Andrew West 魏安

@babelstone.co.uk

1689 Followers 437 Following

Independent researcher of Tangut, Khitan, and Jurchen. Developer of BabelPad and BabelMap. Maintainer of BabelStone Han font. Responsible for adding over 10,000 characters to the Unicode Standard. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2063-7389

Screenshot of BabelPad showing a custom Han pinyin input method listing characters with reading tā, including U+323BF 𲎿
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.
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.
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.
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.
Screenshot from the Unicode code chart for CJK Unified Ideographs Extension H showing the characters U+31C1F through U+31C21.
Yuen Ren Chao: "Readings in Sayable Chinese" (San Francisco, 1969), vol. II p. 31 showing the Jabberwocky poem in Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization.
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
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.
Notice of forthcoming publication of Handbook of Epigraphic Cultures [ISBN 978-3-11-124094-7] in three volumes, publication date February 2026
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]
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.
Child wearing a gau pendant, and eating something. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.
A smiling man. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.
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.
Young English man wearing nondescript clothing sitting down before a cup, bowl and thermos flask, smiling at the camera. Photograph circa 1 March 1985.
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.
Various utensils laid out on the ground, with the sky burial rock crowded with vultures in the background. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.
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.
A man in a hat cooking food over the ashes of an open fire. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 1 March 1985.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Two large rocks on a rocky hillside, each painted with a Buddhist figure. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.
Old Tibetan man sitting on the ground. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.
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.
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.
A Tibetan pilgrim prostrating himself as he circumambulates the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.
Six Tibetan pilgrims prostrating themselves on a street. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.
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.
Tin plaque depicting Chairman Mao and Lin Biao, but with faded colours, and the Tibetan text entirely faded away.
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.
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.
The front of Ramoche Temple undergoing renovation. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.
The minaret of Lhasa mosque, next to a street with pedestrians and cyclists. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 March 1985.
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.
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.
A Tibetan man seated by the side of the path, wearing a black frilled 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.
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.
View of buildings and roofs at the top of the Potala Palace. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.
The entrance to the Potala Palace, with Tibetan and Han men, women and children queuing up enter through the narrow doorway at the bottom of a whitewashed facade inset with yellow-painted wooden windows. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.
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.
Looking up at the Potala Palace in a cloudless sky. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.
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.
View of the Potala Palace from on top of Chagpori (Iron Hill). Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.
View of the Potala Palace from on top of Chagpori (Iron Hill). Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.
View of the Potala Palace from on top of Chagpori (Iron Hill). Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.
View of the Potala Palace from on top of Chagpori (Iron Hill). Photograph by Andrew West, circa 28 February 1985.
Man in a PLA uniform standing with another man in front of a darkened window in a small room. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 27 February 1985.
Man in a PLA uniform standing with his arms crossed in front of a table strewn with food and drink, and a poster of a female martial artist on the wall above. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 27 February 1985.
Myself and the guy in a group photo with the two ladies, standing in front of a bed frame. Photograph by the PLA guy, circa 27 February 1985.
Two Chinese men, one wearing a PLA uniform, and two Chinese women with permed hair and matching pink padded jackets, standing for a group photo in a small room. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 27 February 1985.
Andrew West and some guy standing together in a room with a messy table covered in food and drink. Photograph circa 27 February 1985.
Two men sitting on the railings in front of the Potala Palace. Photograph circa 27 February 1985.
View of the Potala Palace across a lake. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 27 February 1985.
Man standing in front of a lake, behind which is the Potala Palace. Photograph by Andrew West, circa 27 February 1985.