Two Religious Loanwords from Tibetan in Yellow Uyghur: čam and chöhrten

Authors : Özlem Ayazlı

Pages : 378-390

Doi:10.46614/ijous.1816292

View : 69 | Download : 100

Publication Date : 2025-12-31

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The words borrowed from Tibetan have an essential place in the vocabulary of the Yellow Uyghurs, who adopted Tibetan Buddhism (Lamaism) under the influence of their Tibetan neighbors and the Mongols. In particular, it is seen that the names of Buddhas, religious rituals, or ritual objects are borrowed from Tibetan. This study focuses on two Tibetan words in the Yellow Uyghur vocabulary: čam (< Tib. cham) and chöhrten (< Tib. mcod rten). The paper aims to contribute to the vocabulary of Yellow Uyghurs and the studies conducted on the subject. Some of the inferences obtained are as follows: 1. Čam means ‘religious ceremony, pantomime dance of monks’ in Yellow Uyghur. It forms a compound verb: čam pokïr- ‘to perform the cam dance, to participate in the religious Buddhist (cham) ceremony’. Čam is listed in Mongur, Kalmuck, Khalkha, Oyrot, Ordos, and Buryat Mongolian with meanings such as ‘masked dance of lamas, religious dance, pantomime of a monk; a religious celebration with dancing and masquerade; religious dance with mask’. The Chinese equivalent of the word cham is 跳神 tiàoshén. Tiàoshén means ‘to exorcise evil spirits, as when a child is very ill, with a view to save its life, to leap before the gods, to practice exorcism’. 2. Chöhrten means ‘stupa, place or object of worship, mausoleum; a large tomb decorated with art reliquary, pagoda’ in Yellow Uyghur. The Chinese equivalent of the Tibetan word chörten is 藪抖波 sŏu dŏu bō, which is the phonetic equivalent of the Sanskrit word stupa.
Keywords : Sarı Uygurca, çam, chöhrten, Tibetçe, Moğolca

ORIGINAL ARTICLE URL