Chinese Seal Script

[Rahulan Gunanayagam]

Can anyone identify the characters in this seal script?

[Jim]

I'm not sure this is Chinese. I flipped the picture too, thinking this might be a printing block or seal, but bar the element that looks a bit like 東 in a couple of the characters the rest struck me as more some Devanagari-derived script or the like. Very much not very informed opinion though

[Rahulan Gunanayagam]

Hi Jim, Thanks for your thoughts. This is a seal made of one stone, possibly soap stone. Where the paint is exposed due to wear and tear the stone seems to be white. See added photo.

[Rahulan Gunanayagam]

Can these scripts be in Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary?

[honglam]

On 2/29/2024 at 9:08 AM, Rahulan Gunanayagam said:

Can these scripts be in Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary?

Not I guess. Chunoms are still compound of Chinese character parts. But I could barely recognise any such parts here. It's really strange. Some symbols gave me an impression of Traditional Mongolian script and Tibetan script, but the script's still undecipherable. And It's not Tangut language either I'd say.

Is there any info about where you get this seal? I think further info may helps. But I'm afraid that this seal's a merely "pseudo-Chinese" Grafts.

[Rahulan Gunanayagam]

Vietnam or Laos?

[Rahulan Gunanayagam]

Any idea what this symbol is?

[Rahulan Gunanayagam]

Any thoughts on this script?

[Ruiyan]

I showed the top image to an antiquarian acquaintance of mine, who often haunts the local university library. He looked at it for a quite a while, before finally pronouncing it a nearly forgotten script peculiar to the monastery on the Plateau of Leng.

 

It is read in a counter-clockwise fashion, beginning in the bottom right. It says, 1. From 2. Howling 3. Wastes 4. [...] 5. Shall 6. Awaken.

 

He absolutely refused to translate the fourth character. I asked him if he didn't recognize it- he said, unfortunately, he recognized it all too well. He wouldn't say anything more. He advises you to have the thing destroyed at your earliest convenience. 

[Rahulan Gunanayagam]

Hi Ruiyan, Thanks for your thoughts. What about the second old Chinese character script?

[Rahulan Gunanayagam]

Hi Ruiyan, I would really like to have more information on this Seal script.

1. Is there a name for this script?

2. How old is this script?

3. What is the significance of Elephant, Water buffalo, Boy playing the flute to this cult?

4. monastery on the Plateau of Leng is in which country?

[Guest realmayo]

Ruiyan is joking or playing with you: if you google "Plateau of Leng" you will see it is not a real place but comes from the imagination of a novelist.