Inscribing the corpus: Scribal and ritual practice in the material culture of dunhuang

Qualities of the written sign impact the process of parsing a text, of making it accessible for vision, contemplation, recitation, and memory. In this article, I approach the manuscript as a visual field ordered by the configuration, combination, and differentiation of marks. This approach considers the particular challenges and potentialities that the space of the manuscript presents to a scribe as well as to a reader and how this blurs the boundaries between text and image. Through a case study of a Tibetan ritual manual, I illuminate the act of inscription as a technology with material, ritual, mnemonic, and pedagogical applications.