Fragments of the Testament of Ba from Dunhuang‪.‬

1. INTRODUCTION Tibetan historical literature may be conveniently divided into two groups. The first group comprises the Tibetan historical texts recovered from the library cave at Dunhuang, dating from the Tibetan occupation of Dunhuang in the late eighth century to the sealing of the cave in the early eleventh century. (1) Foremost among this group are the royal records known as the Old Tibetan Annals and the Old Tibetan Chronicle. The second and much more substantial group comprises the histories preserved in Tibet in manuscripts and printed books, dating from the eleventh century through to the twentieth-century histories composed by Tibetan scholars still working in the traditional idiom. (2)