungchen or Greater Pung script () • Pungchung or Lesser Pung script () • Drusha script () == Old Zhangzhung ==

F. W. Thomas suggested that three undeciphered Dunhuang manuscripts in a Tibetan script were written in an older form of the Zhangzhung language. This identification has been accepted by , who called the language "Old Zhangzhung" and added two further manuscripts. Two of these manuscripts are in the Stein collection of the British Library (IOL Tib J 755 (Ch. Fragment 43) and Or.8212/188) and three in the Pelliot collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale (Pelliot tibétain 1247, 1251 and 1252). In each case, the relevant text is written on the reverse side of a scroll containing an earlier Chinese Buddhist text. However, David Snellgrove, and more recently Dan Martin, have rejected Thomas's identification of the language of these texts as a variant of Zhangzhung. ==See also==