The Orkhon-Yenisei monuments: the To‘nyuquq inscription

The Orkhon-Yenisei monuments take their name from the basins of the Orkhon river in Mongolia and the Yenisei river in Siberia; they are also called “stone inscriptions” because most were carved on gravestones. The largest are “To‘nyuquq” and “Kul Tegin”. The To‘nyuquq inscription is written on two pillars (one 170 cm, the other 160 cm); it was found in 1897 in northern Mongolia by Yelizaveta and Dmitriy Klemens and still stands at Bain Sokto, 66 km south-east of Ulaanbaatar. The text is told by Bilga To‘nyuquq himself, in the first person: he spent his youth in the land of Tabg‘ach (China), when the Turkic people were subject to it; later, because the Turks gave up their own khan and submitted again, the people almost vanished. Gathering seven hundred people, To‘nyuquq restored the state together with Eltarish khagan, led campaigns against enemy alliances and won victories. The text is in the Turkic runic script; the book gives it transcribed into modern Uzbek.