The Orkhon inscriptions speak of gold and silver in three places. Two are funerals, those of Kül Tegin and of Bilge Khan, where Chinese envoys bring the metals as gifts. The third is Bilge Khan’s warning against what China gives.[1] In all three the words are altun kümüş, “gold, silver”.[2]

At Kül Tegin’s funeral

The mourners at Kül Tegin’s funeral came from many peoples, and the inscription lists them one by one.[3] From the Chinese khan came İsiyi Likeŋ. He brought bir tümen agı, altun kümüş kergeksiz.[2] One translation reads the gift as ten thousand bolts of silk, with gold and silver past all counting.[2] A second translation renders it as an immeasurable quantity of treasures, gold and silver.[4] A third renders it as thousands of bolts of silk, with gold and silver beyond need.[5] A fourth takes agı to mean both money and silk, and understands the phrase as bolts of silk that stood for money.[6]

The Jiu Tang Shu names the Tang envoys of that mission, the general Zhang Quyi and the official Lü Xiang. It says that they carried a sealed letter to condole and to sacrifice and that they set up a stele.[7] The notice names no gold and no silver.[7]

At Bilge Khan’s funeral

The stone of Bilge Khan, in the words of his son, tells the funeral in the same terms. Five hundred men came under Lisün Tay-Seŋün, and they brought gold and silver in plenty, funeral candles and sandalwood.[8] The mourners cut their hair and their ears. They brought thoroughbred horses, black sables and blue squirrels without number.[8] Lisün Tay-Seŋün is the Chinese envoy Li Quan.[9] The Jiu Tang Shu names Li Quan, the head of the imperial clan office, as the envoy sent to condole and to install the khan’s son.[7]

The text of the stone is broken in several places, and what stood in the gaps is lost.[8]

The warning

In the passage called S4 Bilge Khan looks back on his peace with China. Gold, silver, isgiti and kutay, he says, the Chinese people give in such quantity, and without our having to ask.[10] The Chinese words are sweet, and their silks are soft. With sweet words and soft silks they draw in distant peoples and settle them close.[10] Once a people has settled close, it conceives evil knowledge there.[10] The next lines say that this talk and these silks have killed many Turks.[11]

Two words in the list are disputed. Isgiti is glossed as silk and as a loan from Chinese, while other scholars take it for a kind of grain.[12] Kutay is taken for a silk fabric.[13]

A modern summary

One account sums up the inscriptions in this way. The Göktürks received silk, cotton fabrics, grain, gold and silver valuables and agricultural tools from their sedentary neighbours. They got them through regulated trade in Chinese cities and at the frontier, or by raiding.[14] The same account interprets Bilge Khan’s warning as a warning against the lure of China’s gold, silver and silk.[15]

The inscriptions say nothing of where the gold and silver were mined or worked.[1] A gold diadem in a silver chest was found at the monument of Bilge Khan. The article on Bilge Khan’s golden crown tells the find and the dispute over its date.

References

  1. ^ a b Kül Tegin inscription; Bilge Khan inscription
  2. ^ a b c Kül Tegin inscription
  3. ^ Kül Tegin inscription
  4. ^ Tekin 1968, p. 272
  5. ^ Tekin o. J., p. 52
  6. ^ Ögel 1978, p. 392–393
  7. ^ a b c Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 194
  8. ^ a b c Bilge Khan inscription
  9. ^ Pelliot 1929, p. 231
  10. ^ a b c Kül Tegin inscription
  11. ^ Kül Tegin inscription
  12. ^ Tekin o. J., p. 103
  13. ^ Ögel 1978, p. 402
  14. ^ Golden 1992, p. 153
  15. ^ Golden 1992, p. 10

Sources

Literature

  • Talât Tekin, A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic (1968)
  • Talât Tekin, Orhon Yazıtları. Kül Tigin, Bilge Kağan, Tunyukuk (o. J.)
  • Bahaeddin Ögel, Türk Kültür Tarihine Giriş V: Türklerde giyecek ve süslenme (1978)
  • Paul Pelliot, Neuf notes sur des questions d'Asie Centrale (1929)
  • Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)

Related

What links here3

Institutions and Titles
Gold and Silver Vessels as Tang Gifts to the Uyghurs · Raw Materials and Trade among the Turkic Peoples · The Economy of the Steppe Empires

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Gold and Silver in the Orkhon Inscriptions.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/institutions/gold-and-silver-in-the-inscriptions/

Last revised: 8 November 2026