Dochia

Dochia is the Göktürks’ own name for the rites owed to the dead. It survives once, in Greek, in the history of Menander, who explains it in a half-sentence: dochia they call in their own tongue the customs for the dead.^[1]

The mourning of 576

The word belongs to the embassy of Valentinos. In 576 the Roman envoy came to Türk-shad, called Turxanthos by Menander, and found him in mourning for his father Silziboulos, that is, Istemi.^[1] Turxanthos told the envoys that they had found him in the greatest grief. Therefore, he said, they must cut their faces with their knives, as the custom for the dead required. Valentinos and his companions slashed their cheeks with their daggers.^[1]

On one of the days of mourning Turxanthos had four Hunnic captives brought in bonds, together with his father’s horses. In the barbarian tongue he ordered them to go there and tell his father Silziboulos how much …. The text breaks off at that point.^[1] What was done with the four men is lost in the gap.

The rite in the Chinese accounts

The face-cutting Menander saw is the rite the Chinese histories describe. In the Zhou Shu the kin of the dead ride seven times round the tent. At each coming to the door they cut their faces with a knife and weep, so that blood and tears run together.^[2] The Sui Shu has the same seven circuits and the same wounds.^[3] A Roman and a Chinese witness, writing without knowledge of each other, describe one custom.

The article on burial sets out the whole rite. The word itself stands only here. Which Turkic word Menander’s Greek renders is not stated in any source.