Continuity and Change in Tibetan Mahāyoga Ritual:Some Evidence from the Tabzhag (Thabs zhags) Manuscript and Other Dunhuang Texts

Abstract

Abstract As with so many other archaeological sources from around the world, it is always tempting to try to use the Dunhuang manuscripts as a basis for significant historical generalizations far beyond their direct remit. However, we must accept that this will always remain a potentially perilous undertaking, because these manuscripts, dating to the early eleventh century or before, wonderful though they are, in fact comprise only a partial and possibly unrepresentative sample of the total manuscript corpus of their time, since all are taken from a single multiethnic location situated at a geographical and political extremity of the Tibetan cultural world. Nevertheless, it is quite proper that we do try to derive some broader meaning from such an extraordinary historical treasure as the Dunhuang Tibetan texts: there is little doubt they can shed a brilliant if partial light on the wider Tibetan world before the “New [Translation]” (Gsar ma pa) period.