Rouran epochGöktürk epochUyghur epochKirghiz epoch
RouranFirst GöktürkTang ruleSecond GöktürkUyghurKirghizHunsWestern GöktürkTürgeshKarlukKhazar
  • 400
  • 500
  • 600
  • 700
  • 800
  • 900

The Tes inscription is a runiform stele of the Uyghur Khaganate. It stood on the hill Nogoon-tolgoi in the valley of the river Tes, in the western Khangai in north-western Mongolia.[1] It is counted with Tariat and Šine-Usu as the third Uyghur stone in runiform Turkic. It survives in pieces, and not one line is complete.[1]

Find and condition

B. Ja. Vladimirtsov found the stone in 1915 and did not publish it. Mongolian-Russian expeditions examined it in 1969 and 1975, and it is now in Ulaanbaatar.[1]

Surviving text

The text that remains is in the third person, with verbs in -dï. This sets it apart from Tariat and Šine-Usu, where the first person is frequent.[2] Four passages yield content.

The fourth line of the west face begins with the year taqïγu yïl, the cock year. Volker Rybatzki notes that it could be 757.[2] In the fifth line, after a gap, stands yasï tägip učdï, “he reached his age and died”. Árpád Berta takes the man who died for El-Etmiš, that is Bayanchur Khan.[2] On the south face stands čït tikdi örgin yaratdï, which Rybatzki renders “he drove a stake into the ground and made the throne”.[2]

The fourth passage is shared with Tariat. The north face of Tes, in lines three and four, has almost word for word the passage that stands in the second line of the east face of Tariat, with the two names qadïr qasar and äbdi bärsil.[2]

Purpose

Rybatzki connects Šine-Usu with a tomb and takes Tariat and, probably, Tes for inscribed boundary marks. The phrase about the stake on the south face points, in his view, to a boundary stone.[3]

Date

The three Uyghur stones have been put in different orders. S. G. Klyashtorny places Tariat at about 753 to 756, Šine-Usu at about 760 and Tes at about 761 or 762. Berta puts Tes first, at about 750, then Tariat in 752 or 753 and Šine-Usu in 759. Rybatzki puts Šine-Usu in 760 or 761, Tariat before it and Tes after it.[1] Tekin’s grammar of the Orkhon Turkic gives 750 for Tes.[4]

Reliability

Tes adds little to the story of the khaganate as long as no line is whole and no year is agreed. Its worth lies in the group: with Tariat and Šine-Usu it makes three runiform stones of the Uyghur Khaganate, and two of the three share a passage.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Rybatzki 2011, p. 65–66
  2. ^ a b c d e Rybatzki 2011, p. 66
  3. ^ Rybatzki 2011, p. 63, 66
  4. ^ Tekin 2003, p. 15, 19

Sources

Literature

  • Volker Rybatzki, Taryat, Tes ve Şine Usu Yazıtları Arasındaki Dil Bilimsel ve Tarihî Bağlar Üzerine Bazı Notlar (Some Notes on the Philological and Historical Relations Between the Terx, Tes and Sine Usu Inscriptions) (2011)
  • Talât Tekin, Orhon Türkçesi Grameri (2003)

Articles resting on this source 1

Old Uyghur

Related

What links here3

States
Uyghur Khaganate
Languages
Old Uyghur
Sources
Tariat inscription

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Tes inscription.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/tes-inscription/

Last revised: 8 November 2026