Kul Tigin's Funeral and the Foreign Envoys (731)

Kul Tigin, commander of the Second Turkic Khaganate and younger brother of Bilge Khagan, died on 27 February 731. In keeping with Turkic custom a "yuğ", a funeral rite, was held in his memory.

The Kul Tigin inscription records that envoys came to the rite from the Tabgach (Chinese) emperor, led by Isyi Likeñ, bringing much gold, silver and silk, and that Bölün came from the Tibetan king. From the west came representatives of the Sogdians, the Berchiker (Persians) and the people of Bukhara, from the east the Khitans and Tatabı, and from the north the Kyrgyz.

The Tang emperor Xuanzong had the Chinese text of the monument composed and sent stonemasons from China. The Turkic text of the monument, raised in 732, was written by Kul Tigin's nephew Yollug Tigin. It is one of the earliest documents in which the arrival of foreign envoys is recorded in the Turks' own language.