China is a united multinational country. The 5 thousand years of history created wonderful multinational cultures. There are more than 30 kinds of ancient languages all together, which have recorded a great quantity of ancient historical documents of China. More than 120 items on display showed three prominent characteristics of the exhibition. 

The first is that the exhibits span a long history. The earliest exhibit is the broken piece of lections in Yanqi-Qiuci written language (i.e. Tochroian) of 5 century to 7 century, which is one thousand years earlier than the latest exhibit of books in Manzu written language and Mongolian of 19 century. The second is that the exhibits are collected all over China, from the north grassland to the west valley, from the Cangjing Cave of Dunhuang in Gansu province northwest to Xishuangbanna of Yunnan Province southwest of China. The third is the richness of the languages of the exhibits on display. 

On the exhibition, we can see the dead languages only known by the experts, the ancient books most of which still can be translated and read today, Dongba pictorial writings, which is called “live fossil of written language�E and the alphabetic writings using letters. This exhibition reveals the plenty forms of China ancient documents of minority nationalities: books, archives, signal tablets, coins, seals and so on. Except paper, the materials of the exhibited documents include stone, jade, metal, leaf, wood and silk product. A special corner is set to display the exhibits of 3 kinds of languages and literature, none of which is known today. One of them is a book recorded the pronunciation of the unknown language in Chinese Characters. NLC is looking forward to knowledgeable persons. 

NLC has started the collection and collation of Chinese national documents since the establishment of 1909. It has been a very important daily work of NLC to collect actual publications of national languages nowadays. Today NLC is one of the largest units of collecting actual minority nationalities publications, which held 104,241 volumes of books, 207 titles of periodicals and 5 titles of newspaper. Furthermore, Carrying forward the good tradition of collection of ancient books, NLC had collected a mount of ancient national books in the languages of Daizu, Suizu, Chahetai and etc. from Yunnan, Guizhou and Xinjiang provinces in the recent 20 years, hugely enriched the NLC holdings. Now NLC has become the largest library in connection with the variety of languages and the quantity of national ancient books, holding 345,555 volumes of ancient documents in 16 kind of national languages. 

Lijinyou, the Assistant Director of National Ethnic Affairs Committee, Libaoqun, the Director of Beijing Ethnic Affairs Committee and Zhaonasitu, the Advisor of China Institute of Ancient Ethnic Written Language and the distinguished expert of Basiba language, and the other honored guests visited the exhibition after the ceremony.  NLC Holding Treasure Exhibition of Ancient Nationalities Documents is free to the readers. The relative books “General Bibliographical Abstract of Chinese Minority Nationalities Ancient Books, Tibetan Vol.",_“General Bibliography of Chinese Ancient Documents Treasure"_on the exhibition also attracted the interests and concerns of the experts. 
 

Main Exhibition Content

1.  Turki

Turki is a kind of alphabetic writing using by ancient Turki, which had been used by the Tukic Khan kingdoms of 6 century and the Huihe Khan kingdoms of 8 century. Turki was popular at Siberia, Mongolia, Yenisei field, Gansu, Xiniang and Mid-Asia. Turki left few documents, most of which are inscription tablets. Some paper copies have been found in Dunhuang and Xinjiang.

Bijia Khan Stone Tablet  was found on 735 AD. The facade is ancient Chinese characters and while the shade part of the tablet is scribed in Turki, praising the force conquest of Bijia Khan.
 
 

2.  Dongba language

Dongba language, an old pictograph, is used by the Naxi people living upper reaches of Jinsha River. Dongba means “wiser�E Dongba language got its name from the usage of writing Dongba religion sutras. The creation time of the language is generally regarded as 7 century.

The primitive written and ideographic methods of Dongba language are of great value to study on how ancient people use primitive pictograph to record language.
Dongba Sutra is an encyclopedia of researching ancient Naxi nationality. Now there are about 20 thousand copies of book of Dongba sutras in the world, among which 4 thousand copies are collected in NLC.

3. Basiba language

Basiba language is a kind of alphabetic writing created by Basiba, the Prime Minister of Yuan Dynasty. Most of the letters of Basiba language were imitating Tibetan. Basba language was the official language of Yuan Dynasty, and put in use on 1269 AD. It had popularized for 110 years and vanished with the destruction of the dynasty. The existent documents include inscriptions on stone tablet, official seals, signal tablets and books, which are the rare materials to study the history of Yuan Dynasty and ancient Mongolian and Chinese phonology.
 
 
 

4.  Broken piece of lections in Yanqi-Qiuci language 

Yanqi-Qiuci language, also called Tocharoian, was the language used by the people living on Xinjiang of 3-9 century and was found by the end of 19 century on Kuqa, Yanqi and Turpan.
Yanqi-Qiuci documents are mainly Buddhist Scriptures and records. The sources and the contents of exhibits still need checking.
 
 
 

5. Tibetan

Tibetan was created at 7 century. Tibetan ancient documents are of the most quantity among national ancient books, which can be divided into two parts: Tibetan regime period and the ancient documents between 13 and 19 century.
The documents of Tibetan regime period include hand-copied books, such as Dunhuang Buddhist scripture rolls, metal and stone inscriptions and bamboo slips. After 11 century, scholars had composed and translated a great deal of Tibetan documents.
 
 
 
 
 

6. Mongolian

Mongolian was published for enforcement by Genghis Khanin of 13 century. After 17 century, Mongolian was reformed for several times and changed distinctly, which is called modern Mongolian. Today, there are only exist several ten pieces of original documents before 17 century, most of which are stone inscriptions, seals and signal tablets. NLC owns a large amount of modern Mongolian documents, consisting the important part of ancient treasure of national documents.