iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 02/06/2025

Yes. Although it is possible to create your own input method or modify an existing input method, for example my BabelPad text editor easily allows for custom input methods:

Screenshot of BabelPad showing a custom Han pinyin input method listing characters with reading tā, including U+323BF 𲎿

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 27/05/2025

My reconstruction and identification of a partially-preserved Tangut character in a unique fragment of the Homophones text held at the British Library www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n53...

Fragment of folio 56A of the B version of the Tangut Homophones text held at the British Library, showing twelve partial entries with eight complete or partial head characters. The partial head character on the bottom right is identified and proposed for encoding in the linked document.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 25/05/2025

First step towards the encoding of Jurchen *small script* characters, by @cosmicore.bsky.social and myself www.unicode.org/wg2/docs/n53...

Gold paizi found in Chengde, Hebei in 1972, with a vertical inscription in Jurchen small script characters (two clusters of three characters each) beneath a huaya 花押 symbol. Photograph courtesy of Vladimir Belyaev.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 02/05/2025

We went to Harbin next. Apparently the Ice Festival only started as an annual event in January 1985, but I can't remember whether there were still any ice sculptures standing when we visited. But anyway, here I am with tóngxué Nicky S. having fun on an elephant slide. 📷 Adrian P. Bradshaw.

Andrew West wearing a straw hat and Nicky S. wearing a beret on a sliding down a concrete slide in the form of a tusked elephant. Photograph by Adrian P. Bradshaw on or about 2nd May 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 01/05/2025

Suave, sophisticated, international man of style and mystery. Me wearing my Lhasa straw hat adorned with a plastic lobster in celebration of the May Day holiday, Chéngdé 承德 China, 1st May 1985. 📷 Adrian P. Bradshaw.

Youthful Andrew West sitting against a wall painted with three large explanation marks, wearing a long greyish-white scarf and a straw hat decorated with a red plastic lobster. At Chengde, China, on or about 1st May 1985. Photograph by Adrian P. Bradshaw.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 29/04/2025

⿱莫用 (U+31C20 𱰠) was added in CJK Ext. H in September 2022 (Unicode 15.0), and ⿰勿愛 (U+324D6 𲓖) will be in CJK Ext. J coming to Unicode 17.0 in September 2025. Both characters were submitted for encoding by UK.

Screenshot from the Unicode code chart for CJK Unified Ideographs Extension H showing the characters U+31C1F through U+31C21.

Screenshot from the Unicode code chart for CJK Unified Ideographs Extension J showing the characters U+324D5 through U+324D7.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 29/04/2025

Chao's translation of Through the Looking Glass which was published in 1969 as Vol. II of his "Readings in Sayable Chinese", with parallel Gwoyeu Romatzyh and hànzì versions, is a pale imitation of what the 1932 edition would have been. The Chinese typography is horrible, bopomofo replacements ugly.

Yuen Ren Chao: "Readings in Sayable Chinese" (San Francisco, 1969), vol. II p. 31 showing the Jabberwocky poem in Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization.

Yuen Ren Chao: "Readings in Sayable Chinese" (San Francisco, 1969), vol. II p. 32 showing the Jabberwocky poem in traditional Chinese characters.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 29/04/2025

I did a long twitter thread on Chao's Jabberwocky translation and his invented Chinese characters, including an image of his annotated proof of the lost 1932 edition of 《走到鏡子裏》("Through the Looking-Glass") prepared by the Commercial Press in Shanghai but blown up by the Japanese.

Proof sheet for the lost 1932 edition of 《走到鏡子裏》(“Through the Looking-Glass”) prepared by the Commercial Press in Shanghai, with Yuen Ren Chao's hand-written annotations. The 1932 edition of the book was destroyed when the Commercial Press building was bombed during the Japanese bombardment of Shanghai in 1932.

Image source: https://repository.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/en/item/cuhk-2023559

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 01/04/2025

Reminds me of this from Binary (1972)

Sanderson Scientific and Supply
Serving Hospitals and Laboratories
Since 1953
Graves had to smile. Only in California would a date like 1953 seem proof of ageless service to the consumer. "We'll wait for him here," he said, and Lewis pulled over at the end of the block and cut the engine.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 12/03/2025

I was invited onto the project in January 2023 as a very late replacement for a more qualified scholar who had to withdraw, but I managed to submit my two chapters on Khitan and Tangut epigraphy by the end of July 2023. Original publication was planned for late 2023, but now expected February 2026.

Notice of forthcoming publication of Handbook of Epigraphic Cultures [ISBN 978-3-11-124094-7] in three volumes, publication date February 2026

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 12/03/2025

Monumental three-volume Handbook of Epigraphic Cultures to be published by De Gruyter, early next year hopefully. Open Access eBook! Includes chapters on Khitan and Tangut epigraphy.

Flyer publicizing two forthcoming Handbooks on Material Text Culture from De Gruyter: Handbook of Medieval Book Ornament [ISBN 978-3-11-141107-1] and Handbook of Epigraphic Cultures (3 volumes) [ISBN 978-3-11-124094-7]

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

The human remains have now been entirely devoured by the vultures and crows, and the rogyapa wants to take a photograph with me on the rock. This is the final photograph and I am all out of film. Actually my last ever photograph with this camera.

Andrew West and the rogyapa crouching on the sky burial rock, all the human remains having now been devoured by the vultures and crows. Photograph circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

A child wearing a gau pendant having a snack

Child wearing a gau pendant, and eating something. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

The friendly rogyapa posing for the camera

A smiling man. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

Some of the relatives or friends of the deceased

Two Tibetan women and a Tibetan man, one of the women carrying a baby on her back. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

Having discarded his white overclothes the rogyapa washes his hand.

Man wearing a white bandana leaning over whilst another man pours water from a metal kettle over his hands. His discarded white overclothes are on the ground. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

The other rogyapa, dressed in white overclothes and a white bandana.

Man dressed all in white and wearing a white bandana, holding a knife. A vulture is circling in the sky above him. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

The man in the fur hat was in charge of the whole affair. The possessions of the two deceased had been burned on an open fire, and here he is heating up some food on the ashes.

A man in a hat cooking food over the ashes of an open fire. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

Some foreigners (Germans or Swedes I think) arrived after me, and initially observed from a distance before I was asked to invite them over. The man dressed all in white is one of the two rogyapas who were responsible for cutting up the bodies and preparing the flesh and bones for the vultures.

Four foreign men standing behind a rogyapa dressed in white sitting on the ground, and a man in a fur hat crouching down. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

A closer view of the sky burial rock

Vultures gathered on a large pockmarked rock to consume the remains of human bodies laid out for them. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

Vultures gathered on a large rock to consume the remains of human bodies laid out for them. The rock is covered in hollows formed over many years when pounding bones with tsampa flour; the tsampa flour has whitened the entire rock.

Vultures gathered on a large rock to consume the remains of human bodies laid out for them. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

The two men dressed all in white were the rogyapas, who were responsible for cutting up the bodies and preparing the flesh and bones for consumption by the vultures.

Two men dressed all in white crouching on the ground in front of a large flour-white pockmarked rock slab on which vultures and crows are feeding on human remains. A man in a fur hat is standing next to them, pointing towards the sky. On the right of the picture is one of a group of four or five foreign tourists (German or Swedish?) who arrived some time after me, and initially observed from a distance until I was asked to invite them over. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

It took several hours to cut up the bodies, and prepare the flesh and bones for the vultures and crows by pounding and mixing with tsampa flour (hence the deep pockmarks on the rock surface). Only then are the circling vultures called down, and I can take my camera out.

Vultures and crows feeding on human remains placed on a large flour-white pockmarked rock slab. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 11/03/2025

The site of the sky burial is near Sera Monastery, and brightly-painted Buddhist paintings adorn the nearby rocks, prominently featuring Yama, god of death, with the head of a buffalo, holding a skull-tipped club in his right hand and a lasso in his left hand, standing on a bull.

Brightly-painted Buddhist paintings on rock faces. The largest painting depicts Yama, god of death, with the head of a buffalo, holding a skull-tipped club in his right hand and a lasso in his left hand, standing on a bull; with his much smaller consort Yami standing on his left side. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 10/03/2025

Today I must have visited Drepung Monastery, 5 km west of Lhasa, but the only photograph I took was this view of the roof of the main hall (note the 12 spokes on the dharma wheel, compared with the normal 8 spokes as seen on the dharma wheels on the Jokhang and Sera Monastery)

The roof of the main hall at Depung Monastery, surmounted by golden Buddhist ornaments, including two deer on either side of a wheel of dharma. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 10/03/2025

Two painted rocks, probably near Drepung Monastery to the west of Lhasa

Two large rocks on a rocky hillside, each painted with a Buddhist figure. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 10/03/2025

My last street portrait from 1985 Lhasa

Old Tibetan man sitting on the ground. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 10/03/2025

Buddhist wall paintings of Jātaka tales, but I'm afraid I don't remember where they were. The monkey riding the elephant looks as if it should depict the tale of the four harmonious friends, but I can't see a rabbit between the monkey and the bird.

Two damaged Buddhist paintings on a wall, one depicting a man and a tiger, the other depicting a monkey riding an elephant beneath a fruit tree with birds in the branches. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 10/03/2025

A Tibetan kid who adopted me for a couple of days

A Tibetan boy wearing a grey jacket and a red cap, with the rear end of a truck behind him. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 10/03/2025

Another Tibetan pilgrim circumambulating the Jokhang

A Tibetan pilgrim prostrating himself as he circumambulates the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 10/03/2025

Some pilgrims circumambulating the Jokhang (but prostrating their way round, not walking)

Six Tibetan pilgrims prostrating themselves on a street. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 10/03/2025

Anyway, back to street photography. I am nearing the end of my time in Lhasa, and nearing the end of my supply of Fujifilm. Here are some chanting monks.

Four Tibetan monks, each holding a bell in the left hand and a damaru drum in the right hand, sitting against a wall. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 10/03/2025

I am ashamed to admit that a few years ago I put the plaque on a top shelf in my study without realizing that it was in reach of the sun, and when I checked on it recently I was horrified to find that the colours had faded and all the Tibetan text had disappeared.

Tin plaque depicting Chairman Mao and Lin Biao, but with faded colours, and the Tibetan text entirely faded away.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 09/03/2025

Workmen were in the process of removing a series of Cultural Revolution tin plaques cemented into one of the walls of Ramoche Temple. They let me take this one of Chairman Mao and Lin Biao as a souvenir (apparently Lhasa never got the Lin Biao memo). Click on image for transcription and translation.

Tin plaque 33.0 × 45.0 cm in size (image omits the rusty gold coloured border).

Text:
རླབས་ཆེན་གཙོ་འཛིན་མའོ་ཀྲུའུ་ཞི་ཁྲི་ལོར་བརྟན་པ་ཤོག! ཁྲི་ལོར་བརྟན་པ་ཤོག! ཁྲི་ལོ་ནས་ཁྲི་ལོར་བརྟན་པ་ཤོག!
རླབས་ཆེན་གཙོ་འཛིན་མའོ་ཀྲུའུ་ཞི་དང་ཁོང་གི་མཛའ་མཐུན་འཐབ་གྲོགས་བློ་མཐུན་ལིན་པིའོ་ཀྲུང་གོ་གུང་ཁྲན་ཏང་ཀྲུང་དབྱང་ཨུ་ཡོན་ལྷན་ཁང་
སྐབས་དགུ་ཚང་འཛོམ་གྲོས་ཚོགས་ཐེངས་དང་པོའི་ཐོག་བཞུགས་ཡོད་པ
མི་རིགས་དཔེ་སྐྲུན་ཁང་གིས་སྐྲུན་པ
民族出版社出版
M8049(3)229 (藏文70京印铁)

Translation:
Long Live, Long Live, Long Live the Great Leader Chairman Mao !
The Great Leader Chairman Mao and his closest comrade at arms Comrade Lin Biao at the 1st Plenary Session of the 9th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China [28 April 1969].
Published by the Nationalities Publishing House.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 09/03/2025

Tin plaques depicting Chairman Mao at Ramoche Temple in Lhasa

Two pictures of Chairman Mao on tin plaques, one a bust of Mao wearing a grey Mao suit with the inscription 毛主席万岁！ (Long live Chairman Mao!), and one underneath it with Mao in army uniform with his hand raised. The two tin plaques are placed inside a brightly painted wooden structure in Ramoche Temple, with Sanskrit writing on the piece above Chairman Mao's head. Photograph by Andrew West, 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 09/03/2025

Ramoche Temple (Chinese 小昭寺 in contrast to 大昭寺 = Jokhang), which was undergoing renovation after being badly damaged during the Cultural Revolution.

The front of Ramoche Temple undergoing renovation. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 09/03/2025

The minaret of the Lhasa mosque. Around the corner was a Muslim teahouse which served black tea with lumps of rock sugar.

The minaret of Lhasa mosque, next to a street with pedestrians and cyclists. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 09/03/2025

The entrance to a mosque in Lhasa. I guess it is the Lhasa Small Mosque, but I have only been able to find a single photograph of the same mosque on the internet (coincidentally also from 1985 and the same angle as my photo)

View of a mosque and its minaret from a crowded street in Lhasa, with the Chinese inscription 清真寺 'mosque' over the entrance. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 March 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 08/03/2025

On the east side of Red Hill, on which the Potala Palace is built, are two Qing dynasty rock inscriptions in Chinese, one headed "用昭萬世" and one headed "異域流芳", both engraved in Kangxi 60 (1721) and recounting the Qing military expedition the previous year to expel the Dzungar Khanate from Tibet.

A rock face with two large inscriptions engraved in Chinese, in front of which is a stand for seven prayer wheels. On the left of the picture are a pile of mani stones, and above them the Mani mantra is written three times in six colours on the rock face. There are a string of prayer flags at the top of the cliff. Several people and a cyclist are passing by. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 08/03/2025

On the way down from the Potala Palace

A Tibetan family and others on the path down from the Potala Palace. There is a Tibetan man seated by the side of the path, wearing a black veil over his face, and holding a bell in his left hand and a drum in his right hand, with traditional style Tibetan books laid out on a rock in front of him. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 08/03/2025

View of the roofs at the top of the Potala Palace

View of buildings and roofs at the top of the Potala Palace. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 08/03/2025

The entrance to the Potala Palace

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 08/03/2025

Walking up towards the entrance to the Potala Palace

Four Tibetan men walking along a footpath between whitewashed walls leading up to the entrance of the Potala Palace, with one Tibetan man sitting on a step in the pathway facing the oncoming men. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 08/03/2025

Today is the day (40 years ago) that I visit the Potala Palace

Looking up at the Potala Palace in a cloudless sky. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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Andrew West 魏安 @babelstone.co.uk · 08/03/2025

I'm not sure where this is. Somewhere between the top of Chagpori, where I was in the previous photo, and on the way up to the Potala Palace, where I am in the next photo.

Looking up at a Tibetan style building with two young boys standing in front of it, one wearing a red jacket and an army-style cap. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.

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