Two Contributions to the History of Tibetan Printing

Matthew Kapstein

Two recent articles, one concerning a fragment from a 15th or 16th c. Central Tibetan print of a work by Rgyal-tshab Dar-ma-rin-chen, the second on the 1755 Beijing edition of the Padma bka'-thang.

Matthew T. Kapstein Two Contributions to the History of Tibetan Printing Detail from the 1430 Beijing Tailongshan edition of the Jātakamālā of the Third Karmapa. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. The two articles reproduced here first appeared as: “A Fragment from a Previously Unknown Edition of the Pramāṇavārttika Commentary of Rgyal-tshab-rje Dar-ma-rin-chen (1364-1432),” in Franz-Karl Ehrhard and Petra Maurer, eds., Nepalica-Tibetica: Festgabe for Christoph Cüppers (Andiast: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH, 2014): 315-324. “Gter-ma as Imperial Treasure: The 1755 Beijing Edition of the Padma bka’ thang,” in Roberto Vitali, ed., Trails of the Tibetan Tradition: Papers for Elliot Sperling (Dharamsala: Amnye Machen, 2015), 167-187. The following error in the bibliography of the latter (p. 187) should be corrected: O-rgyan-gling-pa. 1730. Gu ru padma ’byung gnas kyi rnam par thar pa rgyas par bkod pa padma bka’i thang yig. Beijing xylograph. Laufer Collection (shelflist no. 214-215) of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. The 1730 Beijing xylograph referred to is actually the edition of the Mai bka’ ’bum cited in the article at note 7. Franz-Karl Ehrhard & Petra Maurer (Hrsg.) NEPALICA-TIBETICA FESTGABE FOR CHRISTOPH CÜPPERS BAND 1 2013 IITBS International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH Franz-Karl Ehrhard & Petra Maurer (Hrsg.) NEPALICA-TIBETICA FESTGABE FOR CHRISTOPH CÜPPERS BAND 1 BEITRÄGE ZUR ZENTRALASIENFORSCHUNG begründet von R. O. Meisezahl † und Dieter Schuh herausgegeben von Peter Schwieger Band 28, 1 NEPALICA-TIBETICA FESTGABE FOR CHRISTOPH CÜPPERS BAND 1 Herausgegeben von Franz-Karl Ehrhard & Petra Maurer 2013 IITBS International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH Abbildung Umschlag Band 1: Rolf A. Kluenter © ALI-Ranjana, 1998 Blackened, handmade Nepalese paper Pigment, binder 120x120 cm Verso dated and signed by the artist ISBN 978-3-03809-119-6 Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Ohne ausdrückliche Genehmigung des Verlages ist es nicht gestattet, das Buch oder Teile daraus fotomechanisch oder auf andere Weise zu vervielfältigen. © (IITBS) International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH, Andiast Courtesy of Cristina Scherrer-Schaub PREFACE A person’s 65th birthday is often considered as the occasion to reflect on his or her life and achievements and to express one’s thanks. This opportunity has arisen this year in the case of our friend and travelling companion Christoph Cüppers, who has dedicated his life to Tibetan and Nepalese Studies and assisted and supported many academic projects and careers in these fields. Christoph was born into a family of lawyers from the Rhineland. His academic background is unusual as he began by studying art from 1970 to 1975 at the “Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf”. He trained under artists such as Joseph Beuys and Gotthard Graubner. It was during that time that he first travelled to Asia and, on reaching Southern India, encountered Tibetan culture and its exile communities. On his return to Germany the decision was made: he changed to Oriental Studies and started to learn Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali and Chinese at the University of Hamburg. At an Institute where the study of Tibet and its Buddhist traditions had attracted a small band of fellow students, his teachers were, to name a few, dGe-bshes dGe-’dun blo-gros, Lambert Schmithausen and Albrecht Wezler. Fascinated by Asia he returned frequently to Southern India and Himachal Pradesh. A scholarship of the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes” enabled him to continue his practice on the spot: at Sera Monastery in Bylakuppe he studied Tibetan language and philosophy. With the death in 1979 of his teacher dGe-bshes dGe-’dun blo-gros, who had been a formative influence on his students, it was planned to fill the recently established chair in Tibetan Studies at the University of Hamburg with a native scholar. It was Christoph who facilitated the stay of dGe-bshes Tshul-khrims phun-tshogs at the Institute, helped in practical matters and acted as translator. Soon afterwards, in 1983, Christoph finished his dissertation, a textual study of the ninth chapter of the Samādhirājasūtra. Immediately after taking his degree he was offered by Albrecht Wezler the position of Deputy Director of the Nepal-German Manuscript Project (NGMPP) and Nepal Research Centre (NRC) in Kathmandu. On his first arrival he fell in love with the country, and his feelings towards Nepal have remained constant for the last thirty years. During his time at the NGMPP and NRC, of which he later became Director, he worked in close cooperation with the National Archives and the Department of Archaeology, collecting Tibetan manuscripts and block prints in the Kathmandu valley, and conducting expeditions to photograph manuscripts in regions of the Nepalese Himalayas such as Helambu, Southern Mustang, Jumla and Solu Khumbu. Besides his duties as Director, he supported many individual scholars in their research and assisted larger projects sponsored by the German Research Council such as the Nepal Research Programme under Bernhard Kölver. These activities continued even after his term had finished and after the establishment under Willibald Haffner and Dieter Schuh of a new programme of the German Research Council called Tibet Himalaya. In 1989 Christoph returned together with his wife Savitri and their son Bikas to his hometown of Düsseldorf in order to work on a project at the University of Bonn. His interests had changed to politics and history: the new project was concerned with state formation in 17th-century Tibet and was based on a critical edition and annotated translation of the “Guidelines for Government officials” written by the regent Sangs-rgyas rgya-mtsho. During this time he also worked on the edition and translation of a manuscript containing a Tibetan-Newari Lexicon and on a compilation of Tibetan proverbs and sayings. He also undertook a longer field trip in 1992 to Dharmsala, where he studied and collected Tibetan documents, and in 1994 he assisted the Austrian-Italian research team in Tabo in the region of Spiti. viii Preface In 1995, with the establishment by the Reiyukai of the Lumbini International Research Institute (LIRI) at Buddha’s birthplace, Christoph and Savitri returned to Nepal. Their home in Sano Thimi has served since then—like the LIRI—as a centre for scholarly exchange and personal encounters between foreign researchers and native scholars. As Director, Christoph has initiated several series of publications with a growing number of titles; they are for the most part results of research projects in the fields of Buddhist, Tibetan and Nepalese Studies, supported by the LIRI and conducted on the spot. Successful seminars have also been held in Lumbini, the first of these in the year 2000 on the subject of the “Relationship between Religion and State (chos srid zung ’brel) in Traditional Tibet.” Although the administrative duties are heavy, Christoph continues to travel and to cooperate with researchers, working, for example, with the International Tibetan Archives Preservation Trust (ITAPT) and the Tibetan Autonomous Regional Archives (TARA) in Lhasa, and finds the time to continue his research work. It is therefore a great pleasure to present to Christoph this Festgabe with contributions from friends and colleagues covering the fields of his interest and documenting his influence and inspiration. We would like to thank Dieter Schuh und Nikolai Solmsdorf, who were of great help in producing this volume and bringing the individual articles into a coherent format. Special thanks go to all the authors for delivering their articles in time and making this collection a true offering. Munich, September 2013 Franz-Karl Ehrhard & Petra Maurer TABULA GRATULATORIA JOHN ARDUSSI JÖRG HEIMBEL ALEXANDER VON ROSPATT EBERHARD BERG AMY HELLER ROLAND BIELMEIER NATHAN HILL CRISTINA SCHERRERSCHAUB HORST BRINKHAUS TONI HUBER LAMBERT SCHMITHAUSEN KATIA BUFFETRILLE ROLF A. KLUENTER DIETER SCHUH GUDRUN BÜHNEMANN ANDREAS KRETSCHMAR MARTA SERNESI VOLKER CAUMANNS DAVID P. JACKSON PETER SCHWIEGER MICHELA CLEMENTE MATHEW KAPSTEIN DAVID SEYFORT RUEGG OLAF CZAJA LEONARD VAN DER KUIJP WEIRONG SHEN HUBERT DECLEER CHRISTIAN LUCZANITZ PETER SKILLING HILDEGARD DIEMBERGER KAMAL PRAKASH MALLA PER K. SØRENSEN BRANDON DOTSON DAN MARTIN ERNST STEINKELLNER FRANZ-KARL EHRHARD KLAUS-DIETER MATHES KIMIAKI TANAKA HELMUT EIMER PETRA MAURER TASHI Y. TASHIGANGPA FELIX ERB ADELHEID METTE MANFRED TREU FRANZ XAVER ERHARD AXEL MICHAELS HELGA UEBACH MARTIN GAENSZLE MICHAEL PAHLKE ROBERTO VITALI REINHARD GREVE ULRICH PAGEL MICHAEL WALTER NIELS GUTSCHOW FRANCOISE POMMARET ALBRECHT WEZLER MICHAEL HAHN KARIN PREISENDANZ MICHAEL WITZEL PAUL HARRISON BURKHARD QUESSEL ALEXANDER WUNDER JENS-UWE HARTMANN CHARLES RAMBLE KODO YOTSUYA CONTENTS Volume One Publication List of Christoph Cüppers EBERHARD BERG On the Current Revitalization of the rNying ma Tradition among the Sherpas of Nepal xiii 1 ROLAND BIELMEIER Das Land Marutse in den Biographien des Padmasambhava 27 KATIA BUFFETRILLE The rTsib ri Pilgrimage: Merit as Collective Duty? 37 VOLKER CAUMANNS Paṇ chen Shākya mchog ldan’s Monastic Seat Thub bstan gSer mdog can (Part I): The History of its Foundation 65 OLAF CZAJA Tibetan Medicinal Plants and Their Healing Potentials 89 HILDEGARD DIEMBERGER & MICHELA CLEMENTE Royal Kinship, Patronage and the Introduction of Printing in Gung thang: From Chos kyi sgron ma to lHa btsun Rin chen rnam rgyal 119 FRANZ-KARL EHRHARD The Royal Print of the Maṇi bka' 'bum: Its Catalogue and Colophon 143 KARL-HEINZ EVERDING Introduction to a Research Project on Documents Issued During the Period of the Great Mongolian Empire to Tibetan Recipients 173 JÖRG HEIMBEL The Jo gdan tshogs sde bzhi: An Investigation into the History of the Four Monastic Communities in Śākyaśrībhadra’s Vinaya Tradition 187 AMY HELLER A Sculpture of Avalokiteśvara Donated by the Ruler of Ya tse (Ya rtse mnga’ bdag) 243 NATHAN W. HILL The Emergence of the Pluralis majestatis and the Relative Chronology of Old Tibetan Texts 249 TONI HUBER The Iconography of gShen Priests in the Ethnographic Context of the Extended Eastern Himalayas, and Reflections on the Development of Bon Religion 263 DAVID P. JACKSON Several Episodes in the Recent History of Lumbini 295 xii Contents MATTHEW T. KAPSTEIN A Fragment from a Previously Unknown Edition of the Pramāṇavārttika Commentary of Rgyal-tshab-rje Dar-ma-rin-chen (1364-1432) 315 LEONARD W.J. VAN DER KUIJP Gu ge Paṇ chen Grags pa rgyal mtshan dpal bzang po (1415-86) on the Nyi ma'i rabs (*Sūryavaṃśa) and the Tibetan Royal Families 325 PUBLICATION LIST OF CHRISTOPH CÜPPERS Monographs 1. The IXth Chapter of the Samādhirājasūtra: A Text-critical Study of Mahāyāna Sūtras (= Altund Neu-Indische Studien, 41). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1990. 2. (together with K. Tamot und P. Pierce) A Tibetan-Newari Lexicon Cum Phrase Book (= Nepalica, 10). Bonn: VGH Wissenschaftsverlag, 1996. 3. (together with P.K. Sørensen) Collection of Tibetan Proverbs and Sayings: Gems of Tibetan Wisdom and Wit (= Tibetan and Indo-Tibetan Studies, 7). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1998. 4. Die Verordnungen für das Abrechnungswesen tibetischer Amtsstellen der dGa’ ldan pho brang-Regierung. Faksimile-Edition und Transliteration der Hs. Cod. Tibet 24 der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek (= Monumenta Tibetica Historica).Andrast: International Instiute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH (in press a). 5. Staatsdienst in Tibet: Die Richtlinien für die Beamten der dGa’ ldan pho brang-Regierung nach dem Text Blang dor gsal bar ston pa’i drang thig dvangs shel gyi me long nyer gcig pa des Regenten Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho (= Monumenta Tibetica Historica). Andiast: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH (in press b). 6. Materialien zur Erforschung des traditionellen tibetischen Rechts. Faksimile und Transliteration der HS. Bell 50.31.113 b: The Tibetan Codes of Law (= Monumenta Tibetica Historica). Andiast: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH (in press c). Articles 1. “On the Manufacture of Ink.” Ancient Nepal. Journal of the Department of Archaeology, 113, 1989, pp. 1-7. 2. “Some Remarks on a Tibetan-Newari Lexicon cum Phrase-Book.” In S. Ihara & Z. Yamaguchi (eds.), Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the 5th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies. Narita 1989, Vol. 1 (= Monograph Series of Narita Institute for Buddhist Studies, Occasional Papers, 1). Narita: Narita Shinshoji, 1992, pp. 413-419. 3. “Zhabs-dkar bla-ma tshogs-drug rang-grol’s visits to Nepal and his Contribution to the Decoration of the Bodhnāth Stūpa.” In G. Toffin (ed.), Nepal. Past and Present: Proceedings of the Franco-German Conference, Arc-et-Senans, June 1990. Paris: CNRS / Dehli: Sterling, 1993, pp. 151-158. 4. “Short Remarks on the Caves of Tabo in Spiti.” Ancient Nepal. Journal of the Department of Archaeology, 138, 1995, pp. 131-134. 5. “A Ban on Animal Slaughter at Buddhist Shrines in Nepal.” In S. Karmay and P. Sagant (eds.), Les Habitants du toit du Monde. Études recueillies en hommage à Alexander W. Macdonald (= Recherches sur la Haute-Asie, 12). Nanterre: Société d’Ethnologie, 1997, pp. 677-687. xiv Publication List of Christoph Cüppers 6. “Some Aspects of Tibetan Administration under the dGa’-ldan pho-brang Government.” H. Krasser, M.T. Much, E. Steinkellner and H. Tauscher (eds.), Tibetan Studies I: Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Asociatin for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995, Vol. 1 (= Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse Denkschriften 256 / Beiträge zur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens, 21). Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997, pp. 189-193. 7. “The ’Phags-pa Script.” In A. Kretschmar (ed.), The Fifth Seal: Calligraphic Icons / Kalligraphikons. Paintings by Rolf A. Kluenther. Kathmandu 1998, pp. 49-50. 8. “Eine Merkliste mit den Aufgaben der Distriktbeauftragten (rdzong dpon) aus dem 17. Jahrhundert.” In H. Eimer, M. Hahn, M. Schetelich & P. Wyzlic (eds.), Studia Tibetica et Mongolica: Festschrift für Manfred Taube (= Indica et Tibetica, 34). Swisttal-Odendorf: Indica et Tibetica, 1999, pp. 51-70. 9. “A Letter Written by the Fifth Dalai Lama to the King of Bhaktapur.” Journal of the Nepal Research Centre, 12, 2001, pp. 39-42. 10. “Some Remarks on the Tibetan Language used in Former Government Decrees.” In Srong btsan spyi’i tshogs ’dus thengs dang po / bod kyi brda sprod skad yig gi skor. Dehradun: Songtsen Library, 2003, pp. 222-229. 11. “Ein Glossar zur Terminologie der tibetischen Urkundensprache.” Zentralasiatische Studien, 33, 2004, pp. 25-98. 12. “Newar Craftsmen Employed by the Early dGa’-ldan pho-brang Rulers.” In C. Jest, T.R. Kansakar and M. Turin (eds.), Kesar Lall: a Homage on the Occasion of his Buraa Kanko. Kathmandu: Marina Paper, 2004, pp. 30-33. 13. “Brag-dkar-ba Chos-kyi dbang-phyug’s reminder notes for the duties of a dkon-gnyer.” In S. Hino and T. Wada (eds.), Three Mountains and Seven Rivers: Prof. Musashi Tachikawa’s felicitation volume. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2004, pp. 601-606. 14. “The classification of people: romanized text edition and English translation of the sKyes bu rnam ’byed bshad pa gzhon nu’i mgul rgyan attributed to Sa-skya Paṇḍita Kun-dga’ rgyal-mtshan.” Journal of the International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies, 7, 2004, pp. 107-160. 15. (together with Dieter Schuh, Roland Bielmeier und Burghart Schmidt) “Forschungsbericht über die Exploration der Höhlen des Muktinath-Tales (1986-1987).” Zentralasiatische Studien, 35, 2006, pp. 107-172. 16. “bsTan ’dzin Chos rgyal’s Bhutan Legal Code of 1729 in Comparison with sDe srid Sangs rgyas rgya mtsho’s Guidelines for Government Officials.” In J.A. Ardussi and F. Pommaret (eds.), Bhutan: Tradition and Changes (= Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library, 10/5). Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2007, 45-52. 17. “Registers and Account Books of the dGa’-ldan pho-brang Government.” In R. Prats (ed.), The Pandita and the Siddha: Tibetan Studies in Honour of E. Gene Smith. Dharamsala: Amnye Machen Institute, 2007, pp. 12-15. 18. “Die Reise- und Zeltlagerordnung des Fünften Dalai Lama.” In B. Kellner, H. Krasser, H. Lasic, W.T. Much and H. Tauscher (eds.), Pramāṇkīrtiḥ: Papers Dedicated to Ernst Steinkellner on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday, Part 1 (= Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie Publication List of Christoph Cüppers xv und Buddhismuskunde, 70.1). Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien der Universität Wien, 2007, pp. 37-51. 19. (together with Franz-Karl Ehrhard) “Die Kupferplatten der Könige Ādityamalla und Puṇyamalla von Ya-tshe.” In P. Maurer und P. Schwieger (eds.), Tibetstudien: Festschrift für Dieter Schuh zum 65. Geburtstag. Bonn: Bier’sche Verlagsanstalt, 2007, pp. 37-42. 20. “Some Remarks on the Entries and Quotations Taken from the rtsis gzhi phyogs bsgrigs (Rtsii) in S.C. Das’ Tibetan-English Dictionary.” In B. Huber, M. Volkart and P. Widmer (eds.), Chomolangma, Demawend and Kasbek: Festschrift für Roland Bielmeier zu seinem 65. Geburtstag, Vol. 1: Chomolangma(= Beiträge zur Zentralasienforschung, 12.1). Halle: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH, 2008, pp. 15-28. 21. “Some Remarks on Bka’ ’gyur Production in 17th-Century Tibet.” In A. Chayet, C. Scherrer-Schaub, F. Robin & J.-L. Achard (eds.), Edition, éditions: l’écrit au Tibet, évolution et devenir (= Collectanea Himalayica, 3). München: Indus Verlag, 2010, pp. 115128. 22. “Ein Erlaß des Königs Gushri Khan aus dem Jahr 1643.” Zentralasiatische Studien, 40, 2011, pp. 165-177. 23. “Gtsang khrims yig chen mo — A Tibetan legal code kept in the National Archives of Nepal.” Abhilekh, 30, V.S. 2069 (2013), pp. 87-106. Edited Volumes 1. (together with Franz-Karl Ehrhard and Philip Pierce) Views of the Bodhnath Stupa (= Bauddha Books, 1). Kathmandu: Vajra Publications, 1991. 2. (together with Franz-Karl Ehrhard and Ulrike Roesler) Ulrike & Hans-Ulrich Roesler: Kadampa Sites of Phenpo: A Guide to some early Buddhist Monasteries in Central Tibet (= Bauddha Books, 2). Kathmandu: Vajra Publications, 2004. 3. The Relationship Between Religion and State (chos srid zung ’brel) in Traditional Tibe: Proceedings of a Seminar Held in Lumbini, Nepal, March 2000 (= LIRI Seminar Proceedings Series, 1). Lumbini: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2004. 4. (together with Max Deeg and Hubert Durt) The Birth of the Buddha: Proceedings of the Seminar Held in Lumbini, Nepal, October 2004 (= LIRI Seminar Proceeding Series, 3). Lumbini: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2010. 5. (together with Leonard van der Kuijp, Ulrich Pagel. With a Chinese Introduction by Dobis Tsering Gyal) Handbook of Tibetan Iconometry. A Guide to the Arts of the 17th Century (= Tibetan Studies Library, 16:4). Leiden / Boston, 2012. Reviews 1. Tachikawa, Musashi & Yasuhiko Nagano: A Catalogue of te United Staes Library of Congress Collection of Tibetan Literature on Microfiche. Part II (= Bibliographica Buddhica, Series Maior, 3 b). Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1988. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 142, 1992, pp. 208-210. xvi Publication List of Christoph Cüppers 2. Ehrhard, Franz-Karl: “Flügelschläge des Garuḍa.” Literar- und ideengeschichtliche Bemerkungen zu einer Liedersammlung des rDzogs-chen (= Tibetan- and Indo-Tibetan Studies, 3). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1990. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 145, 1995, pp. 450-452. 3. Eimer, Helmut: Der Tantra-Katalog des Bu-ston im Vergleich mit der Abteilung Tantra des tibetischen Kanjur (= Indica et Tibetica, 17). Bonn: Indica et Tibetica, 1989. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 145, 1995, pp. 201-202. 4. Harrison, Paul: The Samādhi of Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of the Present (= Studia Philologica Buddhica, Monograph Series, 9). Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1990. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 145, 1995, pp. 199-201. Lexicographical Contributions 1. “Religionen des Himalaya.” In Bertelsmann Handbuch Religionen der Welt: Grundlagen, Entwicklung und Bedeutung in der Gegenwart. Gütersloh / München: Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag GmbH, 1992, pp. 419-421. 2. http://www.tibet-encyclopaedia.de/kompensationsrecht.html 3. http://www.tibet-encyclopedia.de/gesetzbuecher.html 4. http://www.tibet-encyclopedia.de/regierungsverordnung.html CONTENTS Volume Two CHRISTIAN LUCZANITS The Buddha Beyond: Figuration in Gandharan Cult Imagery 1 DAN MARTIN Pavements Like the Sea and the Name of the Jokhang: King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba in Lhasa? 23 KLAUS-DIETER MATHES Clouds of Offerings to Lady g.Yang ri—A Protector Practice by the First Yol mo sprul sku Shākya bzang po (15th/16th Cent.) 37 PETRA MAURER Pferderennen und ihre Bedeutung in Tibet 57 CHARLES RAMBLE Both Fish and Fowl? Preliminary Reflections on Some Representations of a Tibetan Mirror-World 75 ALEXANDER VON ROSPATT Altering the Immutable: Textual Evidence in Support of an Architectural History of the Svayambhū Caitya of Kathmandu 91 CRISTINA SCHERRER-SCHAUB A Frontier Tale: Fragmented Historical Notes on Spiti Monasteries Documents Kept in the Museum of Lahore. Part I. 117 DIETER SCHUH Tibetischen Inschriften ins Maul geschaut: Beobachtungen zu Stein- und Felsinschriften sowie den Schriften des 7. bis 9. Jahrhunderts in Tibet 143 PETER SCHWIEGER A Forbidden Nepalese-Tibetan Love Affair 185 MARTA SERNESI Rare Prints of bKa’ brgyud Texts: A Preliminary Report 191 WEIRONG SHEN Revitalizing Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Studies: Some Old and New Thoughts 211 PETER SKILLING The Samādhirāja-Sūtra and its Mahāsāṃghika Connections 227 PER K. SØRENSEN & FRANZ XAVER ERHARD Tibetan Proverbial Literature: Semantics and Metaphoricity in Context 237 MANFRED G. TREU Lakṣmīprasāda Devakoṭās Essay "Auf der Sitzmatte" 253 vi Contents HELGA UEBACH The lHo-brag Cliff Inscription: An Attempt to Read it with the Help of Katia Buffetrille’s Photographs of 1988 261 ROBERTO VITALI From Sum ru to the Great Central Asian “Sea of Sand”: Hints on the Role of the mThong khyab in the State Organisation of Dynastic Tibet 269 MICHAEL WALTER ‘All that Glitters Is Gold’: The Place of the Yellow Metal in the Brahmanic, Scythian, and Early Buddhist Traditions 283 ZUHIŌ YAMAGUCHI The Connection Between Tu-fan (吐蕃) in the First Half of the Seventh Century and Nepal 299 KODO YOTSUYA dGe lugs pa Interpretation of Bhāvaviveka’s Critique of Buddhapālita’s Argumentation of Non-Origination from Self 323 A FRAGMENT FROM A PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN EDITION OF THE PRAMĀṆAVĀRTTIKA COMMENTARY OF RGYAL-TSHAB-RJE DAR-MA-RIN-CHEN (1364-1432) Matthew T. Kapstein* Not long ago an American collector of Asian art kindly transmitted to me a set of images from a bundle of Tibetan manuscript pages that she had acquired. Most of these artifacts seem to have been derived from West Tibetan Kanjur collections and many were illustrated, this being evidently the source of their interest for the art world and the reason for which these folios were culled by those responsible for their dispersion. (A brief survey of the collection will be given in Kapstein, forthcoming.) One anomaly among the several hundred handwritten pages in question was the appearance of a single xylographically printed sheet. As it may add a small detail of interest to our knowledge of the history of Tibetan printing, this sheet will be the object of the present, brief communication, which I am pleased to dedicate to a friend and colleague of many years, Dr. Christoph Cüppers. Figure 1. The unique printed folio found in a bundle of West Tibetan canonical manuscript pages. Figures 1-4. Courtesy of the Vicki Shiba Collection. The page is an attractive example of Tibetan xylography, quite clearly engraved and printed, with well-proportioned and careful typography and finely designed illustrations of the Buddha Śākyamuni (left) and bodhisattva Mañjuśrī (right). According to the collector, the reverse face is blank; so there is no information, besides what we see here, in regard to the identity of the work, its provenance or date. Moreover, there are no marginal indications, as we customarily find in Tibetan printed books, of page number, brief title, or, in case it belonged to a multi-volume collection, volume order. (This may be due to the close trimming of the page, particularly along the right edge.) Besides the aesthetic quality of the printing, I was therefore drawn to this folio by the several puzzles it posed. Figure 2. Detail of the text. Note the balanced proportions and cleanly executed engraving of the letters. * I wish to thank Ms. Vicki Shiba for graciously making available for reproduction the document studied in the present article and Dr. Bruce Gordon for his attention to the photographic images. Thanks, too, to Michael Sheehy and Kelsang Lhamo for their assistance in providing me with high quality images of the works of Rgyal-tshab in the TBRC archive. 316 Matthew T. Kapstein Figure 3. Buddha Śākyamuni. Legend: ston pa sangs rgyas [śā] kya thub pa la gus par phyag ’tshal zhing skyabs su mchi|| Figure 4. Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī. Legend: ’jam pa’i dbyangs la gus par phyag ’tshal zhing skyabs su mchi|| On reading the text (which I have transcribed and translated below), a number of points were at once evident: First, we find here the opening verses of a longer work, so that the page probably corresponds to folio 1 verso. This means that the blank side, folio 1 recto, should have been the title page. However, it is not at all uncommon to find Tibetan books wherein the title is printed on a separate sheet, so that folio 1 verso—the beginning of the actual text—is printed as a single folio as well.1 Second, the subject-matter of the work is clearly pramāṇa (Tib. tshad-ma), the science of logic and epistemology. Finally, the author’s diction suggested to me that he was likely to have been affiliated with the Dga’-ldan-pa (later Dge-lugs-pa) tradition. Given this, and the very rough estimation (a mere guess, really) that the print was of the sixteenth century, it was possible to focus upon early Dga’-ldan-pa tshad-ma treatises and to quickly determine that the work is a particularly famous one: the Tshad ma rnam ’grel gyi tshig le’ur byas pa’i rnam bshad thar lam phyin ci ma log par gsal bar byed pa (Thar lam gsal byed hereafter), the great commentary on Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika by Rgyal-tshab-rje Dar-ma-rin-chen (13641432).2 This identification immediately brings to mind the fact that one of the major early Tibetan printing establishments was founded at Dga’-ldan monastery itself during the early fifteenth century, though no information at my disposal establishes our present example to be a Dga’-ldan print.3 In fact, I do not believe that our knowledge of early Tibetan printing has advanced 1 There are several other reasons for which a text may be printed on a single folio side, for instance, when the quality of the paper is such that the impression bleeds through the page and so interferes with the text printed on the obverse face. In such cases, of which I have several examples from northeastern Tibet in my personal collection, single-sided impressions are sometimes made so that the prints may be glued to an opaque card-stock, thereby avoiding the illegible double images that would have resulted from using both sides of the printing paper. Single-sided prints are also employed in the preparation of new or replacement printing blocks; in this case, the print is affixed to the block face down, in order to produce a reversed image for engraving. Neither of these circumstances, however, appears to apply in the present instance. 2 Part of this work is studied and translated in R. Jackson (1993). 3 D. Jackson (1989, 1990) describes a number of early Dga’-ldan prints that he was able to examine. Like our present example, some of these seem to have been distinguished by their fine execution, though this in itself remains vague. Be that as it may, as the examples he studied all measured close to 6cm x 47cm, they seem quite distinct from our present folio, which measures 8.89cm x 60.96cm, a very significant difference in format. Pramāṇavārttika Commentary 317 sufficiently to determine the dating and provenance of the folio with any precision. However, in what follows I shall attempt to assess the visible clues. Tibetan typography has not so far received the attention it deserves, though new research on the history of Tibetan printing may be expected to begin to remedy this lacuna in the coming years. Nevertheless, it is possible to propose some informal observations. Those with experience in handling old Tibetan books readily recognize, for instance, that certain prints from northeastern Tibet and China, notably the Tibetan canons produced in China, at least from the Wanli edition on, favor a pronounced thickening of the broad part of a stroke, so that the difference in thickness between the head and point of a single stroke within a given character may seem excessive when compared to the standard models for dbu-can calligraphy.4 By contrast, prints executed at or inspired by the Derge Parkhang seem distinctive for quite different reasons, a graceful elongation of the characters with ‘tails’ (ka, kha, ga, nya, da, na, zha, sha, ha) being among their most obvious characteristics.5 Informal observations such as these will require precise definition as the analysis of Tibetan typography progresses. Combining this with knowledge of the details of page layout and design, orthographic peculiarities, the use of special signs, etc., it may become possible in the future to situate particular prints with much greater precision than current guesswork generally allows. In the case of our present print, one is impressed at the outset by the extreme regularity of the lettering, suggesting that a deliberate effort has been made to constrain most characters to the space occupied by a perfectly equal square, each square being also of equal size for all characters. Now, although it is true that dbu-can calligraphy generally employs equal square grids as the basic principle governing the proportions of the characters,6 in the present case it appears that fewer exceptions to the rule of the square have been permitted than we find in actual calligraphic practice and that the exceptions allowed have been notably restrained. Some examples seen in figure 2 will clarify these points: • • 4 In standard dbu-can, tha is always permitted to extend, where it forms its bottom point, to a considerable degree (usually about one-third of the length of the side of the square) beneath the basic square constraining the character. In some styles of dbu-can it may even be elongated almost to the extent of the letters with ‘tails’. As we see in our example, however, in the tshom, thob, and thub in line five and in thos in line six, this tendency has been very much restricted here, and in some instances tha seems even to remain fully within the defining square.7 Letters with ‘tails’—our sample includes ga, nya, da, na, zha and sha—are only slightly elongated. Indeed, they are constrained by limits similar to those imposed on nga and ra, On the Wanli Kanjur, see Mejor et al. 2010. Unfortunately, the small size of the reproductions makes it difficult to make out the typographical characteristics, except in a general fashion; the details given in figures 32-33 offer the clearest examples. The typographical feature I note here was probably already in evidence in the earlier Yongle Kanjur (1410) on which the Wanli edition is based. A single folio of the Yongle edition has been examined and reproduced in Silk 1996. 5 Depending on the precise stroke employed, Tibetan uses several distinct terms where I speak here of ‘tails’, the most common being rkang-pa, ‘foot’. Refer to Dpa’-ris 1997, 54-61, for a detailed account of the names of the various strokes used in dbu-can penmanship. Just how universal this terminology may or may not be remains to be determined. 6 Dpa’-ris 1997, like most Tibetan manuals of handwriting and of iconometry, illustrates this precisely. 7 The treatment of tha in Sde-srid Sangs-rgyas-rgya-mtsho, Cha tshad kyi bris dpe (in Cüppers et al. 2012), is particularly telling. In the table of dbu-can characters given on plate 218, tha is indeed constrained to the same square that marks the limits of characters such as pa, pha, ba and ma, among others. However, as this style of dbu-can is designated as being that of the 8th-9th century translator Dpal-brtsegs, it was perhaps regarded as archaic in the 17th century. That this is likely to have been the case is supported by the form of the tha in the word thig-chen at the head of virtually every page in the manuscript. Here we see that the calligrapher adhered in all cases to the modern form of the tha, which extends to a marked degree beneath the square. 318 • Matthew T. Kapstein which but very slightly depass the basic square: Consider, for instance, the dimensions of the individual components of rigs in line three. It may be noted, too, that stroke width is subject to very little variation throughout. Taken together, these features appear to me to be consonant with those of two classes of sixteenth-century prints with which I am familiar. First, if we examine certain of the prints from Mang-yul Gung-thang, notably the beautiful edition of Klong-chen Rab-’byams-pa’s Theg mchog mdzod that has been reproduced by Franz-Karl Ehrhard, we find approximately similar typographical characteristics.8 As will be seen below, however, other features of the folio’s design (not to mention its Dga’-ldan-pa appurtenance) seem to rule out Gung-thang as its source. The second class includes Tibetan extra-canonical works printed in Ming-period China. Examples are not easy to locate, but certain of the writings of Karma-pa III Rang-byung-rdo-rje that were executed during the reign of Wuzong (1505-1521) are known and exhibit typographical features similar to those noted here.9 Of course, nothing I have said should be taken to exclude close comparisons with prints from sources besides these two. Nevertheless, it is a point of some interest that, as anyone who has learned the basic elements of Chinese handwriting knows well, the proportions of Chinese characters are always perfectly constrained by a square. Is it possible that Tibetan typography as found in the Ming-period xylographs, in the contemporaneous Mangyul Gung-thang prints, and in our present sample derives its box-like regularity from the influence of Chinese typographical conventions? A further feature of the page that merits our attention is the considerable refinement of the accompanying illustrations (figures 3-4) with their intricate floral motifs filling in the background. In terms of the level of craftsmanship involved, we are reminded once again of Ming printing and work from Gung-thang. However, in terms of actual layout and design, neither of these two Tibetan print cultures produced anything of which I am currently aware that is closely similar to the fine engravings of Śākyamuni and Mañjuśrī that concern us here. (In the case of the Ming prints, the only examples of Buddhist book illustration that I currently have at my disposal are from Chinese Buddhist texts. Though meriting comparison with our folio in virtue of their qualities of execution, they are stylistically altogether distinct.10) Note, too, that in contrast with Tibetan printing as generally known to me, the layout of the present work is distinguished by the generous allotment of seven lines of text even on an illustrated page. The examples from Amdo Sku-’bum given in figure 5 below, with just four lines, are typical. The large format canonical prints from Derge and Lhasa include five lines of text on folios with illustrations. The ’Dzamthang edition of Mkhan-po Blo-gros-grags-pa’s Jo nang chos ’byung is similar to our sheet in granting seven lines of text to most of its illustrated pages, but this is a twentieth-century xylograph that does not otherwise bear close comparison to it.11 Finally, it should be noted that the folio we are considering is altogether distinct from all other printed editions of Rgyal-tshab-rje’s work with which I am so far familiar. These include four xylographic editions of his Complete Works (gsung-’bum), in all cases organized in eight volumes, of which the Thar lam gsal byed is always given as volume six (cha-pa): • • 8 Rgyal-tshab A: the “old” Bkra-shis-lhun-po edition (bkra shis lhun po par rnying); Rgyal-tshab B: the “old” Lhasa Zhol edition (zhol par rnying); Lumbini International Research Institute 2000. Remarkably, a copy of the same Gung-thang edition of the Theg mchog mdzod found its way into the collection of the Danish Royal Library: Buescher and Tarap 2000, vol. 1, 296-297, catalogue no. 638, and vol. 2, plate 16. 9 I have encountered two separate Wuzong-period editions of Karma-pa III’s Skye rabs phreng ba, one from Hangzhou and the other from Nanjing. I have not ascertained if they belonged to larger collections of of Karma-pa III‘s works, but because the Zab mo nang gi don print found by the NGMPP (see bibliography) is a Chinese print that appears to be of the Ming-period, and is clearly marked as the second volume (kha) of a set, it is possible that it accompanied one or the other of the Skyes rabs editions. 10 For excellent examples of Chinese Buddhist canonical prints of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, refer to Beijing wenbo jiaoliuguan 2007. 11 ’Dzam-thang mkhan-po 1993, vol. 1. Pramāṇavārttika Commentary • • 319 Rgyal-tshab C: the Amdo Sku-’bum edition; and Rgyal-tshab D: the La-brang Bkra-shis-’khyil edition.12 (Bibliographical details will be found in the accompanying list of references.) Figure 5. Folio 2b of the “old” Bkra-shis-lhun-po edition and folios 1a-2b of the Amdo Sku-’bum edition of the Thar lam gsal byed. Courtesy of the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center. None of these shares any notable features of typography, layout or illustration with our folio (indeed, only the Amdo Sku-’bum edition includes illustrations in its version of the Thar lam gsal byed and these bear no relation whatsoever to those accompanying our text). In sum, the evidence surveyed conforms in a general manner with my initial impression that the print we are examining dates to about the sixteenth century, though perhaps as early as the fifteenth. Nothing definitely confirms or excludes the possibility that it might be an early Dga’-ldan edition, even if this seems unlikely. On the other hand, the characteristics of Ming-era printing, whether in Chinese or Tibetan editions, did not vanish all at once with the fall of that dynasty; it is possible, therefore, that our folio stems from as late as the beginning of the Qing dynasty during the midseventeenth century. Nevertheless, my sense is that the peculiarities of the typography argue for an earlier dating than this. These issues of dating and provenance may be firmly resolved one day if a complete copy of this otherwise unknown edition of the Thar lam gsal byed is found; and given the extensive collections now known to be conserved in such locations as the Potala Palace, ’Bras-spungs monastery, and La-brang-bkra-shis-’khyil, there is every hope that someday it will. If this brief note helps a fortunate researcher to recognize it, its aim will be fulfilled. Transcription and Translation of the Text The seven lines of text given on our folio include the whole of Rgyal-tshab-rje’s introductory verses and the first lines of his initial prose passage. I have transcribed and translated these completely, adding at the end a small portion of the lines that follow so as to form a syntactic whole. There is nothing very remarkable in any part of this passage. Rgyal-tshab-rje writes in a lucid style without the ornate verbal gymnastics that often characterise Tibetan verse inspired by Indian poetics. His eight stanzas fulfill the several introductory gestures enumerated by Sa-skya 12 For an excellent reproduction of a work from this edition, see Rgyal-tshab Dar-ma-rin-chen, Rigs gter rnam bshad (in Dreyfus1994). Matthew T. Kapstein 320 Paṇḍita in his Mkhas ’jug,13 which became standard features of learned Tibetan composition: the verse of reverence (mchod-brjod), the oath of composition (dam-bca’), the expression of humility (kheng-bskyung), the presentation of the subject-matter (rnam-par-gzhag-pa), and the statement of purpose (dgos-pa). It appears to me that Rgyal-tshab-rje’s words here express his conception of pramāṇaśāstra—and in this he of course accords with Tsong-kha-pa—as constituting a sequential path of reason (tshad-ma lam-rim), whose final destination is awakening itself. Though a commitment to this perspective is by no means unique to the Dge-lugs-pa masters, it is perhaps most consistently and rigorously defended by them.14 The title of Rgyal-tshab-rje’s work—Thar lam gsal byed, the “Illuminator of Liberation’s Path”—in fact underscores this orientation. The following conventions may be noted: Square brackets [ ] enclose comments and additions. In the latter instance, the bracketed text is supplied from the printed editions I have consulted. (In the translation, however, square brackets retain their customary usage in that context, marking the translator’s amplifications.) Curly brackets { } enclose numbers that I have assigned to the verses in order to facilitate reference to the translation. There is no corresponding graphic indication in the Tibetan text. The sign @ represents the mgo-yig. A letter appearing as a subscript in the transcription, e.g., the subscript ‘s’ in ‘bs’, indicates that the corresponding Tibetan letter is written underneath the letter to which it is attached. This convention, of course, is not used in connection with the regular Tibetan subscripts: ya-btags, etc. Ellipsis … represents the homomorphic tsheg-thig. line 1 @@@| |gang gi zhabs rdul gtsug gis gus mnos pas| |rgyal ba’i yon tan ma lus rab rdzogs shing| |chags sogs nyes pa’i tshogs kun gtan ’joms pa| |rje btsun bla ma rnams la gus phyag ’tshal| {1} |rgyal ba’i mkhyen brtse ma lus line 2 gcig bsdus pa| |gang zhig ring nas lhag pa’i lhar bsten pas| |zab mo’i gnas la blo gros rgyas mdzad pa| |’jam dbyangs dam pa’i zhabs la spyi bos ’dud| {2} |lhar bcas ’gro ba’i line 3 line 4 line 5 line 6 line 7 gtsug na lham me ba| |rgyal ba’i bstan dang ston pa rgyal ba dag| |dngos stobs rigs pas kun nas gsal mdzad pa| |rigs pa’i dbang phyug rnam gnyis rgyal gyur cig| {3} |don dam bden pas kun rdzob ’gog byed cing| kun rdzob smras tshe don dam nyams ’gyur ba| |rtag chad mthar lta’i gzhan dbang gyur pa yi| |blo dman rigs par snang ba rgyas phyir dang| {4} |dri med rigs pa’i rnam dpyod dang bral zhing| |lung tsam gcig bur ’chel ba’i blo can dang| |gang dag rkang rkyang tsam la gnas nas kyang| |shes bya’i de nyid rtogs ’dod gzung phyir bshad| {5} |gsung rab mtsho chen sde bdun bsrub … shing gis| |legs par bsrubs las byung ba’i bdud rtsi des| |ma rtogs log rtog the tshom nad bcom nas| |blo ldan ’chi med rgyal ba’i gnas thob bya| {6} |thub pa’i bstan pa kun tu rgyas pa dang| |gzhan la rtse ba’i bsam pas ’dir bshad kyi| |phyogs su ’dzin pas dkrugs pa’i yid phor la| |rtse gcig gus pa’i sems kyis bsgrims te nyon| {7} |bde gshegs lam ni zab cing shin tu phra| |bdag ni thos nyung sbyangs pa’i stobs dman yang| |dam pa’i bshes dang ’jam mgon bla ma yi| |drin las rigs pa’i lam bzangs ’byed par spro|| {8} ||de la ’dir bdag cag gi ston pa chos thams cad lkog tu ma gyur pa’i spyan mnga’ ba | ma rig pa’i bag chags ma lus pa drungs phyung ba | sems can ma rig pa’i rab rib kyis blo gros kyi mig nyams par gyur pas thog ma med pa nas phyin ci log gi lta ba la goms pa | bdag med pa phyin ci ma log par mthong ba’i lam thar par [end of fragment] 13 The relevant section of the Mkhas ’jug is translated in Gold 2007, 156-60. I differ from Gold’s translation of rnam-par-gzhag-pa as ‘outline’. For pertinent reflection on the interest of the introductory verses in Sanskrit technical works, see now Minkowski 2008. 14 On this disputed issue, with particular reference to Tsong-kha-pa’s response to it, refer now to Kapstein 2013. Pramāṇavārttika Commentary 321 [(We add here sufficient text to complete the phrase:) ’gro ba dang mthun pa las nyams pa skyabs med pa skyob par mdzad pa’i slad du | bdag med pa phyin ci ma log pa nye bar ston pa lhur mdzad pa | ] Translation Respectful salutations to the reverend gurus, The dust of whose feet, devotedly received on [one’s] crown, Fulfils the Conquerors’ qualities, none excepted, And perpetually defeats all the mass of faults, lust and the rest! {1} I bow with crown to the feet of holy Mañjuśrī, All the knowledge and love of the Conquerors rolled into one, Who—having long relied [on him] as my tutelary— Has made intelligence of profound topics to swell. {2} May Reason’s two Lords [Dignāga and Dharmakīrti] be victorious! Resplendent at the head of beings, gods included, And completely elucidating with reasons [flowing from] the force of the things themselves (vastubalapravṛtta) The Conqueror’s teaching and the teacher who is Conqueror. {3} In order to increase the illumination of reason for base minds, Who refute ostensible reality by reference to absolute truth, Diminish the absolute when articulating the ostensible, And so come under the sway of extreme eternalist or nihilist views, {4} And to take hold of those whose thoughts incline solely to scripture, Their being deprived of the discernment of taintless reason, And also those who cling to but a single line In the hope of realising the essence of knowledge— [for these] do I explain. {5} Having overcome the ailments of ignorance, error and doubt With elixir brought forth when the ocean of scripture Is churned with the kirn-staff of the Seven Sections,15 May the intelligent obtain the Conqueror’s deathless abode! {6} To promote everywhere the Sage’s teaching And for love of others—with such thoughts this I explain; So abandon ideas perturbed by partisanship, And listen with respectful thought attentively! {7} The Sugata’s path is profound but exceedingly subtle, And I’ve studied little and am inferior in power of practice. Still, by the kindness of spiritual friends and my guru Mañjunātha, I am eager to reveal reason’s excellent path. {8} Now, then, our Teacher possesses the eye before which no phenomenon is concealed. He has torn up from the roots all dispositions [born] of unknowing. But because sentient beings’ eyes of intelligence have weakened owing to the obscurations of ignorance, so that beginninglessly they have grown accustomed to errant views, in order to provide a refuge to them, who are without 15 This refers, of course, to the tshad-ma sde-bdun, Dharmakīrti’s seven works on pramāṇa. 322 Matthew T. Kapstein refuge and have fallen from accord with the path that conduces to freedom when [one] perceives selflessness without error, he has accepted to intimately teach selflessness without error. Pramāṇavārttika Commentary 323 BIBLIOGRAPHY Tibetan Sources Karma-pa III Rang-byung-rdo-rje, Nang don gyi ’grel pa. Xylograph in 152 leaves preserved in the collection of the National Archives of Nepal, microfilmed by the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project. Reel nos. AT73/8-AT74/9. Rgyal-tshab A: TBRC Resource ID W29194 Gsung ’bum/ rgyal tshab rje (bkra shis lhun po par rnying) Dharamsala: Sherig Parkhang, 1997. Rgyal-tshab B: TBRC Resource ID W676 “Collected works of Gyaltsab Je Darma Rinchen (1364-1432), one of the two main disciples of Je Tsongkapa; printed from the 1897 Lhasa Old Zhol (Ganden Puntso Ling) blocks.“ Rgyal-tshab C: TBRC Resource ID W23692 “8 volume collected works of Gyaltsab Je Darma Rinchen (1364-1432), one of the two main disciples of Je Tsongkapa, printed from the Kumbum Jampaling blocks.” Rgyal-tshab D: TBRC Resource ID W4CZ2710 Gsung ’bum/_rgyal tshab rje/ (bla brang par ma/). Rgyal-tshab Dar-ma-rin-chen, Rigs gter rnam bshad. See Dreyfus 1994 below. Sde-srid Sangs-rgyas-rgya-mtsho. Cha tshad kyi bris dpe/ dpyod ldan yid gsos. See Cüppers et al. 2012 below. Dpa’-ris Sangs-rgyas. 1997. Bod yig ’bri tshul mthong ba kun smon. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang. ’Dzam-thang mkhan-po Blo-gros-grags-pa. 1993. Selected Historical and Doctrinal Writings of 'Dzamthang Mkhan-po Blo-gros-grags-pa. Collected and presented by M. Kapstein. 2 vols. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. Contemporary Scholarship Beijing wenbo jiaoliuguan 北京文博交流馆. 2007. Fojing banhua shangxi: zhihuasi zang yuan ming qing 佛经版画赏析智化寺藏元明清. Beijing: Beijing Yanshan Chubanshe. Buescher, H., and Tarab Tulku. 2000. Catalogue of Tibetan Manuscripts and Xylographs. Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts, Xylographs etc., in Danish Collections 6.1-2. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon. Cüppers, C., and L. van der Kuijp, U. Pagel, and Dobis Tsering Gyal. 2012. Handbook of Tibetan Iconometry: A Guide to the Arts of the 17th Century. Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library 16/4. Leiden: Brill. Dreyfus, G. B. J., in collaboration with S. Onoda. 1994. A Recent Rediscovery: Rgyal-tshab’s Rigs gter rnam bshad. Biblia Tibetica 3. Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo. Gold, J. C. 2007. The Dharma’s Gatekeepers: Sakya Paṇḍita on Buddhist Scholarship in Tibet. Albany NY: State University of New York Press. Jackson, D. P. 1989. More on the Old dGa’-ldan and Gong-dkar-ba Xylographic Editions. Studies in Central & East Asian Religions 2 (1989): 1-18. ——— 1990. The Earliest Printings of Tsong-kha-pa’s Works: The Old Dga’-ldan Editions. In L. Epstein and R. F. Sherburne, eds., Reflections of Tibetan Culture: Essays in Memory of Turrell V. Wylie. Studies in Asian Thought and Religion 12. Lewiston NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 107-116. Jackson, R. R. 1993. Is Enlightenment Possible? Dharmakīrti and rGyal tshab rje on Knowledge, Rebirth, No-Self and Liberation. Ithaca: Snow Lion. Kapstein, M. T. 2013. ‘Spiritual Exercise’ and Buddhist Epistemologists in India and Tibet. In Steven Emmanuel, ed., The Blackwell Companion to Buddhist Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell, 270-289. ——— forthcoming. Preliminary Remarks on a Collection of Kanjur Pages from Western Tibet In Orna Almogi and Dorji Wangchuk, eds., Proceedings of the Conference on Manuscript and Xylograph Traditions in the Tibetan Cultural Sphere: Regional and Periodical Characteristics convened at the University of Hamburg, May 15-18, 2013. Lumbini International Research Institute. 2000. The Oldest Block Print of Klong-chen Rab-’byams-pa’s Theg mchog mdzod with an introduction by F.-K. Ehrhard. Facsimile Edition Series 1. Lumbini: Lumbini International Research Institute. Mejor, M., A. Helman-Ważny, and T. K. Chashab. 2010. A Preliminary Report on the Wanli Kanjur Kept in the Jagiellonian Library, Kraków. Studia Buddhica 1. Warsaw: Research Centre of Buddhist Studies, Warsaw University. Minkowski, C. 2008. Why should we read the Maṅgala-Verses? In W. Slaje, ed., Śāstrārambha. Inquiries into the Preamble in Sanskrit. Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 62. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. 324 Matthew T. Kapstein Silk, J. 1996. Notes on the History of the Yongle Kanjur. In M. Hahn, J-U. Hartmann and R. Steiner, eds., Suhr̥llekha: Festgabe für Helmut Eimer. Indica et Tibetica 28. Swisttal-Odendorf, Germany: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 153-200. Gter-ma as Imperial Treasure: The 1755 Beijing Edition of the Padma bka’ thang Matthew T. Kapstein In his communication to the Thirteenth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, held in Ulaanbataar in July 2013, Elliot Sperling introduced a remarkable passage gleaned from the autobiography of an outstanding eighteenth-century visionary, Sle-lung Bzhadpa’i-rdo-rje (1697-1740). It is 1719, at the height of the Zunghar invasion of Central Tibet, and Sle-lung has been ordered to appear at the offices of the Zunghar administration in Lhasa: Once the lord ordered me to come to the Khrom-gzigs-khang. The lord and Chos-’phelcan, who was there, had many questions about the situation and whether or not O-rgyan was reliable. About the All-knowing Great Fifth, in general and in particular, to their question as to whether Ngag-dbang-blo-bzang-rgya-mtsho was Rgyal-ba Yon-tan-rgyamtsho’s sprul-sku, I responded: “What do I know? The former all-knowing Paṇ-chen and other reliable holy persons performed the recognition without error, declaring him to be the Exalted Fifth.” To which they said, “It seems that the Paṇ-chen Rin-po-che did not perform such a recognition. It was the Gzims-khang-gong sprul-sku who was the inerrant birth of Yon-tan-rgya-mtsho. Because Ngag-dbang-blo-bzang-rgya-mtsho was jealous at that he was angered and his intentions toward those who were close were not at ease. In our land, we call the Gzims-khang-gong sprul-sku the Bha-ga ta-la’i bla-ma (the ‘little’ [< Mong. baɣa] Dalai Lama).”1 In citing this passage, Elliot was in fact primarily interested in what followed this opening, for there we find an early discussion of the topic to which his communication was dedicated, the oft-repeated rumor of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s (1617-1682) paternity of his regent Sde-srid Sangs-rgyas-rgya-mtsho (1653-1705). But my own attention was drawn above all to these initial lines, for, just a few days before, while visiting the monastery of Erdeni-zuu, I had been surprised to see there an appliqué thang-ka of a figure labeled as Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan.2 This is perhaps 1 As given in Smith n.d., p.98 (underlined text corresponds to the use of red in Smith’s transcription): skabs shig khrom gzigs khang du dpon gyis shog zer bar/ dpon dang chos ’phel can ’dug par rang bzhin gyi dri ba shin tu mang ba dang/ o rgyan tshad ldan yin min/ kun mkhyen lnga pa chen po ’i skor spyi dang khyad par du ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho rgyal ba yon tan rgya mtaho’ i skye ba yin nam min zer bar/ nged rang tsho ci shes paN chen thams cad mkhyen pa sku gong ma sogs skyes chen dam pa tshad ldan rnams kyis ’khrul med du ngos ’dzin mdzad pa ni gong sa 7 lnga pa yin par ’dug byas pas/ paN chen rin po ches ngos ’dzin de ltar mdzad med pa ’dra/ gzims khang gong sprul sku yon tan rgya mtsho ’i skye ba ’khrul med yin par de la ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtshos phrag dog gi rnam pas sdang (f. 183r) shugs dang nye rigs rnams la yang dgongs par mi bde ba mdzad ’dug/ nged tsho ’ i lud [sic! to be emended to lung—MK] par gzims khang gong sprul skur bha ga ta la’ i bla ma zer gyin yod zer. 2 A guide affiliated with the Erdeni-juu with whom I discussed the thang-ka was convinced that it depicts the noted Sa-skya-pa master Rje-btsun Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan (1147-1216), who is said to have prophesied his nephew Sa-skya Paṇḍita’s mission to the Mongols. When I pointed out that the Sa-skya-pa master was a layman, not a monk as seen here, I was told that “Mongol artists were ignorant of these details,” 168 matthew kapstein none other than the Gzims-khang-gong-ma sprul-sku referred to above and the focal point of much acrimony in contemporary Tibetan Buddhism; for it was this figure who, following his suicide (1654), which was presumed to have been an outcome of his rivalry with the Fifth Dalai Lama, would later reemerge as the contentious spirit Rdo-rje-shugs-ldan.3 Appliqué thang-ka of Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan at Erdeni-zuu. Undated, but perhaps 19th century. In the upper register: Rje-btsun-dam-pa Zanabazar, Buddha Vajradhara, Green Tārā. In the lower register: Yellow Jambhala, Six-Armed Mahākāla, Dharmarāja. Photo: Matthew T. Kapstein. a response that strikes me as implausible when considering a thang-ka that is otherwise iconographically precise. Another suggestion is that the figure in question is Tsong-kha-pa’s disciple ’Dul-’dzin Grags-pargyal-mtshan, though the clearly tantric elements (the right hand, for instance, holds a brimming skull-cup) as well as the absence of context seems to rule that out. Besides modern images of the Gzims-khanggong-ma Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan, as seen on websites devotes to the Shugs-ldan controversy, the only early image of him of which I am aware is in a thang-ka of Mag-zor-rgyal-mo in which he and the Fifth Dalai Lama appear in the upper register in miniature, but as this thang-ka certainly dates to the youth of the subjects, when they were both resident at the ’Bras-spungs Dga’-ldan pho-brang, it probably cannot serve as a reference for the identity of the figure at Erdeni-juu. I am grateful to Amy Heller for calling my attention to the painting of Mag-zor-rgyal-mo in question, from the John and Berthe Ford Collection, which has been published in Rhie and Thurman 2000 and in Pal and Woodward 2001. 3 Dreyfus 1998 remains the best overview of the affair. See, too, Lopez, 1998: 188-201. gter-ma as imperial treasure 169 The testimony of Sle-lung confirms that some factions among the Mongols had decided at a relatively early date that the Gzims-khang-gong-ma Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan was the authentic rebirth of the Fourth Dalai Lama, Yon-tan-rgya-mtsho (1589-1617). I have not yet been able to determine whether this opinion was shared by the leading Khalkha hierarch, Rje-btsundam-pa Zanabazar (1635-1723), who is depicted in the upper left-hand corner of the thang-ka I saw at Erdeni-zuu.4 Be this as it may, it is notable that in Sle-lung’s text the several questions concerning the Fifth Dalai Lama are preceded by an inquiry into the reliability of O-rgyan, i.e. Padmasambhava. As this too is an issue that has arisen repeatedly in connection with the cult of Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan’s apotheosis as Rdo-rje-shugs-ldan, it is perhaps not surprising that we should find the issue debated within the Dge-lugs-pa order and among its Mongol adherents during the same period in which the dispute concerning the Fourth Dalai Lama’s true incarnation arose. It so happens, then, that a group of contested questions that might not, at first glance, seem necessarily to be connected, in due course came to be indissociably interlaced. These include the authority of the Padmasambhava traditions, the authenticity of the Fifth Dalai Lama and the status of Grags-pa-rgyal-mtshan, as well as the paternity of the Sde-srid and the implications this had in regard to the Fifth Dalai Lama’s monastic vows. In relation to all this, the issue of Padmasambhava appears to be in some respects tangential to the rest. Its importance in this context was no doubt due to the Great Fifth’s well-known Rnyingma-pa sympathies, but perhaps more precisely to his family’s ties to the old seat of the Tibetan empire in Yar-lung and the sense of historical warrant that this imparted to his claims. For these reasons, perhaps, the “reliability of O-rgyan” could serve as a clear, but still cautiously indirect, signifier of one’s allegiances. For the remainder of this short essay I shall therefore be concerned primarily with an aspect of the contested question of the “reliability of O-rgyan,” focusing on the well-known account of Padmasambhava, the Padma bka’ thang. The reception of the text during the period of the Dga’-ldan pho-brang’s rise reflects the fissure that the Fifth Dalai Lama’s robust advocacy of devotion to the Lotus Guru aroused within some factions of the Dge-lugs-pa clergy and the countervailing determination of the Great Fifth’s loyalists to uphold Padmasambhava’s cult. *** Writing in 1782, the noted Mongol polymath Sum-pa mkhan-po Ye-shes-dpal-’byor (1704-1788) listed the famed Testament of Padmasambhava—the Padma bka’ thang of O-rgyan-gling-pa (var. U-rgyan-gling-pa)—among inauthentic works. As in the case of the Maṇi bka’ ’bum, which he similarly excoriated, his condemnation was not in this case directed at a marginal work preserved only by a non-mainstream sect, but at a major Tibetan revelation that had been actively promoted during the preceding centuries by leading adherents of the Dge-lugs-pa 4 It appears, in any case, that Zanabazar’s relations with the Fifth Dalai Lama did deteriorate, though in fact this occurred during the period following the Fifth’s death, when his passing was being concealed by Sde-srid Sangs-rgyas-rgya-mtsho, who seems to have been the real object of Zanabazar’s misgivings. The tensions here were exacerbated by the mounting conflict between Khalkha and Zunghar, culminating in the former’s assault, under Galdan’s leadership, on the latter in 1695, and the subsequent Manchu intervention. On the question that concerns us here, Bawden 1998: 69 comments: “The personal antipathy of the Khutuktu [Zanabazar] for the Dalai Lama and the regent was in fact the pretext for Galdan’s invasion of Khalkha.” 170 matthew kapstein order he championed.5 The apparent oddness of the Dge-lugs-pa embrace of the Rnying-ma-pa gter-ma was underscored not just by Sum-pa mkhan-po. A half century ago, the great authority on the history of Mongolian printing, Walther Heissig, in commenting upon the early eighteenth century publication in Beijing of the Mongolian translation of the Padma bka’ thang, asked just what the Dge-lugs-pa interest might have been in what he described as a Rotmützenlegende, a “red-bonnet tale.”6 His question is precisely what concerns us here. In naming the Padma bka’ thang as a key example of a textual forgery, Sum-pa mkhan-po may have had it in mind that his renowned contemporary Lcang-skya Rol-pa’i-rdo-rje (17171786), the Tibetan Buddhist tutor of the Qianlong emperor, had sponsored the publication of an edition of the work in Beijing, probably in 1755. In this, Lcang-skya was consciously following a long-established precedent and in fact reproduced in his edition, prior to his own brief colophon, a series of earlier colophons, which together allow us to reconstruct important aspects of the reception and publication history of O-rgyan-gling-pa’s gter-ma. These are in fact derived from the Sde-dge edition, dating no doubt to the 1730s, which, as we shall see, was Lcang-skya’s immediate source. There were other precedents, too, for his publication: Heissig’s note on the Kangxi edition of the Mongolian translation has been mentioned above, and in 1730, the eighth reign year of the Yongzheng emperor, an imperial palace edition of the Maṇi bka’ ’bum in Tibetan had been also produced.7 The earliest of the colophons that are reproduced and translated below is taken from a well-known sixteenth-century edition published with the support of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s great-grandfather, the lord of ’Phyong-rgyas under the Phag-mo-gru-pa regime, Mi-dbang Bsod-nams-stobs-rgyal. He was, according to the Great Fifth, encouraged in this by his Rnyingma-pa teacher, the famed ’Phreng-po gter-ston Shes-rab-’od-zer (1518-1584), the founder of Dpal-ri Monastery (where ’Jigs-med-gling-pa [1730-1798] would later be educated) and situated within Bsod-nams-stobs-rgyal’s domains.8 The colophon notes that, as the state of most copies of the text was editorially poor, an effort was made to produce the best possible edition, relying upon a manuscript said to have been copied directly from an earlier manuscript written in O-rgyan-gling-pa’s own hand, as well as an illuminated “archaic manuscript” (yig-rnying) and, most interestingly, a printed edition from the region of E in southern Tibet, that had been published by members of O-rgyan-gling-pa’s own family line (gdung-brgyud). No trace of this early xylograph of the Padma bka’ thang has, to the best of my knowledge, so far emerged. 5 On Sum-pa mkhan-po’s critique of the gter-ma traditions, including the Padma bka’ thang, see Kapstein 1989, 2000 (ch. 7). 6 Heissig 1954: 31. 7 This edition appears to have been prepared somewhat carelessly. For instance, the colophon refers to the emperor as being in his sixty-fourth year, but this calculation is clearly in error by one duodeccenial cycle: Yongzheng (1678-1735) was in fact fifty-two during his eighth reign year. And the spelling is frequently atrocious: one sees grtags bdun for rta bdun, brjigs pa’i sku for brjid pa’i sku, migs dbang for mi dbang, zhungs dags (!) for zhus dag, etc. The year of the composition of the colophon is given as me-bya (1717) instead of sa-bya (1729). 8 On ’Phreng-po gter-ston, refer to Deroche 2009, 201–1. gter-ma as imperial treasure 171 Bsod-nams-stobs-rgyal’s colophon is followed by a long poem in praise of Padmasambhava, introducing the colophon written by the Fifth Dalai Lama, in which interlinear notes (mchan-bu) clarify the allusions made in the poem itself to “sophists” who had discredited the teaching through false views. Those named are the Rtag-brtan sprul-sku Kun-dga’-snying-po, that is to say Tāranātha,9 Rgyal-mtshan gnyug rab-’byams-pa, Brag-sgo rab-’byams-pa, and Lho-brag sprul-sku Gtsug-lag-phreng-ba.10 Though the first and last mentioned are of course well-known masters of the Jo-nang-pa and Karma bka’-brgyud-pa orders which the Great Fifth vociferously opposed, Brag-sgo rab-’byams-pa, it emerges, was a Dge-lugs-pa disciple of the Fifth himself.11 I have so far found no information concerning Rgyal-mtshan gnyug rab-’byams-pa, though his title suggests that he may have also been a Dge-lugs-pa. That the Great Fifth may therefore have been using the publication of the Padma bka’ thang to mark a fault-line not just within Tibetan Buddhism generally, but even within his own church, is of considerable interest, given especially the later rejection of the text by some Dge-lugs-pa, such as Sum-pa mkhan-po. The Fifth’s colophon concludes by reiterating the history of the Phyong-rgyas Dpal-ri edition, amplifying some details concerning the editorial history of the text,12 and specifying that this new colophon is written for the publication of the work at Dga’-ldan Phun-tshogs-gling, the converted Jo-nang-pa seat, with the encouragements of Grongsmad-pa Sangs-rgyas-rgya-mtsho. In signing, the Fifth uses his title as a gter-ston, Rdo-rje Thogs-med-rtsal, and notes that the place of composition is Dga’-ldan Phun-tshogs-gling, in 9 Tāranātha (1575-1634) was, of course, a major target of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s ire, but it is not clear that the former’s biography of Padmasambhava, Slob dpon padma ’byung gnas kyi rnam par thar pa gsal bar byed pa’i yi ge yid ches gsum ldan, which purports to represent exclusively India traditions, was particularly singled out for criticism. Most likely the Fifth just objected to it in principle, as he seems to have done in the other cases he mentions, as being yet another effort on the part of “ordinary intellects” to rationalize the extraordinary career of Padmasambhava. Tāranātha’s text, which has been published many times (e.g., in Tseten 1973), has now been translated twice into English: Ngawang Zangpo 2002 and De Falco 2012. 10 The treatment of Dpa’-bo Gtsug-lag-phreng-ba (1504-1566) here is somewhat puzzling. As will be seen below (n. 27), the placement of the mchan-bu mentioning him is itself unclear. And later in the colophon (see n. 32), it seems that the Fifth voices qualified approval of his work, despite his sharp (and often misplaced) criticisms of Dpa’-bo’s Chos ’byung mkhas pa’i dga’ ston in his own history. Perhaps Dpa’-bo’s association with the Karma Bka’-brgyud factions that sharply opposed the Dge-lugs-pa in the Lhasa region during the early sixteenth century plays a role here sotto voce. 11 Brag-sgo rab-’byams-pa, n.d., is a sharp critique of the historical credentials of the Padma bka’ thang, focusing upon, among other matters, inconsistencies of dating. The Dalai Lama’s colophon demonstrates that this issue was a particular target of his rebuke. An extended response to Brag-sgo rab-’byams-pa may be found in Rtse-le 1979. Despite this, Brag-sgo rab-’byams-pa proclaims himself the faithful disciple of the Great Fifth in the colophon of his work, an assertion confirmed in the autobiography of the Fifth himself: Karmay 2014: 375. Further confirmation of their relationship is implied in a thang-ka of Mag-zor-rgyal-mo (Linrothe and Watt 2004, cat. no. 31), in which the Dalai Lama and Brag-sgo rab-’byams-pa figure together in the lineage in the upper register. 12 It is of interest to note that the Fifth Dalai Lama alters Bsod-nams-stobs-rgyal’s modest claim that one of his sources was “said to have been copied from the treasure-discoverer’s manuscript” (gter ston gyi phyag bris las bshus zer ba shig) in order to assert more robustly that the manuscript in question was the “son [= direct copy] of the mother, the treasure-discoverer’s manuscript” (gter ston gyi phyag bris ma’i bu yig). 172 matthew kapstein the wood hare year corresponding to 1676, that is, two years before Sangs-rgyas-rgya-mtsho accepted his elevation to the post of sde-srid. The colophon of the Sde-dge edition takes pains to note that the publication, sponsored by the Sde-dge prince and based directly upon the Dga’-ldan Phun-tshogs-gling edition, takes place under the ægis of the Ngor-pa order, founded by the “second Jina” Ngor-chen Kun-dga’bzang-po (1382-1456). This is significant, as the Ngor-pa, following the lead of Ngor-chen, had sometimes been hostile to the cult of Padmasambhava. No indication is furnished as to just why the publication was undertaken at the recently founded Sde-dge printery, though I think it plausible that this reflected more the interests of the Derge court than of the Ngor-pa order. The last colophon given is that of the daguoshi Lcang-skya Khutughtu, i.e. Rol-pa’i rdo-rje, who cites the precedents of both the Fifth Dalai Lama’s and the Sde-dge edition as the inspiration for his own efforts. Little additional information is provided, besides the year of publication, given as the earth pig corresponding to the nineteenth reign year. This is a problem, as, during the entire Qing dynasty, there appears to have been no earth pig year corresponding to the nineteenth regnal year of any emperor. My best guess, then, is that this should be emended to be the wood pig corresponding to Qianlong’s twentieth year on the throne, that is, 1755. If the production of the edition had been begun during his nineteenth year, but was only completed in his twentieth, this would perhaps explain the error. About the apparently mistaken element, earth for wood, I have not yet been able to determine whether this is simply an error, or is due to an actual difference in the calendrical system used here.13 However this may be, as the edition definitely belongs to the eighteenth century, and as any other explanation of the date seems even more awkward than this, I think that we may accept here, if tentatively, the “inference to the least bad conclusion” and assign the publication to the year proposed above. In any event, 1755 would be an attractive date for a Qianlong edition of the Padma bka’ thang as there were other reasons for which the Lotus Guru may have been on the mind of the emperor and his tutor, for it was in this year that the construction of the Puningsi was begun in Jehol (Chengde). The temple was modeled on Bsam-yas and edified to celebrate the defeat of the Zunghar Mongols in Xinjiang, the same Zunghars who, thirty-five years earlier, had ordered Sle-lung to the Khrom-gzigs-khang to discuss the authenticity of O-rgyan and of the Fifth Dalai Lama.14 These last details remind us that the Padma bka’ thang had also a history among the Mongols, some knowledge of which both complicates and advances our understanding of the material we have just reviewed. For, following the conversion of Altan Khan in 1578, though the Dge-lugs-pa emerged as the predominant Tibetan sectarian trend among the Mongols, a number of gter-ma traditions were soon promulgated among them as well, above all those of the Maṇi bka’ ’bum and Padma bka’ thang. The role of these works in underwriting the religiopolitical order of the Tibetan world was no doubt already established in Phag-mo-gru-pa times: 13 Cf. n. 7 above. 14 The campaigns of 1755 figured prominently among what Perdue 2005: 270-289 terms “the death knell of the Zunghar State.” Chayet 1985: 28-34 offers a description of the Puningsi and its relation to these events. gter-ma as imperial treasure 173 Mi-dbang Bsod-nams-stobs-rgyal’s publication of the latter perhaps supports this.15 And it was in this role that their diffusion among the Mongols was advanced. That this was so is suggested by a striking passage in the Jewel Translucent Sūtra concerning Altan Khan’s conversion, a work studied not long ago by Johan Elverskog and assigned by him to roughly the period during which the Maṇi bka’ ’bum and Padma bka’ thang were translated into Mongolian. Here, in one crucial scene, Altan Khan’s envoys arrive to extend their lord’s invitation to Bsod-nams-rgya-mtsho when, in front of the image of the Lhasa Jo-bo, the divinity Pehar possesses a medium: In front of the Juu Rinpoche, the image of the Bhagavan Buddha Teacher, King Pehar spoke to the victorious All-knowing Dalai Lama and the assembled Samgha, To those many assembled Tibetan great and small Alms-masters, And particularly to the Mongol envoys. “By decree of the Crown Jewel Master Padmasambhava, Which reveals the prophecy of the Superior Horse-headed Powerful King Entirely, the words of me, Pehar Khan, should be seen as conventional and ultimate truth. The ultimate truth is particularly beyond comprehension. The conventional truth is visualizing the deeds of the Eight Names and Five Bodies. I see that the helpful Dalai Lama, who by sight knows all conditions, And the virtuous Bodhisattva Altan Khan, when we were there, all together striving, Took a vow in front of Padmasambhava on the summit of the Glorious Copper Colored Mountain. By the power of the blessings of the merits vowed by them together, The incarnation of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, meritorious Dalai Lama was born in the West, The Blessed Altan Khan was born in the East in the land of the Mongols. A sign that the religion of the Blessed Ones will spread like the sun. For this reason, you, the Dalai Lama, whom to behold is completely beneficial, You should go there according to the decree of the Mongol Khan. Evenly all living beings will be enlightened and the sun of the jewel religion will rise.”16 In the eyes of some Mongols, therefore, the authority of the Dalai Lama in relation to the Mongols had its warrant in vows witnessed by Padmasambhava himself. As for the Mongolian Padma bka’-thang, Heissig shows that the translation, Badma γatang sudur-un orusiba by Sakiya töröb kelemürči, was executed under the patronage of Erdeni Mangγus qulači baγatur tayiji, a great grand-nephew of Altan Khan through the latter’s brother Mergen jinong, in the early seventeenth century (c. 1615). The xylographic edition was published 15 On the 1521 Gung-thang “Royal Print” of the Maṇi bka’ ’bum, see now Ehrhard 2013. It may be noted that the Fifth Dalai Lama duly notes his ancestor’s printing activities, including the publication of the Padma bka’ thang, in his history of Tibet: Nor-brang 1993: 421. 16 Elverskog 2003: 143-5, lines 674-92. 174 matthew kapstein nearly a century later in Beijing under the reign of Kangxi, at about the same time as that of the Mongolian Mani gambu (1712). The explicit association with the line of Altan Khan seems to further confirm the legitimating role attributed to these works in connection with the religio-political order.17 With this in mind, an additional observation seems warranted. Phreng-po-gter-ston Shes-rab’od-zer, the guru of the Great Fifth’s ancestor, was himself a noted revealer of prophetic treasures; his prophecies came to be particularly stressed in the writings of the Dalai Lama. Indeed, one of the notable innovations of the Fifth’s works, and those of his regent Sangs-rgyas-rgyamtsho, was their explicit political use of prophecy drawn from gter-ma. In this connection, the Padma bka’ thang, with its elaborate prophecies of the gter-ston themselves, that is, its prophecies of the prophets, must have assumed a privileged position, the mother, as it were, of Tibetan prophetic revelations in general.18 With the Great Fifth’s confirmation of the exalted station of O-rgyan-gling-pa’s text, it became an established treasure of the throne. Hence, its embematic adoption, too, by rulers allied with and favoring the Dalai Lamas. *** The story of the political use of the prophetic book, as we have begun to sketch it out here, may be further clarified by a brief comparative exercise. The late Anna Seidel once undertook to survey the transformations of the notion of “royal treaure” in early China. Under the Zhou, she wrote: [T]reasures guaranteed the ruling family’s possession of the mandate. Kaltenmark has shown that these objects, called pao 寶, “treasures”, in ancient China, were not necessarily unique or precious. They were not used in any kind of commercial exchange and only exceptionally as gifts, but they were kept hidden and their possession had the mystical value of symbolizing a clan’s good fortune. In the case of the royal family, they constituted the sacra or regalia of the dynasty. Their presence testified to the possession of the mandate and to Heaven’s continuing support. [I]f the royal treasure-houses originally contained objects like stones, jade pieces, bronzes and weapons, they in time came to include talismans, magic diagrams, charts, prophetic adages, secret recipes for personal longevity and for the prosperity of the state and, finally, dissertations on moral and political doctrines. These texts soon were valued as more efficacious than the traditional object of the family treasure. […] When the Han order had so far decayed that people wondered whether its mandate was exhausted, the first prognostic text (ch’an shu 讖書) revealing divine intentions to renew the mandate was brought to court. […] This was the 17 Heissig 1954: 47-48. 18 A curious example of this is the strange story of O-rgyan-gling-pa’s mummified corpse, which was purloined by seekers of magical medicines who believed that the flesh was suffused with the properties attributed to one who had been born as a brahman throughout seven consecutive lives; see Dudjom 1991, vol. 1: 775-779. The basis for all this was no doubt the 102nd chapter of the Padma bka’ thang itself, prophesying the benefits of such flesh. In all events, the condition of O-rgyan-gling-pa’s corpse became eventually an affair of state, requiring the intercession of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama. gter-ma as imperial treasure 175 first revealed scripture to be used in Han politics. Previously the will of Heaven had been read only from natural phenomena, from auspicious objects and their occasional short inscriptions, a practice that continued under Wang Mang. […] In the politico-religious propaganda that brought the first emperor of the Latter Han, Kuang-wu, to power, the written word of Heaven in ch’an texts came to be valued and utilized far more than auspicious objects or natural phenomena. […] The real content of the apocrypha was a collection of ancient legends and omenlore recorded and elaborated for the legitimation of the Han.19 “The real content of the apocrypha was a collection of ancient legends”—can we imagine a description more fit for the Tibetan revelations of the life and deeds of Padmasambhava? As the warrant for imperial prophecies in general, can we imagine a more suitable treasure than that of O-rgyan-gling-pa? What is remarkable in this case is the evident congruence between the Tibetan revelation and Chinese conceptions of imperial treasure. That the prophetic books thought to be in the background of Tibetan and Mongol power were published in their Tibetan and Mongolian versions under the Manchu emperors in Beijing may perhaps be seen, therefore, as part of the ongoing response to the perpetual challenge of renewing the mandate of Heaven. Not surprisingly, the Zunghar Mongols and their supporters, who most firmly resisted Chinese power in Inner Asia, rejected the Tibetan tokens of that power as well. 19 Seidel 1983: 299-307. 176 matthew kapstein The colophons of the 1755 Beijing edition of the Padma bka’ thang of O-rgyan-gling-pa Fols. 455b, 456a-b, 457a. Za-hor Mi-dbang Bsod-nams-stobs-rgyal’s colophon begins at 455b4 and concludes at 457a3, after which is the start of the verse section of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s colophon. gter-ma as imperial treasure Fols. 457b, 458a-b, 459a. Continuation of the verse section of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s colophon. 177 178 matthew kapstein Fols. 459b, 460a-b, 461a. The verse section of the Fifth Dalai Lama’s colophon concludes at 460b4, where the prose section begins with the line’s final syllable ces. gter-ma as imperial treasure 179 Fols. 461b, 462a-b, 463a. The Fifth Dalai Lama’s colophon concludes at 462b2. The brief Derge colophon occupies 462b3-463a4, to sarba mangga laṃ, after which Lcang-skya’s colophon begins. 180 matthew kapstein Fols. 463b. Conclusion of Lcang-skya’s colophon. Translation [1. The colophon of Za-hor Mi-dbang Bsod-nams-stobs-rgyal, fols. 455b4-457a3.] Among the amazing and wonderful biographies of Padmasambhava, the great master from glorious Oḍḍiyāna, that were composed, beyond imagination, in accord with the perspectives of those to be trained, the so-called Padma bka’i thang yig, in particular, is universally famed. It was brought forth by the treasure-discoverer U-rgyan-gling-pa, who was the rebirth of the king of Za-hor, Gtsug-lag-’dzin,20 and who was accompanied by the so-called Hor sgom-pa Shā-kya, a fortunate individual, when this royal lineage of Sa-ho-ra [= Za-hor] was residing in the pleasure garden of Gzhu, from the Lotus Crystal Cave, which is the palace on the face of the Lotus Pinnacle Fortress of the Crystal Rock Mountain of Yar-klung.21 Because this version is widely distributed, in order to promote in all quarters the expansion of the enlightened activities of the great master of the vidyādharas, Padamsambhava, and the precious teaching of the most secret Vajrayāna according to the ancient translations, as well as the welfare and happiness of living creatures, the Lord of Men, Bsod-nams-stobs-kyi-rgyal-po of Za-hor, has, as a religious donation, multiplied it as an inexhaustible print. To this end, although the true original is in verse alone, most have [previously] produced texts according to their own assertions, so that it appears that the section breaks throughout have been lost, understandings confounded, copyists’ errors multiplied, and sometimes even superfluous insertions invented by arrogant fools. For this reason, I have amassed a number of original exemplars, in particular, one said to have been copied from the treasure-discoverer’s manuscript, one in archaic writing with illustrations of divinities at the beginning, and a print from E that was published by U-rgyan-gling-pa’s descendants. Because these three are to some extent correct, I have left as is their common points as well as the archaicisms and provincialisms that occasionally appear. At some points, because there are various incoherencies, I have compared it with the treasure of Lord Nyang that is well known as the Copper Island Biography,22 etc., and, without being careless about it, 20 I.e., the father of Padmasambhava’s Indian consort, the lady Mandāravā. 21 The “speaking image” (zhal-byon-ma) of Padmasambhava said also to have been discovered there remains a treasure of Khra-’brug monastery. See Kapstein 2000: 156, figure 8.2. 22 This is the zangs-gling-ma version of Padmasambhava’s story, revealed by Nyang-ral Nyi-ma-’od-zer (1124-1192), for an English translation of which, see Kunsang 1993. gter-ma as imperial treasure 181 have made efforts to correct and to purify the text. So it should be considered reliable by discerning intellects. [2. The colophon of the Fifth Dalai Lama, fols. 457a3-462b2.] Salutations to Padmasambhava, the consummation of Buddhas! Your dharmakāya, the Omnibeneficent Limitless Light, is the essence, primordially pure; Your sambhogakāya is Lord Avalokita, the natural manifestation of the hundred clans, spontaneously present; You are the nirmāṇakāya, Padmasambhava, ceaseless compassion, transforming in myriad ways— A ho! May the red dust of your toenails fall on my crown so as to confer omniscience! The form of E is the wisdom of emptiness, [Ye-shes] Mtsho-rgyal, In union with the syllable WAṂ, the means of great bliss, The pervading lord, Skull-garlanded Vajradhara, Chief cakravartin of the ocean of maṇḍalas, Who, like a dancer changing from one into many forms, Presents an array of embodiments, the Eight Names, to disciples, As when varied hues are brightened when refracted through crystal And shine forth unmixed—what an amazement you are! Wielding with compassionate hand The sword of method and wisdom To sever the net of sin and pollution for all beings lost in saṃsāra Is the glory, Lord! of your tireless action. Above all, in the guise of the pandits and siddhas of India and Nepal, You have stolen the light of a thousand suns With pervasive compassion, maintaining, increasing, protecting The precious teaching of the fourth Guide [Śākyamuni]. Most particularly, with the taintless vision of the lord of the dance, Born from a lotus, here in Jambudvīpa, With the skill of great gnostic vows, Your grace for the creatures of the Glacial Land knows no limit. Though it may be easy to count up the sands of Ganges river, Besides omniscient gnosis No mirror is sufficiently clear As to take the measure, Lord! of your amazing deeds. You make manifest transformations befitting each creature’s vision, Changing æons into moments, and moments into æons; Laughable, then, to calculate the months and years As if your life were that of a common pandit or siddha!23 23 This verse is clearly aimed at those who, like Brag-sgo rab-’byams-pa, criticized the Padma bka’ thang on the basis of its treatment of chronological details. 182 matthew kapstein Because with the fixed habit of rehearsing other histories, Even those who are learned and discerning, Uphold only what appears in later compositions And so magnify the stream of mistakes, now is the time to open the Dharma-eye! With the fire of errant assertions based on sophistical speech, Feeble minds who burn virtue’s luxurious tree24 Are like those in haste to suffer indigestion25 From the fruit of unpleasant, evil lands. But with heartfelt devotion to that lord, Those who read, expound, or write26 his avadānas Not only arrive at the heavens and the stage of liberation, But visibly dispel the harm caused by the eight classes of desirous spirits27— who is your peer? Hence, without following those who blather, Or fools who take daddy’s bowl to be clean,28 But with the faith of sharp wits, following you, I am inspired to publish this print, an inexhausible religious donation. Having met the true face of the real Padmasambhava, The intuitive awareness primordially penetrating the vase body of youth in the heart, There is no guru besides him; Without seeking him elsewhere, but united in single essence—this is the salutation. The object of worship, the worshipper, worship itself—all these Are certainly only the emanations of mind alone; With this knowledge, the outer, inner and secret offerings Are given as an oblation by self to self. 24 An annotation on this line, found in the Derge edition as well, reads “for example, Rtag-brtan sprul-sku Kun-dga’-snying-po, Rgyal-mtshan gnyug rab-’byams-pa, Brag-sgo rab-’byams-pa.” Refer to notes 9 and 11 above. 25 The verb spron pa is unfamiliar and I have guessed that it might be related to skran, which would at least serve to connect it to the bad fruit of the previous line (the following line in the translation). I will be grateful to readers who might be able to confirm this interpretation or to supply a better explanation. 26 Reading here ’bri for ’dri, “to question,” a common orthographic variation. 27 An annotation at this point, similarly placed in the Derge edition as well, reads: “Lho-brag sprul-sku Gtsug-lag-phreng-ba.” I am not sure that I understand the point here. Is it that the Dpa’-bo Rin-po-che is being identified with the harmful classes of worldly spirits? Or is it not more likely that the thig-phreng, the dots connecting the annotation with the text, have been misplaced and should lead instead to the phrase “those who blather” in the first line of the following verse. See also n. 10 above. 28 The phrase here expresses disdain for those who are so fixed in their established habitudes that they are oblivious to the merits of positive developments around them. Cf. Dudjom 1991, vol. 1: 968 and n. 1386. gter-ma as imperial treasure As the solar orb is perpetually free from darkness, So intuitive awareness is in fact untainted by the two obscurations, But as in a dream, though they are unreal appearances, I repent of them in relative terms. In unlimited realms beyond counting, All the Sugatas of the ten directions and four times, Who are none other that Lotus Skull-Garland himself, Inexhaustibly cause disciples to enter the way—in this I rejoice! Throughout the trichiliocosm and the regions beyond this world, As many as the ineffable number of particles, Are Buddhas and Lotus Gurus— I pray that they turn the wheel, as befits the disciples, of sūtra and tantra united! Though many of the Guides have accepted to enter nirvāṇa, May you, who have attained the rainbow body, the body of the great transference, Unwavering from your comportment, Remain firmly embodied with five certainties!29 By the virtues acquired by this, May all merits throughout the three times ripen so that here in the Glacial Land The enlightened activity of the Lotus Vajra pervades And beings enjoy the glories of well-being and happiness! By the efforts of body, speech and mind for this publication, And all reading and expounding of it, May we, throughout all rebirths, Vanquish hoards of enemies, demons and obstructions, and rival Vaiśravaṇa in lifespan, riches and power! Abandoning successively the fruits of taints born of affliction, Reborn to see Padmasambhava’s face and to hear his speech, Entering, before long, the ranks of the vidyādharas of Camaradvīpa, May we attain freedom through Creation, Perfection, and Great Perfection! In the cool shade of the spreading leaves Of the new creeper that embraces all merits, May the world at large and the Tibetans in particular Enjoy the fruit that is happy and secure! Beginning with the words svasti prajābhyaḥ, The song of the queen of the perfect spring Captures the summertime youth’s delight— May it spread everywhere by the benedictions of virtue in the beginning, middle, and end! 29 The five certainties are those of teacher, retinue, teaching, place and time. 183 184 matthew kapstein Thus, it appears that, in accordance with the aptitudes of those to be taught, there are various different biographies of the glorious second Buddha, the great master from Oḍḍiyāna, Padmasambhava, including the abbreviated and expanded versions that have come from the treasures, such as the former and later treasures, those of Ba-khal-smug-po, etc.30 And among [those bearing the title] Padma bka’i thang yig, as well, there are several treasures such as those of Rdo-rjegling-pa, Sangs-rgyas-gling-pa, etc.31 Among them, this Padma bka’i thang yig of Yar-rje O-rgyan-gling-pa—the Rgyal-sras lha-rje who underwent thirteen lifetimes just as a treasure-discoverer, and who, because he revealed limitless precepts of the Dharma, beginning with the Ocean of Dharma Gathering the Teachings (Bka’ ’dus chos kyi rgya mtsho), came to be famed as “treasure mad”— was brought forth as treasure on the eighth day of the fourth month of the waterdragon year (1352), when the moon was in conjunction with the constellation dbo (Skt. uttaraphālgunī), from the heart of Mahāviṣṇu [= Rahula], the gate-protector of the Lotus Crystal Cave on the face of the rock fortress of the Lotus Pinnacle of the Crystal Mountain of Yar-klungs, by Gu-ru U-rgyan-gling-pa, whose fortunate associate was Gzhu Kun-ra-ba Hor Bsgom-shāk. Because there were various copies with interpolations, in order to fulfill the intentions of the treasure-discoverer Shes-rab’od-zer [i.e. ’Phreng-po gter-ston], who was the emanation of the great translator Vairocana, Hor Mi-dbang Bsod-nams-stobs-rgyal of the Indian royal family of the great Sā-la-pa, the minister of the glorious Phag-mo-gru-pa who is the king mandated by heaven here in Tibet, acted as patron, and based on a written copy that was the son of the mother, the manuscript in the treasure-discoverer’s hand, and other reliable old manuscripts, he produced, with the corrections of the great pandit Ri-zangs-tog-pa, the so-called “’Phyong-rgyas Dpal-ri print,” which is authoritative. Nevertheless, despite its very great beneficial activity, syllables were lost, or became unclear or separated [owing to the deterioration of the blocks]. Because, in accord with the Religious History of Lho-brag sprul-sku,32 and with the biography of the Great O-rgyan composed by the discerning Sog-bzlog-pa Blo-gros-rgyal-mtshan,33 the old exemplar of the prophecy of treasure-discoverer Rdo-rje-gro-lod obtained from an iron pen (lcags-smyug-ma)34 and the Signs of the Times (dus rtags) of Mchog-sprul Legs-ldanrdo-rje,35 and so on, appear clear, besides some new additions there is no alteration 30 The “former and later treasures” (gter kha gong ’og) designate the discoveries of Nyang-ral Nyi-ma’od-zer and Gu-ru Chos-kyi-dbang-phyug (1212-1270). Ba-khal-smug-po appears to have been another early gter-ston, who is best known for the celebrated litany addressed to Padmasambhava entitled Gsol ’debs bar chad lam sel. 31 Refer to Dudjom 1991, vol. 1: 784-792. 32 I.e., Dpa’-bo Gtsug-lag-phreng-ba’s Chos’byung mkhas pa’i dga’ ston, of which the Great Fifth tended to be otherwise quite critical (see above). Is the suggestion here that he accepts the accuracy of Dpa’-bo’s transcriptions of texts, even if not agreeing always with his interpretations of them? 33 Sog-bzlog-pa 1984. 34 Unidentified. 35 This is the second Rdo-rje-brag Rig-’dzin, the younger brother of Mnga’-ris Paṇ-chen Padma-dbang-rgyal (1487-1543). gter-ma as imperial treasure 185 [in the present text].36 With the encouragements of Grong-smad-pa Sangs-rgyasrgya-mtsho, who, being captivated by the transmissions37 of the profound treasures of the great and glorious O-rgyan, suggested that new printing blocks might be carved I, too, with my thoughts guided by undivided faith, solely to benefit the inhabitants of the Land of Snows with the religious gift of an inexhaustible print, being an old mantra-adept from the clan of Za-hor called by the name Rdo-rje Thogs-med-rtsal, given by Padma, the Play Gathering the Supreme Heruka (Che-mchog ’Dus-pa-rtsal), have assembled the requisites, together with [the composition of] the print colophon, and have completed this at Dga’-ldan Phun-tshogs-gling in the year of the wood hare (1676). [3. The Derge colophon, fols.462b3-463a4.] Subsequently, in accord with the order of Mkhan-chen Dpal-ldan-chos-skyong,38 empowered in the great, sacred Dharma-realm of the second Jina, Kun-dga’bzang-po,39 the earth-protecting Lama named Kun-dga’-’phrin-las-rgya-mtsho’i-sde,40 who controls with the measureless stride of his power the entire maṇḍala of the broad earth, in the center of victory over all the quarters, the royal capital of Lhun-grub-steng in Derge, having been entrusted as the authentic original source with the Dga’-ldan Phun-tshogs-gling print which was purified by triple examination, achieved an original source [i.e. the printing blocks] whereby his religious gift would flow forth continuously. Hence, may it be the basis for expansion and increase throughout all quarters, times, and conditions! Sarvamaṅgalam! [4. Lcang-skya Rol-pa’i-rdo-rje’s colophon, fols. 463a4-463b6.] The biography of Padmasambhava—the great master from O-rgyan, the second Buddha who is the general form of all Jinas of the three times, whose kindness to the totality of the teaching and beings, in general and in particular, cannot be requited—which is well known as the Padma bka’i thang yig, was kindly bestowed by the Great Fifth, the Supreme Jina and Lord of Refuges, as an inexhaustible religious donation, together with the colophon of the print, and it was [re]published as a print of the Derge earth-protector. In accordance with this, without alteration or interpolation, the one addressed as daguoshi Lcang-skya Khutughtu, with a pure intention assembled the necessary resources for an original source [i.e. the printing blocks] whereby his religious gift would flow forth continuously, which was well achieved in the nineteenth throne year of Qianlong (Srid gsal), the earth-pig year, on the tenth day of the 36 This entire sentence is difficult to construe and I am not altogether satisfied with the present interpretation. The Fifth seems to be saying, in all events, that he has introduced some editorial changes into the Padma bka’ thang on the basis of the authorities here cited. 37 Or: “who has been prophesied in the transmissions…” 38 Dpal-ldan-chos-skyong (1702-1760) was the 34th Ngor mkhan-chen, a position he occupied in 1733-1740. 39 I.e. Ngor-chen Kun-dga’-bzang-po (1382-1456). 40 This was one of the sons of the Derge printery’s founder, Bstan-pa-tshe-ring (1678-1738). Also known as Bla-chen Phun-tshogs-tshe-ring, he continued his father’s work above all by achieving the publication of the Tengyur under the editorship of Zhu-chen Tshul-khrims-rin-chen (1697-1774). 186 matthew kapstein waning fortnight of the month of Pauṣa, which is the special festival when the ḍākinīs gather. By this virtue, may the precious teaching of the Jina expand and increase in all quarters and times, remaining long present. And may I and beings without exception be taken into the following of the second Buddha from O-rgyan! references Bawden, C. R. 1968. The Modern History of Mongolia. London: Kegan Paul International. Brag-sgo rab-’byams-pa Phun-tshogs-rgyal-mtshan. n.d. Padma bka’ thang la ’gal ’du rags pa’i ngo sprod dang blo dman gyi dogs slong. In Lta ba’i skor las ’phros pa’i mkhas pa’i legs bshad gces sgrig. Gangs can khyad nor dpe tshogs 325. Lhasa: Ser gtsug nang bstan dpe rnying ’tshol bsdu phyogs sgrig khang, 269-290. Chayet, Anne. 1985. Les Temples de Jehol et leurs modèles tibétains. Synthèse 19. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations. De Falco, Christiana, trans. 2012. The Life of Padmasambhava by Kunga Nyingpo Taranatha. Amazon. Deroche, Marc-Henri. 2009. “’Phreng po gter ston Shes rab ’od zer (1518-1584) on the Eight Lineages of Attainment: Research on a Ris med Paradigm.” Contemporary Visions in Tibetan Studies. Proceeding of the First International Seminar of Young Tibetologists. Brandon Dotson et al., eds. Chicago: Serindia Publications, pp.319-342. ——, 2011. Prajñāraśmi (’Phreng po gter ston Shes rab ’od zer, Tibet, 1518-1584): Vie, œuvre et contribution à la tradition ancienne (rnying ma) et au mouvement non-partisan (ris med). Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Paris: École Pratique des Hautes Études. Dreyfus, Georges. 1998. “The Shuk-den Affair: History and Nature of a Quarrel.” In Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 21/2: 227-270. 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The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation and Memory. Oxford University Press. gter-ma as imperial treasure 187 Karmay, Samten G., trans. 2014. The Illusive Play: The Autobiography of the Fifth Dalai Lama. Chicago: Serindia. Kunsang, Eric Pema, trans. 1993. The Lotus-Born: The Life of Padmasambhava. Boston/London: Shambhala. Linrothe, Rob, and Jeff Watt. 2004. Demonic Divine: Himalayan Art and Beyond. New York: Rubin Museum of Art. Lopez, Donald S., Jr. 1998. Prisoners of Shangri-la: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. Chicago/ London: The University of Chicago Press. Ngawang Zangpo, trans. 2002. Guru Rinpoche: His Life And Times. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion. Nor-brang O-rgyan. 1993. Bod kyi deb ther dpyid kyi rgyal mo’i glu dbyangs kyi ’grel pa yid kyi dga’ ston. Beijing: Mi rigs dpe skrun khang. O-rgyan-gling-pa. 1730. Gu ru padma ’byung gnas kyi rnam par thar pa rgyas par bkod pa padma bka’i thang yig. Beijing xylograph. 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Accounts of the Lives of the Manifestations of Gu-ru Rin-po-che from the Discoveries of Stag-śam Nus-ldan-rdo-rje and Mchog-gyur-gliṅ-pa and the Slob dpon Padma’i rnam thar rgya gar lugs of Taranatha. Tezu, A.P: Tibetan Nyingmapa Monastery.

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