Asiatische Forschungen

Todo Biciq Texts, Transcription, Translation from the Moravian Archives at Herrnhut

The present collection of some eighty old Kalmyk-script notes and letters has lain almost unknown in the Moravian Unitas Fratrum (United Brethren) Archives for nearly 200 years. They are requests made to the young Isaac Schmidt (later to become the foremost scholar of Mongolian, but then manager of the general store in Sarepta), among the German colonists in Southern Russia amidst the Buddhist-Kalmyk herdsmen. The texts include simple goods orders as well as letters from Prince Erdeni Taishi and his sister Tsebeq, touching on commercial, administrative and military matters.